0:14
well hello friends and welcome to ask
0:16
Zack today we're going to answer one of
0:19
the most asked questions of all time
0:21
you'll find thousands of threads on the
0:23
interweb about what speaker should I put
0:26
in my Deluxe Reverb
0:28
so I'm going to use my own experience as
0:31
a big Deluxe Reverb fan but just to give
0:34
it more uh you know more variety I uh I
0:39
quizzed 20 top guitar players that I
0:42
know and they you know they put out
0:47
their choice for the best speaker for a
0:49
deluxe Reverb and you'd think with the
0:51
number of speakers out there that
0:52
there'd be you know 20 different
0:55
speakers but it really came down to
0:57
three speakers really three speaker
0:59
types and so that was interesting so
1:02
we're going to talk about those I'm
1:03
going to have some samples you know some
1:05
audio samples you're going to hear me
1:07
play My Old Telecaster through this 1965
1:11
Deluxe
1:12
Reverb uh and you're going to hear the
1:14
three different speakers and uh and and
1:17
the thing is they're it's not like these
1:19
speakers sound drastically different
1:22
they do sound different but it's not
1:24
like they're you know ones like some you
1:28
know dirty monster another one some
1:30
clean machine or one has just tons of
1:33
base and the other one super thin
1:34
sounding they're all kind of in the
1:36
ballpark but they do sound
1:38
different so we're going to do that and
1:41
we're going to talk about the the
1:43
speaker that was put in the original
1:45
blackface Deluxe Reverb we're going to
1:47
talk about why it probably wasn't a
1:49
Jensen and if you have an old blackface
1:52
Deluxe Reverb and it has a Jensen why
1:53
it's probably a replacement
1:55
speaker uh we're also going to talk
1:57
about cabinet size and how that kind of
1:59
attributes to uh to tone and such so
2:04
yeah we're going to have a good
2:07
time so first off I need to thank my
2:09
patreon members because they are solid
2:12
gold and I really appreciate them if you
2:14
enjoy the show then I would really
2:17
appreciate you thinking about supporting
2:19
the show in that way and there's a link
2:20
in the description there's also good old
2:23
tip jar information or there's merch
2:25
where you can pick up an ask Zack a
2:26
t-shirt or a coffee mug and I appreciate
2:30
it all right let's dive
2:33
in so I've been a deluxe Reverb user for
2:36
a long time and I've done a bunch of
2:38
speaker swapping through the years and I
2:41
need to thank Keith Williams right now
2:43
because if it weren't for him I wouldn't
2:44
be doing this episode because he sent me
2:46
a text he said Zack have you done an
2:48
episode on the best speaker to put in
2:50
your Deluxe Reverb and I said no I
2:52
haven't and then he even gave me more
2:56
meat or fodder he said you ought to talk
2:59
to all those cats that you've
3:00
interviewed Through The Years or guys
3:02
that you know and find out what speaker
3:04
that they've put in their Deluxe Reverb
3:06
so that's what I did so thank you to
3:08
Keith Williams of five wat
3:11
world all right
3:13
so again in quizzing these 20 guitar
3:16
players you would have thought that
3:18
there would have been just a bunch of
3:20
different you know speakers and there
3:23
were to a degree but really it came down
3:26
to the following there were out of the
3:29
20 there were were four votes for the
3:31
Vintage 30 there were three votes for
3:34
the Eminence George allesandro sc64 4
3:37
watt ceramic speaker and there were
3:40
three votes for the warehouse uh
3:44
et65 or uh you know which is of course
3:47
based on the celestian
3:49
g1265 then uh you know below that there
3:52
were uh two votes for the imminence
3:54
cannabis Rex and then there were you
3:57
know a bunch of singles on the rest of
3:59
them
4:00
but uh it was it was
4:02
interesting so right now we're just
4:04
going to go ahead and dive in with some
4:06
audio examples and again these are not
4:10
going to sound they are going to sound
4:12
different but it's not like they're
4:13
going to be like worlds different um you
4:17
know so I'm going to you know you're
4:18
going to you're going to hear the
4:19
samples they were all done with this uh
4:22
1957 Squire you know I do a sample on
4:25
the on the back pickup then the neck
4:27
pickup then the front pickup and to help
4:30
you you know kind of uh
4:32
differentiate um I'm wearing a different
4:34
t-shirt depending on the speaker so
4:37
you'll see I'm wearing like a green
4:38
asack shirt then I have a amp schematic
4:42
shirt and then I have it's a sickness
4:44
shirt so that way you know you know
4:46
which speaker it is so and uh yeah so
4:50
we'll uh let's listen and then we'll
4:52
come back and talk about it
4:59
oh
5:05
[Music]
5:07
[Laughter]
5:12
[Music]
5:30
he
5:35
[Music]
6:55
[Music]
7:14
all right so you listen to the
7:16
examples so
7:19
the green ask Zack shirt was the wgs e65
7:25
which is like a g1265 speaker and I'll
7:28
just put it out there right now that's
7:30
my favorite speaker right
7:32
now um I own the other two speakers also
7:36
and and still use them so uh you know
7:38
don't don't count those out the next one
7:42
was the uh the amp schematic shirt and
7:47
that was the George
7:49
allesandro uh
7:52
sc64 you know 40 W ceramic magnet
7:55
speaker and that speaker is really
7:58
designed to sound like an old Jensen
8:01
speaker um but you know with higher you
8:05
know power handling and then it
8:07
has as George has said in a tone Quest
8:10
Report interview he said that he put a
8:13
touch of green back in there just to
8:15
give it a little bit more mids and then
8:16
it has this felt Dome on it so it's a uh
8:21
a nice a nice sounding speaker finally
8:24
you have the when I'm wearing the it's a
8:26
sickness shirt that is a celestian
8:28
vintage 30 so and that's one that I've
8:30
had for a long time and that's been a
8:33
favorite of mine for a deluxe Reverb and
8:36
uh you know even though it's not in my
8:37
amp right now I'm never going to get rid
8:39
of it you know I certainly don't plan to
8:41
and I prefer the Messa Boogie
8:44
version um again nothing wrong with the
8:48
the regular Chinese one Chinese made one
8:51
or whatever also just a side note just
8:54
so I don't get into trouble with anyone
8:56
is that you know the Vintage 30 only has
8:59
four holes in the speaker and so if you
9:04
have an amp that has eight bolts then uh
9:07
you either need to get a vintage 30 and
9:09
drill holes in it or better yet just go
9:12
buy one of the really good copies that's
9:14
out there that has eight holes like uh
9:16
Warehouse makes the veteran 30 or
9:19
Eminence makes the cv75 and those are
9:22
all really good choices that sound very
9:26
similar especially to the mesaboogie
9:28
version that that's kind of the the mids
9:30
are a little bit tamed on it compared to
9:33
the the regular
9:35
version all right let's uh you all want
9:38
to know the the guys on the list so uh
9:41
let's let's grab that and read it
9:43
off so number one was Jerry
9:46
mcferson and he uh you know is probably
9:50
one of the most versatile guitar players
9:52
in town also he's very uh technical he
9:55
builds his own Rigs and he has this
9:57
crazy rig where he has a microphone on a
10:00
robotically controlled arm and he can
10:03
switch it around to different cabinets
10:04
so when he's doing overdubs at his house
10:06
if you want to learn more about that I
10:07
did an interview with him it's it's
10:09
really fun but Jerry in his Deluxe
10:12
Reverb he uses a celestian cream Alo
10:15
which is of course a high wattage uh Alo
10:17
speaker and it's it's a good speaker in
10:19
the deluxe it uh it has it's a little
10:22
more flat than some of these other
10:23
speakers and it's uh it's nice has a
10:26
nice compression to it next up is
10:28
Guthrie trap
10:29
and uh he likes the allesandro speaker
10:32
the
10:33
g64 so he was one of those votes for the
10:36
uh the
10:37
alesandro uh next and this was kind of
10:40
an honorary one because of course he's
10:42
uh he's no longer with us but he's a
10:44
favorite player of mine and uh and
10:46
someone I know used a vintage 30 and
10:48
that's Reggie young and so Reggie used
10:50
vintage 30s in both of his Deluxe
10:52
reverbs for the last you know Decades of
10:55
his life and uh what a great player and
10:58
what a great sound so he was a a big
11:00
vintage 30 fan next is JD Simo uh he
11:04
used the Vintage 30 back in the day with
11:07
Don Kelly but then more recently he is a
11:11
fan of the allesandro ceramic speaker
11:14
that uh of course Guthrie trap uses also
11:17
and
11:19
and um JD added that he really likes the
11:23
alandro speaker because it sounds like
11:25
an old speaker but it doesn't rat out
11:27
and that's what he liked about it
11:29
Rob McNelly another great uh session man
11:33
he plays you of course on the lady a
11:35
stuff and Lany Wilson and all sorts of
11:37
other things or church Etc he's a big
11:40
fan of the et65 and has been for a very
11:43
long time uh Stewie French is the guitar
11:46
player in the French family band you
11:48
know they play on the Opry and they play
11:50
around town and they tour and he and his
11:53
son are fabulous guitar players and I
11:56
was at a ched Atkins appreciation
11:58
concert where I was was playing I was
12:00
playing earlier on the bill with some
12:01
friends of mine and the headliner that
12:04
night was the French family band and of
12:06
course I stayed for that and I was just
12:10
blown away by Stewie's playing in his
12:13
tone and he had a deluxe Reverb with an
12:15
et65 in it and I already knew that Rob
12:18
McNelly and some other people used it
12:20
but it was like I was so blown away by
12:22
Stewie's playing that I ordered an et65
12:25
online that night so it was a Friday
12:27
night I ordered it you know late that
12:29
night and it showed up because it's just
12:31
coming from Kentucky it showed up on
12:33
Monday and I put it in my Deluxe Reverb
12:35
and uh I'll just give away that uh
12:38
that's that's what's in my amp now and
12:39
that's that's my favorite for now though
12:42
I do like the other two speakers and
12:45
yeah and I uh you know use them in
12:46
different amps and sometimes we'll swap
12:48
it out in the
12:49
deluxe uh Luke mcquery uh from the uh
12:53
you know Don Kelly Band and Kelly's
12:55
Heroes who's a fabulous fabulous player
12:57
he uses the Vintage 30
13:00
Kenny vaugh from The Fabulous
13:02
superlatives Marty Stewart's band and
13:04
from all sorts of Tours whether it's
13:06
Patty Loveless to Lucinda Williams he
13:09
uses a vintage 30 in it's Deluxe
13:11
Reverb red volkart my old friend uh
13:15
plays used of course used to play with
13:17
Merl Haggard and uh played with the Don
13:19
Kelly Band he of course as you would
13:22
probably suspect he is a big JBL guy so
13:24
he uses a d120 or a k120 in his Deluxe
13:30
Jed Hughes who plays with Vince and um
13:34
does a lot of session work he likes the
13:36
you know the matchless celestian speaker
13:38
and uh couldn't figure out which one it
13:40
was because of course it could be a g12h
13:42
or a Greenback or a a vintage 30 that's
13:45
kind of been rebranded and and undoped
13:48
but uh he's actually more of a vix man
13:50
at this point but uh he did chime that
13:53
in Jeff King who plays with uh Brooks
13:56
and Dunn he's their band leader and he's
13:58
also a man and he's been with he also
14:01
tours with Rebo McIntyre and others he
14:04
uh he likes the Austin tone
14:07
speak uh John lenthal of course producer
14:11
guitarist extraordinaire he uh he likes
14:14
the Eminence cannabis Rex which is one
14:16
of the few speakers that of these that I
14:18
haven't tried out before so I'm at some
14:20
point I need to try that out uh his
14:23
friend and uh also you know another
14:26
fabulous guitarist Duke LaVine also
14:28
likes the cannabis Rex and he said that
14:31
that's what he always had in his Deluxe
14:32
Reverb he said he doesn't have a deluxe
14:34
Reverb right now but he took that
14:35
cannabis Rex and he put it in his Tweed
14:37
Deluxe so there you have
14:39
it uh Derek Wells who you know plays on
14:44
you know all sorts of big records now
14:46
and of course been a lot of clips of him
14:48
playing with post Malone live uh he
14:50
likes the private Jack and so he has
14:52
that in one of his deluxes and his other
14:54
Deluxe has the stock speaker which
14:56
that's
14:57
unusual uh Andy reee who's a great
15:00
western swing and Jazz guitarist who
15:03
plays around Nashville he plays with the
15:05
Time Jumpers and uh he also does his own
15:09
uh you know Jazz gigs and he's amazing
15:12
and he puts a Weber blue dog or he likes
15:16
an old 7s celestian 55 Hertz ceramic
15:19
magnet
15:21
speaker next is James pennebaker who uh
15:24
you know spent years out out with
15:26
Delbert McClinton and Leroy Parnell and
15:28
a bun other cats he's a fabulous old
15:32
school kind of Texas Roadhouse guitarist
15:34
and he likes the Jupiter 12 LC because
15:38
it has a paper voice coil and he says it
15:40
sounds like a good old
15:42
Jensen uh my buddy Ryan Warner who's
15:45
been playing with Hart but he's also
15:47
played with Jewel and a bunch of other
15:48
acts he likes the
15:50
et65 his father Steve Warner country
15:54
star he uh he has two Deluxe reverbs and
15:57
in one of them he has the Andro g64
16:00
ceramic magnet speaker and the other one
16:02
has a green back Brent Mason probably
16:05
one of the most recorded guitar players
16:07
of all time you know all over records
16:09
from the the 90s and 80s and all the way
16:12
up to today uh he's been a big Deluxe
16:15
Reverb guy and uh he used AV vintage 30
16:18
for many many years and then he's now
16:20
using the warehouse version of that
16:22
which is called a veteran
16:24
30 then last but not least is Tom
16:27
bukovac and he
16:29
is the only guy on the list that said he
16:33
much preferred the stock original
16:35
speaker in a vintage Deluxe
16:37
Reverb and he said that if he has to put
16:40
a different speaker in there he'll put a
16:42
celestian
16:43
g1265 type speaker in there so that
16:46
really brings up an interesting
16:49
point in that um you know one you had a
16:53
lot of guys you know you you did have
16:55
you know
16:56
some some similar choices and speakers
17:00
uh but also you had the lack of you know
17:04
guys choosing to use the stock speaker
17:06
in a deluxe Reverb and so that's a good
17:08
question to answer
17:10
now why don't more people use the stock
17:12
speaker in a deluxe Reverb well it's
17:15
because the speaker that was put in
17:17
there was pretty much exactly matched to
17:19
the output so you had about a 22 watt
17:22
amp and about a 20 to 25 watt speaker
17:27
that was made by Oxford or Utah the Utah
17:30
speakers tended to just have a black
17:33
back uh no no markings on it and the
17:36
Oxford speaker tends to have a blue
17:39
sticker that says Fender special design
17:41
and the only way you know is by looking
17:42
at the speaker codes manufacturer codes
17:45
a lot of people will say that a deluxe
17:47
Reverb also came with a Jensen speaker
17:50
and uh I had heard that but I'd never
17:53
seen one and then in a conversation with
17:55
Tom bukavac who is a he's very much he's
17:59
a great Authority on Vintage stuff just
18:03
because he has owned so much and seen so
18:05
much and he said that he'd never seen an
18:08
original Jensen in a blackface Deluxe
18:11
Reverb and that makes sense um a lot of
18:15
people will have Jensen with the right
18:17
date code that are in there and they'll
18:19
have like a
18:21
c12n and Leo offender would have never
18:23
put a C12 in cuz a c12n is is rated more
18:26
like 40 you know 40 or more
18:29
and Leo Fender or CBS never would have
18:31
put that speaker in a deluxe Reverb and
18:34
it would not have been an option the
18:35
only option for a different speaker in a
18:37
deluxe Reverb from the factory was a
18:40
JBL and uh and that was extremely
18:43
uncommon so uh all those guys with
18:46
Jensen's man you have about a 95% chance
18:49
that it's chance that it's not original
18:51
and maybe it was a warranty replacement
18:53
by the dealer I mean maybe the guy blew
18:56
the speaker and the you know the dealer
18:58
got a a C12 in or something like that or
19:01
a C12 Q or what have you
19:03
but yeah Jensen's really weren't putting
19:06
those amps and so all those guys you
19:09
know they're all kind of uh you know
19:12
pushing things in One Direction or
19:14
another with the speaker that they use
19:16
so the Vintage 30 gives you the most
19:19
nose so it has the most mid-range to it
19:22
and so it's going to give you the most
19:24
of this going on so it's a little cloudy
19:27
um however
19:29
you know if you're a big Fender you know
19:31
guitar user like if you're a big Strat
19:33
and Telly guy like Reggie young well
19:36
then a vintage 30 is a really great
19:37
speaker and even like um you know Kenny
19:40
vaugh or Luke mcquery you know they're
19:42
playing telecasters and strats and
19:44
things like that a lot so that that
19:47
greater mid-range which the deluxe is
19:50
kind of scooped in the mid-range it
19:51
really kind of fills out the amp
19:53
especially with um you know single coil
19:57
pickups the the g64 allesandro speaker
20:02
it really has kind of the old school
20:04
sound now is it exactly no because it's
20:08
higher wattage and holds together and
20:09
doesn't rat out which kind of makes it
20:11
unlike it but the basic tone wise it's
20:14
in that kind of old speaker Oxford
20:17
Jensen Utah kind of thing but it just
20:20
handles things better and uh it just has
20:23
a touch more mid-range than an old
20:25
speaker so it it still kind of has that
20:27
old school sound and that's
20:29
that's that's who want you know needs to
20:31
get the the g64s the guy that wants the
20:34
old school Deluxe Reverb sound and that
20:36
just doesn't want it to fall apart when
20:38
when it gets turned up uh the uh the
20:41
g1265 et65 you know type speaker is
20:46
really to me it's for the guy in the
20:49
middle it's for the guy that wants uh
20:52
wants it to be have more mids than an
20:54
old speaker or even the the allesandro
20:58
but want it it to be tight in the low
21:00
end and they and they want it to be
21:01
smooth you know in the highs and it has
21:04
like a really big uh dust cover you know
21:07
and it's a it's a really good sounding
21:09
speaker I think it's kind of the best
21:10
compromise and that's why I've been
21:12
using the et65 in uh in my
21:17
Deluxe so here we need to talk about
21:20
cabinet size and I'm just talking I'm
21:21
going to talk about this mainly because
21:22
when I was doing this video and when I
21:25
was doing the audio
21:27
examples uh at first I had my Deluxe
21:30
Reverb and then I have uh I have two
21:34
headstrong uh Little King amplifiers
21:36
which are the size of a deluxe which no
21:38
they're the size of a Princeton but they
21:41
have uh you know they have a 12-in
21:42
speaker in them so I decided oh I'll
21:45
just use those as Speaker cabinets and
21:46
put you know one of them already had
21:49
actually both of them already had the uh
21:51
allesandro ceramic magnet speaker in
21:54
there cuz I really like that speaker in
21:55
that amp and I thought well I'll just
21:57
put a vintage 30 the other one well what
21:59
I found was that uh and I should have
22:02
known this speaker cabinet size makes a
22:04
huge difference in the sound and so it
22:07
was not a good Apples to Apples
22:09
comparison so your cabinet size is kind
22:12
of like the size of an acoustic guitar
22:14
and so expecting a deluxe Reverb cabinet
22:18
to sound the same as a Princeton reverb
22:20
cabinet is like expecting a Gibson l and
22:23
a Gibson j45 to sound the same they're
22:26
made of the same woods they both have
22:28
you know mahogany back inside Spruce
22:30
stop rosewood fretboard but guess what
22:33
the cabinet is uh is you know the uh the
22:37
acoustic chamber is different and so
22:39
with a deluxe you get uh a wider
22:43
frequency range and uh just with the
22:45
cabinet alone and so then when you add
22:48
in you know the other things like a
22:50
bigger Transformer and things like that
22:52
of course this is comparing a Princeton
22:55
reverb amplifier to a deluxe Reverb
22:57
amplifier
22:59
uh the you know the deluxe sounds even
23:02
more
23:03
scooped because it has a wider frequency
23:06
range and the Princeton has less
23:08
frequency range and so it ends up
23:10
sounding more
23:11
midrangey that is exacerbated I know
23:14
we're going way down the rabbit hole
23:16
here but it's exacerbated by jamming a
23:18
12-in speaker into a Princeton siiz cab
23:22
so that makes the amp sound even more
23:25
midrangey which is why
23:28
I would prefer a speaker with more mids
23:31
in a deluxe and then I want the
23:34
g64 in the headstrong all right so now
23:38
we've gone uh completely down the rabbit
23:41
hole all right so I hope you've learned
23:44
something from this episode and also I
23:46
hope you realize that you know changing
23:49
speakers is a really fun way of uh you
23:52
know kind of tailoring your tone and
23:54
it's something that's inexpensive that
23:56
you can do yourself um you know
23:58
especially if you have you know the
24:00
little slipon connectors that are on a
24:02
speaker and you don't have to do any
24:03
soldering well it's like you know you
24:05
can get a couple different speakers you
24:07
know for you know a couple hundred dolls
24:10
and you can check them out and you can
24:11
compare them yourself and you know and
24:13
just find the one that you like the best
24:16
and there's so many out there but I
24:17
think you know this these 20 uh and
24:21
they're all using vintage Deluxe Reverb
24:24
amps they're all using blackface ones
24:26
and it's interesting that they all kind
24:28
of tended being in these three
24:31
categories the allesandro the Vintage 30
24:34
and the
24:35
et65 and uh what's another thing that's
24:39
interesting is just how you know they're
24:41
they sound different but they're they're
24:43
not like Worlds Apart so yeah all right
24:47
guys well I hope you've enjoyed today's
24:48
episode and we'll see you next time
24:51
bye-bye