Mojotone BV-30V

ceramic magnet speaker, mojo british series
marketed as their vintage 30 knockoff but has a character all it's own and a worthy one at that!

I am writing this review because more folks should be aware of good quality gear like this. I had been going through one of my speaker shootout phases (trying everything from eminence, jensen, but mostly different celestions) when I tried a mojo bv-30 because I got a good deal. first let me say that although in my speaker comparisons I had always gone back to the celestion vintage 30, that was prior to getting a hold of one of the mojo speakers. most of my comparisons we're done either using an early silverface fender deluxe reverb amp or a Dr. Z Maz-18 through a 1x12 JD Newell extension cabinet. the celestion vintage 30 works well with a lower wattage amplifier because you actually want as much volume and punch you can get out of the 1x12 configuration. but that's what I always hated about the celestion vintage 30 was that it was always louder than any other speaker and it sounds like they just turned up lows, mids, and highs. although as to be expected the mojo speaker is a little less loud than the celestion, the tone is different than the vintage 30 but in a good way. the mojo speaker is a little less edgy. it almost sounds like a subtle mix of an alnico and ceramic speaker. it still has nice highs and mids, and the low end is tight and punchy but it just seems like it has a warm smoothness to it. compresses very nicely and breaks up nicely. Mark, the guy who builds and designs Victoria amps (Victoria Amp Co.) says these are marketed to be celestion vintage 30 knockoffs but in reality they sound like early 60's oxford speakers which is a good thing! I think he's right, my oxford speakers in my old fender amps always sounded good but they we're unpractical because they farted out too early. the mojo speakers get rid of that problem. if I had to guess I would say these speakers come closer to true vintage british tone than other speakers do.

I had one speaker that was only a few months old go dead on me. they offered me a replacement at a discounted price and both speakers have been performing flawlessly for months now. it might have been a rare occurrence.

the staff are very helpful and very knowledgeable about amps, cabinets, speakers and basically everything guitar. it's a good place to shop.

other than a very broken in vintage 30, or a celestion G12-65, I think these are among the best sounding ceramic magnet speaker you can come by, and it's nice that they're affordable. and of the above speakers mentioned, it's really a matter of taste.

I bought some of these to try in my 2x12cab through my Reynolds Valveart 50W head, which does 60's Fender & 60's Marshall tones. Previously I had some Weber Blue Dogs and weber Silver Bells in the cab, firstly I tried the Blue Dog/Silver Bell combo which was good, not great but good, next was 2 Silver Bells by themselves which was average. I sold those and I thought I'd give these Mojotone BV-30V's a try which is there take on a Celestion V30. From the moment I fired them up they sounded really good and got better with some time on them(The Webers took a long time to break in BTW). These Mojotone BV-30V's are very versatile, my amp does everything from clean sparkling Fender tones to overdriven Marshall tones, and these speakers sound like they're a part of the amp. The overdriven tones have an amazing sustain to them whilst still being articulate, you can still hear the pick attack to the notes. I love how the bass stays tight and focused when pushed, whilst the treble is sweet and clear and the mids are voiced perfectly. I've never tried Celestion V30's with this amp, but a credible amp builder who uses these for his own line of amps told me these are better than the Celestion V30. Anyway I highly recommend these speakers.

Also these speakers are made in the USA, not China.

I emailed Mojotone & they responded quickly to my questions. I'm from Australia & they shipped here quickly.

I've been playing for about 18 years. I also own an old early 70's Fender Vibrolux with Weber C10NQ's (BTW, I wasn't trying to put Weber down earlier, I really like there Jensen copies, but there Celestion copies aren't that great in my opinion), I also own an Amwatts tweed deluxe with a Red Fang speaker (nice speaker) and various guitars.