Celestion G12-65's are the new ones as good as the old?

[Blue Eyed Tone]

On Robben Ford's forums, Robben's Guitar tech, Dave D., talks about the new Celestion G12-65 http://www.online-discussion.com/Robben ... php?t=3124

I've copied the post here:

Posted: Wed Apr 07, 2010 6:58 am

That's an important point when dealing with the older 12-65 vintages and was why Celestion worked with me for a couple of years when trying to recreate the new speakers.

They asked me to go thru all the old models I had laying around and answer questions for them, as they researched trying to find the exact speakers that Robben liked as the 12-65's of old had gone thru many small, but critical, mods.

30+ years ago, "12-65" meant a 12" speaker rated at 65 watts, but did not guarantee that the design and construction was always exactly the same. My understanding is that these speakers were initially designed as theater speakers, so the cruciality of dependably consistant sound, tone, and response required by guitar amp applications was not a deciding factor in their original design and construction.
Some were, and some were not, ported on the back of the magnets with various sized holes, with and with out metal screens made of various materials and gauges. The dust covers were of varied sizes, materials, and textures. Cone material changed and the ribbing went thru changes. The magnets themselves went thru slight changes of different kinds and the metal baskets had a variety of subtle alterations over time.

I was actually quite surprised to find all the variations when I started inspecting our stash of old speakers closely for the folks at Celestion. No wonder I had been having so much problem keeping our stock of old and newly acquired vintage 65's sounding consistantly good.

As I mentioned in the update at the link JackD provided, it got to where reconing was useless as I noticed (and I actually pointed this out to Robben at the time) that the re-cones were, upon return, always and obviously physically different.

In my dealings with Eminence's attempts to recreate Robben's sound, they came very, very close. In fact Robben's exact words upon A/B-ing the last attempt was "They are soooo close that the difference is nuance that I can't quite put into words. They are so close in fact, that no one else in the world would ever probably be able to hear that difference but me."

Robben's ears now tell him that the new Celestion line is correct and consistant and hits the musical nail squarely on the head for him... which is all he ever desired and asked for. Wink

The point being, Jack, if reliability is your issue in choosing between the new and the old speakers, acquiring genuine vintage Celestion 12-65's does NOT, as pointed out by Johan, assure you of getting the sound and response that attracts Robben, because there are just too many potential subtle variations that the speakers went thru way back when.

The new line of G12-65's was especialy developed to please Robben's ears and to satisfy his response desires. Whether you like them or not, whether they work for you or not, is totally up to you and what you seek in a speaker.
However, you can now dependably count on the fact that, unlike buying a 35 year old vintage Celestion 12-65, the new ones are now reliably consistant and you'll know exactly what you'll get every time you get one.
_________________