How a guitar speaker actually makes TONE! Celestion V30, then Greenbacks, Creambacks and more...

Cones, surrounds, dustcaps, domes, voicecoils, spiders, tinsel leads and how they move when electricity flows through a voicecoil making a guitar or bass speaker vibrate and create sound. Celestion Vintage 30, G12M EVH, G12M Greenback, G12M-65 Creamback, G12H-75 Creamback, G12H-150 Redback, A-Type.

[@FuzzEater]

It’s crazy how much information is put out in your videos compared to views. These are some of the best technical videos on KZbin.

[@Killall12]

The entire time I'm watching you hold this speaker, I can't help but be reminded of annoyingly awkward they are to handle lol. Picking up a 15 inch speaker feels like being put in a wrist lock by a hubcap,

[@Adamknightlive]

Thanks for the video, nice to see loads of different Celestion speakers being compared. I’m currently trying to get the best sound out of my Fender 40w tube amp using a 335 guitar. Found the cream back M isn’t really giving me enough clean clarity, so the hunt goes on 🤘

[@BubbleWrapPerson]

Oh man do I want Gav from Slowmo Guys to do a video with you. There’s so much happening mechanically, it would be incredible to see. Maybe some smoke could show woofers and ports working together and against.

[@daniloberserk]

Damn, that would be awesome!

[@eduardsiger1860]

If I had an English teacher in high school I would have had straight A’s. I don’t know what it is but I can learn better listening to your accent haha Anyway great video and thank you 🤘🏼

[@mattfleming2287]

I really love these videos. I always learn a lot. Your obvious, no BS knowledge is why I got one of your cabs. You make guitar cabs fascinating.

[@joejohnson8966]

Thank you for the video. We appreciate your work.

[@panagiotis.tsiatsis]

Such a great and explanatory video, many many thanks!

[@Factless_Wonder]

Love these videos Alex!!

[@alanevil]

I've been making some closed cabinets with Celestions and all their speakers kind of have a specific use. My designs are for speakers for people using amp and cab simulators and am liking that new Midnight Marauder for having a little bit of extra low end balls but being kind of neutral the rest of the way up with a nice high roll off. I can't believe it took you to the end to start thumping those cones. Every time you kind of incidentally did it while talking about each speaker I heard it big time.

[@o-meg-a6043]

The V30 and every other guitar (not bass) speaker that Celestion produces utilise a paper suspension/surround that is part of the cone itself. This surround is glued to the frame, then the gasket and doping are applied. They use many different formulations of doping depending on the speaker. Also, not all of Celestion speakers utilise a T-yoke where the pole piece and rear/back plate are one single piece. Many of their speakers utilise a three piece motor (top/front plate, pole piece, rear/back plate). Such is the case with the V30. They also use different grades of steel for these components so they can achieve the correct flux in the voice coil gap. This also affects the inductance, that alters the frequency response and overall motor strength (BL). Also, all of their dust caps are glued to the cone, none to the voice coil former itself. The creamback series uses a different cone pulp than the Greenback, G12H-30 and Blue. The different wattage handling comes from the spider, doping and mainly the voice coil former used. The creamback range uses a different material than their other speakers. Majority of their speakers also use 1.75” voice coils where the Redback uses a 2”.

[@garygallagher7341]

Really cool video. Can't wait to check out a real barefaced cab

[@Crunch104]

I can play widdle and play 40 notes a second! lol Great explainer vid! Thanks

[@metalinsights9664]

Wow! So much good info. Is there also some scientifically supported "best" way to close-mic a guitar speaker with, say, an SM57 in terms of mic placement?

[@BarefacedAudio]

Not really - it's music so whatever sounds best is best!

[@guille_toledo76]

Hi, Alex. Your channel is awesome and we learn so much about guitar sound. I have a huge difficult decision to make. I have a line 6 Helix with a Harley Benton gpa-100 Poweramp. I need a real guitar cabinet for live gigs. I've seen the Celestion X200 , 1x12 and a 2x12 with 2 Celestion V30. I don't know what to choose.... Please give me some advice !!! There's no many options here in Chile, unfortunately....😪

[@MichaelScottPerkins]

I saw the same video about how the Celestion Vintage 30 speaker has changed. And funnily enough... I also cannot remember which KZbin channel I saw it on. Ha!!! Please do post a link if you think of it. I'd love to go back and watch that video again.

[@MichaelScottPerkins]

I think it might be this guy: kzbin.info/www/bejne/morOiZ-CnLKmn7c He yells a lot, and definitely crosses all lines, imo, into "Carnival Barker" territory as far as his demeanor is concerned.

[@BarefacedAudio]

@@MichaelScottPerkins that’s the shouty man, thank you!

[@dazfarrell]

@@BarefacedAudio Fricker isn't the worst, he is a big speaker man, and knows where all your tone comes from. It certainly is not tubes and tone wood that is for sure ;)

[@BarefacedAudio]

@@dazfarrell “Shouty” was just a description - he seems a knowledgable and entertaining chap!

[@amirsmith93]

@@BarefacedAudio He also did a follow up video going into further depth about the differences over the years of the vintage 30, quite interesting. Thank you Alex for further explaining this in a digestible way. kzbin.info/www/bejne/nZm5g6xsqKalpNU

[@kirkbolas4985]

What’s the raison d’être in using aluminum for the cone of a bass guitar speaker as Hartke has been doing for the last 40 years or so?

[@metalinsights9664]

I thought that as the cone moves, air is pushed, which is what we perceive as sound, but it sounds like I was wrong. So, if I understood this correctly, it's the voice coil that produces the sound, and the speaker cone is just there to direct what's already there to the front, am I correct?

[@BarefacedAudio]

It’s the voice coil pushes the cone (from the centre) and then that cone movement (which is a complex mix of different movement, pushing and pulling but also rippling and wobbling and resonating in multiple directions) that then moves the air.

[@joeytruelove]

No, a speaker like that doesn't have a pressed paper cone. That is pulp that's been allowed to dry on a mould - and this is rather important definition as there are indeed pressed paper cones, although of course those are usually seamed.

[@murrylancashire]

He literally mentions mashed paper at 10.40

[@joeytruelove]

@@murrylancashire Humbly inform me of what "mashed paper" is. I mean: the guy means well bit his videos are just so full of technical errors, faulty assumptions and incorrect nomenclature that what was meant to educate is more a source for confusion.

[@voxpathfinder15r]

Why does the Celestion 70/80 have larger dust caps with the same sized voice coil diameter as the Greenback or Vintage 30?

[@vortexan9804]

It lets more air in for cooling.

[@rockzilla5150]

Maybe to roll off the highs more.

[@hoboroadie4623]

Due to financial considerations, I do more research in my mind than in real life. Gradually, one piece at a time I get to test the hypotheses. Anyway, I always start with the speaker or driver and work my way backwards through the chain to adjust the tone. I am not particularly talented or artistic so there is some resignation to the fact that after another couple thousand dollars I will still be getting a fairly ersatz simulation of what I think that I am trying to do. Probably easier to copy what all of you experts do, but I would only sound as good as you, at best. Then the skill gap is even more evident, so... no. 🎸

[@riangarianga]

It sounds like I'm quite closely related to your approach, and I know there are many more of us out there, so you aren't alone. My conclusions are: - Transducers matter the most in the overall timbre we get. - Every transducer acting later in the sound chain is what has the biggest influence on timbre, shaping everything that came before. We obviously think about the speaker, but if you're recording it, the biggest influence will come from the microphone, then from the speaker. So the simplified transducer chain to think about would be, in this order: microphone -> speaker -> pickups -> hands. If anyone is not convinced about this, I normally suggest trying a modulation effect before and after a distortion. Spoiler: it will be after the distortion when it has the biggest sound shaping effect, while before it will be quite more subtle.

[@theCarouselPainter]

Stop the cap tho, you don't want to say hus name, but you perfectly know it was Glenn Fricker's video.

[@BarefacedAudio]

I didn’t know his name then, I hadn’t come across him until I got emails about his video! I remember saying to the guys in the factory “that shouty man on KZbin, runs a studio I think!”

[@vikingnortheast]

24 minutes to explain 5 minutes worth of information, brits must pack as many words in as they can on the way to the point

[@BarefacedAudio]

I would have made a shorter video but I didn’t have enough time.

[@montyrayza7220]

Nothing about how drivers actually effect tone but instead a 101 lesson on how they work ... figured all of that out a century ago. Not a lick of insight on improving tone through speaker knowledge. No audio no point just rehash.

[@BarefacedAudio]

If everyone has all of this figured out, why is it that almost every guitarist I come across, either in person or online, doesn’t understand how speakers actually work to generate sound and how that affects tone? If you’re the one in a million that does, maybe this video wasn’t for you? If you want to learn how to “improve tone” then there are a lot of other videos we’ve made investigating how different speakers change your tone.