Help me pick a speaker for my home brew JCM SE amp

[Muleya]

I recently built a single ended JCM style amp, using a PCB from http://www.guitaramplifierpcbs.com (they call it the Plexi SE Cascade Version). It's meant as a replacement board for a Epi Valve Jr. amp, but I used it to replace the board in an SE amp I've had for a few years, so I've got different transformers and use an EL34 power tube.

I finished tweaking the amp this summer...adding a few switchable components/circuits to improve the amps tone at clean settings. I thought I had settled on a WGS Green Beret speaker, but have recently done a little more debating on that.

So this weekend I recorded clips, at dirty and clean settings, of three different speakers. (Dirty clips employ a Green Screamer pedal with level high and gain low to push the preamp harder). I used my Legacy HB to make these clips, which were recorded quickly using the built-in mic on the Boss digital recorder...I was surprised at how decent it was! It was probably 4-5 feet away from the cabs.

Here are the speakers used:

WGS Green Beret - What I currently have in the 1x12 JCM SE combo

Celestion G12M Greenbacks - the 2x12 cab I use with the JVM

Weber 12F150 (which is most often used as an upgrade/replacement for Fender '65 Deluxe Reverb amps. This was in a 1x12 open back cab.) I was kind of surprised by this, sounded a lot better than I expected.

I'm interested to know what people like best. I'll not name the speakers used in each clip, just to keep bias to a minimum. Feel free to guess which is which, if you like. After a few days, I'll reveal them. Here they are:

http://jvmforum.com/phpBB3/download/file.php?id=1359

http://jvmforum.com/phpBB3/download/file.php?id=1360

http://jvmforum.com/phpBB3/download/file.php?id=1361

And here's a link to the schematic, if anyone is interested: http://jvmforum.com/phpBB3/download/fil ... &mode=view

[blargfromouterspace]

Cool, a blind testing! I like the last one best.

The first clip to me is the most different sounding, being more 'scooped' than the other two, so I reckon it's the Weber. But it seems to have the most low end too, which made me think it could have been the 212. Very tough, but I'll stick to the Weber.

Second - WGS

Third - Greenbacks

Maybe???

[louis cyfer]

the first one sounds the best in this case. the most open both for low clean and dirty. the other 2 have this nasal quality and more compressed.

[Ledergeist]

To me they all sound kind of similar, with the weakest being #3 clean. On crunch or clean i'd give a slight edge to #1 over the other two....

[Muleya]

Blarg got the first one right...it was the Weber. But you're reversed on 2 and 3...2 is the Celestions and 3 is the WGS.

Interesting that Louis thought 2 and 3 were more compressed...in the room, the Weber is the one that seems compressed to me!

And I agree with Legergeist, 3 is my least favorite for cleans. The scooped nature of the Weber works really well with the cleans, and I'm surprised at how much I like it for crunch. I think I'm going to put that one in the combo...at least for a while.