SeriesCelestion Classic

The Celestion G12T75 is probably today’s most common speaker. It comes in nearly every standard Marshall JCM900 cab, so I assume most people have tried this at one time or another. It can handle 75 watts of power, is 12’’ in diameter, comes in either 8 or 16 ohm format and has a ceramic magnet. Yet again, people were looking for even more power than the Vintage 30 could deliver. This time, they made the G12T75, and it’s pretty much the exact opposite of the Vintage 30. Where as the Vintage 30 has some very aggressive midrange, ths G12T75 has extreme bass and high end. The midrange is, therefore, pushed back a bit. For me, I could never really get along with this speaker. It was simply too scooped for me. I know it works well with some Marshalls, but I usually prefer using Greenbacks or even Vintage 30s compared to this. The bass was big, but I also found it to be a touch flabby. It didn’t seem as tight as the Vintage 30. The highs were also a bit too harsh for me. Recorded, they seemed to sound flat and not have much life to them like the Vintage 30 does. They’re quite a bit harder to record, and I find they’re much better for mixing with another speaker than running them straight. What I mean is, fill half the cab with the G12T75 speakers and fill the other half with Vintage 30s. That seems to give a very even response overall. If you’re looking for a high gain heavy metal speaker, I still recommend the Vintage 30. I could never get along with the G12T75, so I can’t really recommend it. Still, there are some that love it, and that can’t be denied. Thankfully, these speakers are so prevalent that you are sure to find one at your local music store to test out.

My first experience with these speakers was in 2007. Since then they've been in a lot of amps and have become the industry standard speaker for high gain applications. And I can see why! It's a great sounding speaker with a specific midrange character to it that a lot of metal or high gain players can work with. However, there is some fizziness to it in the high mids and trebles that I sometimes HATE, but that's also the same character that adds to that midrange making the speaker so unique on it's own and thus famous! I have to say that it has generally been good sounding through almost any type of cab, whether it be 412s or 212s or even single 112 cabs. The V30 is sort of like the SM57 of guitar speakers. They've become the standard sound and it's not necessarily a good or bad sound but definitely a workable sound. In terms of headroom I have to admit there isn't much. Cleans are good but can lead to break up quite early depending on how it's used. This is of course what is known to help with the high gain applications, it breaks up earlier, which generally equals better for metal etc. More distortion is always better, apparently. It is generally a darker sounding speaker in comparison to other standard celestions for eg the G12T-75. Not REALLy dark but darker. And if paired with the right cab can sound great. I have found however that these speakers don't sound good to me, with the oversized mesa cabs. It's way too dark and actually sound too thick and muddy, notes become indistinguishable and the low end is all over the place, while the highs are generally fizzy. It could just be the character of the mesa cab itself too, I haven't had much luck with the oversized ones.. But in general this speaker is decent and has become the industry standard rock/metal high gain speaker. Definitely can sound good, but maybe not the most versatile.

The Celestion G12H30 is one of the lesser known Celestion speakers for some reason. It’s a standard 12’’ speaker with a ceramic magnet, comes in either 8 or 16 ohm configuration, can handle up to 30 watts of power, has a ceramic magnet, a round cooper voice coil and made out of pressed steel. This has always been one of my favorite “mixing” speakers. On its own, I find that the speaker tends to be a bit darker than other speakers out there. It has some decent treble, but the bass is fairly strong on this, as well as the low mids. Because of that, I find that it can get a touch buried in the mix at times, especially at lower tunings. One of my favorite speaker mixing combos is actually a G12H30 and a Vintage 30. When you combine both of these, it gives you that awesome dark, thick tone of the G12H30 and that nice bite of the Vintage 30. One interesting thing is that some people say these are bright. Maybe it’s the speakers I tried, but I never found that to be the case. It could be do to them being made in England vs China, could be how broken in they are or could even be the amp. I just never really bonded with them on their own for the style of music I play, and I find the Vintage 30 to be the best speaker suited for death metal. One problem with this speaker is that there are barely any cabs that come with these installed. Because of that, they can be a real pain to try out at your local music store. What I recommend is trying to see if you can find a friend or someone on Craigslist who has them and will allow you to come out and try them. Other than that, you’ll probably have to buy them blind and try them that way.