Now you know I love all things Musicman, but I need advice.

[Spudmurphy]

As well as my prize MM guitars I also have two music maN Amps. My query is with the RD 50 (all tube) 112.I have built an extension speaker cabinet for it that will house an 8 ohm 12 speaker.
My problem is which one?

When playing the amp it really has a great bass response. I can eq it to get the chimy high end response too. I'm looking for a speaker that will still be warm. I was going to go for an alnico speaker but e.g. webers are expensive over here.

My quandary is, do I get a 50 watt speaker, a 120 watt speaker or what.

I have posted on the MM amp forum but it is a lot slower over there, and I know that there are people on this forum who are really clued up on the technicalties surrounding this.

So any advice / reasoning greatly appreciated, but it has to be around £80 (($100 or so dollars).

Cheers

oh and as an aside did any uk'ers see my niece Becca on Great British Bake Off watched by 6.5 million viwers in the uk (one in 9 people)? We Murphys are proud of you!!!

 

[DrKev]

Well done to Becca!

re: speakers, as long as you choose one that can handle the power of the amp, there is no real advantage to choosing a speaker based on it's power handling, especially if you never the run the amp flat out. I also wouldn't worry about alnico vs ceramic, I would just choose based on tone. Use the Watford Valves "sound factory" (under the 'media' menu) and you can hear the differences between speakers. Huge differences in tone that can drastically change the signature sound of your amp. It's good to know what to expect. They list speakers by Celestion, Harma, Jensen, Tayden, Tone Tubby and Weber.

 

[TNT]

Spud, I had that exact same amp - loved it!! I would say a (70w?) Celestion Heritage or (60w) Vintage 30.

 

[GarMan]

I would look into Warehouse Speakers. I think the ETS-65 would be great.

 

[Spudmurphy]

great advice - thanks everybody. just been advised by my guitar workshop buddy that he has taken two 8 ohm speakers out of an ac30. they look very much like an ev speaker but are labelled randall - rated at 70 watts. will be interesting to try one bof these out.

 

[TNT]

You're going to like those, they project really well, however it may be a "tad" too clean for you???

 

[Spudmurphy]

That's worrying, because I don't want to go further down that sound spectrum. Had another bit of news insofar as he can let me try a Celestion Vintage 30 too.

I've made an extension cab that the RD50 sits on nicely. I'll need to put new grill cloth on the amp and I'll use the same cloth on the extension.

It's a shame that you just cannot get the MM Grill cloth anymore - the Fender cloth is VERY similar, but corksniffers/rivet counters know that the rectangle in the weave of the MM cloth is slightly smaller. I wonder where MM got their cloth from/who was the supplier?