Celestion Vintage 8

Great tone and a cool looking light golden tan paint job with a classy black and gold label on the back of the magnet. This is the little 8" brother of the famous 12" Vintage 30. It looks prettier in real life than it does in the catalog.

I read the reviews on the Vintage 30 and I would say that it is very similar to what others experienced. Tight bass, punchy mids, soaring highs, better distortion than the stock speaker, more power handling capacity, and makes my amp sound twice as powerful. This little paper pusher goes LOUD! I would not characterise this speaker as polite, but as mischievously rambunctious. Mine is mounted in an open-backed Kustom Tube 12 that I have done a bit of modification on, the greatest change being the replacement of the Celestion Red Label with the Vintage 8. The Celestion Red Label is a very creditable speaker that comes stock in cheaper combos. It's the best el cheapo speaker with a dinky magnet that I ever heard, but the Tube 12 clearly had more potential and needed a better speaker. See my Tube 12 review for the mods I have performed so far. The Tube 12/Vintage 8 combo makes a great little practice amp with guts. My Rickenbacker 650D Dakota seems to like it also. I noticed less dead spots when running up and down the fretboard. I attribute that to consistent output from lows to highs with no major peaks or suckouts. I bought it for playing classic rock, but I think it would be useful for just about any style of music in the right amp. There are few choices in the 8" size category, so we are lucky to be blessed with a speaker of this quality in the 8" category. Thanks, Celestion!

Too soon to say. See me in 20 years. It's a G-E-N-U-I-N-E downsized version of the famous Celestion Vintage 30. Rated at 60 watts. My amp is rated at 12. It may outlast me and the amp both. I will take a SWAG and say a 10 for reliability in my situation.

The best customer support is great tone and high build quality. If they did it right you should rarely have to deal with the company. It looks and sounds like they did it right, but since I do not have years of experience with it, and have never had to contact Celestion, I will not grade this category. Their reputation seems to speak for itself, however. Parts Express sends a mounting kit at no additional charge and gives a 45 day dealer warranty, I think, which I have never needed.

Makes a little amp into a much bigger sounding amp. Maybe even makes it sound a bit high spirited and rambunctious. It is everything I hoped it would be. It can make a cheap amp sound twice as expensive (or more). If you have need for a new 8" guitar speaker, definitely give the Vintage 8 an audition. $60 is not too much for great tone. It's probably a more cost effective upgrade than new pickups, esoteric tubes, fancy cables, freaky distortion pedal, bigger amp, or a host of other things guitarists blow money on. I'd buy it again in a heartbeat.