Good to know, I hated the eminence speaker at first but now it's plate in a bit it sounds a little better. The tube swap in my JCA20 combo made a huge change sound for me though. Surprisingly so.
still alot of low end with the v30 in it, but so much more clarity now. I didn't understand why the sound was so muffled compared to the original eminence, but I'm happy with it now
Originally Posted by Murdoch
Have you tried them with the 20watters? I imagine that the EL84 will sound different than the 6L6s with the V30. I have not tried them, but I wonder.
V30's are by far the best option for the JCA, in my opinion, they were made for each other. Amp looks good. I'd personally have used a different type of grill, but it looks cool anyway
In reply to the guy who said that no one will want a 20 watt amp due to the lack of headroom, the low cost of the JCA makes increasing the clean headroom with a Fender amp and an amp switcher pretty easy to do...
Mike Soldano told me that he's had guys who come to buy a HotRod50 or 100 because the astroverb is not loud enough. Instead he sells them a 4x12 and that ups their volume.
On my astroverb I run the bass at 5.5 or max 7 (out of 11)- otherwise it gets too woofy for me (I'm using a WGS Retro 30 speaker, which is perfection, by the way).
JetCityMatt wrote:I have a soldano astroverb (same amp but made in the US with Mercury Magnetics transformers).
Listen very closely. Go to www.wgs.com and order the Retro 30 speaker. Do it now. Just do it.
Go.
Now.
I am not kidding.
I struggled with a Vintage 30 + G12H30 combo for several years.
With a bright strat with a maple neck and a ceramic magnet humbucker (which I no longer use) it was a very trebly and annoying experience.
A couple years ago I replaced the G12H30 with a Greenback and was running it with the Vintage 30... but I still was not getting a nice warm, full sound. So frustrating!
After getting the Retro 30 which is WGS's Vintage 30 replacement but without the mid spike of the Vintage 30 I finally realized what had been happening all this time... The Vintage 30, even though we think of it as "bright", in reality LACKs uppers treble and presence, while also possessing a very very prominent out-of-balance EQ spike in the upper mids. I figured this out because with the Vintage 30 I ran the treble up at 7 (out of 11) and the mids down at 4 to get the present crispy high gain rythem sound I like, but with the Retro 30 I run all the EQs at 5.5.The Vintage 30's lack of presence and high treble made me turn up the treble which made the overbearing upper mids even more prominent. Add a soldano with prominent mids into the mix and a bright guitar and you have a horrible combination!
If the JCA sounds anything like the astroverb (it should), you should get the Retro 30.
(Understand that WGS's Veteran 30 is NOT their Vintage 30 replacement - it has damped highs. You want the retro 30)For months now I have had my Vintage 30 and my Retro 30 together in my 2x12 (I cover the V30 up) because I always intended to make a comparison video for youtube. Maybe I will finally do it now if you need to hear it! I will be gone all day saturday though.
I have to agree. I've been through some variety of speakers from more than one manufacturor and I think the Retro 30 might be the best guitar speaker I've ever heard. Right now it's inhabiting my Peavey Prowler and it sounds fantastic no matter what I do. I also tried a V30 for a while given it's reputation, but could never come to like it (which is why it's for sale in my sig, heh). Here's the Prowler, one of the best sleeper amps around.
All the speakers I've tried I've thought "Okay, let's give it a chance here, break it in a bit, spend some time tweaking, and see what happens." I turned on my amp after installing the Retro 30 and played for a few minutes and I thought "This is it. This right here."
The only other speaker that I've used that was as good was, interestingly enough, the Eminence Legend M12 which was OEM in Soldano cabs a while back if my memory serves. I had a 4x12 loaded with those and they sounded great at any level. Which was good, because they had a very high sensitivity rating, 103db @1w@1m I think, and they could just get skull crushingly loud without much input power.
It appears that our tastes in speakers are similar.
liked the eminence speaker better
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