New Gear Day 1 2023 – ROB C MUSIC

Off to a Flying Start.

It’s still only week one of 2023 and I’ve already got some new gear! I got myself a new guitar speaker for my Quilter Superblock after everything I said in my last post about it not being important (who listens to that anyway?).

A Surprise Contender From Out of Nowhere.

While browsing Lazada (a very dangerous excercise) as I often do, checking the listings for guitar speakers I noticed a speaker by Eminence. I had noticed it before due to it’s distinctive graphic on the label. For some reason I never paid any further attention to it. I was too busy comparing Celestion G12s and Eminence Patriots etc. I assumed it wasn’t a guitar speaker as I didn’t recognise it.

However, maybe because of it being a new year I must have had a fresh perspective because I paid more attention to it when it came up on the search results this time. That’s when I realised that it is a guitar speaker. It’s the Eminence Signature TF-1250. Tomo Fujita 12″ 50 watt.

It’s a signature model of Tomo Fujita, a Japanese guitar-playing professor of Music at Berklee. He’s quite well-known in guitarist circles and I know of him. My impressions of him are that he’s savvy, a tasteful player who is well-known for having a good clean tone, playing blues, jazz and funk mostly. While he is a very different type of guitarist to me I find him worth listening to when it comes to many things regarding guitar.

I also noticed that this speaker appears to no longer be in production and it was a very affordable price. In fact it was almost the cheapest 12″ guitar speaker that I could find on Lazada.

Now I know that a signature model speaker may be quite specifically-voiced and will appeal to a smaller number of players due to their tastes in music, but I also know that a signature model speaker is likely not as mass produced and is of a certain premium if said artist is prepared to have their name on it.

Before I go on I can confirm that my first impressions of it are that it is a very nice-sounding speaker. Nothing in the frequency spectrum is overblown or stifled. It sounds open, clear and eager to push air.

The Rebel in Me Stepped Forward

A while back I wrote about how I found my old Jensen C10R sounded really good with my Marshall-voiced Quilter Superblock UK. While I still like it, it proved to be a bit too small-sounding when I got it to the stage. It was very bright, which I could control, but it sounded a bit weak when it mattered and it has an annoying crackle in the high frequencies (but that could be just my speaker).

After becoming intrigued by the TF-1250 I thought about the same thing I did when I tried pairing my Jensen with a British-voiced amp. “Maybe this is the answer and it’s right here, within reach”. The Celestion choices available to me have always caused me to hesitate before buying. The obvious choice for my setup would be a G12M Greenback, but I hear so many stories of how they don’t cut it on stage in an open-back 1×12 cab (which is what my cab is).

The other Celestion choice I was tempted by (G12H-75 Creamback) was even more expensive and quite a lot heavier too. I just didn’t want to spend that kind of money and be left with a heavy speaker that I may not have liked the sound of.

You see I’m not a big lover of loads of midrange. I think most guitar amps have enough midrange as it is, so I want a speaker that doesn’t further accentuate it, especially the low mids – all the mud and resonant honk that makes everybody in the band hate the guitar player!

I love Marshall style amps (as I do Fender style too), but I want a less midrange-heavy speaker to hear it through. The TF-1250 is inspired by an old Jensen C12N of Tomo Fujita’s. He wanted a similar speaker with some modern refinements (tighter bass response, higher power handling etc).

So, a typically “Fenderish-type” of speaker to pair with my British-sounding amp. In fact I also have a Quilter Superblock US, which is a Fender-voiced amp and it’s great with that too.

I Don’t Like Hard & Fast Rules

Why not stick that “Marshall” through a Fender cab. The most monstrous rock tone I ever heard in person was standing in front of a 1965 Fender Twin Reverb, loaded with vintage JBLs, turned up to maximum plugged straight in with my Strat – no pedals. It easily could have “out-Marshalled” a Superlead Plexi half-stack.

So I know “The American sound” can deliver any frequency band you want and if your amp has it then a speaker designed to sound “right” with an American-style amp can bring out the best in your British-style amp just as well. Probably the other way round too – maybe I should get a Greenback for my Superblock US!

Of course I have only done these sound tests in the studio so far at a comfortable volume. The real test will be the next time I get the cab on stage, but I have a good feeling about it. The biggest difference so far between this new speaker and the original Kustom 12″ from this cab is that it’s more efficient. First of all it’s 8 ohms instead of 16, which is a better match for my amplifer, but it’s also louder and just stronger-sounding.

Not like it needs to be kept on a leash or hard to keep quiet, but just like it’s got plenty of power in its whisper as well as its shout. The Kustom speaker seems to run out of breath when pushed gently with a clean setting, like a singer at the very bottom of their range where there is no lung power to push the note out as forcefully.

The Verdict – I Like it

The TF-1250 is bright, but in a clear, shiny way. Not a sharp, piercing way. It has a modest low-end, but that means I can turn up the bass more on my amp without upsetting the balance or masking the high frequencies too much, which the Kustom (and my Tonetubby) don’t like as they are much more subdued in the highs and high-mids.

In short it is a more evenly balanced speaker across the whole frequency spectrum. Some might view that as having less character, but what does that even mean? Some character traits are horrible, so having character doesn’t mean anything just as a description.

I want something that will make my guitar work as well as possible on the stage, which to me means that I can hear it clearly whether I’m playing with balls-out distortion or pristine clean. It means the band can hear it clearly (without wanting to hear less of it) and as a result, the audience can hear it and like what they hear.

I hope and pray that come the next gig this will tick that box!