Thanks mate.... we've got a bunch of speakers in the bag, we're just waiting for a few bits and bobs and thought we'd put this out as a test. Appreciate the kind words.
feels like it's been ages since last Zilla speaker video. Good to see you back man. Don't even know anything about this speaker but it sounds interesting and IMO it doesnt have the scooped sound of the Blue and feels more in your face and punchy.
Thanks.... Almost four years since the last video with someone talking. We've got more on their way, just waiting to sort a few things before we relaunch.
Comparing it with the blue really puts it into perspective. I actually like the 100 a lot. The 100 really “fills in” what the blue is missing for me. Still very dynamic. Im stoked Celestion made this. The ruby was disappointing to me, so I feel like this is taking its place low key.
I'm with you on that but I'm actually starting to like the ruby more and more. I'm going to put some work in to seeing if we can make it work somewhere.
@@ZillaCabs I heard the Ruby is good for simple 50’s-60’s class a ampliers (tweeds?) that benefit from keeping the treble maxed out, so you can have that ‘dynamic’ without the piercing/overbearing treble.
I wonder if the Ruby would do well in a solid state amp like a Peavey Bandit for example. The speaker costing more perhaps than the amp depending upon the situation. I happen to love Bandits but rarely use the dirty channels, so my next experiment will be using an A type which I don’t find pleasing on its own in demos but love what it does paired up with various mid scooped speakers.
Thanks, glad you liked it. They are both pretty cool speaker for heavier stuff for sure... we've got some videos coming out later in the year on these speakers for heavier players.
@@ZillaCabs Awesome, can't wait to check it out! See you there haha! Love what you guys at Zilla do to showcase new speakers. You're one of the few creators to do a legit recording of the Hempback. Nothing quite like the tone and experience of real speakers. Hats off & salute to you guys for all you do, Keep rocking Zilla!
Thank you for the presentation of the new Celestion speaker, when it's very rare to find it. Beside it, after two short moments of a mix of the Celestion Alnico Gold with the Alnico Cream, which I saw on your channel, it's interesting how similarly they together sound in comparison with the Alnico Blue. I would be interested to see more of that.
Wow, I was impressed immediately upon the that first demo against the Blue! It instantly reminded me of mid 60's British invasion ala Beatles for example. The 100 sounded more "authentic", exactly what I think of when mentioning vintage British/Celestion alnico. The Blue in comparison sounded like an exaggeration of a vintage Celestion alnico imo. I definitely have to snag one of these at some point! Great video and demo!
sound great , I have two old celestions from the late 40s. the two bolt version of these they had different stickers but went onto to become the G12 when used in guitar cabs, they are a lovely tone and these hit the same tones,
There a weird ohm at 13 ohms and super duper efficient . So really loud . One has the original cone that is pretty brittle these days the other I had refined with a celestion blue kit . There very mid range . Not much bass like a modern celestion but they cut through really well . I use with a small low watt head of 15 watts and matched with a cream back . I also have a pair of old goodmans Audiom 80s alnicos which you can my ear are a bit softer on the ear .
I emailed celestion years back and got info on the date and codes . Mine was a precursor to the G12 line are general speakers from a radiogram in the early 40s that celestion repurposed for guitar speakers with the new wave of amplified guitars then the speakers were further developed into the first guitar focused speakers. But prior to those a lot of guitar alnicos were standard G12 - like all the amps of old every component was off the shelf radio or tv or military equipment even tube schematics were on paper with tubes when you purchase . Amp companies didn’t design tube schematics they took say a preamp tube and power amp tube and a rectifier and the page that came with it had a “ preamp parts list and a schematic” and then you would join the preamp to the power amp layout and bamm have an amp that was your champ or vox , I had a few of these old tubes in boxes with the plans that came with them and my amp building partner showed me all the options that he had in his collection . Only on later years did amp designers tweak circuits to add gain or clean up noise . And often old amps had various parts change post ww2 as the shops they bought bulk parts off ran dry and caps might change or values sway a little . It was not a precise science like today . Just the same as the Marshall quad was never designed with specs just a box big enough to house 4 speakers 😊
Thanks for the video on this speaker! Looking gorgeous in those beautiful cabs. I love how some of my favourite players make the Blue sound amazing, but I think the new speaker would react to my playing much better. Its price, though...
Thanks mate, both are cool speakers. Just spent the weekend with Nolly recording them with some heavier tracks and they were both contenders... maybe not instantly knocking the V30 off its spot but both definite contenders to be used.
Thank you for making this video. I've been looking for some comparisons on this speaker to not only the Blue Alnico, but the Cream and Gold as well. I would appreciate if you could do some more comprehensive comparisons where you also illustrate more distorted tube Amp rhythm and leads as well as the cleans. Would be much appreciated....
OMG...That will be great! Although I do love most of the sound from a 90 Watt Cream Alnico, getting something close to (or possibly even better than) a Blue/Silver Alnico sound available in a 30 watt is closer to the sound I'm personally looking for. So I'm sure that I can speak for everyone here to say that we are thankful and anxiously waiting for your future videos... Thanks for all your efforts to keep us up to date with all the newest gear.
Instantly became my favorite speaker! Not cheap, but worth the money and also not just another Blue. This is the classic Alnico Silver sound, but also in a very positive way modernized and improved. Bass is slightly more intense, more modern voiced, nicely tight without any muddiness, good mids, but not as intense as the ones from eg. a G12M, really wonderful treble with the perfect blend between bite and sweetness and - most of all - an excellent harmonics reproduction and speaker breakup. Even better, that Celestion had released the complete IR set even before the real speakers had been available. Of course a great companion for a Vox or (hot-rod) Plexi but not only. I use them for everything between vintage clean and heavy high-gain, where I even like it more, as even heavy sounds seem to "breathe" more and sound more vivid with these speakers. Sounds diffferent than a Blue (less thin), sounds different than a V30 (less shrill), sounds different than a G12M (more transparent), sounds diffferent than a Cream or Creamback (tighter bass), but always much better and more musical. At least for me. A league of it's own. For me the perfect guitar speaker!
@@ZillaCabs This "not forgiving" is exactly, what I like. You get, what you put in. (Slightly improved.) Maybe a little too intense in a 112 cab, but perfect in a 212 or 412 and as the speaker anyway is only designed for 30W, you anyway hardly will use a single one alone.
Awaiting your follow up videos on the 100. I hope you are able to illustrate what exactly you mean by "non-forgiving" in it. I want to use it in a 1x12 for a British / Marshall Bluesbreaker type sound, with a drop less of the of harsh high end breakup of the Alnico Blue or Gold. More like some of the older Silvers I have heard/used.
@@mzblues1 I think, you were addressing the video creator, which I am not. But, "non-forgiving", as already explained, usually means, you get a direct, mostly uncompressed reaction to your playing, a different sound, if you play smoother or if you hit harder. The other thing is, maybe the source of your harshness problem is not the speaker or not only. A Blue maybe sounds thin, but my experience with it is not, that it sounds harsh, much less a Gold. This I rather associated with eg. a V30, but even a V30 can sound excellent with certain amps, with others rather not. Your guitar, your pickups, even pickup height, you way of hitting the strings, you amp settings, wrong tubes and a lot more can result in a too harsh sound, so maybe the problem lies somewhere else and then another speaker alone will not necessarily solve it. I once had the same problem with a Silver Jubilee, never got a good sound out of it, only harsh scratchiness, which I disliked, although others highly praised this amp, but mine obviosuly sounded completely different and much worse. So I finally sold it, after having replaced the tubes, even the speaker, but without getting any better tones out of it. For me the Celestion 100 is the best choice for a Bluesbreaker or AC-30, even for a JPM-50, 1959, but also for any Tweed or modern high-gain amp, but this is my personal impression, based on my personal experinece with my own gear. How your amp sounds, I hardly can judge from the distance, even if I also owned a Bluesbreaker amp, it could sound different...
@@mzblues1 it's a very different speaker to the blue. By not forgiving we mean it's quite articulate so will show everything you are doing, including the stuff you might not normally want people to hear.. scrapes on a pic, slight movements on your bridge hand, noises between notes. If you are talking about silver alnicos from the early 60s they'll sound quite different to this as they are much older and different specs.
Can you compare it with the Celestion Alnico Cream, please? Normally I can say a lot about the speaker even on the RU-vid video. I have pretty good setup with the studio monitors and good sound card plus enough experience to be able to hear the difference despite the platform related losses. Though my experience does tell me how complex issue we are talking about. Different cabinet and at the different sound level and same rig will sound different. This time it is hard for me. Sure I hear the difference. It is obvious one. But how it translates into real life at different sound pressure levels I can't understand it from here. That despite the fact that I know that you guys do great recording and that I am familiar with your production. You are my reference when I do not have the speaker in the house after all. From what I hear here Blue is more scooped and sounds richer. Alnico 100 is more balanced and has nice details. Lacks some of that raspiness as you call it. Sounds great though. At some moments it sounds pretty close. Here lies my issue with the Alnico Blue. Do I like it? I adore it. But it limits me a lot at the same time. Power handling and the break up as well as it's natural EQ prevents me from using it in lot of the amplifiers I build. I simply love how it sounds with normal amplifiers at power levels that it can handle. Even here in this video, it just has more X factor. Does it come with that raspiness or more scooped EQ or response, to be honest I do not care. The main thing it is there. New Alnico 100 is awesome and seems to have flatter EQ. It can handle power too. Great speaker. it is definitely not the replica of first Alnico speakers. Those were more like Blue. Responsive and bold and scooped but with magic Celestion middle. Some might be in the age and played in status of the old speakers and their cabinets. Currently if I build a small single ended amplifier in 12" cabinet and I opt for the high end parts and point to point layout I really need to make sure it does not sound too top heavy with the Alnico Blue. Power wise, efficiency wise and responsiveness wise it is a great choice. But with some amplifiers you will end up turning down the treble pot always. It will sound awesome though. Alive and full of details. For me Alnico 100 is still not available. Price is at the premium though. It costs like 20% above Alnico Cream. Well it should do more then the Alnico Cream then. Sure, especially if it is limited in the production numbers, it is peace of history and nice to have. Still it should out perform Cream Alnico if it is going to make it into my recommendation list with my amplifiers. I am pretty sure though, that with standard amplifiers and at higher levels it is going to rock. I bet it will make Marshall amps sound even more Marshally :) At the higher levels we hear the EQ differently. There fore it will sound rounder and more scooped at the high levels. Plus we understand louder often as nicer sounding. Amplifiers also sound different/better at the higher levels. Anyhow can't wait to have it in the room but I might need to wait for it. There are many other things I have to sort out before I can justify to myself ordering and keeping something that I might not be using that much. It happened to often that I say I will return it if I do not like ait and then it stays for the reference and any other excuse I can make :) BTW no matter how good your amplifier is, cabinet and speaker choice can make it sound better or negate your all work. Lot's of what we think of standard Fender or Marshall or even Vox tone comes from their cabinet and speakers selection. Take old fender and connect it to old Marshal 4x12. You would not believe it. It does not become Marshall but it comes way towards it.
We should have a few of these videos coming out in the coming months. We've done quite a few recordings of it alongside loads of other speakers so we should be able to do that.
my ears are somewhat bad , i'm nearly 60 now but i had both , the Golds & the T652 speakers & to my ear those speakers sounded pretty close. I just bought two of these 100s , i'm looking forward to see what we have, Me i'm into Hendrix tones so?? who knows.
It's obvious thec100 is a very well made speaker but it sounds a little sterile compared to the Zingy blue, maybe it needs a good 8hrs of non stop use to open it up?
Yeah it's quite different to the blue. We've used this speaker for a good 24 hours of playing I'd say and it still does what I remember at the start. It's really useful in a lot of situations though. Thanks for watching.
i was listening on my laptop, to be honest i did not notice much difference between the 100 and the blue. They both sound good. Maybe when i listen on my studio monitors or when you play them in real life there is a bigger difference but you could have fooled me.
He's a great player. Unfortunately he doesn't work here any more. I'm going to try and get him back in for a couple of videos in the future though if he's up for it.
Thanks for posting, I’m looking to buy a pair of Celestion AlNiCo 100’s as soon as they become available. Could you please tell me what amp you’re using and what microphones, outboard preamps and EQ’s you used. I’m an audio engineer and knowing the answers to these questions really helps me a lot to create a reference point. Thanks!
@@darwinsaye from what i understand their not a total limited edition as in a certain number made, i think what's gonna happen is they make them throughout all of 2024 and then that's it. kind of like fender did with the Hendrix Monterey Stratocaster in 2017 they made em through out 17 and stopped. i bought two of the speakers but dont have them yet. Guitar center has them in stock right now.
I don't know how uploading to youtube works, but some music content has uploads of MKV files instead of MP4. Since you went to the trouble of recording these sounds, it would be good to have them in better than MP3 sound, which is the maximum possible within the MP4 container. Thanks very much for making this video
They guy that edited these videos is a pro, there was a lot of effort put in to the audio so I'm sure it's to do with RU-vid. I know he puts a lot of effort in to the mastering process.
@@ZillaCabs Oh yeah I'm not saying your guy isn't a pro. I'm just saying there's a way to get his MKVs uploaded. I don't know what that way is, but he might be able to have tech support at youtube work with him on that, because a lot of music videos have managed a MKV option for CD or above quality. Would be awesome.
Maybe if you're a studio musician or touring pro, yes. For a weekend warrior as myself, never. 99% of don't know or care about tone. It does sound good.
no, Do you know how many are stuck in a rabbit hole as we speak, Many won't find their way out for years, 99% care deeply about tone!! 1% don't care or know.
That's true, but after 50 years most pulsonic speakers have had a hard life and rarely work as they should, or at least there's little consistency. $400 is a lot of money for a speaker for sure.
Worst demo ever. The melodies were so sweet and the playing so beautiful that I was constantly missing the speaker changes. I had to watch it over and over again. Jk, thank you guys, amazing demo and sounds as always! Guess your cabs have something to do with this!
@@ZillaCabs Your videos are a service to the community - they really set an example of how comparison videos should be made! Many many thanks again, looking forward to trying your cabinets! They look and sound great, keep it up, wish you all the best!
Haha yeah, I feel that the same part being played on both speakers makes it much easier. Kind of boring perhaps but I am in it for the example of tone. Beautiful playing indeed.
