Reaper HP Review

I purchased these to replace a pair of Vintage 30's, the Reaper HP is the high powered version of the Reaper, which is WGS's version of Celestion's G12H Anniversary. The V30's had a very pronounced upper midrange spike that rendered the clean channel on my Mesa Boogie Tremoverb useless, and encouraged ear fatigue on the dirty channels. It seemed to mask all the other important frequencies. I didn't want to stray too far from the stock V30 sound, but needed something more musical sounding that would fully represent the tonal range of my guitar. Compared to the V30, (out of the box) the Reaper HP has very similar highs and lows, with the same amount of sag. It really reaches up there on the high end, giving you a lot of the same shimmer as the V30 without being harsh. The Reaper HP doesn't have as aggressive and pronounced midrange as the V30, making it a smoother, more balanced speaker overall. It has just a touch of the Greenback "growl" that warms up the mids when you push it, leaving you the perfect balance between clean headroom and cone breakup. The V30 I find doesn't have much cone breakup unless it's pushed pretty hard, making it a very clean speaker - though I think plenty of people would find that useful, it didn't have enough dirt for me. Overall I would say that the Reaper HP's have greatly improved my tone; they really opened up the range of tonal possibility on this already versatile amp, turning a good amp into a tone monster. With just enough clarity, warmth, dirt, and low end, I find that they leave very little to be desired. I've gone from the 2D Vintage 30, to a fully 3 dimensional sound. I know that it sounds crazy, but these speakers have truly solved the issues I had with my amp and then improved it in ways that I didn't know it needed improvement. Well done, WGS.