American vs British Guitar Speaker Comparison – Jensen C12n vs Celestion G12m Creamback – US vs UK
I’m comparing the sound of an American guitar speaker with a British guitar speaker.
Which speaker do you prefer? Let me know in the comments.
Links (affiliate)
– Jensen C12N
USA: https://amzn.to/3bTeYnc
UK: https://www.hotroxuk.com/jensen-c12n-speaker-8ohms.html
– Celestion G12-M Creamback
USA: https://amzn.to/3bRTjM3
UK: https://www.hotroxuk.com/celestion-g12m-65-creamback-8ohms.html
I did this speaker comparison to help me decide which type of speaker I like best for each style of guitar playing.
For the American speaker I chose the Jensen C12N reissue, for the British speaker I chose the Celestial G12M Creamback.
I know the Jensen C12N reissue is made in Italy but the design is still based on the classic American Jensen C12N.
Signal Chain:
Mics: Shure SM57 and Rode NT2 close to the speaker and two AKG C1000 as stereo room mics, all blended together to give as true a representation of how it sounded in the room as I could. No mixing effects or post processing.
Amp: Fender 65 Deluxe Reverb Reissue.
Pedals used:
Clean: Flashback 2 Delay set on short tape delay and spring reverb from the amp.
Rock Overdrive: Catalinbread 5F6 (Tweed Bassman style amp pedal) and Ibanez Tubescreamer.
Clean Funk: Origin FX Cali76 Compressor.
Blues Overdrive: Catalinbread 5F6 (Tweed Bassman style amp pedal) and a little spring reverb from the amp.
Rock Distortion: Catalinbread Dirty Little Secret (Marshall style amp pedal) and ProCo RAT
Jazz Clean: Spring reverb from the amp
Here’s a list of other popular American and British speakers.
American Speakers:
WGS G12C
WGS G12C/S
Weber 12F150
Weber Chicago
Eminence Red White and Blues
Eminence Lil’ Texas
Jensen C12K
Jensen P12Q
Celestion A-Type
British Speakers:
Celestion G12M Greenback
Celestion G12M-65
Celestion G12H
Celestion Vintage 30
Celestion Blue
WGS Green Beret
WGS ET65
Fane F70
If you’re interested in one to one online Skype guitar lessons please contact me via my website https://michaelbanfieldguitar.com
#American #British #Guitar #Speaker #Comparison #Jensen #C12n #Celestion #G12m #Creamback
Originally posted by UCsdzt1tun0Gbe51Qm8SsBQQ at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wVfH12iHlEo
Wow thanks for all the comments! Just to be clear, while the current reissue Jensen speakers are based on the design and sound of the original U.S. Jensen models, they are currently made by those lovely people in Italy. So when I say 'American' or 'British' speaker, I'm talking about the tone and design of the speaker, not necessarily the location they're currently manufactured in. Thanks!
My mind is still being blown about how different these two sound. Can you confirm that besides the speaker, there were no other changes to the signal path? Same amp, same setting on the tone knob, etc?
Jensen for me
WOW, the Jensen sounds absolutely Crap, I don't know because it's the Made in Italy version, but it's much worse than the Creamback in every clip in the Video. So Celestion Creamback all the way, winds the contest miles away
????Erm.
J BL. D120.
Jensen
I would love a cab with both
Thank you, Michael! Love your product reviews/comparisons. Jensen the best to my ears. (and the quality of your playing and sound samples is fabulous).
Your playin is crazy, killin it.
Jensens sounds overall 'better', fuller, cleaner…
…just anytime you hear celestions you feel that familiar tone.
Hard choice.
The Jensen C12 Sounds Better, Over All, in My Ears!! ..
Celestion has got more definition/detail.
Overall, I preferred the Jensen for everything except the jazz clean. I'm sure that your microphone positions were consistent, but I felt like the Celestion sounded like I had my ear very close the the speaker whereas the Jensen had a lot more depth and sounded like it was a better distance away from my ear.
Thank you, you are one of the most helpful person I have listend to. Please could you make a vidio about the Super Phaser pedal PH-2, i have one but I cant seem to make it work for me, it would be a great help if you could. Once again thank you.
My two cents is that Jensens (and the various other speakers that have been used in Fender amps) go with Fenders, and Celestions go with Marshall’s. There are good reasons those companies chose those speakers for their amps – their voices are a good match. I’ve seen loads of videos where people have swapped their Fender’s speakers for something more “British voiced”, and it always sounds worse.
I installed a Jensen c12r in my 65 reissue Princeton 1-12. I can’t imagine a better tone, yet I still want to try more Jensen speaker.
Such a stark difference! We spend so much time comparing amps and overdrives and the whole EQ could be changed by the speaker.
3:56 overdrive
distortion 7:17
Jensen all the way! I think the Celestion sounded awful….
Great video bro. Great comparison and some beautiful playing as well. I just ordered a C12N to replace the stock speaker in my Champion 40 ????
Hi fi vs Low fi.
Great video, helped me understand the difference. Prefered the Creamback.
The Jensen sounded better across the board. The Celestion sounded choked.
Something kinda in-between, like a CL80, works well for me in a Fender-ish amp. The V-Type is good also. Jensons and such have a bit much mid scoop for general purpose use IMO.
The Brit tone is way nicer. Much fuller sound.
Jensen all the way. I put a Jensen Special Design into a Peavey Rage 108 and wow, what a difference. Now this little 10 watt practice amp sounds good.
Full tone vs Bright tone
Jensen sounds more mid-rangey Celestion sounds more High-Rangey. BOSS digital EQ balances either one.
Great vídeo my man
Great review! I just ordered a pair of the Jensen's for my 62 blonde Bassman restoration. I was going to have the original Oxford's re-coned, but opted for what I think will be a sure thing with the Jensen's. I'll retain the originals in the event I sell the amp.
Great comparison! Celestion is a winner for my ears in every style, Jensen was very good at funk and blues but still prefer warmer Celestion sound
I hope you didn't have any credit cards in your pocket.
Jensen for me both clean and distorted
Both great. I actually thought the creamback was holding its own in the jazz example! Great video
The celestial sounds great, but I do like the Jensen better overall
Rock with Creamback forever‼️????????
Amazing demo and great playing as well. Thank you.
Jensen
That was really good playing!
Nice review and chops.
So yeah the Creamback has the forward midrange that Eminence (American) is also known for in many of its offerings, the major difference before Eminence decided to market itself beyond an OEM supplier is that Celestian invested in very expensive test equipment for the very reason of understanding and tuning speaker breakup and distorted source material. Now Jensen is a very hi-fi flat sounding speaker by comparison and Fender was always chasing cleaner cleans since the early years and the Jensen was a good choice. As a side, I kind of like the Utah speakers in some regards for sounding a bit more like the Celestian midrange but they will crash when pushed and there is the higher wattage Eminence Fender OEMs that excel in clean loud Jazz or Country but it’s no Swiss army speaker either it breaks up a mess when pushed too far.
The Jensen almost pulls off everything well and some mid bump can be coaxed with an EQ but Celestian often wins on the heavy distortion and cutting through the live mix. So many factors to consider overall as different amps and tone stack arrangements along with cabinet design, all add up to a different flavor.
Green backs, for example sound pretty bad to me and many others with heavy distortion from Bassy American tubes (6L6, 6550, KT88) especially in open back cabinets where they don’t have back pressure to keep the cones from losing control but put them in a 4×12 and run a Bright Vox amp (EL84), Marshall or my favorite Laney (EL34) into them and it’s a match. I would prefer the Creamback over the Green with the Quad EL34 amps because I don’t like too much speaker breakup and compression but who am I? Two Greens sealed with a Duet of EL34’s could do well for Britt Blues.
We all have different ears and I would probably enjoy both the Creamback and the C12N in a larger sealed closed back cabinet with lots of internal bracing and polyester batting all around and possibly a low pass filter on the Jensen; in that case make it a X configuration 4×12 ???? staggered tall and deep cab! Mmmmmmm crank it up.
Rule of thumb- Ribbed stiff but light weight cones reproduce the amp sound more faithfully until they lose control at high volumes
Smooth Cones will flex more and avoid the farting and buzzing but will also impart much character. It gets much deeper than that, Celestian often utilizes a mesh dust cap which is great for efficiency and voice coil cooling but I prefer something that blocks that beaming high end. My own design mods include some hi-fi tricks like felt on the pole piece, baskets with a Urethane coating, venting from the sides of the voice coil and so on. None of which is traditional and not going to sound so either.
Wow, I wrote a book here, well just remember to roll back the bass as you crank up a tube amp in general because they are not often linear like solid state and exponentially increase bass harmonics from soft clipping. Rock on Glue Tubers ????
distorted c12n clean funky Celestion
Two super distinctive sounds. There's aplications for both.
great video – quite a big difference between them, but I'm not quite sure which one I would choose