Eminence Black Powder

Well, its a 12" 8ohm 75 watt speaker. It's a pretty dynamic speaker, with a good amount of headroom, but, as per the name, it kinda ignites within certain frequency ranges. I have it in a closed backed, unvented, EarCandy Vagabond 1x12 cab, which is not necessarily recommended for this speaker, but I was hoping to tame some of the mids & highs and give it a little more punch. It seems like a tough product that can withstand some mildish abuse by me. And so far, it performs great in these circumstances.

I haven't compared a ton of speakers against each other, but I can definitely say I love the sound from this. The cab it's in sounds great. I like to use mostly clean sound, with pedals. This speaker can do great clean sounds, full and rich. But it can also handle modulation and changes of frequency pretty well without distorting and crapping out. It is difficult to get speakers that handle the basic, clean guitar signal, highly effected guitar signal, and heavy distortion. You're often choosing among them. But there are ways to get this baby to do it all, and sound really good.

I use a guitar which can split between single coil & humbuckers. At bedroom level volumes, it sounds better doing creamy distortion. At high volume though, it sounds better handling clean sounds and effects. It does still maintain a good distorted sound at higher volume, but I'm just saying that the clean stands out in a way you wouldn't expect. That's my take anyways. When I have higher wattage going on and I'm rehearsing, running a 60 watt tube head into it, I find its range to be quite valuable. If you need to cut through the mix but retain definition for arpeggios and riffs, this is a good choice. It has an interesting voice overall.

Its as reliable as I treat it.

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Overall, its a great speaker with a complex dynamic range. If gunpowder was the metaphor that Eminence thought was most applicable to them, I agree! They can handle high output while retaining definition. Some guitar technology is getting beyond the ability of certain speakers' ability to really fully reproduce. Sure, a low-watt overdriven tube amp sounds like nothing else. But a lot of people these days need a baseline signal and output that is able to go from that beautiful clean tube sound, to totally wacked-out crap involving all kinds of pitching around and bobbing and weaving throughout the various frequency ranges. And this speaker can be a tool in working with that pallet. If you're doing experimental noise, some things will just 'jump out'. It can surprise you!

Wow! I've been trying for a long time to get bright, airy tone, and I never played a speaker cabinet that sounded all that different, but I figured I'd give the Black Powder a try, since it was supposedly a very unique design; it also really stood out as being bright on the Eminence speaker comparison sound clip page. I put the Black Powder in, and there was a definite change in my tone. Before, I could never seem to dial out the fuzziness and muddiness in my sound, even with active EQ's, but this speaker really produced a crystal clear, bright sound. For the first time in my life, I found myself not completely cranking my extended highs. The Black Powder really is a unique-sounding speaker that really does make a huge difference in tone.

I'd like to say that this speaker won't be for everyone. Blues and jazz players should definitely stay away. I play mostly speed punk with some ska, reggae, and punk rock mixed in, so I like a bright, airy, sort of nasal tone. My setup is: Mosrite style guitar w/ 500K pots and a neodymium P90 in the bridge -> Carvin V3 (EQ'd very bright with the bass all the way down) -> 1x12 (for recording) with a Black Powder.

The only thing I will say is that you're compromising your clean tone with the Black Powder, but a good amp should be able to reasonably compensate on the clean channel.

Also, the Black Powder is 75 watts, which is a really good wattage: works great for my 1x12.

The Black Powder has as much clean headroom as anyone could want. I can go from extreme distortion to the most beautiful ska clean, and I haven't been able to get the speaker to distort yet in my 1x12 using my Carvin V3 head.

The Black Powder seems very sturdy and I'd be surprised if I blew it.

I've done a lot of searching for the perfect bright, clear, airy, focused tone, and the Black Powder delivers. I've been playing a lot of instruments for a lot of years, and this is the best speaker I've ever used.

12", 8ohm 75watts

I put the Black Powder into a Peavey Ultra 60 combo. The stock speaker was a little bit muddy so after some research I settled on the Black Powder. Well after having it in my amp for a solid 6 months I just pulled it out and put the stock speaker back in.

After trying for months I just could not get any sort of warm creamy tone out of this thing. Now I do play a bunch of types of music including metal but the Black Powder is just too brutal sounding for my taste. It's impossible to get a good warm lead tone out of it. I do like the cleans but as soon as you add any type of gain you get all upper mids.

I've owned it for over 6 months and it hasn't broke yet.

n/a

I do like Eminence as a brand and will probably try some of the other speakers. Compared to Celestion and some of the other name brands Eminence really gives you more bang for the buck.

75Watts
12"
8 ohm

I used this in a Marshall tube combo first and then in a 2x12" cab. It's one of the few speakers Eminence suggests you use only in openback cabs, but it's ok in closed cabs if you use it in a fairly bassheavy setup (guitar/ampwise).

Clean sounds are really nice, they have an almost acoustic quality. I'm impressed, lots of presence. At least with my setup it doesn't sound harsh. The speaker is quite clear and a good recommendation if you want crystalclear guitar tones.

Crunch sounds good as well, but the highgain does not fit my taste. To many uppermids and not enough lower mids - the midranges sounds just too crispy IMO where I would have liked it to sound warm and full. But the low end is tight - no problems there (I ran it with a baritone guitar and had no problems). I did some recordings with a Shure SM57 with it and the speaker did sound nuances better on the recording than in the room as far as I could tell.

My favorite use of this speaker was with a Governor in a closed 2x12" cab, where the Governor added the midrange grind and the Black Powder kept the clarity and transparency - it sounded very tight with high gain, very precise, just great tone. I currently have it in a 2x12" with a Celestion GT12-75 but I think I will go back to the setup with the Governor.

It seems to me that this speaker is a good choice to combine with other speakers as it will not muddy anything up or overwhelm the sonical impression, rather clear it up. You might get the impression that this speaker is very bright, but it's actually not OVERLY bright, just very transparent due to its crispy midrange and timid low end.

Haven't gigged with it, so no opinion.

Eminence has been helpful via Email to me.

This is a good speaker to have around. You could always have one as a replacement and it would probably always be good. As a standalone, I would use it only in a setup for predominantly clean and light crunch sounds.

Excellent price value.

None other than ass kicking sound

Replaced a Celestion 70/80 in my closed back Laney single. I could never get the sound I wanted. Lumpy and dead. No bite. Looked at all the Celestion and Eminence stuff out there and finally ordered the Black Powder. Holy Hell! This should have been called the Powderfinger cause you can get it to sound just like Neil Youngs Live Rust! It can stay clean as a bell with beautiful crisp presence. Crank my 20W Laney with some Maxon OD grit, a little analog delay and Voodoo Vibe and a dash of Electric Mistress deluxe Flanger and your Too Rolling Stoned!! I can also get some really incredible Brass and Piano tones with different settings. I also have a Traynor 20 with a Greenback. I used to think it was the best little combo ever. Now Lil Laney Half stack rules thanks to the BP

Looks very well made

Shipped straight from the factory in a week

Been Playing a looong time. Played a lot of stuff. My Les Paul Custom and SG are the keepers. They both sound magical through this speaker

Put this into an old Peavey Triumph. The Peavey had a Scorpion, definitely one of the most effiecient speakers I have heard (loud) but was very harsh, almost all mids and high end. I tried various speakers with the amp, to see if I could be a more usable sound (Eminence Private Jacks (Green Back'sh), McCaughly 15", 4x12 with Vin30's - it did sound better but the low end umphh was missing and sound was not balanced as you'd want. Read about the Black Powder's ability to handle and bring out the Lows with balanced mids and high end. Good for High Gain. It fit's this amp like a glove. The High Gain sound cuts through the mix, while giving new character to the cleans and crunch. Amazing what the right speaker can do with a tube amp. And for the price (lower end of Eminence 12"), good one to have in your collection for tones.

Great speaker, especially for high Gain applications, where you want the Dark, full, Wall of Sound, and the normal fair of Celestions (vin30's etc) and more popular Eminence's just don't seem to get the job done.

This is an Eminence 12" guitar speaker. It is 8ohm, and 75watt rms.
This speaker is billed by eminence as a 12" speaker for classic rock/blues kinda music. I was directed to this speaker by earcandy cabs as a metal speaker. WOW!! These things are absolutely fantastic!!

I put these speakers into a crate blue voodoo cab i had. I have the cab without the celestions, and it was weak and barely whined let alone growled. I play diff types of rock, but hated reaching back for the grunt and hearing a cab with bad gas!! NO MORE!! Now i have 300 watts of DEATH INDUCING GRUNT!! I run a boss gt-8 pedal into a crate blue voodoo head. These speakers make this head scream. There is no more sludge. No distortion. My buddy took his seven string and chugged out some muted barre chords and the low end almost made me chuck!! They dont break up...AT ALL!! The only distortion is from the tubes in the amp (or my pedal :) ) I started a review for this product because i am so astonished. I have played through marshall cabs before, and they were all worse or equal at best. Best part....56$ each(new from ebay) as opposed to 110$ each for celestions!! Its wonderful to power through the low end without sludge!! they really are perfectly voiced for rock and METAL!! Boss GT-8 into Crate blue Voodoo into crate cab with 4 of these. total cost...(ebay used and new)---1000$ fellas, grab your rectifiers and look for some more features to warrant the cost!!!

Just got them, but they look and feel solid!!!

never had to deal with em.

Seriously, these are mean speakers, and all my friends are following suit(except for the one with the 1960 lead marshall...he's a gear snob anyway!!) for 1/2 the price of celestions, look out!!, with plenty of headroom to spare!!!!! For the first time ever I absolutely love my sound, it's perfect. I do not need anything else. I will never throw away 2000 or more $ on a mesa setup!!