(Re-posted From My Other 16Ω Speaker Thread:
Ok, Guys...In all fairness to the Reaper 55Hz, I did some extensive testing this morning. The tube arrangement is unchanged and as follows:
V1: JJEC823
V2: JJ5751
V3: JJ ECC83MG
V4: TAD 7025-WA
I performed testing with my 2016 Gibson Les Paul with 15.6Ω Gibson 498T.
With the Celestion 70/80 installed, I started increasing the gain until I got that flubby speaker break-up condition. This is best described as when the bass signal totally overwhelms a speaker. However, this was with bass at at '5' (1/2 up) Treble at '6' and Mids full up.
On Lead 1, anything over '6' on the gain dial produced this condition.
On Lead 2, anything over '4' on the gain dial produced this condition.
No matter where you placed your EQ settings, the gain increase just destroyed the clarity of the tone and created a thick, muddy mess.
So, I began working with the amp - at stage volume on 40 watt setting - with volume knob at about '4' on the dial. This is insanely loud. I tested it with a palm muted F#, as in JP's 'You've Got Another Thing Comin' which always seems to be a problem area for this amp.
After fiddling about with all the settings for a while, I came up with a really good tone. For the gain to be only on '6' with the JJ-ECC823, it has more overdrive effect than you would think, but still retains clarity and note bloom with a very cutting edge.
Here are the best settings I could dial up. This is the most gain/EQ/Presence/Resonance I can run and still get a clean tone without break-up or muddiness: (Note: This is on the 40 Watt 'Lead 1' setting with 'Tone Shift' engaged)
I also brought out my Boss GE-7 and dialed up a rather flat EQ - a gentle, rounded upward curve - and the amp responded favorably to this pedal, giving a bit more definition and a subtle signal boost for leads. In general, I like to trim off the highs for soloing.
Once I had this sounding good, I swapped out the Celestion 70/80 for the 50 watt, 16Ω 55Hz WGS Reaper. This was literally done in minutes so I could really evaluate the tone comparison.
The Reaper 55Hz had a much more multi-dimensional tone. The lows had more clarity and definition and the highs had less of an edge. This allowed me to increase the 'Presence' and the 'Resonance' slightly and still retain clarity.
So, the 55Hz Reaper was not the cause of the flubbiness and it did have a sonic improvement over the 70/80, although it was really more of a change in frequency than anything else. A very subtle, yet noticeable difference.
Another thing learned. The need for high output pickups - when using only the amp to produce gain - is extremely critical to getting a good tone.
Plug in something with a fairly low output pickup - like my Gibson SG with a 9.4Ω Gibson 57 Classic + and the gain and clarity really fall off. The amp takes on a kind of subtle 'AM Radio' effect from the reduced output. You can increase the gain quite a bit with the lower output humbuckers, but you lose the multi-dimensional effect quickly.
I read an article not long ago about Doug Aldrich's super-high output signature Suhr pickups and he stated something to the effect that he couldn't get a good sound out of his Marshall's without a very high output pickup, which is why the Suhr 17Ω Doug Aldrich Signature Series were created.
Suhr Aldrich Signature Pickups | Suhr.com
I feel like I got a real education this morning and wanted to share the results of this high-volume testing...
