Celestion G12H 70th anniversary re-issue

30 watt 8 ohm speaker with ceramic magnet.

I bought it to replace the Jensen P12N that came stock in my new Fender Hot Rod Deluxe. I bought it because of the boast of improved low end and clarity. I play a stat with 54 strat pickups from the fender custom shop. I play pop music mosty, so I want clean to chunky rythems but also want nice smooth distortion. I thought the Celestion G12H sounded thin and brittle when I first installed it. I had to roll of almost all the high end from the amp. I thought it just needed to be broken in a while so I left it in the amp for 6 months and played about 50 gigs with it. I never really found my sound with it so out it came and I put back in the original Jensen and that improved my sound but it is still not what I am looking for. I never get to play loud enough to really make a speaker work hard anyway. I bet these would sound great in a Marshal stack cranked up. So the search continues for the perfect tone. I'm going to try the Weber Blue Dog now

Built real tough! you would have to really abuse them to hurt them

I bought them from Dave at Avatar, Very nice man

One more thing, I thought they were a real good looking speaker, it looked great in my amp

12 inch, 8 ohm......what else to say ?

bought to replace the stock 'made for fender' in a champ 12 (torres and 'gain volume' mod'd of course !)

I use a 93 Am std strat (texas vintage) and an 80's LoveRock with duncan JB and 59

Before

Strat on clean = suprisingly muddy, muddy but thin !?!....not nice at all....almost made me feel like I wish Id never bought the champ.....
Love Rock with gain= nice growly gain, but missing something, maybe a tad farty....

After the G12H

Strat on clean = wonderful FULL singing clean's. Now actually usable when cranked a bit.
LoveRock with gain= THIS IS WHERE ITS AT....ball grabbing bottom end and increased dynamics are added, acutally seems to make the tone controlls on the LR more versatile

Overall Im well impressed, this speaker REALY goes with this little amp, opens it up completely.

too early to tell, but hey its a celestion !

n/a

been playing for nearly 30 years, I play the usual old fart mix of Pagey/SRV'y/Kossoff'y/Cream'y type stuff, the champ was bought to compliment my Deville, something I could 'use round the house' and cover all my requirements.....I was REALY disappointed with the champ on the clean front (the opposite of the deville) but realy happy with the gain..I pondered about the usual suspects....V30,(too gritty) Greeny(too muddy), Eminence.. ?
This is meant to be 1/2 way between the V30 and Greeny and it is, ....since replacing the speaker I have not played the deville in 3 weeks..IMHO thisis THE perfect choice for a smaller amp(and it isnt even broken in yet)

I am SO glad I got this speaker, should have done it months ago.

I bought this for a fender hot rod deluxe.but decided to put it in a crate modeling amp(solid state)I am glad i did ,it will stay there.This speaker turnded this average sounding amp into a killer amp.You can feel the sound now.SOUNDS alot fuller especilly in the bass and mids.I had to tweek all my pre-sets due to the major changein sound.The tube emulation models really benefitted,it now sounds close to my fender tube amp,but with better distortion.The acoustic emulation now sounds very acoustic like and i can now crank amp all the way up without any hiss.I WASNT expecting this benefit.AM i going to put one in my fender.yes!

just received it but celestion has a great reputation

I use amp along with the fender with a rickenbacker 380lpz.have other amps.another fender solid state.carvin cyclops bass amp.overall i am very pleased with this speaker,it is at least 5 lbs heavier than my stock speaker.BASS RESPONSE IS impressive but the highs are also.SO the question in an earlier review was does it work well in a solid state amp ,yes ,yes,yes.

Pale silver/gold finish. Looks pretty classy in the back of a small vintage-style amp. Good for showing your bandmates when they ask where the hell all that sound came from. I've seen these speakers shipped as stock in Dr.Z amps.

Other notable feature is the HUMONGOUS ceramic magnet stuck on the back of it. If you're thinking of installing this in a smaller combo you might want to double-check it won't encroach on the chassis space.

I fitted this speaker into a fender blues junior as a replacement for the stock 12" which was just all treble and high-mid, and had a tendency to fart quite alarmingly. (Not me, the speaker)

The change was dramatic - the bass and low-mid opened up quite alarmingly, and the sound of the amp took on a moderately vox-ish tone. It didn't change what was already there, just took the frequencies that were previously stifled and blew them wide open.

It actually also highlighted a couple of loose screws and a bad valve in the chassis by making them rattle like crazy!

I would characterise this speaker as very well-balanced and flattering to a low-power valve amp's basic characteristics. Neither the high treble nor deep bass feel restricted, nor does it seem to particularly emphasise or colour any particular frequency above the others. This speaker will pretty much reflect your amp's own true character, simply louder and without the bass or treble being strangled by crappy stock speakers. So for marshall you'll probably notice more clarity, and fenders will be less shrill and more fleshed out around the low end. Which is pretty much what you want in both cases, right?

Clean or distortion works equally well with this speaker - I get a lovely rich growl where the previous cone would just go all harsh and start farting. And if your amp can do glassy clean, so can this speaker.

I can't comment on how it would sound in a solid state or digital amp.

The one thing to note is that due to the sheer mass of the magnet and coil, you need to play through it at a reasonable level to get it moving properly - though presumably you'll be using this with a tube amp anyway so the amp as a whole will underperform if it doesn't get enough juice!

I am thoroughly satisfied with the sound of this speaker. It has opened up the sound of a small 1x12 to an impressive degree. Seems to be breaking in nicely.

A couple of 4x12 cabinets loaded with these would be truly scary, though this was apparently the speaker of choice for 70's marshall full-stacks. Yikes!

Rock solid. I would be very surprised INDEED if mechanical failures occurred with this speaker. Be aware that the super-heavy magnet will add up to 5 pounds to the weight of your amp. Per speaker.

Ordered directly from an authorised dealer. No problems - shipped it immediately (free courier) and even helped me with my selection.

Recommended unreservedly. A #50 investment breathed new life into my amp.

For the money this is STELLAR. Want any better? You'll need to drop ###'s on a Celestion Blue. Your call.

12" guitar speaker. Rated at 30 Watts per speaker, but they could probably take slightly more. 50 oz ceramic magnet. 100 dB efficiency.

I didn't try the Vintage 30 or the Greenback in my amp, but this speaker probably works better than either of them (based on what I've read and heard in other amps). I'm using a pair of them in a Fender Pro Reverb, and they really make it a more versatile amp. The stock Oxford speakers had VERY weak bottom end, which is definitely not a characteristic of these Celestions. These speakers have great clarity (but are warm, not harsh) while played clean, and also pump out that classic Celestion grind when pushed into distortion (a transformation that I make with the flick of a TS-9 or two :) ). Overall, the Celestion G12H gives my Fender combo cleaner bottom end as well as interesting but not overbearing mids and highs.

I've only had these for a few months, so I cannot rate them. However, they have been very reliable so far...

Celestion tech support wrote me a fairly detailed description describing the characters of the Greenback, Vintage 30, and G12H-30. Other than this, I haven't dealt directly with Celestion.

These speakers help me make some of the coolest sounds I've heard from a Fender combo. I can keep up with my other guitarist's '66 Super Reverb (though the 2 12" speakers will never be as punchy as the 4 10" speakers). These would probably be very well-suited to any medium-powered combo such as a Fender Pro or Deluxe Reverb; they're probably too efficient and have too low of a power rating for a Twin, but maybe they'd work there too.
My only complaint is that the G12H-30 is very hard to find!! Vintage 30 and Greenbacks are available at almost every major music retailer, but you'll probably have to search long and hard to find somebody who's selling these for less than the list price (I actually found a few online retailers who wanted more than the list price!). If you try these speakers and like them, I strongly encourage you to urge more suppliers to carry them. Maybe they'll eventually listen.

IF you want the basic tone of a Greenback (same cone) with more punch volume and clarity this is the speaker. I had A nicely broken in Re-issue Greenback in my Top Hat 18w El-84 1-12 combo. Loved it. But at the recommendation of Brian at Top Hat tried the G12H. I love weak light funky open tones like the Greenback but this G12H makes the amp more versatile and useful especially live.