Celestion: Blue or Gold?

[Thom Charlie]

What is their difference and could you rattle a heavy distortion pedal through either of them in a vox ac30cc2?

[sfdoyle]

good question..any feedback anybody..?

[chaz]

Heavy distortion pedal through a Vox AC30cc could cause a Blue to go 'poof'. Gold sounds very similar to the Blue and can handle the abuse better. Red Fang (30 watts) or a Weber Blue Dog (30 or 50 watts) might work well for you too.

[Thom Charlie]

Thanks for getting back! Yeah that's what i was afraid of. I love the cleans but sometimes i want to force in a harsher tone and doubted whether the blues would be able to take it gracefully!

The Golds would be a better alternative. celestion claims they have the full tonality that the blues are famous for with extra room for more but i've heard that some players can tell a difference? Anyone know of the difference in sound?

[trazan]

Blue's can take a bit. AC30's have been equipped with Blue's for a loooong time, so why would it suddenly be harmful? :cool:

[229someday]

Pretty good recent thread about the Blues and their power handling here:
http://www.thegearpage.net/board/showthread.php?t=476933

[Thom Charlie]

Imagine the master volume of the AC30cc2 is 3quarters all the way round (pretty god-damn loud) and also a pro-co rat is being used. Would the blues die?

[hdhoo73]

If you don't exceed the wattage rating of the speaker, regardless of the pedals used, why would it damage the speakers? I run a RAT thru mine at relatively high volumes quite often with no issues.

[chaz]

Please note I said 'could' go poof and many have over the years, while many have not. I would say it's a matter of just how much abuse they get subjected to, especially in the square waves dept.

[JimmyR]

I've used a Blue with a G12H in a 30W BadCat Hotcat for over a year now. This is a loud amp! No problems whatsoever. Also used a fair bit of gain, although I use less distortion than most, it's a harder sound. Lots of low-end which is more likely to blow out a speaker coil than a Rat I would have thought.

The Gold has a little more bass to it. Can be a little toppy in the wrong amp but I doubt that an AC30 would sound bad through it! I wouldn't use a quad box full of Golds with a Marshall. But I love a Gold with a G12H or similar with a Tweed Fender style amp.

I have a home-brew Hi-power Tweed Twin (the Keith Richards amp) that was running two Weber C12Ns. Just tried a Gold and a G12H in it and it sounds soooo much clearer and chimier. I love it! I'm trying it with two Golds some time today when I can crank it. It's 80W so may be a bit much for the G12H.

[celestion101]

I'm running a Blue and a Gold in my new AC30CC2 and gig 2-3 nights per week with a pedalboard out front....no issues yet (master dimed or closer, and vol at 10 o'clock). A lot of our artist run Blues pretty hard and the only one that I have seen pop a few is Brad Whitford when he was using his Divided By 13 FTR37. On the otherhand I also used the same amp live for 2 years and never blew one...but I did not use the click channel cranked like him! Perhaps his amp went to 11? :D

[2manygtrs]

I blew the Blue in my D13 FTR37 setup. Replaced it with a Tone Tubby Alnico and it still sounds great.

[teleamp]

Distortion is easier on a speaker than a non distorted signal. I have given Blues all kinds of grief and they survived, but YMMV.

[mbratch]

I blew the Blue in my D13 FTR37 setup. Replaced it with a Tone Tubby Alnico and it still sounds great.
Doesn't that amp push about 18 watts per speaker, assuming you're running a 2x12?

[zombiwoof]

By the way, the Red Fang is now rated at 50 watts, not 30 as it originally was. I don't think they changed the speaker, they just uprated the wattage figure.

Al