Hey folks, I’ve gotten the new Blackstar Series One 1x12 combo. I’m dreading the sound of another 70/80 and am looking to replace the stock speaker. My other combo has a reaper and a Veteran 30, which give me a great modern metal tone I look for; However, I found that the cleans were lacking from this combination. I know there’s no such thing as the perfect, single, speaker but I thought I’d reach out for help.
I love the sound of the low end on traditional vintage 30s. It’s big, boomy, yet precise under drive. I don’t like the harshness and ‘bark’ of overdriven greenbacks (too much of the AC/DC vibe for me there). My favorite cleans I’ve heard thus far have come from the celestion V-Type that come stock in Friedman runt series. They were soft, melodic, light on their feet and most responsive. I’m hoping to find a good fit to suit both my drive and clean needs at least somewhere in the middle. Otherwise I’m likely to just pull my veteran 30 and stick with that.
It’s a 10w combo, KT-88 and 12AX7 preamp. I use high output pickups (JB, Invaders, Bareknuckle) and am primarily playing progressive metal with a very tight, modern sound - but have a great appreciation for melodic, warm and sweet cleans. All thoughts and suggestions are appreciated.
Guess it depends on how bright the amp is. I understand a "soft" high end, but I don't now what you mean my "melodic". Is "light on their feet" different than responsive? By that do you mean less resonant and/or fast transient response? It sounds like you might be describing an ET65 or ET90.
I wouldn’t say the amp is very bright or very dark. It’s a very even sounding amp as it is. I guess a better way to explain would be that I’m hoping to find a speaker that has more musical, blended cleans - warm. Where as for my drive sound I need something that can tighten up without being overly bright.
Sounds like you want an ET65. I think the V-Type is a better V30 variation. Vaughn aptly dubbed the ET65 as "organic". It rides the line between metallic and velvety with big deep bass. I'm pretty sure it is a very tight speaker. The ET90 is bigger and tighter still, but with more upper-mid presence you may find too bright. I'd call it roundly crunchy, but not harsh or very metallic like a V30. That amp would sound so huge with a ET90. I'd love to hear that.
Since you ALREADY have a Vet30 ... you could go ahead and try it to see if that nails it ... you've got nothing to loose!
My first suggestion would be the ET65, though.