New and Vintage Celestion Guitar and Bass Speakers for 2016

Fresh out of NAMM 2016 and showing now in Europe at the Prolight+Sound and Musikmesse 2016 shows in Frankfurt, Celestion highlights one of its most successful guitar speakers, the Vintage 30, now celebrating “three decades of decadence”, while introducing the Neo Creamback guitar speaker and the new Pulse Bass Speakers.
 
With worldwide headquarters in Ipswich, England, Celestion is a recognized market leader in the OEM speaker driver market, practically in all market segments of professional audio applications. The brand’s reputation in LF and compression drivers for sound reinforcement is such that - contrary to what is the industry’s practice - many well-established manufacturers don’t even make it a secret that they use Celestion drivers. And if we look at the company’s website, no guitar and bass guitar speaker company is also shy of being listed among Celestion’s clients.

Celestion’s origins since its foundation in 1924 are directly associated with entertainment and the British brand was responsible for the first ever dedicated guitar speaker and delivered many of the most memorable performances by guitarists including Jimi Hendrix. Celestion guitar speakers have been an important part of British guitar tone since the birth of Rock & Roll. Traditionally, they’re known for lively and vocal midrange character with plenty of sparkle and chime, which turns into an exciting growl when overdriven, often compressing when pushed hard.

Celestion’s guitar and bass loudspeakers continue to be used by the most popular musical instrument companies and can be seen and heard the world over. A great example of such products is the Celestion Vintage 30 guitar speaker, now celebrating its 30th birthday and of one of Celestion’s most iconic guitar speakers.
 
The Vintage 30
“It’s been 30 years since the creation of the world’s best-selling and possibly the most versatile premium guitar loudspeaker ever made, the Celestion Vintage 30,” announced the company at the NAMM 2016 show in Anaheim.

In 1986, a new breed of hard rock was gaining ground. In the bars of LA’s Sunset Strip, young bands were taking the sleaze-fueled sounds of 70s rock to the next level. Equipment of choice included hot-humbucker loaded guitars teamed with heavily modded amplifier heads, with extra gain stages to deliver higher levels of overdrive, saturation and sustain.

Designed to meet the needs of this new generation of players and their gear, the Celestion Vintage 30 grabbed the spotlight as the ‘go-to’ speaker for the hard rocking players and amp builders of the day. Seemingly twice as loud as any comparable speaker of the time, the Vintage 30 handles whatever overdrive the amp can throw at it, and spits it out in a complex combination of tight bass, meaty mids, harmonically rich, with detailed highs.

With sales of well over one million units, and heard on some of the biggest rock albums ever made; after 30 years the Vintage 30 continues to inspire players and amp builders alike with its volume, tone and uncompromising attitude.
 
The Celestion Neo Creamback
But Celestion is not standing still and relying on its recognized best-sellers for the guitar market. Built on over 90 years of experience, the new Celestion Neo Creamback is a lightweight speaker with an authentic Creamback tone, designed to please those guitar players that want “to rock hard, but roll a little easier!”

Celestion’s engineers have developed a new and innovative way to harness the mighty forces of the neodymium magnet, in order to create the new Neo Creamback guitar speaker. Every ounce a Classic Celestion, the Neo Creamback has been purpose-designed to provide all the magical tone we would expect from a traditional Creamback guitar speaker, while preserving the benefit of neodymium’s much lighter weight.

The new speaker still delivers the low end punch, warm, vocal midrange and sweet refined highs the Creamback is famous for. But at only half the weight of a traditional Creamback, it makes a difference on a portable guitar combo or in a large cabinet full of Neo Creambacks. With an 8-hole pressed steel frame and cream colored rear can, this guitar speaker delivers an output sensitivity (SPL) of 97dB and is available in 8 or 16 ohms.
 
Celestion Pulse Bass Speakers
Finally, among the new music-oriented products for 2016, Celestion also introduced a modern series especially designed for bass guitar. Using its experience on the development of professional loudspeakers, Celestion introduced the new Pulse series with three powerful new ferrite magnet bass guitar speakers.

The development of these exceptional speakers draws on both Celestion’s technical heritage in creating the world’s favorite guitar loudspeakers and the brands in-depth understanding of high powered pro audio drivers. Pulse bass speakers were designed to respond to the needs of contemporary bass guitar players, increasingly experimenting with different styles and techniques and looking for a cleaner and reliable amplification in any situation.

The new Celestion Pulse bass speaker series is manufactured with rigid steel frames designed for maximum energy transfer, using highly responsive Kevlar-loaded cones, incorporating longer voice coils for increased ‘throw’ as well as multi-roll surrounds for enhanced bass response. Pulse bass speakers are available in 10”, 12” and 15” sizes, all featuring Celestion’s industry proven, Finite Element Analysis-optimized ferrite magnet assemblies, constructed to provide the most expressive tones and the highest levels of reliability and performance, even under the most demanding conditions.
celestion.com