Celestion Lead 80's in Port City 2x12?

[alivegy]

My setup is going through a massive overhaul. I finally decided that it was stupid to have a fender when 95% of the time I'm trying to make the thing sound like a Marshall, I might as well buy something that was meant to sound that way in the first place. For about a month I was sold on a Top Hat Emplexador MkII. That is until I finally plugged straight into a Reissue and an original Marshall Jcm800.

I have just never played anything like these amps before. Everyone thinks of them as high gain amps, but there are some of the most beautiful bell-like chiming aggressive strat tones to be found in this amp. Even with the gain cranked you can still hear each string ring as if a clean signal was being mixed on top. It's big and beautiful and I love it. I've played a bunch of the modern interpretations of this amp, and they all loose that quality as they try and make "improvements" on the circuit. When they dial the highend out of the circuit, the whole character of the amp changes and you loose the reward of that chime for setting it up properly.

All of that to say I am looking for a good 2x12 cabinet to go with it. I mostly do recording at home using an ultimate attenuator so I can't absolutely punish the speakers with volume like I would want to. Would the Celestions Lead 80's be a good fit for one of the standard size port city cabinets? I'm thinking that setting my Fathead II ribbon mic a foot back will get a beautiful tone as the sound of the speakers mixes with the sound coming out of the port.

What say you gear page? I've never heard a setup like this so i'm curious of what people think about that combination. That amp just made the hair on my legs go

 

[gulliver]

I just sold my CL-80s after a year or two with my JCM800. It was a pick from a ton of speakers based on the fact that it could do both strat S.C. and humbucker tones well. In the end, I didn't think it did either great and sold them. I now have a scumback LHDC HP that I feel is much better with more vintage vibe and more teeth. I'm going to be putting it in a 2x12 with my Celestion greenback RI, as I feel they are fairly close, although the greeny sounds more tinny when played after getting used the the scumback. I now have a Emi Legend GB12 for single coil tones, which is more glassy and fender like. The scumback sounds decent with single coils as well and I need to spend more time with that combo. Hope that helps.

 

[alivegy]

Thanks, I know I don't want a greenback as I need to avoid that tinnyness with the combination of a strat and a jcm800. I'll be walking a fine line. The Lead 80's intrigue me do to their neutral response and low volume performance. Like a v30 without the mid honk. I am curious if anyone has tried a cl80 in a ported cabinet similar to the port city cabs, I'm worried it may get woofy and with too much bass.

 

[gulliver]

Yeah, I used them in sealed and open back, but never ported ... although I do have a ported cab now that I think about it. Those speakers do have a lot of bass, so a bass heavy cab may not be the best choice.

FYI - the greenbacks aren't tinny, they just sound it after getting used to the scumback, which is pretty heavy sounding with it's 65 watt rating and large dust cap.

 

[portcitymusic]

The CL80's will not produce too much bass, that is for sure. If you like them in a traditional cab you will love them in the Wave cabs.

Daniel
Port City Amps

 

[alivegy]

Thanks Daniel, I was just about to email you and ask your opinion. I'm thinking this is the combination that I'm going to start with, I think the combination of the waves cab and the cl80's will make a great versatile recording platform.

 

[never-enough]

i had an early jcm800 4x12 cab years and years ago.
i pulled the speakers before i sold the cab because i always thought they sounded good, i just didn't like how the plastic handles rattled when i played loud.

anyways, the cab was loaded with 80w celestions.
so i guess marshall thought the speakers were a good match with the 800 heads.