Surprise Match for my Quilter Superblock UK

Finding the Right Speaker for my Quilter SuperBlock

I recently discovered what I think might be the perfect speaker for my Quilter Superblock UK and the result might surprise you!

The short story and the main point of this post is:

Have you tried using your amp with a speaker that is outside of the generally-recommended type for your amp? I.E. An Amercian speaker with a British amp?
It might be the secret ingredient you need for your rig!

A Little About the Amp

I’ve been getting to grips with my Quilter Superblock UK amplifier for about a month now and I’m really happy with it. It seems capable of doing everything that I need from a guitar amp, providing me with a broad range of vintage and classic guitar tones. It does this in conjunction with a bunch of pedals to help me cover plenty of useable and recognisable tones from the 1960’s to the 1990’s; perfect for the genres of music I have to cover.

That also suits me perfectly for the tones I like to create when recording my own music.

After spending years determining the right combination of pedals and amp it takes to keep me happy I’ve turned my attention to arguably the biggest make or break factor in the entire rig – the speaker.

Talking Loud & Saying Something

Fortunately there is a much smaller selection of available guitar speaker where I live (in SE Asia) than, say the USA or Europe. Now I say fortunately because the limitation on choice limits the number of uncertain decisions I have to make. In a nutshell, to keep things simple my choice is between about 5 or 6 Celestion 12″ speakers. G12M Greenback, G12M-65 Creamback, G12H-75 Creamback, Vintage 30, G12H-30 Anniversary, G12T-75.

After weeks of comparing reviews and Youtube demos I still can’t come to a definitive decision as to which one I want to try (there is no luxury of 30-day return policy here).

What helps a little and may help you is that Pat Quilter (the designer of the Superblock amp) replied to a question I sent to Quilter making a good case for the G12M Greenback (it was mainly a question about wattage and impedance regarding the Greenback).

Here I quote:

Hello Rob

In general the 25W power of the SuperBlock is a great match for the 25W Greenback, which is an awesome speaker. 8 ohms would however be the ideal matching impedance.

Using a 16 ohm speaker will start out being a little louder but at Master around 60-70% you will sense the amp hitting its internal voltage swing limits, so the ultimate volume won’t be quite as loud but it should still “play well” especially at less than 60% Master, which will be quite loud.

Although today’s higher power speakers are great sounding there is some magic in the tone structure of low power speakers, due to their crisper old-school paper voice coil formers, which don’t handle the power of the more modern high temperature materials, but have a certain clarity. I would consider an 8-ohm (ceramic) Greenback as an ideal companion speaker.

Best regards

Pat Quilter

But here’s the issue I have. I would probably be very happy with a Greenback in my 1×12 cab, but it’s a lot of money for me to invest to take the chance, so I’ve still been spending too much time listening over and over again to demos and re-reading other players’ opinions on the different speaker models and, taking into account their own musical tastes.

The conclusion. I will only find out if a speaker is right for my rig or not if I pony up and get one. Well it’ll have to wait. However, in the meantime I might have got lucky, so here’s more of the story.

Under my Nose the Whole Time?

The tone I thought I liked/wanted from a speaker appears to be revealing itself as something I actually want to avoid. Not only that, but something I have been actively trying to avoid for a few years, but going in the wrong direction in the process! A recent accidental revelation has me optimistic, but I won’t know until the next gig where I get to try it out and see how close I am to this moving target of tonal satisfaction.

I have four guitar cabs, which are:

Orange 1×8 (20w) in an ISO cab for recording (this is actually my perfect tone in the studio, but I have trouble replicating it live.
Tonetubby alnico Red 1×10 (50w) in a DIY cab. Very open sound at high volume, but too dominent in the low mids.
Kustom Defender 1×12 (30w). Cheap, but decent-sounding speaker. A bit dark and midrangey at moderate volume and a bit shrill at stage volume.
Jensen C10R (came out of a Fender Princeton Recording Amp). Bright, but not shrill. Definitely not a room-filling, big sound, but fit’s into a mix really well.

I used to love the Tonetubby and it’s still a great speaker, but recently I’ve come to realise that I don’t like the midrange. It’s very prominent (in the low mids) and not easily dialled out. It seems to compliment blackface Fenders very well though because the high frequencies are very smooth.

The 8″ Orange is not even a choice because it stays in the ISO cab in my studio.

The Kustom is definitely useable, but not quite there, again in the midrange and it’s 16ohms should I find I need just a little more headroom or volume from the amp.

The Jensen, well this is the real story here. I replaced the Jensen in my Fender Princeton way back in 2008 (when I got it) with my Tonetubby. It was a huge improvement, then I moved to SE Asia from England (with the Tonetubby-Loaded Princeton) and the Jensen sat unused until 2015 or 2016 when I brought it back to Asia with me after a trip to the UK. However I didn’t use it, my friend did in his Fender practice amp.

Ever since swapping the Jensen for the Tonetubby I just decided that the Jensen wasn’t my kind of speaker. A year or two ago I re-acquired the Jensen and put it into a DIY cab which, again was seldom used and since using more Marshall-voiced amps for the last few years I haven’t even considered the Jensen C10R to be an option.

This week, after getting the Jensen back from being out on loan for a while I decided to try out the Superblock UK (a Marshall-voiced amp) with it for the first time. I think I may have found the recipe I was looking for, but didn’t know it.

The Jensen is much more subdued in the low midrange, which is the frequency range I’ve grown to particularly dislike and is the key to determining whether I like the sound or not. The Jensen C10R sounds less weak in the low frequencies than I remember and it also allows me to turn the bass on the amp up more. With the other speakers I have to turn the bass to minimum on the Superblock.

The biggest revelation I have comes from the words in Pat Quilter’s email about the tonal properties of lower-powered speakers. The penny dropped when I read that and I realised that I’m one of those guys who prefers the lower-wattage speakers. Looking back at all the amps I’ve ever had, the best ones always have speakers with a wattage of 25watts or less in them.

The Quilter SuperBlock is loud – very loud. I am certain that I won’t get my master volume past halfway, if I even get it that high when I play live. Therefore I think the Jensen will handle the 25w Superblock just fine. I just saved a bunch of money… for now!

This has got me thinking that maybe my ideal mix for my favourite guitar tones can be had by combining a typically British-voiced amp with a typically American-voiced speaker. I’m fond of dialling the mid out a bit, not in the modern, high-gain, scooped-mids sense, but I believe that the vintage Marshall tone has less midrange than people think, especially the low-mids.

Anyway, none of this is scientific, but just a conclusion I’ve made in determining what factors I need to consider when creating my preferred kind of guitar tone and I hope it gives you some ideas if you are on a similar tonal path and if you’re fanatical about all this to have read this far. (thanks by the way)

When I have more disposable cash I may end up getting a Greenback just so I know what it sounds like with my rig and if I get myself a Superblock US, I won’t be at all surprised if a Celestion G12M Greenback is the speaker that I prefer to use with it!

I always seem to find ways of bucking the trend!