Celestion guitar amp speakers explained
An often under-appreciated element of every guitarist’s amplifier is the speaker. The speaker is a humble but vital component that colours and shapes the sound emerging from the amp. This blog post will give you a clearer view of how Celestion speakers work and how to properly use them.
Celestion
Celestion was founded in 1924. Nowadays, the company is the world's foremost manufacturer of high quality guitar amp speakers and much more. In the early days, the company began life as a small company. Designing and building loudspeakers for the radio market.
One year after their start, in 1925, the first patented loudspeaker was produced called “The Celestion”. An often under-appreciated element of every electric guitarist’s tone, the humble speaker is a vital component that colours and shapes the sound emerging from our amps.
““When you’re looking at choosing a speaker, the first spec you need to consider is impedance. Every amplifier has an output impedance, and the idea is to match that with the speaker(s).
Power rating is the other important thing to be aware of. You need a power rating that is equal to or greater than the max output of the amplifier.”
How do guitar speakers work?
A basic understanding of how a speaker works will help you to find your perfect tone. The speaker is actually the last physical component of our signal chain prior to the soundwaves filling the air, our eardrums, and ultimately being interpreted by our brain.
Speakers are what actually turns a string of electronic signal into noise. Not all speakers are the same but they are very similar in their construction and function. Let’s take a look at the anatomy of a typical speaker:
The Cone
The most noticeable, and perhaps the most important part of a speaker is the cone. Guitar speaker cones are typically made from paper, carbon fiber, or Kevlar. The size, stiffness, mass, density, shape, thickness and flexibility of a speaker cone is what gives each speaker its individual voice. PA speakers, for example, are going to be much thicker and stiffer.
We want the cone to vibrate at desirable frequencies, so we can hear all the little harmonics that we should. It is a delicate process trying to get the speaker to complement all of the subtle nuances that you have been sculpting through your signal chain.
When a speaker is activated or “driven” the cone of a speaker moves in and out, creating air waves. If the cone is moving out, it is reacting to a positive signal. The cone is attached, at its outer edge, to the speaker frame via an element commonly called the “surround”.
Electric Guitar
The frequency spectrum for an electric guitar is about 70Hz to 5kHz. A 12 inch speaker is the most common that we see for guitar speakers because it typically covers that entire spectrum (based on design). But you can still find amps and cabs using 10 inch and 15 inch, all the way up to 18 inch speakers.
Bigger speaker sizes are generally preferred for more “boom” on the low end and smaller speaker sizes are generally preferred for the high end but there is plenty of overlap based on other factors regarding the speaker’s design and construction.
Voice Coil
A voice coil of a CELESTION HF1300
But what causes the cone to move in the first place? The component that moves the cone, thusly becoming the heart of the speaker, is known as the voice coil. It is a coil of thin copper wire wrapped around some sort of cylindrical paper. As your signal is sent through the copper wire, it will draw the voice coil to one end of the magnet or the other, moving the cone up and down corresponding to the signal being sent through it.
The voice coil is attached to the cone at its innermost edge. The voice coil is responsible for determining the wattage of the speaker so the larger the voice coil, the more wattage the speaker can be rated for…
The voice coil is also responsible for how many ohms the speaker is rated for. Ohms measures how much your speaker will resist current. The lower the impedance, the more “power hunger” the speaker is and the more power it will draw from your amp.
Celestion Best-Sellers
Celestion crafted the first ever dedicated guitar speaker, solidifying the brand's place as "the voice of rock and roll." From Hendrix to Slash to Brian May and Steve Vai and Eddie Van Halen -- the list goes on and on. Some of the most famous guitarists who have carved out what we now perceive as modern rock have been playing through Celestions for decades, whether they're Vintage 30s or Celestion Greenbacks or any number of bass-configured options.
You can find some of their best-sellers below:
