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It kind of surprised me in some ways, but not others. As I began this thread, I was wondering which British type circuit would be closest to that Velocette I had a decade plus ago. After all the responses, it seemed the 18 was close, but something was missing. Well, that amp had a Vintage 30. So I really hoped to recreated that feel/sound.
But I didn't want to mess up a good thing. I wanted to do a few A-B comparisons with three different speakers. As I said (or meant to say), the 18 sounds really, really good with the Alnico Celestion Gold on either channel with eitehr EL84 or 6V6 in clean settings. Just a really, really pretty and full clean sound. So nice. Especially with EL84 tubes, it sounds good (almost "right") with the Private Jack too. There's a classic thing going on that may not be as good (as if good or better were measurable...) as the Gold, but just seems right.
With the Vintage 30, it sounded good, nice, whatever too, just different from either of those other speakers - which were themselves different from each other.
But what jumped out at me almost instantly was how it sounded on the TMB channel with:
- boost engaged
- Volume cranked to the 7 to 10 range
- Gain cranked to the 7-10 range
- VRM dialled back to keep the windows from rattling
With both the Gold and the Private Jack, there's a certain top end harshness or fuzziness that is there when the amp is that dirty. I liken it to how a Blackface Fender type amp sounds with an OD, distortion or fuzz box with the Bright switch ON.
With the Vintage 30, although you have that high mid, almost treble spike that makes it cut through, those upper harmonics that would be all fuzzy or harsh are just gone. I liken that to playing the exact same BF Fender with those exact same dirt pedals, but turning that bright switch OFF. Whereas the Gold and Jack were noticably different on dirty sounds, the Vintge 30 was night and day different. It just makes the Vintage 30 a complete winner with those dirty sounds.
I'll still have to do some more listening at the other end of the EQ spectrum. But I didn't notice any of the three speakers having much trouble flubbing out on dirty bass tones. I think the Jack and the 30 both have tighter (i.e. rolled back) lower frequencies than the Gold, so maybe they handle dirty sound a little less flubby. But then again, the Bass knob on the front of the amp almost always takes care of that. And besides, all three speakers can handle plenty of wattage and the amp itself isn't a monster, especially with the VRM.
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Go Buckeyes!
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