Swapping out a Blue Dog

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nostick
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Swapping out a Blue Dog

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A year ago I finished building my 1x12 18 watt from a Weber 6m18vib kit. To keep one more decision out of my build, and to save a few $, I threw in a 12" ceramic Weber Blue Dog I bought about 15 years ago. I use an ABY box (NEVER set to "Y") to effectively make this a 2 channel amp. It's a joy to play through, but when I have the energy I plug into my Dr. Z. Maz 38, with its original pair of Z10 speakers. This combination sounds really great, just more authoritative and rounded than the Blue Dog, which seems a little, I don't know, aloof sounding, if that makes any sense. I still enjoy playing straight through the amp with the Blue Dog, but I'm ready for a change.

A G12M Greenback would be a great fit tone-wise for me, but having spent lots of hours on YouTube, I really like what I hear from the G12H-75 Creamback. I think I'll appreciate the extra sensitivity and what I perceive to be a bit more assertiveness from that speaker when used in a 1x12 when I get together with a full band. From what I've heard I prefer it to the G12M-75, and I prefer both Creambacks to the Heritage Greenbacks. I've basically decided to go with the G12H-75, but would love to get any thoughts from here, since obviously I have never put any of these into my cabinet.

I don't really want to open a can of worms and start considering other brands, even though there are obviously some great alternatives out there. Call me old fashioned; I want to stick with Celestion here. Thanks! -Greg
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Re: Swapping out a Blue Dog

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Open the can of worms! ;)
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Re: Swapping out a Blue Dog

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Oh, I knew that was coming.
I did think the 65W Scumback M75 sounded great when shot-out against a G12M Creamback. My bias had already set in by the time I heard that, so I don't really feel a strong preference there.
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Re: Swapping out a Blue Dog

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nostick wrote:
Mon 04/12/21 8:53 pm
Oh, I knew that was coming.
I did think the 65W Scumback M75 sounded great when shot-out against a G12M Creamback. My bias had already set in by the time I heard that, so I don't really feel a strong preference there.
I don't like Scumback at all, that guy is a scumbag.

If you want to spend extra cash, look to Tone Tubby. Or if you want something in a similar ballpark to Celestion, but better quality, WGS or Eminence. I lean towards WGS, their BlackHawk alnico is my favorite speaker right now. You might like the WGS Invader 50 if you want to go with ceramic.

Thanks,
Josh
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Re: Swapping out a Blue Dog

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JMPGuitars wrote:
Tue 04/13/21 5:57 am
nostick wrote:
Mon 04/12/21 8:53 pm
Oh, I knew that was coming.
I did think the 65W Scumback M75 sounded great when shot-out against a G12M Creamback. My bias had already set in by the time I heard that, so I don't really feel a strong preference there.
I don't like Scumback at all, that guy is a scumbag.

If you want to spend extra cash, look to Tone Tubby. Or if you want something in a similar ballpark to Celestion, but better quality, WGS or Eminence. I lean towards WGS, their BlackHawk alnico is my favorite speaker right now. You might like the WGS Invader 50 if you want to go with ceramic.

Thanks,
Josh
I will do some research on those. Very curious.
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Re: Swapping out a Blue Dog

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Bieworm wrote:
Tue 04/13/21 7:43 am
I will do some research on those. Very curious.
WGS calls the Invader 50 the "creamier" version of their Greenback version. The BlackHawk is my favorite speaker by far right now, and since I prefer a detuned 2x12, I use it by itself. If I was going to use a 2x12 with 2 speakers, I'd combine the Invader 50 with the BlackHawk.

They do need some breaking in, but they sound darn good to start with too.
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Re: Swapping out a Blue Dog

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JMPGuitars wrote:
Tue 04/13/21 5:57 am

I don't like Scumback at all, that guy is a scumbag.

If you want to spend extra cash, look to Tone Tubby. Or if you want something in a similar ballpark to Celestion, but better quality, WGS or Eminence. I lean towards WGS, their BlackHawk alnico is my favorite speaker right now. You might like the WGS Invader 50 if you want to go with ceramic.

Thanks,
Josh
I thought you might say something like that, since it came up once on another thread, and I did have that on my mind. Let's add WGS to the list and let this search go on a bit longer! I can watch speaker shootout videos all day. Beats work.

For the record I've been following this since it was a Yahoo group. Took a very long time getting around to a build, but this group is the whole reason I did it. Cheers.
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Re: Swapping out a Blue Dog

Post by JMPGuitars »

nostick wrote:
Tue 04/13/21 8:25 am
I thought you might say something like that, since it came up once on another thread, and I did have that on my mind. Let's add WGS to the list and let this search go on a bit longer! I can watch speaker shootout videos all day. Beats work.

For the record I've been following this since it was a Yahoo group. Took a very long time getting around to a build, but this group is the whole reason I did it. Cheers.
Keep in mind what you're listening to with speaker shootouts. Speakers sound different in different amps, so if you can hear the same amp with different speakers, you might get a better idea.

My youtube channel has 18W based circuits with different speakers. Though my recent ones are the BlackHawk. ;) I haven't done any speaker shootout videos...that I can remember. Maybe someday.
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