Eminence The Governor

12" with a huge ceramic magnet. Cone comes from England & is handmade in the US. It's a speaker, how many features do you want? :)

Beautiful, warm and big. Not your jangly Fender tone here!

Built like a tank. Should last forever (or until I manage to blow it up)

Dunno. Haven't had to call them.

If, like me, you're looking for an alternative to standard Fender ice-pick shrillness then give this speaker a try. I highly recommend it. But give it a while to break in.

British made cone & American built. This is a heavy speaker with a huge ceramic magnet. Very nice.

Warm, open, with great mids and a sweet chime on top. Great for clean or overdriven tones. The best sounding speaker I've ever used.

Built like the proverbial tank. Should last a very long time.

This is the right speaker at the right price for me. I see no reason to spend upwards of three hundred bucks for a Celestion when these sound just as good, if not better.

12", 75 watts, 1.75" voice coil, British manufactured cone, beefy magnet.

If you have a low wattage amp, yet want a big warm punchy sound - this is your speaker. It will fill out amy smaller amp making it sound twice the wattage. I disagree with Eminence that this speaker is "raunchy" and cone breaup is early - a misleading description in my opinion. I think this speaker stays very clean and articulate WAY up in volume on the gig - yet with a fat warmth. It has solid bass, very big and warm mids, and highs which are present, but not overwhelming or scratchy a la a Jensen speaker. Cleans are rich and distortion/overdrive through this speaker is exceptional - the best I've heard to my ears. No harshness, but all the harmonics. Again - a very tight speaker so if you are an articulate player, you'll love it. If you like a loose. saggy vintage sound, you'll probably think it's too aggressive - look to maybe a Texas Heat which is looser. Because this speaker has solid mids, you might find yourself dialing down the mids on your amp depending on the application (e.g. for clean rhythm work for instance). It is a fun speaker to play - very versatile. Works great for jazz too.

12", 75 watts, 1.75" voicecoil

This speaker would suit you well if you are looking for a punchy speaker with a wide warm midrange, tight bass and sweeter (not really sparkly) highs. This speaker will make your amp sound fuller. Terrific for OD and distortion and great for cleans. They say it is British influenced, then I guess I like british speakers for cover work because the Jensen alnico P12N I replaced had a soft bottom and compression which didn't suit me. The Governor is much more immediate to your pick attack. The P12N is a fine speaker for jazz and mellower country/blues - more of a jangly sound, but for Rock, funk, pop music covers at higher volumes - it wasn't that great to my ears. I'm not saying the Gov is the best speaker you can buy because you need to consider your playing style. That said, the governor fit perfectly what I needed.

I like the options Eminence offers today and use one of their speakers in another amp. Great speaker at a decent price.

75 watts

I've had these in & out of my cabs for about 5 or 6 years.
Here's my take on them. In a 4x12 cab they are great.
2x12 cab they can compliment the other speaker alright.
1x12 they suck big time.

Probably last forever.

Very nice to deal with.

I used to think this speaker was better than a Vintage 30 because it doesn't have the ice pick shrill v30 moments. That being said the v30 is a better speaker hands down for rock & roll.
I think Eminence makes too many different speakers that are just plain nondescript in their tone. The legend series is great. The patriot & redcoat series are confusing as hell. This is still a decent speaker & in some cabinets will deliver good tone.

I put this im my Marshall JCM 600 1x12 tube Combo which has Marshall/Celestion G12 Heritage speaker which was a very edgy,trebley 60's type of sounding speaker.I play a Fender American Standard dual humbuckers .

AWSOME.Transformed my amp into a TONE MACHINE,it smoothened out those shrillie ear peirceing thin highs with FULL boddied mids that let you know theres a guitar cutting through the mix.The Govenor on the gain channel gave that combo a Marshall fat crunch and on the Clean channel was tight and articulate kinda giving it a Mesa sound as i owend a Mesa several years ago but hated their gain channel,any how an imediate difference in TONE.

Been playing for 25 years all Marshalls from heads to 2x12's now that i'm 43 this 1x12 with the Govenor is my last amp for my practicing and gigging.it's giant magnet adds a bit more weight to the amp but i can handle it and the other most important reason for buying the Emenince Govenor is it's made in the USA not China as the Celestion Vintage 30 which is it's clone or vise versa.ROCK ON!

its very versatile for what it is

One of my college buddies put 2 of these in a custom made 2x12 oversized cab that him and his dad built and the sound quality was amazing clarity and these speakers are eminence's verson of a Celestion V30 and I think it stomps and V30 in the ass with clarity and headroom all day, and to the guy that posted a comment below me must have got a bad speaker or something because my buddies cab will destroy any marshall or mesa with tone all day.

Not a problem at all and he has had them in his cab for 2 years

I mean come on for the money they are one of the best sounding speakers on the market.

Basically, Emi's take on Celestion's V30.

Let me preface this by saying that if used in a 2X12 or 4X12 setup, I would probably give the Gov higher marks. However, since Emi doesn't state anywhere that this is a requirement for this speaker, I find that I must be brutally honest. Yes, the speaker does sound good, and seems to improve on the V30 theme a bit. However, the monster magnet with thin paper cone simply doesn't work in a 1X12 setup, IME. Even when pushing this speaker with a Marshall JCM800 combo with a pair of 6V6's, the cone cry and edge yowl are simply unuseable. I've also pushed it with other amps that are 15 watts or less, with the same video game-type subharmonics on the first string, 10th fret and above. It doesn't matter what 1X12 cab I load the Gov into, the effect is the same.

If the speaker didn't have the cone cry issues, I'm sure it would be reliable enough to gig with. I've had plenty of other Emis over the years - all of them were workhorses.

Despite the incredible warranty that Emi touts for these speakers, I've received no reply from them. This isn't completely a shock, since Emi doesn't consider cone cry or edge yowl to be manufacturer's defects, nor do they test speakers in a way that would most likely reproduce them. Regardless of this, the speaker should be advertised as one that needs to be run in a 2X12 or 4X12 setup, to minimize or eliminate these issues.

I've been playing for roughly 30 years, now, and have owned a boatload of amps. I also actually own more amps now than at any other point prior to this. Many of my amps from the 80s to 90s came stock with an Eminence in it. Even my '71 Vibrolux Reverb has factory Eminences in it. I'm a big fan of the Legends, and a few of the Patriots. But the Governor basically serves as nothing other than a boat anchor, unless I'm using it with a tiny amp like my '67 Champ, or something that is so ridiculously distorted that the cone cry is completely masked.

I tried this speaker in a Rivera R-55 and compared it to Celestion G-12T, Alnico Blue, Vintage 30, G-12H & a Eminence Legend.
I didn't like this speaker because it colored my sound too much and I actually prefer the less expensive Legends. This speaker sounds like Eminence is trying too hard to make this speaker sound like something else. The Legend has a more natural & balanced sound.

If you buy one of these, try e-bay or Musicians Friend where you can return it.

Governor, 8ohms

The tone of this speaker is quite close to the Vintage 30 but it's not quite got the same shrill high end but i can hear the resemblance clear as day, I use this speaker in a 4x12 cab X pattern'd with 2 Private Jacks.. Due to the sensitivity of these speakers they drown out the private jacks slightly but not a tremendous ammount the private jacks add warmth to these speakers, they definately cut through a fair ammount though and i do quite like these speakers. they're deffinatly more modern sounding than the private jacks which are sweeter but still these have a great tone.

Been playing 13 years and this Redcoat loaded cab i've got is the best sounding cab i've ever heard it's far better than anything celestion loaded.

and yes i'd replace it if it were stolen.