Eminence Big Ben

Just dropped one in my Vibroverb Reissue today.There was an Eminence Legend in it before.Had the Big Ben sitting around for an extension speaker project that never materialized.

It seems a bit more gritty and smokey than the Legend.Which is good because the amp was a bit bright for my taste before.Have not even broken it in yet and I already like it much more than the previous set up. I am still not sold on this amp. But the big ben modification will keep it around for futher evaluation.

We shall see.

Been playing electric for about 3 years.Love to collect stuff and have an Alamo Montclair Reverb,Peavey Duece and a Peavey Transfex 208 for other amps.Lately have been sticking with a MIM Strat but have several other guitars(schecter-yamaha-epiphone-peavey-memphis-skylark) laying around.

Bought this new, to try out in a somewhat tweed pro-is amp, the Sewell Wampus Cat. Solid, heavy, red frame. Well packed and looks well made, just like all the other Emi speakers I've tried.

First surprise with this one is how good it sounded right out of the box. I expect break in will help, but the Big Ben convinced me with the first note.

I've been using a Weber 15F150 and a Cali ceramic paperdome in the Wampus Cat. The Cali came stock in this amp, and has up til now been my favorite 15" speaker. I'm surprised at how much better this amp sounds with the Big Ben. Louder. More bass. Clear top to bottom, with a smooth, pleasing overdrive sound as the volume goes up. It reminds me of the Cannabis Rex in that way, how smooth and even it is. This amp has a gainy, hot kind of sound ... the Big Ben matches up perfectly. The other surprise tonally was how it seeems to bring something extra out of certain guitars and pickups. I play open tuning and slide on a Dearmond M-75T, which has wonderful tone from the 2k single coil pickups. Now that sound is much bigger, more defined.

I'm so pleased with the sound, already ordered another Big Ben for an Ampeg Gemini.

I hope to have no problems. You never know.

The local dealer for Eminence is a stand-up guy, and a longtime proponent of Eminence stuff. (He convinced me to try the Big Ben ...) If there are any problems with the speaker, my guess is it can be resolved quickly and favorably.

I've been at it for nearly 40 years, lately experimenting quite a bit with guitars, amps and speakers, all the fun stuff. My tastes tend to run towards efficient ceramics in vintage (or vintage inspired) amps. As in this Sewell, which starts out in tweed pro territory, but ends up someplace a little different. The Big Ben is my third speaker in the amp. As much as I still like that Weber Cali, the Big Ben is staying. Just gigged it with no more than 2 or 3 hours of break-in. The amp always sounds good, but with the new Eminence, it's truly inspiring. I'm very pleased.

15" Guitar speaker, large voice coil, 225W power handling, medium size magnet, British flavored tones

Excellent speaker! Very stiff out of the box. You really need to hit this with 30 watts minimum to get it moving. 18W amps sound closed-in with it but actually record okay with it. After 20 hours of higher-powered break-in it keeps getting better. Weighs the same or less than a Vintage 30, but doesn't have that overly nasal honk though it does have a Brit. flavor. A huge G12-80? The cone material is similar in thickness/weight to a guitar cone so the trebles are open and break-up is sweet. Compared to my Weber ceramic 'Thames 15' 60W speaker the Big Ben is louder at the same power level. Fairly similar speakers actually :-) Two of these in a cab driven by a 50-60W tube amp would be killer live rig! Excellent deeper bass than a 12 can get but not a 'slow' cone at all. Eminence keeps getting better!

no worries, lots of power handling, good warranty

excellent to deal with but I haven't had to in quite a while.

Excellent speaker. IMHO opinion blows away Italian Jensen C15N! This is simply a good musical speaker that works great for guitar, gets a British tone the harder it's pushed, but doesn't have such an overwhelming tone of its own (like V30, G12 Blue) that it sounds the same no matter whats driving it. If you use 6L6's it sounds a little more American, if you hit it with EL34's then it's more British.
(The Jensen NEO 10's have this cool quality too)To my mind that makes the speaker better and more enjoyable long-term. Give these a good break-in with bass guitar and amp, then turn it over to quality tube amp and you're there!