Celestion Cream Alnico, experience or IRs anyone?

Alarto

Inspired
Hi, this speaker sounds fantastic in Paul's many comparisons to other Celestions. Anyone tried it with a real cabinet and willing to share your thoughts? Would definitely like to try it as an IR! Haven't found one...

It's said about alnico that it has a smooth compression when driven loud etc... Is that something all IRs capture by default or do you have to mimic it somehow?

 
Great speaker and pretty light too. I got one a couple months ago and put it in a Dr Z 1x12 Convertible cabinet. I've played it on a number of gigs with Axe-FX using the MAZ 38 model and also with a Dr Z Therapy. I've played it mostly with my Suhr Tele, Gibson CS-336, and also at home with my Anderson Strat.

The speaker sounds really sweet and clear. It has plenty of low end, but not too muddy. Plenty of high end for me as well, but it does compress which I guess is the alnico character. It's my first alnico speaker, but I can definitely feel the compression.

It is a beautiful and sweet sounding speaker, but it doesn't have a fast or percussive attack. I kind of miss that a little bit so there is a tradeoff there. I play low gain clean to a little breakup and maybe some light OD in front, so I'm definitely on that side of the spectrum.

I haven't made any IRs of the speaker. I've been using a patch that has an IR of a Celestion Alnico Blue (I think the factory one but can't remember for sure) for output 1 to FOH and my monitor, and then sending output 2 (without cab sim) to matrix GT-800 then to the Dr Z 1x12 Cab. It's been really fun working that way so far!
 
Thanks Sam! "...but it doesn't have a fast or percussive attack". I know what you mean and agree with it 100 %. However, that's something I get from my pickups if wanted. My basic amp clean/crunch is also a low gain with a little bit of breakup (Fender type etc.) and make sure it cleans nicely with my guitar volume knob. Then what I want to avoid... add some drive and you are getting too much attack and end up with kind of "short notes". So natural compression with "long notes" is what I'm after! So, how do you feel the compression really is - just most percussive attack or does it add (feel) sustain as well?
 
Aah, a short explanation required... Bare Knuckle Crawler neck pup does the trick when coil split vs. normal HB mode. I just can't explain why... nothing anything experienced guitarist would think ;)!!!
 
Whoops, life got super busy and I just remembered that I never got back to this thread...

Played a club gig with this speaker last night and the sustain was very nice. I was kind of milking it on some of my solos actually :)

I think it's a great speaker, but I don't have extensive experience with a lot of speakers/cabs/amps to really give an expert opinion. I'm really enjoying it though. That's for sure!
 
Thanks Sam, more fuel to my GAS :) While it's nice to try out many IRs, I've never been 100 % satisfied and confident playing gigs with my pair of QCS K12s. They do their job as monitors but still missing that "real" backline sound. After listening hundreds of sound clips of different speakers I'll take my chances and begin to save money for a decent 212 cabinet loaded with Celestion Cream Alnico & Matrix GT1000FX. Still wishing for an IR of this speaker!
 
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