Ah that makes sense. Sounds like a good use of $50 though. You got a decent break-up tone out of that little Fender. Not always easy with an 8" speaker. Awesome video as always.
@@jerryx2000 No, I have still have the stock speaker in mine. I put an extension speaker socket on the back, which cuts out the internal speaker when I want to muck around with it. Otherwise I use it in the workshop to test guitars, and occasionally speaker cabs.
No. The speaker should match the lowest rated OUTPUT impedance of the amp power stage. Just about all these transistor practice amps have output power stages that can handle a 4 ohm load quite easily yet the mfg puts 8 ohm (or 6.5 ohm) speakers in them. Why? 'Cause they are much CHEAPER than a 4 ohm speaker. As an experiment I had a custom 3 speaker cab built with a 6", 8" , and 10" speakers wired for a 4 ohm load. I drive it with a Squier SP10 10 watt @ 8 ohm amp and have gigged it. Sounds very well balanced and much louder. Don't try this with an amp that has a tube power stage! The mfg's pay about $1.75 per speaker in quantity for these 15 watt or lower practice amps. I use a 15 watt Squier amp as a monitor at church with with a replacement 4 ohm Jensen speaker for the last 5 years. Best bang for the buck you can get with these replacement speakers. Next you can try replacing the opamps in them but that's a bit more complex.
Cow Goes Bark Here's a comment I posted on a forum a decade ago: You don't ever want to run into a load that is higher impedance (more resistance/load) than the amp is designed for because you might kill the transformer. Years ago I asked Mike Soldano if there is a correct way to mismatch impedance and, if so, why it won't hurt the amp. He said that running a higher load than the amp is designed for is really bad, but that a lower load is okay, but you wouldn't want to mismatch by more than one "notch". Running an 8 ohm amp into a 4 ohm load is fine, but mismatching any further would not be a good idea. So you can run an 8 ohm head into a 4 ohm load, but Mike says your tubes will just wear out a little faster. You cannot run an 8 ohm head into a higher resistance without possible damage. You do not want to run into a higher resistance than your amp is designed for because the power created in the power transformer cannot get out of the transformer as quickly/completely as it was designed to, so there is residual power left in it that should not be there. If 100% of the power created by the primary winding of the transformer cannot escape from the secondary winding by going out to an equal (or lesser) resistance than designed for, the power which is trapped in the secondary winding will continue to stack/increase as the primary winding continues to refill this secondary winding at the normal rate of 100% of the power it was designed for. This excess power must go somewhere... the insulation melts and you get a blown tranny and possibly a fried tube and socket. Soldano's standard 50+ watt amps have a a load selector switch to select which ohm setting you want, but the 20 watt Astroverb does not have this switch so he designed the Astroverb to run into a 16 ohm load so that no matter what you plug into (4 ohm cab, 8 ohm cab, 16 ohm cab) you never plug into a higher load than the amp wants. Mike said that running the 16 ohm Astroverb into 8 ohms simply makes the tubes run a little hotter so they wear slightly faster.
Hi guys! Today I got some pretty good full-range sounds out of my tiny practice amp! Depending on what's in your amp, I think speaker replacement may be one of the most impactful mods!
I finally got around to dropping a Warehouse G8C into my old Fender Frontman Reverb 15W practice amp and man does it sound great! Way smoother and warmer tone and no crapping out at the higher volumes. Excellent suggestion and much cheaper than buying a new amp!
Imagine someone who's a new player that is experienced enough to be ready for a new amp but not yet comfortable enough to dish out cash for a really good one.
I've been trying to tell people this for about a hundred years (at least LOL). Speakers are such a great mod. I got a great deal on a JBL K120 and that sits in my 40W club amp and the difference is just unbelievable.
I’m surprised this type of upgrade doesn’t feature a lot more on YT, I know it doesn’t look complicated or challenging from an amateur self-modder point of view. The challenge here is I’d be willing to bet the shirt off my back that many folk would want to upgrade their amp’s speaker rather than the expense of amp replacement but it’s knowing or finding what speaker would fit and work in any given amp, that seems to be the mystery. Gorgeous Tele by the way and great video idea.
From Leo: I know this is years late but it may encourage someone. I came across a Fender Champion 30 that had a crummy sounding speaker. It sounded fine into my single 12" cabinet that has my favorite speaker, an Eminence Cannabis Rex. Not having one of those in the 10" size, my local guy sold me a WGS Retro 10". Glad he did, it really transformed that little Fender Amp.
lol that's the exact speaker I modded a little marshall 15 with, except I bumped up the size and squeezed in the 10" Veteran... Pretty nice improvement... It now lives happily ever after, rocking out for my daughter! Proud dad moment..........
Good upgrade for a modest budget. In February, I replaced the stock speaker of my USA-Made Fender Blues Jr with an Eminence Texas Heat speaker (~ $80 USD) and couldn't be happier. Love the improved tone and seems to drive it harder now for increased volume. Thanks for the great videos!
Back in the day I was a amp tech that reconed JBL and Altec speakers. Replaced many drivers and built cabinets. Those stronger magnets can pull a screwdriver right through the cone.... Careful!
A few years ago, I took a Peavey Rage 158 (pre-TransTube) and swapped the stock Peavey speaker (bleah) with a WGC G8C; it was a FIRE-BREATHER after that!!! 👍👍👍
Dudeee yessss!!! I was planning on buying an upgrade amp because recently I got an upgrade from my squire to a epiphone sg and wanted something a little better for practice instead I’m gonna upgrade the speaker right on 🤘🏻👍🏻
Hi Darell ..... I did this swap with a Behringer 100watts thinking I was doing nothing on tone, and it happened because they took four 412 oem speakers from a Laney cab and they were dirt cheap so I went for it and for 90 dollars bought All 4 speakers. And to my surprise the sound was from night to daylight !!! That amp now sounds Pure METAL with no pedals !! Now I am with you 100% to swap whatever little amp speaker you find for these G8C ones. Thanks for this video !!
I think you should do challenges under a budget. How much Strat can I get for $150 between used cost and mods? How much amp can I get for $100? Can I make a gig-worthy rig with effects for $300? Show a starting guitarist on a budget to get the best rig for the least money and give them the mods to get it done. These upgrades are all great, but very often you have way more in parts budget than I feel is justifiable. Can you find the price point sweet spot and make it work?
I have a Fender Frontman that I modified by bypassing the internal speaker and wiring a Jack that I mounted on the backplate. Then i plugged it into my old Ampeg Reverbarocket (2 x 12") that I blew up a year before. Removed the amp from that cabinet and put an input jack on it. Wow is all I can say and now it's my stage rig. Crazy? Maybe, but I look at these things as tools and how well they work, not how much they cost.
This should be the first modification when we think of improving an amplifier and not changing capacitors for magic ones, etc. Most of us focus on changing components but the first and most efficient and easiest modification is to change the speaker. Modifications have to be done from the end to the beginning. From the speaker to the input.
Yep. Defiantly a night and day difference to my practice Vox, switched from a whatever to a Celestian G10 gold. That and the preamp tube with a balanced Tung-sol as it’s a modeling amp (40 watt practice amp). Actually sounds creamy :) Saves my wife from having to listen to 200 watts of Marshall fun 👍
Now, this is truly a much more interesting video than I might have thought. And to be honest, it sounds surprisingly good for a what is essentially a toy amp. I even quite like the breakup tone on channel 2. I like Fender amps - I have 2 of them - but I haven't liked anything I've gotten out of the 'dirt' channel on a Fender amp, so your results surprised me. Well done, as usual, Darrell.
Marc, no one is going to love playing metal on a fender amp... but come on! the CLASSSIC dirty/blues tones all come from Fenders (SRV, is a great example). -also the early MARSHALL amps were modeled on Fender amps, too.
Yeah, I hear ya. But for whatever reason, all I hear when Fender amps are super-cranked or on the dirt channel is farting. Musical farting, perhaps, but farting nonetheless. For me, when it's a clean sound you want, it's Fender all the way. Dirt sound? Not so much. Having said that, Fender amps, when kept clean, make for a great pedal platform.
Any amp that doesn't have the flubby bottom end that Fenders can get when driven really hard. Marshall amps, of course, particularly the Plexi 50 sound great (and non-farting) when driven to just about any level. Wizard amps, out of Cornwall, Ontario, sound amazing when driven hard. Friedman, etc... Interestingly, the best sounding combo amp I've ever heard was a 22 watt Fender - I think it was the '65 Deluxe Reverb. But that had been heavily modified by one of the best tube amp gurus out there, Rick Onslow. It's unbelievable... you'd have to hear it for yourself to understand just how good the tone was, coming from it. That was as close to a religious experience as I'll ever have... :-) I'm thinking of asking him if my Seymour Duncan 84-40 could be similarly modified, since both my Fender amps are solid state and the SD is, at the moment, the only all tube amp I have.
When I bought my '59 tweed Princeton in 1976, I hated the 8" Jensen it came with. I replaced it shortly after with a JBL 2110 8" speaker and have not regretted it one day ever since. More bandwidth at both ends. More efficient. More oomph from a puny 6W amp. Thanks for giving a plug to NextGen. I deal with them regularly, and am always happy. A decent business with a reputation for being fast and fair.
Couple of montgs ago I resurrected my old frontman 15B, after a friend found it half rotten in his attic. Speaker was the only thing that didn't have damage. When I took it out it sounded like middy crap but in the end it really resonated with the little cabin. It's a great bass practice amp.
I borrowed a Fender Frontman 25R from a friend a few years ago and put my spare Tonetubby Alnico 10" in it. It turned that amp into a serious gigging machine! Totally transformed it.
I have one of these, and added an external speaker socket on the back, which cuts out the internal speaker when you plug in to it. Surprisingly fun little amp when used with a Marshall 4x12!
I have a habit of putting bass speakers into cheap amps and having a great sound. If you have an EQ on your amp it is easy to make sure you don't lose your high end and get a really nicely controlled bass.
Thanks to this video I'd feel a lot more confident working on my Fender Tube Amp. My beautiful Daphne Blue Strat has a versatile tone thanks to your knowledge and I can play everything from The Pretenders to Iron Maiden with it. You take the time to answer a LOT of questions every video and it has made your channel one of the best.
It shows that you can get much more out of cheap equipment if you focus on the right points when upgrading. In that case the speaker. Great example as usual. Keep it up.
Thanks Darrell, I have an old Fender 15 SKX & it sounds not so good. May just try this swap. "Don't give up on your amp", with a catchy riff that could be a song. :)
What a huge difference. The new WGS sounded so tonally full and rich. I had done the same about 2 years ago by replacing the cheap speakers in my 2008 Fender FM 212R with one WGS ET65, and one WGS Retro 30. This combination sounded so amazing, I bought the same combination for my Carvin 4X12 Cab, which is driven by my JJ Tube-equipped Carvin MTS3200H. Now there is a slight difference in the tone between the Solid-State 212R and the tubed MTS3200H, but suffice to say I have finally found my favorite guitar speakers of all time, which happen to work beautifully in both.
You can make an empty shoe box sound great man!! Lol I just love all the perfect imperfections of the Teles! And this one looks killer Well done Darrell!
Hey man you truly rock, I changed the stock speaker in my marshall mg30cfx with a celestion greenback 10" 8 ohms, and the difference in tone and volume is unbelievable. Thanks a lot man.
I have this exact amp. doesn’t get much use anymore, but i might do this mod then use it to jam at friends house so i don’t have to lug my main one around. Thanks for the tutorial, love the vids!
After seeing this video I switched out the OEM speaker in my Blackstar HT1R for the WGS G8C and the difference is substantial. Less break up on the clean channel (tube only now instead of the speaker reaching its limit prematurely). Much more note definition and low end. An excellent recommendation!
Ok let me add my take on this ( I am not much a guitar player than I have been building loudspeakers for years...). 1) ideally one will want to match same impedance. In deed if Fenders' stock speaker is 4 ohm and you replace with whatever 8 ohm speaker you will get HALF the power output - in this case about 7-8 watts. BUT NOT WITH TUBE AMPS! (but that'll be another topic...). 2) IMPORTANT: speaker sensitivity at 1 watt/1 meter. I visited Warehouse site: GBC 8 inch sensitivity is 96 db at 1 watt/1 meter. Maybe Fender is louder, maybe not. One might want to know before spending the money. 3) Speaker RESPONSE CURVE: Warehouse do not shoe this on their website. Eminence and Celestion DO. Maybe Fender's play way louder around 400 hz, maybe Warehouse plays louder around 1-2 kHz. Maybe Fender is more SENSITIVE - BECAUSE OF SMALLER MAGNET and plays louder for a given amount of wattage. 4) topic of this video: sound quality. Ok this is important... So might be loudness for a first time/small power amp purchaser. 5) speaker break-in: sound from a new speaker will evolve and probably get better as it gets broken in - might take quite a few hours of use....Keep on the good work Darren!
Great video great advice as always !!! My friend was getting a crappy sound out of his rig,, he lives in SanDiego and I was in Colorado at the time, so I couldn’t get a proper assessment of the situation,, any ways he explained how he had the pick ups replaced professionally and was still getting a bad break up sound ,,, and the first thing I suggested he do is to change out his speaker,,, after he explained he was playing on a 20 year old fender practice amp! And that I thought replacing pick ups was a costly unnecessary thing to do at first! Any ways finally got back to SanDiego and checked out his guitar,,, what a mess! He had 13 gauge strings ,, and had them tuned up at least a step and a half too high ,,, bowing his neck,, the action and intonation were so far off,,, needless to say! And his amp was just a piece of crap,,, I would expect this from a beginner guitarist ,,, but this guy has been playing 30 years🤪! We went to guitar center,, and purchased some super slinky 9 gauge strings and a new LT -25 fender modeling practice amp and I changed the strings out for him and did the set up on his guitar. And after this he still wanted to charge me $10 bucks for gas to give me a ride down town! With friends like this who needs enemies!
A very important thing when plugged or unplugged terminals to any kind of speaker, always hold the part that content the 2 males on the speaker. I am french so its hard for me to explain. But the way you pull those terminal, without holding the white rectangular board, could have got you in serious trouble. These terminals where very loose in you're case, because sometime you have to take pliers because the terminals are crimp hard. I always firmly hold the rectangular board whit my thumb an index. I have seen people braking the speaker, because that part would detached and pull the wire that feed the coil. Another thing is the rivet that hold the two males just brake sometime. Anyway thanks for the links to NextGenGuitar i need it to order reverb thank, and like you mention i save money because i am Canadian so no extra fees.
I'm a bass-player (or was). My most successful upgrade was tho replace the blown SWR 10 inch speakers in my 2x10 Goliath cabinet with a pair of no-name €55 chinese 10s from Thomann. They were only meant as a temporary fix to get me through a couple of gigs, but they sounded amazing! Far better than the originals.
Easiest way to change the speaker on any Fender small amp is to unscrew the two screws on the sides of the amp, this allows to take down the whole bafle so it's easier to change the speaker.
Just a couple small critiques... If there is only one speaker, it matters not one iota which way the wires connect to it - (+ or -). This only becomes an issue if there are more than one speaker wired to the output of the amp. One other small sniggle... It is pronounced "REE-verb", not "reh-VERB". That aside; agreed, the speaker upgrade can make a massive difference in the performance of the rig. The biggest question always is; 'which one?'
I put two WGS speakers in my Marshall 212, a Reaper HP and an ET65. I was blown away by how much of a difference they made. They took my DSL15H from sounding great to amazing.
Just made this upgrade on my Vox VT20x. Great improvement for small money. 👍 Thx for this and all your other well-made vids. Always enjoy watching and learning. Keep on going. 🤘🎸
thank you about letting us aware of nextgen guitars. I recently bought some celestion speakers from them becuase of you. They have GREAT prices and are super nice, helpful and freindly.
I changed to 2 different 8" speakers for a Fender Princeton Reverb ('74 SilverFace) before settling on a nice Celestion and kept that. A cheap and easy upgrade and the speakers can be resold easily.
Good job Darrell, I was given a Peavy Trans Tube Rage 158 American Made amp with a blown speaker. I bought a MOD, Italian made speaker for $25 US . It was cheap and easy and sounds great for a little practice amp.
Darrell Braun Guitar actually sold it to a guy in nashville. It had Vanzant pickups and Callaham Compensated saddles. I also rewired it with cloth wiring, as it was back in the day. He said it was seriously the best sounding Tele in Nashville. What a compliment. 😀 I'll get another one, or build one from scratch. I need to learn how to properly crown frets. Have you done an episode on this yet? Keep Rockin' Brother. Jer
Of course it sounds buzzy if you keep the treble knob at 8. Maybe it's a better speaker, but still a tiny one, so it just cuts up high. On an amp like this, you better keep that treble at the minimum, and everything else can go up. Another hack if you really want to keep the higher mids, is one single RC tag (a resistor and a capacitor for beginners) in the end of the circuit. If you do some maths you can find 4kHz, where most bigger amps used to stop producing upper harmonics. I don't want to hurt anyone, it's just one more tip after one great video. Just for a fact, this little beast plugged into a big cabinet sounds really similar to a Mesa Boogie Mark V. ;)
great video! I used nextgen to buy a speaker upgrade for a Vox Pathfinder video I did earlier this year. I'm lucky they have a local warehouse pickup location in my area. 👍😁
Yes speaker replacement is HUGE. I'd rather an amp ship with no speaker at all rather than the crap they usually put in. I just put a Weber Silver Bell in my VHT Special 12/20 and it made a big difference, the amp was too dark before with poor definition and slightly flubby low end. Also remember that speakers have a break-in period, so give it a while after you install a new speaker before you make up your mind about it...
I have that same amp except it’s the 15 reverb but same everything else. It’s actually an amazingly good sounding amp for a solid state. In a blind test it sounds almost tube like and I have several really awesome tube amps. I picked it up for $25, and when I was thinning the herd a while back I opted to keep it over more expensive newer SS amps I had, specifically a Fender mustang GT40 and GT100, and this little 15w smoked em both.
I think that any sub $300 combo amp would benefit from a good quality speaker - the factory ones are $2 crap in most low cost amps particularly Fender and Marshall.
I have one of these beauty's, along with a 65R and a DeLuxe 112. all solid state. Very nice amps. In my 15 R I put a Jensen Mod speaker and use it with an open back. Great tone, full, ballsy. John Mayer Stevie clean tone's. I modded the second channel and it is now a superbe OD channel a la SRV on fire. Great little house amp. My DeLuxe has a Jensen vintage ceramic speaker. Great tone allso.
My first amp was a Fender Frontman 25R, and I decided upon a speaker upgrade. Not knowing anything about amps (and not being too handy myself with tools) I took it to a repair tech. As it turns out, there was a stuck nut on a speaker screw that had to be sawed off. If it had been I doing the work, it would have been equivalent to a home birth gone wrong requiring immediate hospitalization. Easy jobs can turn difficult when you don't know your way around potential mishaps.
There was another YTuber, sorry can't remember his name, He has lots of really high end guitars and amps, but ended up with a Frontman 25 which of course sounded like crap. He took and cut off the top of it, making it into an amp head. Lots of case mods to pull it off and make it look right, but he did a great job on it. Then plugged that POS Frontman into some high end cabs, and the amp sounded excellent. I was extremely surprised. Bob in Germany
Thanks, brother! I got that same amp (also as a 'deal sweetener', iow; free). Hadn't even messed with it since making sure it worked. The O/D channel sounded decent for a practice amp with the spkr change, so I'm going to give this a shot.
Make sure you tighten the screws evenly. Uneven pressure on the mounting base can wreck speaker performance. Also, when speakers are mounted with wood screws (in particle board, no less) DO NOT OVER TIGHTEN ! Many times I will rotate the speaker and pilot drill new holes, and of course, torque evenly.
I just got one of these little fender 15g frontmen . I have owned a bunch of these fender solid state amps , they really are fine for home play and recording . But I definitely will be changing out the speaker for one of those . Your demo sounded pretty damn good !
Hi Darrell, very good advice from you. I did that few years ago. My 1st tube amp is an Ibanez TSA15. After improving my playing and my ears, I found it too muddy lacking clear tones. Before selling it I gave it a last chance, replacing the stock Celestion seventy80 ( modern tone ) by a used Celestion G12H25 (60€): my Ibanez is now a keeper. Perfect for jazz, blues, surf, funk and classic rock tones. A used TSA15 and a speaker replacement is a very good bargain for say €250. Note the TSA15 has a TS9 channel footswitchable.
Hey, my amp has a black and white cable attaching to the cone (instead of black and red). I removed them before seen where each one went by accident. Which one would you say is the hot one and which one would be the ground?
Do you have to stay with same ohm rating I have a 8" 4 ohm ...if not what would you advise,my practice 2005 crate 15 is buzzing...I'm blues, rock and country oriented...
Would've been nice to hear the "before" and not just the "after"
Hi!
Th stock speaker was pooched, hence the upgrade, but I'd like to try it on a fully working amp in the future 👍
Ah that makes sense. Sounds like a good use of $50 though. You got a decent break-up tone out of that little Fender. Not always easy with an 8" speaker. Awesome video as always.
I have one of these amps. Trust me when I say you are not missing anything by not hearing the stock speaker.
@@TheHairyDude did you swap your speaker too? I just ordered the Jupiter 8sc.
@@jerryx2000 No, I have still have the stock speaker in mine. I put an extension speaker socket on the back, which cuts out the internal speaker when I want to muck around with it. Otherwise I use it in the workshop to test guitars, and occasionally speaker cabs.
One thing you should mention, for anyone thinking of doing this mod, is to make sure the impedance of the speaker matches the amp.
Good point!
That could be an issue. Lol. Next video, "How to replace your blown output transformer"
No. The speaker should match the lowest rated OUTPUT impedance of the amp power stage. Just about all these transistor practice amps have output power stages that can handle a 4 ohm load quite easily yet the mfg puts 8 ohm (or 6.5 ohm) speakers in them. Why? 'Cause they are much CHEAPER than a 4 ohm speaker. As an experiment I had a custom 3 speaker cab built with a 6", 8" , and 10" speakers wired for a 4 ohm load. I drive it with a Squier SP10 10 watt @ 8 ohm amp and have gigged it. Sounds very well balanced and much louder. Don't try this with an amp that has a tube power stage!
The mfg's pay about $1.75 per speaker in quantity for these 15 watt or lower practice amps. I use a 15 watt Squier amp as a monitor at church with with a replacement 4 ohm Jensen speaker for the last 5 years. Best bang for the buck you can get with these replacement speakers.
Next you can try replacing the opamps in them but that's a bit more complex.
Cow Goes Bark Here's a comment I posted on a forum a decade ago:
You don't ever want to run into a load that is higher impedance (more resistance/load) than the amp is designed for because you might kill the transformer.
Years ago I asked Mike Soldano if there is a correct way to mismatch impedance and, if so, why it won't hurt the amp.
He said that running a higher load than the amp is designed for is really bad, but that a lower load is okay, but you wouldn't want to mismatch by more than one "notch". Running an 8 ohm amp into a 4 ohm load is fine, but mismatching any further would not be a good idea.
So you can run an 8 ohm head into a 4 ohm load, but Mike says your tubes will just wear out a little faster.
You cannot run an 8 ohm head into a higher resistance without possible damage.
You do not want to run into a higher resistance than your amp is designed for because the power created in the power transformer cannot get out of the transformer as quickly/completely as it was designed to, so there is residual power left in it that should not be there.
If 100% of the power created by the primary winding of the transformer cannot escape from the secondary winding by going out to an equal (or lesser) resistance than designed for, the power which is trapped in the secondary winding will continue to stack/increase as the primary winding continues to refill this secondary winding at the normal rate of 100% of the power it was designed for.
This excess power must go somewhere... the insulation melts and you get a blown tranny and possibly a fried tube and socket.
Soldano's standard 50+ watt amps have a a load selector switch to select which ohm setting you want, but the 20 watt Astroverb does not have this switch so he designed the Astroverb to run into a 16 ohm load so that no matter what you plug into (4 ohm cab, 8 ohm cab, 16 ohm cab) you never plug into a higher load than the amp wants.
Mike said that running the 16 ohm Astroverb into 8 ohms simply makes the tubes run a little hotter so they wear slightly faster.
@@dominicsalloman532 Cool! You are very welcome! All I had to do was type it up 11 years ago and then copy and paste it here!
Hi guys!
Today I got some pretty good full-range sounds out of my tiny practice amp!
Depending on what's in your amp, I think speaker replacement may be one of the most impactful mods!
Hi Darrell Braun Guitar,
that looks pretty simple to do by the way sounds great!
Have you done a video on that guitar yet? Looks awesome!
It was a very good tutorial but it would be even better if you make us hear the difference before and after changing it...
goloteam. Agreed sounds great. Wish I could have heard the before and after.
Hi!
I don't have a "build" video on it, but have talked about it in detail in a few videos. ☺
I finally got around to dropping a Warehouse G8C into my old Fender Frontman Reverb 15W practice amp and man does it sound great! Way smoother and warmer tone and no crapping out at the higher volumes. Excellent suggestion and much cheaper than buying a new amp!
Nice update. I find speakers to be perhaps the most underrated component in the guitar signal. WGS is my favorite brand too. Excellent speakers.
IDK it’s tough when the new speaker is worth more than the amp
but it makes the amp sound that much better! why buy a new amp when you can mod the hell out of your current one
Imagine someone who's a new player that is experienced enough to be ready for a new amp but not yet comfortable enough to dish out cash for a really good one.
well mabe its cuz your amp came with a cheaper speaker? so chainging out the speaker no longer makes it a cheap amp. same with tubes.
Well, you can buy the speaker, and later when you buy another amp you already have a broken-in quality speaker
Worth = value. If you are increasing the value of the amp, are you not also increasing what it is worth?
I took the same amp and built an enclosure for it, with a 12" WGS invader. Sounds amazing! Total cost was $70
I've been trying to tell people this for about a hundred years (at least LOL). Speakers are such a great mod. I got a great deal on a JBL K120 and that sits in my 40W club amp and the difference is just unbelievable.
I’m surprised this type of upgrade doesn’t feature a lot more on YT, I know it doesn’t look complicated or challenging from an amateur self-modder point of view. The challenge here is I’d be willing to bet the shirt off my back that many folk would want to upgrade their amp’s speaker rather than the expense of amp replacement but it’s knowing or finding what speaker would fit and work in any given amp, that seems to be the mystery. Gorgeous Tele by the way and great video idea.
From Leo: I know this is years late but it may encourage someone. I came across a Fender Champion 30 that had a crummy sounding speaker. It sounded fine into my single 12" cabinet that has my favorite speaker, an Eminence Cannabis Rex. Not having one of those in the 10" size, my local guy sold me a WGS Retro 10". Glad he did, it really transformed that little Fender Amp.
lol that's the exact speaker I modded a little marshall 15 with, except I bumped up the size and squeezed in the 10" Veteran... Pretty nice improvement... It now lives happily ever after, rocking out for my daughter! Proud dad moment..........
Good upgrade for a modest budget. In February, I replaced the stock speaker of my USA-Made Fender Blues Jr with an Eminence Texas Heat speaker (~ $80 USD) and couldn't be happier. Love the improved tone and seems to drive it harder now for increased volume. Thanks for the great videos!
I put the same speaker in my Champ 40. Made a big difference.
Nice!
@@meanhomerb5530I'm looking to upgrade the speaker on my champ 40 how's your upgraded one holding up?
Nice! For the 15R, reinforcing the cabinet and the baffle is a good choice too. It will make the lower frequencies sound "tight".
Back in the day I was a amp tech that reconed JBL and Altec speakers. Replaced many drivers and built cabinets. Those stronger magnets can pull a screwdriver right through the cone.... Careful!
A few years ago, I took a Peavey Rage 158 (pre-TransTube) and swapped the stock Peavey speaker (bleah) with a WGC G8C; it was a FIRE-BREATHER after that!!! 👍👍👍
Dudeee yessss!!! I was planning on buying an upgrade amp because recently I got an upgrade from my squire to a epiphone sg and wanted something a little better for practice instead I’m gonna upgrade the speaker right on 🤘🏻👍🏻
On cheap practise amps that fuzzy overdrive is what i love
Hi Darell .....
I did this swap with a Behringer 100watts thinking I was doing nothing on tone,
and it happened because they took four 412 oem speakers from a Laney cab and they were dirt cheap so I went for it and for 90 dollars bought All 4 speakers.
And to my surprise the sound was from night to daylight !!!
That amp now sounds Pure METAL with no pedals !!
Now I am with you 100% to swap whatever little amp speaker you find
for these G8C ones.
Thanks for this video !!
Great video, speakers are such an important part of the chain, and very unappreciated too. It's a good little amp to do the test with.
I think you should do challenges under a budget. How much Strat can I get for $150 between used cost and mods? How much amp can I get for $100? Can I make a gig-worthy rig with effects for $300? Show a starting guitarist on a budget to get the best rig for the least money and give them the mods to get it done. These upgrades are all great, but very often you have way more in parts budget than I feel is justifiable. Can you find the price point sweet spot and make it work?
I have a Fender Frontman that I modified by bypassing the internal speaker and wiring a Jack that I mounted on the backplate. Then i plugged it into my old Ampeg Reverbarocket (2 x 12") that I blew up a year before. Removed the amp from that cabinet and put an input jack on it. Wow is all I can say and now it's my stage rig. Crazy? Maybe, but I look at these things as tools and how well they work, not how much they cost.
This should be the first modification when we think of improving an amplifier and not changing capacitors for magic ones, etc. Most of us focus on changing components but the first and most efficient and easiest modification is to change the speaker. Modifications have to be done from the end to the beginning. From the speaker to the input.
Yep. Defiantly a night and day difference to my practice Vox, switched from a whatever to a Celestian G10 gold. That and the preamp tube with a balanced Tung-sol as it’s a modeling amp (40 watt practice amp). Actually sounds creamy :) Saves my wife from having to listen to 200 watts of Marshall fun 👍
Now, this is truly a much more interesting video than I might have thought. And to be honest, it sounds surprisingly good for a what is essentially a toy amp. I even quite like the breakup tone on channel 2. I like Fender amps - I have 2 of them - but I haven't liked anything I've gotten out of the 'dirt' channel on a Fender amp, so your results surprised me. Well done, as usual, Darrell.
Marc, no one is going to love playing metal on a fender amp... but come on! the CLASSSIC dirty/blues tones all come from Fenders (SRV, is a great example). -also the early MARSHALL amps were modeled on Fender amps, too.
Yeah, I hear ya. But for whatever reason, all I hear when Fender amps are super-cranked or on the dirt channel is farting. Musical farting, perhaps, but farting nonetheless. For me, when it's a clean sound you want, it's Fender all the way. Dirt sound? Not so much. Having said that, Fender amps, when kept clean, make for a great pedal platform.
Marc, now I have to ask... what do you think of as a "non farting" lead channel sound?
Any amp that doesn't have the flubby bottom end that Fenders can get when driven really hard. Marshall amps, of course, particularly the Plexi 50 sound great (and non-farting) when driven to just about any level. Wizard amps, out of Cornwall, Ontario, sound amazing when driven hard. Friedman, etc...
Interestingly, the best sounding combo amp I've ever heard was a 22 watt Fender - I think it was the '65 Deluxe Reverb. But that had been heavily modified by one of the best tube amp gurus out there, Rick Onslow. It's unbelievable... you'd have to hear it for yourself to understand just how good the tone was, coming from it. That was as close to a religious experience as I'll ever have... :-)
I'm thinking of asking him if my Seymour Duncan 84-40 could be similarly modified, since both my Fender amps are solid state and the SD is, at the moment, the only all tube amp I have.
When I bought my '59 tweed Princeton in 1976, I hated the 8" Jensen it came with. I replaced it shortly after with a JBL 2110 8" speaker and have not regretted it one day ever since. More bandwidth at both ends. More efficient. More oomph from a puny 6W amp.
Thanks for giving a plug to NextGen. I deal with them regularly, and am always happy. A decent business with a reputation for being fast and fair.
Hi Darrell; thanks for highlighting NextGen - it's great not to have to rely on eBay or shipping parts from down south!
For sure!
I was pretty pumped when I found their store 👍
Couple of montgs ago I resurrected my old frontman 15B, after a friend found it half rotten in his attic. Speaker was the only thing that didn't have damage. When I took it out it sounded like middy crap but in the end it really resonated with the little cabin. It's a great bass practice amp.
Quite surprised about that speaker in the Fender amp! I thought it would be much better quality. Good video, keep them coming!
It's barely a Fender amp, they're packaged with Squier starter packs and I don't even think its possible to buy one individually.
Frontman series is essentially garbage (although the Frontman 25r really isn't that bad.)
I borrowed a Fender Frontman 25R from a friend a few years ago and put my spare Tonetubby Alnico 10" in it. It turned that amp into a serious gigging machine! Totally transformed it.
I put in a 4 way 6" Sony car stereo speaker in my Fender Frontman 10G.
Sounds AMAZING!!!! 😎👍
I’ve had this exact amp for about 6 years. I’ll have to make a little upgrade to it now
I love Next Gen. All my pedalboard making stuff comes from there!
I have one of these, and added an external speaker socket on the back, which cuts out the internal speaker when you plug in to it. Surprisingly fun little amp when used with a Marshall 4x12!
😄 That would be awesome!
I have a habit of putting bass speakers into cheap amps and having a great sound. If you have an EQ on your amp it is easy to make sure you don't lose your high end and get a really nicely controlled bass.
Thanks to this video I'd feel a lot more confident working on my Fender Tube Amp. My beautiful Daphne Blue Strat has a versatile tone thanks to your knowledge and I can play everything from The Pretenders to Iron Maiden with it. You take the time to answer a LOT of questions every video and it has made your channel one of the best.
Thanks!
I love hanging out and chatting nerdy guitar stuff!
It shows that you can get much more out of cheap equipment if you focus on the right points when upgrading. In that case the speaker. Great example as usual. Keep it up.
Thanks Darrell, I have an old Fender 15 SKX & it sounds not so good. May just try this swap. "Don't give up on your amp", with a catchy riff that could be a song. :)
so did you swap yet?
Before and after would have been really cool. I have a little practice orange amp I will try this with.
Nice!
If the stock one wasn't so messed up I definitely would have 👍
A orange ppc108?
I totally agree. I replaced the stock speaker in my Blackstar ID60 with a warehouse veteran 30 speaker and the amp now sounds killer!!
What a huge difference. The new WGS sounded so tonally full and rich. I had done the same about 2 years ago by replacing the cheap speakers in my 2008 Fender FM 212R with one WGS ET65, and one WGS Retro 30. This combination sounded so amazing, I bought the same combination for my Carvin 4X12 Cab, which is driven by my JJ Tube-equipped Carvin MTS3200H. Now there is a slight difference in the tone between the Solid-State 212R and the tubed MTS3200H, but suffice to say I have finally found my favorite guitar speakers of all time, which happen to work beautifully in both.
You can make an empty shoe box sound great man!! Lol
I just love all the perfect imperfections of the Teles! And this one looks killer Well done Darrell!
😄 Thanks Luis!
Hey man you truly rock, I changed the stock speaker in my marshall mg30cfx with a celestion greenback 10" 8 ohms, and the difference in tone and volume is unbelievable. Thanks a lot man.
Man do I love that telecaster
I have this exact amp. doesn’t get much use anymore, but i might do this mod then use it to jam at friends house so i don’t have to lug my main one around. Thanks for the tutorial, love the vids!
Good idea!
Thanks Eric
After seeing this video I switched out the OEM speaker in my Blackstar HT1R for the WGS G8C and the difference is substantial. Less break up on the clean channel (tube only now instead of the speaker reaching its limit prematurely). Much more note definition and low end. An excellent recommendation!
Great video Darrell!! I have upgraded most of my amp speakers, it really improves the tone
Great! I was in the middle of this process. Super Champx2 replace stock fender loud speaker with Eminence “Legend.”
Ok let me add my take on this ( I am not much a guitar player than I have been building loudspeakers for years...). 1) ideally one will want to match same impedance. In deed if Fenders' stock speaker is 4 ohm and you replace with whatever 8 ohm speaker you will get HALF the power output - in this case about 7-8 watts. BUT NOT WITH TUBE AMPS! (but that'll be another topic...). 2) IMPORTANT: speaker sensitivity at 1 watt/1 meter. I visited Warehouse site: GBC 8 inch sensitivity is 96 db at 1 watt/1 meter. Maybe Fender is louder, maybe not. One might want to know before spending the money. 3) Speaker RESPONSE CURVE: Warehouse do not shoe this on their website. Eminence and Celestion DO. Maybe Fender's play way louder around 400 hz, maybe Warehouse plays louder around 1-2 kHz. Maybe Fender is more SENSITIVE - BECAUSE OF SMALLER MAGNET and plays louder for a given amount of wattage. 4) topic of this video: sound quality. Ok this is important... So might be loudness for a first time/small power amp purchaser. 5) speaker break-in: sound from a new speaker will evolve and probably get better as it gets broken in - might take quite a few hours of use....Keep on the good work Darren!
Great video great advice as always !!! My friend was getting a crappy sound out of his rig,, he lives in SanDiego and I was in Colorado at the time, so I couldn’t get a proper assessment of the situation,, any ways he explained how he had the pick ups replaced professionally and was still getting a bad break up sound ,,, and the first thing I suggested he do is to change out his speaker,,, after he explained he was playing on a 20 year old fender practice amp! And that I thought replacing pick ups was a costly unnecessary thing to do at first! Any ways finally got back to SanDiego and checked out his guitar,,, what a mess! He had 13 gauge strings ,, and had them tuned up at least a step and a half too high ,,, bowing his neck,, the action and intonation were so far off,,, needless to say! And his amp was just a piece of crap,,, I would expect this from a beginner guitarist ,,, but this guy has been playing 30 years🤪! We went to guitar center,, and purchased some super slinky 9 gauge strings and a new LT -25 fender modeling practice amp and I changed the strings out for him and did the set up on his guitar. And after this he still wanted to charge me $10 bucks for gas to give me a ride down town! With friends like this who needs enemies!
Friend or not,, next time I’m charging ,,, for doing a set up ! If you got this done at a guitar shop it would cost you minimal 75 dollars!
A very important thing when plugged or unplugged terminals to any kind of speaker, always hold the part that content the 2 males on the speaker. I am french so its hard for me to explain. But the way you pull those terminal, without holding the white rectangular board, could have got you in serious trouble. These terminals where very loose in you're case, because sometime you have to take pliers because the terminals are crimp hard. I always firmly hold the rectangular board whit my thumb an index. I have seen people braking the speaker, because that part would detached and pull the wire that feed the coil. Another thing is the rivet that hold the two males just brake sometime. Anyway thanks for the links to NextGenGuitar i need it to order reverb thank, and like you mention i save money because i am Canadian so no extra fees.
I love Warehouse Guitar Speakers. I have them in a all of my amps.
Great video Darrell. Now you have me thinking about replacing the speaiker in my old side kick amp.
THANKS MUCH! I am replacing the speaker in the same amp.
I'm a bass-player (or was). My most successful upgrade was tho replace the blown SWR 10 inch speakers in my 2x10 Goliath cabinet with a pair of no-name €55 chinese 10s from Thomann. They were only meant as a temporary fix to get me through a couple of gigs, but they sounded amazing! Far better than the originals.
Easiest way to change the speaker on any Fender small amp is to unscrew the two screws on the sides of the amp, this allows to take down the whole bafle so it's easier to change the speaker.
In all fairness I'm pretty sure you could plug into a broken toaster and get a great tone.
😂 Thanks man!
pretty sure he could even play a toaster acoustic and still get massive tone...
Awesome dude! Thanks for taking the time to do this, truly appreciated 👌🏼
Darrell this is an awesome revamp on such a handy, light,portable amp. Thanks very much for your video that has saved me money and worry. ty
Just a couple small critiques...
If there is only one speaker, it matters not one iota which way the wires connect to it - (+ or -). This only becomes an issue if there are more than one speaker wired to the output of the amp.
One other small sniggle...
It is pronounced "REE-verb", not "reh-VERB".
That aside; agreed, the speaker upgrade can make a massive difference in the performance of the rig. The biggest question always is; 'which one?'
WGS speakers made my cheap Fender Vaporizer giggable. And they are way more affordable than the bigger names in the after market speaker industry!
I always enjoy your videos Darrell. You come out with a lot of useful information that is very helpful. Thanks brother.
I put two WGS speakers in my Marshall 212, a Reaper HP and an ET65. I was blown away by how much of a difference they made. They took my DSL15H from sounding great to amazing.
Just made this upgrade on my Vox VT20x. Great improvement for small money. 👍 Thx for this and all your other well-made vids. Always enjoy watching and learning. Keep on going. 🤘🎸
Is it worth the 60 bucks? Thinking about doing the same
Sounded great! Love that Tele. God bless bro 🎸☺👍
thank you about letting us aware of nextgen guitars. I recently bought some celestion speakers from them becuase of you. They have GREAT prices and are super nice, helpful and freindly.
NextGen Rocks! I live in Ottawa and save the shipping. Nice video Darrell
I love that tele man
I changed to 2 different 8" speakers for a Fender Princeton Reverb ('74 SilverFace) before settling on a nice Celestion and kept that. A cheap and easy upgrade and the speakers can be resold easily.
Warehouse Speakers are quality for sure
Good job Darrell, I was given a Peavy Trans Tube Rage 158 American Made amp with a blown speaker. I bought a MOD, Italian made speaker for $25 US . It was cheap and easy and sounds great for a little practice amp.
Nice! A good speaker can make a huge difference 👍
Love the Tele.. I miss my '62 Custom japanese reissue. Great job with the channel. 😀 very informative..
Thanks MR!
That's a sweet tele! Hopefully It went to a good home!
Darrell Braun Guitar actually sold it to a guy in nashville. It had Vanzant pickups and Callaham Compensated saddles. I also rewired it with cloth wiring, as it was back in the day. He said it was seriously the best sounding Tele in Nashville. What a compliment. 😀 I'll get another one, or build one from scratch. I need to learn how to properly crown frets. Have you done an episode on this yet? Keep Rockin' Brother. Jer
Of course it sounds buzzy if you keep the treble knob at 8. Maybe it's a better speaker, but still a tiny one, so it just cuts up high. On an amp like this, you better keep that treble at the minimum, and everything else can go up. Another hack if you really want to keep the higher mids, is one single RC tag (a resistor and a capacitor for beginners) in the end of the circuit. If you do some maths you can find 4kHz, where most bigger amps used to stop producing upper harmonics. I don't want to hurt anyone, it's just one more tip after one great video. Just for a fact, this little beast plugged into a big cabinet sounds really similar to a Mesa Boogie Mark V. ;)
great video! I used nextgen to buy a speaker upgrade for a Vox Pathfinder video I did earlier this year. I'm lucky they have a local warehouse pickup location in my area.
👍😁
Thanks Landon!
That is the best 👍
Which speaker did you buy? I have a Vox Pathfinder and like its 6.5" speaker already.
Yes speaker replacement is HUGE.
I'd rather an amp ship with no speaker at all rather than the crap they usually put in. I just put a Weber Silver Bell in my VHT Special 12/20 and it made a big difference, the amp was too dark before with poor definition and slightly flubby low end.
Also remember that speakers have a break-in period, so give it a while after you install a new speaker before you make up your mind about it...
Best mod ever was when I dropped in a Weber Blue10A (10" Alnico - 16 ohm - 20 watts) in my Vox AC4TV home practice amp. Great video, D!
Sweet! I bet it sounds amazing 👍
Johan Segeborn shows how big of a difference the speaker does, the video of the cheapest epiphone amp through a marshall cab blew my mind
Ibanez 15g is the best $100 amp ever made. It doesn't need a speaker upgrade and the dirt channel is very tube like. Great bedroom amp.
Loved this video!! Wish there could've been a comparison. Thank you so much!
I have that same amp except it’s the 15 reverb but same everything else. It’s actually an amazingly good sounding amp for a solid state. In a blind test it sounds almost tube like and I have several really awesome tube amps. I picked it up for $25, and when I was thinning the herd a while back I opted to keep it over more expensive newer SS amps I had, specifically a Fender mustang GT40 and GT100, and this little 15w smoked em both.
Emi are the best for upgrading solid-state. My opinion of course. ☺
thanks for the video, I have a Kustom 10 fx , I'm gonna try this upgrade
You could add a three spring reverb tank for $28.00 USD. It also makes a big difference.
I still play my 1x12 greenback loaded cab over my older 4x12 sheffield loaded peavey cab because of how nice that celestion cuts.
I put a wgs British lead in my Marshall code 50 and it completely came to life. In my opinion wgs is better then celestion
Cool!
Was the installation in your Marshall pretty much the same as this?
Darrell Braun Guitar yes it was
I think that any sub $300 combo amp would benefit from a good quality speaker - the factory ones are $2 crap in most low cost amps particularly Fender and Marshall.
excellent as always. i would have liked hearing the original speaker......
Thank you! For the video and the link!
I have one of these beauty's, along with a 65R and a DeLuxe 112. all solid state. Very nice amps. In my 15 R I put a Jensen Mod speaker and use it with an open back. Great tone, full, ballsy. John Mayer Stevie clean tone's. I modded the second channel and it is now a superbe OD channel a la SRV on fire. Great little house amp. My DeLuxe has a Jensen vintage ceramic speaker. Great tone allso.
My first amp was a Fender Frontman 25R, and I decided upon a speaker upgrade. Not knowing anything about amps (and not being too handy myself with tools) I took it to a repair tech. As it turns out, there was a stuck nut on a speaker screw that had to be sawed off. If it had been I doing the work, it would have been equivalent to a home birth gone wrong requiring immediate hospitalization. Easy jobs can turn difficult when you don't know your way around potential mishaps.
Good point!
Even simple jobs can run afoul ☺
Well done, nice tones and lovely telecaster!Helpful to many!Thanks Brother!
There was another YTuber, sorry can't remember his name, He has lots of really high end guitars and amps, but ended up with a Frontman 25 which of course sounded like crap. He took and cut off the top of it, making it into an amp head. Lots of case mods to pull it off and make it look right, but he did a great job on it. Then plugged that POS Frontman into some high end cabs, and the amp sounded excellent. I was extremely surprised. Bob in Germany
😄 That sounds like an awesome project!
I know how to drink a screwdriver thanks for the video you got the best videos out there
Thanks, brother! I got that same amp (also as a 'deal sweetener', iow; free). Hadn't even messed with it since making sure it worked. The O/D channel sounded decent for a practice amp with the spkr change, so I'm going to give this a shot.
Have you Tried an Eminence CANNABIS REX...? Why don't you do a Comparison SPEAKER SHOOT-OUT, with the Fender Champ X2, or Similar....? Just an Idea.
Make sure you tighten the screws evenly. Uneven pressure on the mounting base can wreck speaker performance. Also, when speakers are mounted with wood screws (in particle board, no less) DO NOT OVER TIGHTEN ! Many times I will rotate the speaker and pilot drill new holes, and of course, torque evenly.
I just got one of these little fender 15g frontmen . I have owned a bunch of these fender solid state amps , they really are fine for home play and recording . But I definitely will be changing out the speaker for one of those . Your demo sounded pretty damn good !
Upgraded the speaker in my Super Champ XD with an Eminence Ragin' Cajun.....it really brought that little amp to life.
Hi Darrell, very good advice from you. I did that few years ago. My 1st tube amp is an Ibanez TSA15. After improving my playing and my ears, I found it too muddy lacking clear tones. Before selling it I gave it a last chance, replacing the stock Celestion seventy80 ( modern tone ) by a used Celestion G12H25 (60€): my Ibanez is now a keeper. Perfect for jazz, blues, surf, funk and classic rock tones. A used TSA15 and a speaker replacement is a very good bargain for say €250. Note the TSA15 has a TS9 channel footswitchable.
Hey, my amp has a black and white cable attaching to the cone (instead of black and red). I removed them before seen where each one went by accident. Which one would you say is the hot one and which one would be the ground?
Do you have to stay with same ohm rating I have a 8" 4 ohm ...if not what would you advise,my practice 2005 crate 15 is buzzing...I'm blues, rock and country oriented...
WAREHOUSE SPEAKERS! Love these guys!