Robben Ford Discussion

[Daved]

As most gearheads know, Robben’s speaker of choice has been, literally for decades now, the Celestion G12-65, a speaker which was discontinued many years ago.

Thru the years since, as the new 65’s became fewer and further between, we took to reconing the old ones when they wore out.

However, even that no longer worked as the original rebuild kits became extinct and the speakers we had re-coned didn’t sound or perform quite right because of secondary or modified parts.

Often, I would be told of G12-65’s available in Marshall cabs and such, but these would inevitably turn out to be 16 ohm speakers… useless to us as we needed the 8 ohm models.

For a couple of years, we worked with the people at the Eminence speaker company to try to develop something that Robben could like and use consistently. We came close, but never quite nailed exactly the “Robben thing”. I will always be very grateful to Eminence and the folks there for their hard work and continued support.
The upside is that things they learned and developed from the project has lead to some fine current speaker models in their line of speakers these days. Roben liked (and still does) the Tonkers, among others. We still have a few in our stock for occasional use with various recording projects.

At one point, a few years back, Celestion reps contacted me for information on any of the old Celestion 65 models I had around as they were hoping to reissue the G12-65’s mainly on the strength that it was the speaker Robben has always loved most.

After a year of back and forths, they sent us a couple prototypes of what they were getting ready to release. Robben tried them out and immediately gave a thumbs down. There was a whole level of lower frequencies that very noticably were not coming thru.

Then communication with Celestion broke down as I heard there was a lot of reworking going on in the Celestion organization. Having a rep that I could consistently and reliably work with had always been a difficult issue. Those speakers quickly went away and I heard virtually nothing after that.

Well, time passed... until recently when I had been hearing some good reports thru the grapevine about some new 65’s that Celestion had finally come out with.
And then one day, speaking on the phone with Alfonso Hermido, the creator of the Zen Drive pedal, about some speaker cabinets he was designing, he mentioned that he had been dealing with a new Celestion rep in southern California who’d expressed a desire from the Celestion company to get Robben’s thoughts and opinions on the new G12-65 product they had on the market, but apparently didn’t know how to go about reaching us.

Alfonso asked if I was interested, I of course assured him I was, and then he graciously hooked me up with Rick, Celestion’s southern Cal rep. Rick called me back immediately from a snow trip he was on in the mountains with his family and we talked for an hour.

He explained that 2 positive things had happened at Celestion.

One was that they, in reworking the company, had recognized the support problems and that was where he came in, being a readily available artist representative in Southern Cal who was there primarily for artist assistance and reliable access to the Celestion company.

The other was that Celestion had gone back to the drawing board and reworked the G12-65’s to a product that they now hoped was comparable to the original 65’s and that they had been wanting to contact Robben for his evaluation and opinion on the new product as they were eager to hopefully gain his approval and endorsement.

After speaking with Rick, he had some samples sent to me and I invited him to come to one of our techdays to meet and speak with Robben as we tried them out.

The results… Robben loved the speakers and was thrilled to “finally have my sound back”. I, myself, was thrilled to finally have a reliable source of fresh, quality G12-65’s, and Celestion was thrilled that Robben highly approved the new reissued product. A 'win' situation all the way around.

Robben and his management agreed to endorse them, so I sent scanned copies of his autograph and a quote along with promo pictures to Celestion. They will soon be promoting the speakers with Robben’s backing and approval.

Both Dumble cabinets are now loaded with the speakers and, after several months usage, Robben recently told me that they continue to sound great and he is very happy to be using them again.

On the recent Italian tour, using rental Twin Reverbs, I asked Celestion to ship us four 65’s which I installed in the Twins. Robben said they sounded so much better than the Jensens that had been in the amps and was happy to use them for the rest of the tour.

When the tour ended, I pulled the Celestions, re-installed the Jensens, and shipped the Celestions to our storage in Germany to put in our Fender Twins when we return in the October for the European Fall tour.

So, everyone, it is now official... the Celestion G12-65’s are once again Robben’s guitar speaker of choice and he is very pleased to have them back and readily available.
_________________
B C-ing U!
( }:-Daved
"This boy's diseased with rhythm!" -Bing Crosby (Road To Rio, '49)

[Leftbender]

That's very good news Daved! Here in Europe we have been ripping the market to lay our hands on the origional 65's the past few years. In my opinion there were more to find here then overseas but not all were in perfect condition. We have tried to convince Celestion that the V30's or 75's were nowhere near the old 65's but they wouldn't listen. Then suddenly the reissue came out! Me and my guitar friends were a little sceptic about this but didn't get the oppertunity to test them untill now. Glad we didn't! It's great to hear that you and Robben did the test for us all! Now we are sure they are back!

Greets,

Lefty
_________________
"Don't play what's there, play what's not there" Miles Davis

[ltkojak]

[bluesman]

Good for Robben,

New 65’s were one of the most requested (after Celestion Gold) speakers in our CCC cabinets from the day one they came out, especially from our Dumble clone using customers because of their mild highs and heavy lows.
Actually many players using 65 in pair with a Tone Tubby in our 2X12 for wider spectrum response.
_________________
www.customcabcom.com
www.drika.biz

[marinblues]

Thanks for this information, Daved!


Now I understand how those twins had so much midrange! :D


I love the G12-65. Its a great speaker.


Marin
_________________
-> my stuff

[diatonicdude]

Thanks for the heads up Daved; great post as ever!

Well, it looks like I will be trying this speaker in my cabinet too! I have never really dabbled in trying different speakers mainly due to the lack of speakers to try. But this sounds like it will be a good starting point.

Cheers,

DD
_________________
Music is the universal language; speak it with emotion, listen with a passion.

[JackD]

Daved:

Thanks for the update. I have a pair of the new 12-65s in a D-style cabinet and I really like them. I told Robben about my experience with the speakers when I saw him in Orlando earlier this year. At the time, he said he had heard good things and was looking forward to trying them. I am glad to hear Robben has given them the thumbs up.

As an aside, I had a second cabinet built for a second amp I had built. I originally ordered another pair of 12-65s. Later, I decided to try some of the new re-issue EVM 12Ls just to have another flavor for a cabinet. They also sound very good, but are different (cleaner) than the Celestions. What sounds really good is running both cabinets at once--very big and sweet. Anyway, if anyone wants a deal on a pair of brand spankin' new 12-65s (new in the box and never used), let me know!

[lemonjefferson]

Dear Daved

Forgive my ignorance but you mentioned the 16Ohm speakers were no good to you.

would this mean that the dumble is in 4ohm output mode? Meaning that both the 8ohm speakers are wired in parallel equaling 4ohms in a 2 X 12" speaker cabinet.

The fender twins I think vary from 8ohms output (fender Twin II) to 4ohms output (Fender Twin reissue) the red knob twin is switchable.

thanks Daved, at the moment I'm running 2 x G12 65H 16Ohms wired in Parallel into a 8Ohm Fender Head and just wondered if there was a sound difference.

BTW Many thanks to Paul for turning me onto the G12 65H speakers!!!!

[Daved]

[ltkojak]

Man, have you seen the price tag on those?

I can get five Eminence Cannabis Rex (my favorite guitar speaker) for the price of two of those!

Excuse me if I don't make a million a year... at least here in Italy they're just wildly overpriced and they're very difficult to get from the importer...
_________________
Pepe aka Lt. Kojak
Milano, Italy

[bluesman]

Hello Itkojak,

There is a compact and cheaper alternative to 12-65’s - Celestion BL15-150w bass speaker and I was very impressed with their tonal qualities.
Here are some sound samples with the Overtone Special head and Strat.

1. CLEAN neck pickup - http://www.guitarampcab.com/cabnkcl.mp3

2. CLEAN bridge pickup - http://www.guitarampcab.com/cabbrcl.mp3

3. CLEAN rhythms - http://www.guitarampcab.com/cabrtm.mp3

4. DRIVE neck pickup - http://www.guitarampcab.com/cabnkdr.mp3

5. DRIVE bridge pickup - http://www.guitarampcab.com/cabbrdr.mp3

6. DRIVE + BOOST - http://www.guitarampcab.com/cabbrbst.mp3

Best wishes


_________________
www.customcabcom.com
www.drika.biz

[johan]

[Cheebatone]

There's a video clip of the new G12-65 on the Celestion site...

Click here.

The tune is somewhat familiar. Can't quite put my finger on it though...
_________________
I first started to play guitar 35 years ago... Trouble is, I had 20 years off in the middle.

[Tele295]

I think I need some for my Twin!
_________________
You got a motor like a brand new car....

[ZenOvertone]

The originals still crop up on Ebay, I bagged four from a 1979 Marshall cab not long after they were listed some time ago for just £120 - the lower two from the bottom of the cab needed a bit of a clean but they are great and fortunately were not thrashed. I also missed out on a few cabinets in local small ads a while back, some guy in the UK sold two cabs for £75 each, one with 25w greenbacks inside and one with G12 65's - I just missed out on them (possibly bought by a dealer) but bagged a few vintage boss pedals instead for very little money (CE2, DD2 and RV2).