I've got a Fender Blues Deluxe reissue that I like the core tone of. I use it almost completely clean as a pedal platform.
However, the low end gets pretty muddy in the neck positions on my strat and I find I need to have the Bass set to 1-3 and an EQ pedal in the loop in order to tame it in a way I like.
I'm wondering if you guys have any speaker recommendations to:
-tighten up that low end and make its "bass" range more useable
-add a bit more headroom
-retain the Fender "sparkle" but make sure the speaker still manages the high end "fizz"
I know that's asking a lot of a speaker, but it should give you at least an idea of the direction I want to go! Thanks in advance!
An entire set of "tighter" tubes could make a difference, but you may have the neck pickup too close to the strings on the bass side. It should be 3~4mm (2 stacked nickels) from the top of the pole with the string depressed at like the 20th fret. The other pickups should ideally be the same distance on the bass side with the fret depressed, but it depends on a few things. Use 1 nickel to set the high E string pickup heights. Make sure the action is set to your preferences first.
Not sure if that amp has any Global Negative Feedback or not, and the '50s-era phase-inverter circuit tends to be more gainy and muddy. Without moding the circuitry, different tubes may help. If it has large bottle 6L6GC's, you could try some 5881's. Can't say which are best these days. Dave Friedman (Friedman amps) recommends EHx power tubes, and he also likes the new Ehx 7025EH. It's probably the best sounding and tightest current production 12ax7 type. It's Mil-spec, so it's rugged and not very expensive...yet. It's also slightly less gainy than average. That should reduce mud in the gain stages as well. Maybe just try some of those b4 shelling out for new power tubes as well.
I don't know about the stock Eminence speaker, but you may not need to change it if you get those other things sorted. They are worth addressing even if you do decide to get a new speaker at some point.
The G12C will DEFINITELY give you what you want:
-tighten up that low end and make its "bass" range more usable
-add a bit more headroom
-retain the Fender "sparkle" but make sure the speaker still manages the high end "fizz"
The only problem I see is that it might give you a little too much of all those things!