Loaded into many popular branded practice combos the VT Jr is now available to buy for replacement and upgrades. Delivering the same balance and musicality as its big brother the V-Type, the 10-inch VT Jr. has been formulated using the same recipe of old and new design techniques. Expect a juicy low mid punch together with plenty of high end sparkle and the same thrilling responsiveness that will leave you feeling connected to your music.
Have you ever wondered how High End Theatres got great sound? Is it possible to get that same sound in your house? It absolutely is! Come along as Toids DIY Audio takes a look at Klipsch theatre speakers to see if they can replicate them.
But instead of paying over $5,000, they decided to make their own speakers for around $175 each. Want to make them? Check out the video below to find out how!
Celestion components available as standard in good stockists worldwide. Find where to buy in your country.
Thanks to Vance Dickason at Voice Coil for this excellent in-depth analysis and review of the Heritage G12H(55Hz). It’s certainly very interesting to see how a guitar speaker performs under the rigorous test conditions usually reserved for Pro Audio speakers.
Would you use these speakers for precision audio? I think the answer is No! They’re much better for Rock!
Listen to the Heritage Series G12H (55Hz) here.
Find out Where to Buy here.
The Creamback H satisfies the higher power demands of modern guitarists, while channeling the vintage mojo of the original G12H.
Find out where to buy here.
Listen to tone samples here.
Back in the 60s, Celestion took the moving parts of a G12M guitar speaker and put them together with an “H” (Heavy) magnet, to increase power rating. This resulted in the G12H, which had significantly different tone as well as more power handling.
So we repeated this process for the Creamback, carefully incorporating an H magnet with the existing Creamback moving parts. The result was the 75-watt Creamback H. It delivers towering G12H tone with Creamback levels of power handling.
G12H fans will already know what to expect from this speaker: characteristic Creamback tone with a more structured bass and a harder edge. It adds focus and body to make single notes sound thicker while remaining dynamic and articulate, and provides an extended low-end that gives smaller cabinets the feel of a 4×12.
Creamback H is designed to be weapon-of-choice for uncompromising players who know how to handle a high-performance tone machine. It has a gargantuan sonic presence, tailor-made for the big occasion. So load up your best gigging cabinet and let rip!
Featuring a retro-styled cream can, Creamback H is built with an eight-hole chassis for hassle-free upgrading. Available now in both 8ohm and 16ohm impedances.
On the occasion of our 100th anniversary, A Century of Sound: The Story of Celestion is a detailed and engrossing history that tells how Celestion grew from a company building radiograms in a tiny factory in South-West London to become the internationally renowned loudspeaker brand it is today.
Covering 226 pages, this hard backed volume is packed with photographs, illustrations and marketing materials that bring to life a journey spanning the advent of radio broadcasting through to the emergence of guitar speaker digital impulse responses, taking in the pivotal roles that Celestion has played in early home entertainment, the invention of speakers specifically for the guitar amplifier, the early days of pro PA systems, the golden age of home HiFi and the development of high-performance sound reinforcement.
Written by our own John Paice with contributions from Jerry Gilbert and long-term Celestion aficionado and guitar legend Brian May, A Century of Sound: The Story of Celestion is a must-read for all fans of audio technology and offers much to a wider audience interested in 20th Century British social history, and the many twists and turns that occur along the way to attaining global brand recognition.
A Century of Sound: The Story of Celestion is available to buy now from selected on-line retailers.
Ipswich, UK (February 26, 2024) — Celestion, the premier designer and manufacturer of guitar and bass loudspeakers, well-known as the “Voice of Rock and Roll” behind many of music’s most memorable guitar performances, proudly introduces the Celestion 100 Impulse Response Collection. This downloadable library of impulse responses meticulously captures the tone of the Celestion 100 loudspeaker — recently introduced in 2024 commemoration of the company’s 100th anniversary — for any digital music production platform. Whether in a DAW for recording or a modelling amplifier for performance, these impulse responses (IRs) place one of the most iconic and historically significant Celestion sounds within arm’s reach of any musician, recordist, or producer. The Celestion 100 IRs are available for audition and download at celestionplus.com.
The Celestion 100 speaker traces its roots to the original G12, a general-purpose 12-inch radio speaker that was later fortified to meet the rapidly evolving demands of electric guitar amplification in the 1950s and ’60s. This iteration became the T530 or “Alnico Blue,” which worked so well that it was installed in the Vox combo amps (a favorite of The Beatles) that powered the “British Invasion” of the early 1960s. Today’s hardware Celestion 100 delivers the tone of those early alnico speakers and its many descendants and variants, but with more durable materials, state-of-the-art manufacturing processes, and precise tolerances — akin to a collectible automobile that has been not merely restored but tastefully modernized.
The Celestion 100 Impulse Responses digitize these sonic characteristics via a meticulous recording process, beginning with studio-quality, go-to guitar cabinet microphones such as the Royer R-121 ribbon, Shure SM57, and Sennheiser MD421. Each IR thus offers a variety of mic type and placement options and can be loaded into any IR host within a DAW or into stand-alone amp modeling hardware. The result is an authentic speaker emulation that sounds every bit as outstanding as its hardware counterpart.
With the Celestion 100 IRs, musicians can expect a blooming low end and bell-like treble coupled with a sweet, shimmering midrange. When overdriven, the IRs compress gradually and musically, softening the notes’ attack in the exact same fashion as classic Celestion alnico loudspeakers.
The complete Celestion 100 IR Collection includes five cabinet configurations:
These reflect the most widely used setups for studio recording and onstage use across single, dual, and four-speaker cabinet sizes. Each of these can also be purchased and downloaded as a single impulse response, though the full collection represents a significant cost savings compared to buying IRs individually.
Paired with a DAW and IR loader plug-in, modeling amp hardware, or amp-top load box, the Celestion 100 Impulse Response Collection provides authentic tone alongside lively and dynamic response, all without introducing latency. These benefits create a playing experience that is as credibly vintage as any speaker can achieve, but with real-world performance that is predictable and reliable in today’s most demanding recording and performance applications.
The Celestion 100 Impulse Responses join an extensive family of acclaimed Celestion IRs, including the Shades of Greenback Collection, G12-50GL Lynchback, Neo Creamback, Copperback, Hempback, Vintage 30, and many more.
The Celestion 100 Impulse Responses are available for downloadable as individual IRs and as a complete collection at celestionplus.com..
About Celestion Digital
The introduction of authentic Celestion Impulse Responses represented the company’s forward step in making their celebrated speaker tones available as digital downloads. Celestion IRs capture the essential behavior of a speaker in a particular cabinet in the specific space in which it was recorded, including the frequency and phase response of single drivers as well as the interaction of multiple speakers. They offer significant benefits in both recording and live production, enabling the desired tone to be precisely and consistently reproduced regardless of the recording or live sound environment. Explore, audition, and download the extensive collection of Celestion guitar and bass Impulse Responses at celestionplus.com. Celestion’s own SpeakerMix Pro sees the company delivering a truly forward-thinking studio software solution that enables users to get every ounce of tone from Impulse Response technology. The companion Dynamic Speaker Responses (DSRs) for the plug-in exemplify the next generation in speaker response emulation, representing a true advancement in the technology of digital speaker tone. Celestion Plus.
About Celestion
With worldwide headquarters in Ipswich, England, Celestion design, develop and manufacture high-quality professional audio loudspeakers and compression drivers for sound reinforcement, premium guitar and bass guitar loudspeakers. These world-renowned speakers are used onstage and in clubs, theatres and other venues the world over. 2024 marks Celestion’s 100th year, please join us in the celebration. celestion.com
In the year of our 100th anniversary, we celebrate an extraordinary history that takes in the birth of radio, the early days of public address, the development of the world’s first dedicated guitar speaker, making HiFi quality sound available for every home, helping to pioneer the modern festival sound system and capturing the unique sound and response of Celestion speakers in a suite of IR digital downloads.
It’s been quite a ride, and you can read all about it in the new book: ‘A Century of Sound: The Story of Celestion’, now available to buy online.
(Pickering, ON) — Canada’s Yorkville Sound has come a long way since its beginnings in the back room of the original Long & McQuade music store in downtown Toronto where, in 1963, co-founder Peter Traynor built the now-iconic Traynor DynaBass bass amplifier as a rugged, reliable alternative to the models of the day.
Today, Yorkville Sound designs and manufactures a full line of professional PA systems and loudspeakers, instrument amplifiers, installed audio systems, studio tools, microphones, and accessories under its Apex, Traynor, and Applied Research, and Technology (ART) brands, with 220 employees at the company’s 150,000-square-foot facility in Pickering, Ontario.
A leader in instrument amplification and a pioneer in loudspeaker horn and cabinet innovation, Yorkville Sound also distributes dozens of iconic pro audio and MI brands including Gibson, Epiphone, Ernie Ball Universal Audio, and Manley for Canada, and HK Audio and Hughes & Kettner for North America.
In a remarkable career spanning 36 years, Yorkville Sound VP of Internal Affairs Brian Weafer has played a key role in propelling the company forward. His background as a musician and engineer, complemented by his dedication to championing a close-knit corporate ethos that puts the needs of musicians first, has been pivotal in shaping the company’s path.
We sat down with Weafer to gain his insights into music, Yorkville’s trajectory, and the ever-evolving industry landscape.
What is your favorite album of all time, and why?
The two greatest influences for me are Todd Rundgren and Joni Mitchell.
For Todd Rundgren, it’s always going to be Something, Anything. All the songs were so good. He played all the parts himself, he recorded it all himself. It was one of the very first of those kinds of albums, like Prince did and Stevie Wonder used to do.
For Joni Mitchell, it’s Hissing of Summer Lawns. First of all, Joni Mitchell is Canadian. She used to perform in a street called Yorkville in Toronto; it was the Haight-Ashbury, hippie neighborhood. The original music store for Long & McQuade—which we’re all part of the same company—was on Yonge Street, right at that corner of Yonge and Yorkville. Gordon Lightfoot, Joni Mitchell, Neil Young, all these people used to hang out on that street and play for nothing in those days.
When our founders, Pete Traynor and Jack Long, started the company, they went outside and looked at the street sign, it said “Yorkville,” so they called it Yorkville.
What got you interested in music and audio?
I was a jack of all trades when I was young. I played trumpet, French horn, guitar, lots of different instruments. I built my first guitar amp when I was 13 with my dad because we couldn’t afford to buy one. And you know where my dad got the schematic for the amp? From Pete Traynor, the guy who started Yorkville with Jack.
How did you get your start in the industry, and with Yorkville?
Well, I played guitar from a young age, but I also studied as an electrician. I was a quality-control tech for a big wire company. And then I was a touring musician for 10 years. When I came off the road, I saw a job in the newspaper that said that a company was looking for somebody to test guitar amps and things like that. So, I joined, and it was a good fit.
What’s your current position and how did you get there?
Within a very short time of getting the job, they asked me to go into purchasing. And then a short time after that, they asked me to be the warehouse manager, then the purchasing manager. Then I was a vice president of this and that. It didn’t take me very long to move up. Now I’m Vice President of Internal Affairs.
How did your background influence the job you do now, and the company overall?
I was a musician; I had the quality control background. I had an electronics background; I had a computer background when nobody even knew what a computer was. When I was on the road, I studied computer science at a correspondence university. I was building my own gear, tinkering, all those things. I think that tinkering and doing things yourself is what makes good companies into good companies
In the music business, for equipment to tour and be used in these harsh environments, you have to build it almost from the ground up yourself in order to maintain the quality at every level that can withstand the rigors of the road. Because everybody will tell you that it’s okay for somebody’s stereo to have a particular circuit board, but that would not last in a guitar amp, because it’ll just vibrate to death; or in a PA cabinet, where it will just break apart. So, the company has always been quality-minded from day one.
Yorkville is legendary in the industry. In your viewpoint, what’s the main reason for that?
I think we fought tooth and nail to stay true to the vertical integration, all in one building. To this day, everything is made in the building. The metal and wood are brought in and made into things. The electronics are all built in the building. The designers are in the building. It’s been that way since day one. There’s such a push to keep it that way, to keep Canadian people at their jobs.
It’s a culture. And it is very family. I always tell people, we’re an international company who’s managed to maintain that sort of early ’70s culture. That’s hard to do because you’ve still got to compete.
What product do you consider your company’s most innovative?
Yorkville innovated a lot of things over the years. The wedge monitor was kind of invented by Yorkville. Affordable, powered compact mixers. And then Bass Master amps. We had converted Fender-style amps, changed the front end a bit so that they would handle a bass guitar signal.
What do you think is the single most important technological achievement in the industry?
It’s very hard to say what the most defining thing in our industry has been. I think people would say the invention of powered speaker cabinets has been a pretty big thing. And Bluetooth, obviously.
There’s always been a great amalgamation between consumer and high-end consumer products that merge into pro sound, and vice versa. If you had asked me a long time ago if Bluetooth would ever be part of pro sound, I would’ve said no, because why? But then consumers were using sound products for their house parties. And they wanted to be able to run their Bluetooth through their little speakers, like they do their stereo. So, lots of companies started adding all these features, and eventually there’s a merger between what’s considered consumer electronics and what’s considered a pro PA now.
What is the accomplishment that you’re most proud of?
Oh, it’s all the friends I made here over the years, for sure. It’s like family.
Tell us a little about your company culture and your philosophy in leading the team.
I don’t think you’ll find anybody in management in this corporation—and it’s big, now—who hasn’t had some background in music performance.
Some people have had a career at Yorkville for 45 years. The mentality today is that people don’t realize that it is possible to have a forever job. You can have a job that pays you every single week for 45 years, and you can get married, raise kids, buy your house, and put your money away, knowing that that’s there for you. It’s like being in the same band for 40 years. Like the Rolling Stones.
How is your company poised for the future?
We’re not super mega-rich when it comes to investing in things because we’re always about sustainable growth. We’re still big believers in brick and mortar; we support our music stores, and now we’re up to about 100 music stores, so the business grows hand in hand, and it’s quite sustainable.
I’m sure everybody benefits from e-commerce. But in the end, you wouldn’t want to buy a multi-thousand-dollar guitar without sitting down in a store and playing “Stairway to Heaven,” you know? It’s a hands-on, tactile industry.
What music do you enjoy these days?
I still play guitar; I’ve recently switched over to swing jazz and finger-style jazz. My line has been, I used to play three chords for 3,000 people. Now I play 3,000 chords for three people.
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