I have to take back some of the things I said about V30s...

GuitarGuyLP

Active member
I used to like V30s quite a while ago, I had an 8 ohm V30 in a 1x12 cab that sounded great!!! Then I sold it, and I have had probably over 12 different V30s since then. Most in 4x12 cabs, but I would put them in my 2x12s, and 1x12s. They all sounded dull but brittle at the same time, I just didn't like them at all. I am getting a couple of Forte 3D 1x12 cabs, and I have a good number of 8 ohm speakers, but only one 16 ohm speaker, so I had the chance to trade my 16 ohm speaker for a Mesa V30, and it rocks!!!! It reminds me of the V30 I had back in probably about 2003 that was full of awesome. I am starting to think that one must have been a Mesa V30, or at least quite an old speaker when I bought it.

So I take back all the bad things I said about V30s...or at least Mesa's version of the V30.
 
A place and a time for everything, right?

I like V30s but not for every application or with every head. For years I had an old Soldano 2x12 that I was convinced had some proprietary speakers. Best sounding 2x12 cab I'd ever heard. About 8 or 9 years later I found that it actually had V30s! I had a giant Mesa Recto 4x12 with V30s that was god-like for high gain as well.

I don't usually like them with Vox style amps though ...
 
The first speaker I bought in 2003 was from avenue guitars in Edmonton, and they had it there for years before I bought it, but at the time they were the Mesa repair location for Edmonton. The one that I just got I did a trade for a Jensen Electric Lightning with a guy off of kijiji. He took the speaker out of his Mesa 4x12.

I have read a bunch of thoughts on the Mesa V30, and apparently they are still built in the UK, and might use different glues, or something, but there have been a few head to head comparisons that show a massive difference even with the same amp, mic, cab, etc.
 
I just think it would be nice if the Mesa V30s had a different name so that it is easier to tell if you have a Mesa, or standard V30, something like "Black Shadow V30" to keep it in line with the other Mesa speakers.
 
The Mesa V30 is the only V30 that sounds like everyone claims the V30 sounds. I know that Mesa claims the Mesa V30s are no different, that the # code is just a code and they are "stock" V30s, but my ears say different.

Of course the Mesa cab is one of the best bult cabs and it imparts its own character on the tone of the speaker.

Derek
 
There's 5 versions -

T3903 Standard 8 ohm
T3904 Standard 16 ohm
T3987 Marshall OEM 16 ohm
T4416 Mesa OEM 16 ohm
T4335 Mesa OEM 8 ohm
 
By that comparison, sounds like Mesa has done what WGS has and shaved off some highs. They have a more hollow less in your face sound like the WGS. Maybe I'll try some WGS again for half the price!
 
Kapo_Polenton":3kxk960b said:
By that comparison, sounds like Mesa has done what WGS has and shaved off some highs. They have a more hollow less in your face sound like the WGS. Maybe I'll try some WGS again for half the price!

The WGS V30 knockoff makes the plain jane V30's sound like god. Those speakers were awful to my ears. Fizzy, sharp upper mid spike. Broke them in for days , cranked up, to no avail. Luckily, WGS has a liberal return policy. Couldn't send them back fast enough.
 
I have to say I tried a bunch of wgs, and don't care for them at all. I will stick to jensen, celestion, eminence, and scumback for the most part I think you get what you pay for.
 
chumbucket":1981d3jl said:
Kapo_Polenton":1981d3jl said:
By that comparison, sounds like Mesa has done what WGS has and shaved off some highs. They have a more hollow less in your face sound like the WGS. Maybe I'll try some WGS again for half the price!

The WGS V30 knockoff makes the plain jane V30's sound like god. Those speakers were awful to my ears. Fizzy, sharp upper mid spike. Broke them in for days , cranked up, to no avail. Luckily, WGS has a liberal return policy. Couldn't send them back fast enough.


Which model did you not like? They have the Retro 30 and Veteran 30. IIRC one is supposed to be similar to the V30, the other is supposed to have slightly relaxed mids than a normal V30.
 
For a brief moment I thought I liked Chinese v30s better but that didn't last long at all. Mesa v30s :thumbsup: :rock:
 
This is why I bought a custom Mesa 2x12. Best cab that I have heard. These V30s are great compared to the others I have had.
 
The Marshall Vintages are the first Official V30 produced in 1987 for the Jubilee, according to celestion. Then I believe Mesa had their own Proprietary version also. In the early 90s Celestion finally started selling V30s to the public. I've had Marshall Vintages, Mesa, and to me the best sounding were the ones I pulled from a 94 Fender cab. Wish I would have kept them...if you google this subject you can find a very long thread on it in the Marshall forum I think..V30s were produced in England until 2002..or so i read. Older 90s V30s definitely sound great..
 
From Steve Fryette, of Fryette (formerly VHT)...

"The 30 in V30 has nothing to do with power handling. But making a distinction between the Mesa version and the off-the-shelf version is legit, even though it has little to do with actual power handling capacity. The rated power handling of the V30 of any version (see below) is 65W.

The Mesa version is OEM. This is the T4416 model, which is a 16 ohm speaker. It is made in England specifically for Mesa. But Mesa didn't specify it that way. From what we were told by Celestion around 1997-8, Celestion changed the model T3904 (16 ohm) V30 design in the early 90s to make it easier and cheaper to produce. Mesa didn't like it and insisted on the original version, which then became an OEM model. The 8 ohm version of the Mesa speaker is the T4335. To get an OEM model from Celestion requires a large order. This speaker was made on a separate production line from the off-the-shelf V30, which as Van Nord says is fizzy and thin sounding by comparison.

There is a third 16 ohm version only used by Marshall - T3897 - which is even brighter.

When we were using Celestion speakers, we found out about the existence of the T4416 which we had purchased from our German distributor at the time and asked Celestion about it. They had claimed that they didn't offer OEM varitions of the V30, but changed their story when we sent them a T4416 "for evaluation". Then a new rep called us, confirmed that there were in fact two separate V30 production lines and agreed to make us a special T Number OEM speaker. After a couple of months back and forth, we placed a large order and requested the special number assignment, at which time they cancelled the order and reneged on the deal. That's when we switched to Eminence. We haven't used Celestions speakers since.

It's not that V30s don't sound good with our amps. It's just that the T4416 sounds better. The T3904 is now made in China and after all these years, the P50E does what we wanted Celestion to do originally - and does it better, in fact - so we don't need Celestions help.

So, if you like V30s, there is nothing about the amp design that will be compromised using a V30. Our amps are not voiced "only" for the P50E. What is optimized for the P50E is the cabinet design. In that, the P50 will perform better in our cab than any others.

And now you know that when you say V30, you could be talking about 5 different speakers - that all sound slightly different:*

T3903 Standard 8 ohm
T3904 Standard 16 ohm
T3987 Marshall OEM 16 ohm
T4416 Mesa OEM 16 ohm
T4335 Mesa OEM 8 ohm

*When you change the impedance rating of the speaker, you also change the inductance of the coil which changes the resonant frequency among other things. Also an 8 ohm speaker will be driven by the amp set at 8 ohms which lowers the amplifier impedance (compared to the 16 ohm setup), and thereby lowers the amplifier damping factor, which flattens out the system (amp plus cab system) frequency response and resonant behavior. So if you have 2 identical amps and 2 identical cabs - one cab loaded with 8 ohm speakers and amp set to 8 next to one loaded with 16 ohm speakers and amp set to 16, they will sound noticably different. The 16 ohm rig will usually sound brighter and deeper.

Personally I prefer the 4416, but not in a Recto 4X12. And therein lies the rabbit hole - you can't accurately compare like speakers in unlike cabs."

Source...http://www.fryette-users.com/forums/sho ... s-better...
 
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