OK so this is an update on the Egnator Rebel 20 I bought last July.

The thread in which I posted the news of that purchase is here:
http://www.fender.com/community/forums/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=59207&p=713899&hilit=junior#p713899

So after a few months of loving this amp I decided to see if I could do anything to make it even better so I installed a pair of Celestion Blues in it. The amp was already equipped from the factory with a set of Celestion speakers that appear to have been made specifically for Egnator. They must have a deal with Celestion like Fender has a deal with Emminence.

Here are some pics of the speakers for a visual comparison.
The one with the white gasket is the Blue.
As you can see the Blue is about an inch or so taller on the counter.
The cone has a slightly steeper angle as a result.
I don't know enough about the science of driver cones to know how that angle typically affects tone.






I was a little surprized to see that the enclosures were ported and found it curious that a front ported cabinet did not have a baffle or tube between the speaker and the port. I may experiment with attaching a sheet on the front baffle board that extends about 2/3 or 3/4 of the way to the back of the cabinet to lengthen the path of air flow in and out of the front. If any of the amp gurus have thoughts on that experiment please feel free to elaborate. I won't do it right away as I want to get use to the Blues for a while first.

After I mounted the first speaker I decided to do another side by side comparison so I set up the amp with each speaker side by each and ran one at a time. One cabinet had the new Blue and the other cabinet had the stock Elite 80. Here's what it looked like.



I did six different comparisons. On all comparisons I left the tube balance control and the wattage control alone as well as the EQ settings. The only controls I adjusted were the gain and volume controls. I did two settings with the amp set to a nice clean sound, one at practice volume levels and one at near gig levels. I also did those same two volumes at a slightly overdriven setting and a quite crunchy overdriven setting. So three different sounds times two volumes equals six tests. I'd play it with the Elite 80 first for a minute or so, flick the standby, switch the speaker cable to the other cabinet and then try the Blue for a minute or so. I fooled around like this for about an hour and a half going back and forth again and again.

If you had a read through my comparison last July you'll recall I said the Rebel was much less honky than the BJ. It turns out there was a little bit of honk in the Rebel as well. My findings are as follows:

In all six test conditions, the Blues were a little quieter than the Elite 80s. In all six tests the Elite 80s exhibited a very slight honk that I was not aware of until this comparison. In all six tests the Blues were more transparent and more articulate. The sound of the guitar came through better. The sound of my hands came through better as well. In the 4 overdriven tests the Elite 80s broke up a little sooner and were darker with just a little hint of muddiness compared to the Blues. In every situation the Blues were brighter sounding and at the same time flatter sounding from an EQ perspective. In some situations (the louder overdrive tests) I thought the Blues seemed a little thinner sounding at first but I realized it was the Elite 80s earlier breakup that was creating that impression. Chime seemed to be just a micron better with the Blues and quack was just about equal.

The end result was that I decided to install the second Blue. I did try both cabinets together to see if they would complement each other but I was dissuaded from keeping it like that by the slight volume difference. The extra clarity of the Blue wasn’t loud enough to be effective over the Elite 80. At least not in my small studio. Perhaps in a larger room where I could get further away from the speakers to find their respective focal points I might have felt differently about the combination.

Now that I’m running two Blues I definitely like this amp even better than before. I like the sound of the amp’s break up better than the sound of the speaker’s break up. I’ve tweaked my gain settings up just a tad over what I’d been running and I am happier. The new DiMarzios are simply delightful with this setup.

I'd like to be careful here to mention that the difference between these speakers was not extreme but it was significant enough that I did notice. The Elite 80s are quite good. It's just that I like the Blues better.

I give the Blues two thumbs up.

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Just think of how awesome a guitar player you could have been by now if you had only spent the last 10 years practicing instead of obsessing over pickups and roasted maple necks.

The alnico Blue's will require 40 to 50 hours of play for a sufficient break-in period. You'll hear them really sing after that.

Arjay

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"Here's why reliability is job one: A great sounding amp that breaks down goes from being a favorite piece of gear to a useless piece of crap in less time than it takes to read this sentence." -- BRUCE ZINKY

What do you think of my baffle plate idea?

_________________

Just think of how awesome a guitar player you could have been by now if you had only spent the last 10 years practicing instead of obsessing over pickups and roasted maple necks.

Likely unnecessary. But we're all tinkerers at heart......



Arjay

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"Here's why reliability is job one: A great sounding amp that breaks down goes from being a favorite piece of gear to a useless piece of crap in less time than it takes to read this sentence." -- BRUCE ZINKY

Good review, and well worthwhile.

I love the UK made Celestion Blue speaker, even though it is almost 3 times the cost of the overseas manufactured Vintage 30 and other drivers by the Company.

I have always regretted that I could never squeeze one into my Fender BJ. You can see from BMW - KTM's post that the Blue is a tall speaker - about 3/4" too tall for the BJ in fact. I could use an extension cabinet with a Blue on-board I guess, but the point of a combo is that it has the convenience of being all in one, without the need for dragging around extra boxes.

Actually, wouldn't it be cool if Fender followed the herd (Orange, Mesa Boogie, Vox, Egnater, Ashdown etc) on this one and produced a Tiny Terror style mini head version of the BJ. That would be cool..

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Fender Highway & Classic 60s Strats, Fender Toronado, Telecaster, Gretsch Projet, Charvel 3, PRS SE Soapbar II & Custom 24, Burns Batwing and many others!

A sound clip or a youtube video would of been ideal with this comparison.

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http://www.youtube.com/user/gmlasam

My Cubase LE software stopped working almost a year ago and I am having a hard time finding a substitute that will run on my laptop. Most programs available today require Windows 7 and the ones that support Vista 64 seem to need a faster processor than I have. So far I've been looking at Cubase, Sonar (by Cakewalk) and ProTools which are the main players in that biz. I guess I'll have to start looking at some of the lesser known companies.

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Just think of how awesome a guitar player you could have been by now if you had only spent the last 10 years practicing instead of obsessing over pickups and roasted maple necks.

I sympathise. PC based midi/audio recording systems are a nightmare.

Cubase has more bugs than the Brazillian rain forest. Logic is better but still potentially unreliable and overly complex. We've spent a lot of money and even more time trying to keep those things stable. Even Bill Gates would struggle..

Check out the much, much cheaper audio/midi sequencing platform called Reaper. It's so well organised and reliable - a revelation infact.

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Fender Highway & Classic 60s Strats, Fender Toronado, Telecaster, Gretsch Projet, Charvel 3, PRS SE Soapbar II & Custom 24, Burns Batwing and many others!

Thanks. I will look into Reaper.

I should mention here that you can look forward to another review in the near future. I also bought a pair of Celestion Golds which I intend to try in my Rivera Fandango. I won't be able to do the same kind of side by side comparison due to the fact my Fandango rig consists of an open back combo atop a closed back ext cab. I've thought about using the Rebel cabs for the test but it seems like an awful lot of work.

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Just think of how awesome a guitar player you could have been by now if you had only spent the last 10 years practicing instead of obsessing over pickups and roasted maple necks.

To be perfectly honest I just don't know. I've never owned a VOX amplifier. I've never been pleased enough by the tones I hear others getting from them to warrant trying one myself.

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Just think of how awesome a guitar player you could have been by now if you had only spent the last 10 years practicing instead of obsessing over pickups and roasted maple necks.

OK so I replaced the speakers in the River as well. I like these Golds a lot. I did not do a side by side comparo but I have been using this amp for about 6 or 7 years or so and I am well aquainted with it's sound. I am noticing the same volume drop as I did with the Rebel 20. I am also noticing the same later breakup and the slightly nicer chime. Just like with the Rebel 20 I am enjoying hearing more of the amp and less of the speakers in terms of grind.

It`s been a number of years since I saw an amp with soldered speaker connections. I resisted the urge to install a set of spade connectors.

_________________

Just think of how awesome a guitar player you could have been by now if you had only spent the last 10 years practicing instead of obsessing over pickups and roasted maple necks.