Amp Cabinet Spring Sale Schedule

Even if here in Chicago we are under the spell of subzero temperatures, we decided that it is time to start at least thinking about spring. And what better way to do this than to start with a Rhyme Musical Enclosures amp cabinet spring sale for some of the most popular Ceriatone models!

Each cabinet will have scheduled period (two weeks each model) when it can be bought for a 10% off its list price! The schedule will look like this:

Overtone Head

Overtone Head $224.00

March 1 – March 15 10% discount price:

$201.60

TW Heirloom Head

TW Heirloom Heads $189.00

March 16 – March 31 10% discount price:

$170.10

1x12 Overtone Combo

1×12 Overtone Combo $274.00

April 1 – April 15 10% discount price:

$246.60

Muchle$ 1x12 Combo

1×12 Muchle$$ Combo $329.00

April 16 – April 30 10% discount price:

$296.10

18/36w Heirloom Head

18/36w Heirloom Head $249.00

May 1 – May 15 10% discount price:

$224.10

Now go and mark these dates in your calendar and make sure you don’t miss out this cabinet spring sale!

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Mounting Styles

When it comes to mount a power or output transformer to the chassis, there are several ways to do this depending on your available chassis space. If you look in old Fender chassis you will find that the power transformers were mounted vertically, with only a hole in the chassis where the wires would pass through. Marshall on the other hand, had a lot of drop in power transformers where the chassis had to be modified to house one side of the winding. There are generally no ups or downs for either styles. It really comes down to a logical positioning of the transformer in your chassis design so it would not impede with other electronic components.

Mercury Magnetics has a simple system of  identifying their transformer mounting styles. When you order, keep in mind the following characteristics:

• Mounting Method: horizontal, vertical or flat.

• Footprint: the center hole to center hole dimensions.

• Layout: 2 or 4 hole.

Following are the available mounting styles from Mercury Magnetics transformers:

4 HOLE MOUNTING STYLE

Horizontal Mount – the transformer’s bobbin sits in horizontal position:

Vertical Mount – the transformer’s bobbin sits in vertical position:

Flat Mount – the transformer’s laminations (steel sheets that make up the transformer’s iron core) are parallel to the chassis:

2 HOLE A-FRAME MOUNTING STYLE

Usually this style is used to mount chokes or smaller transformers (like reverb transformers, etc.) where mass is not that critical so a 2 hole mount would suffice to keep it in place.

A-Frame Horizontal Mount – the bobbin is in horizontal position:

A-Frame Vertical Mount – the bobbin is in vertical position:

Other Characteristics

1. Endbells (caps that cover the bobbins and laminations) are optional. Not all transformers and chokes can be fitted with endbells.
2. A-Frame Mounts are standardized.
3. 4-Hole Mount transformers mount in several ways, including L-brackets and endbells with “feet” (stamped and folded, one-piece).

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On October 5, 2007 Celestion released a news article stating:

At Celestion all our guitar speakers are designed in the UK. We still manufacture our “premium” speakers, the Heritage Series G12M, G12H and G12-65 and the Celestion Blue and Gold in Ipswich. The remainder are manufactured in our own factory in China. They are made by well-trained staff who using exactly the same machines. Standards of quality and consistency of this product are as high ever, as I’m sure thousands of our customers would testify.

All well up to here, right? But this was enough to infuse doubt (and rightly so!) in die-hard Celestion speaker fans who never questioned their tonal qualities. Unfortunately, our culture suffers from  ‘made-in-China-equals-cheap’ syndrome which (if leaving out the jobs that moved there) is not always justifiable since there are a lot of excellent things made there with exquisite quality – just look around you!

Honestly, I too, started to doubt their reliability. Lately I got the chance to conduct a blind-folded compare side by side using older modern days UK-made speakers (NOT Rola Celestions!) with their newer counterparts made in China (Greenback G12M, G12H30, Vintage 30) . The result was pleasantly surprising! NOT ONE of the Chinese-made Celestion speakers performed lesser than their older UK made models! Same dynamics, cone breakup effect and British voicing. Also they were breaking in the same way over time, proving that the cone material wasn’t changed. Visually there were no differences to tell them apart, so if the little “Made in China” sticker was not there on the magnet they would have passed for a UK made speaker without any problem.

FYI: The AlNiCo Blue-like speakers found in recent AC15 and AC30 Vox amps are actually made in China. Don’t confuse them with real Celestion AlNiCo Blue!

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ProStageGear Les Paul ATA Flight Case (PS-LP1)

What’s In A Guitar Flight Case?

So, among so many guitar flight cases what are some of the qualities you should look into that sets them apart from other cheap ones? Here are some of the most important aspects you should consider while shopping for ATA Guitar Cases:

Comfortable padding – There is really no use to have a sturdy exterior with strong handles, recessed locks, high profile wheels if your guitar is loose and moves all over inside as the case is being dropped in and out the truck or plane. The ProStageGear ATA guitar cases were tailored around the stock dimensions of your precious guitar (be that a Gibson Les Paul, Fender Strat or Tele or Jazz/P-Bass style), making sure that your instrument has a comfortable plush padding but also a tight fit when the case is closed making it practically immovable no matter how the case is handled.

Les Paul case dimensions

TSA Locks approved latch

TSA approved locks recessed lockable latches – Confess it that while you are traveling or flying, or maybe even while sleeping, you have these nightmares of somebody opening your guitar case just to see what’s inside and even touching the surface or strings, or worst… ok, I’ll shut up. If you don’t want anyone come near or touch your newly polished car, why would you want them touch your guitar with their doughnut greasy fingers? This problem is solved in these instrument cases simply by featuring ProStageGear’s own designed recessed lockable latches, where you can use TSA approved locks. Your nightmares are gone. Sleep peacefully now.

Low Profile Wheels

High quality low profile wheels – Ok, you land, but discover that the terminal for your next connecting flight is located at the other end of the freakin’ airport. Oh fun! There’s your chance for the exercise you missed for so many days! But why the sweat? ProStageGear added high quality low profile wheels to one end of the ATA guitar case making walking a breeze from one terminal A to terminal Z!

Battleship Grey Color Exterior

Battleship grey exterior – It’s a no-brainer. Having a black exterior instrument case left out in a hot summer sun calls for nothing but trouble. Heck, you can turn that thing into a portable oven! Imagine your guitar baking in there! Not a pleasant thought. While you should NEVER, NEVER, NEVER leave your guitar case out in the sun, having a grey exterior, averages 10 degrees cooler temperature than common black.

High Quality Handle

Strong Handles – The last thing you need while racing from one end to the other of the airport is to have the handle break off your case – which is THE CASE with many other brands! What use is to have a strong guitar case but have flimsy handles on it? In the end they carry all the instrument case’s weight. Manufacturers are so lost in the details of designing the perfect case that they sometimes forget to build a reliable handle! ProStageGear’s handles are made of thicker metal rod than the usual you would find on others.

The Right Musical Instrument Case

ProStageGear has three guitar cases tailored after the most popular guitars of all times. Of course they will fit same style guitars with no problem at all.

Les Paul Guitar Flight Case

For Gibson Les Paul style guitars there’s the PS-LP1 guitar case:

• Rough inside dims: 41″ x 13″ x 5″
• Weight (net): 25.0 Lbs
• Recessed lockable latches (for TSA approved locks)
• Durable low profile wheels
• Battleship grey exterior.

Fender Strat or Tele style guitar case

For Fender style Stratocaster or Telecaster guitars, there’s the PS-ST1 guitar case:

• Rough inside dims: 40″ x 13″ x 4″
• Weight (net): 24.0 Lbs
• Recessed lockable latches (for TSA approved locks)
• Durable low profile wheels
• Battleship grey exterior.

Electric Jazz/P-Bass guitar flight case

For Jazz/P-Bass guitars, there’s the PS-BC1 bass guitar case:

• Rough inside dims: 47″ x 13″ x 4″
• Weight (net): 27.0 Lbs
• Recessed lockable latches (for TSA approved locks)
• Durable low profile wheels
• Battleship grey exterior.

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… with only one years delay. Celestion was getting ready to release these in the summer of 2008 but things got delayed so they finally arrived in my hands last week. This must be Tone Heaven for those who enjoy the  2×10 speaker cabinets (see all speaker cabinets here).

The first thing worth noticing was that there’s only 5 Hz difference in Resonance Frequency (Fs) between this new Celestion AlNiCo Gold G10 10 inch (80 Hz) and its older counterpart, the  Celestion AlniCo Gold G12 12 inch (75 Hz). This implies that you really aren’t loosing much bottom.  On the sensitivity (loudness) side, however, the Gold G10 is 2 dB less than the Gold G12 that has 100 dB, so it will sound less loud.

From the very start, having a power rating of 40 watts makes the Gold G10 accessible for many popular guitar amps on the market that fit within that range. Not to speak of the fact that you could pair it in parallel (or series) with a Celestion Greenback G10 for a superb combination of AlNiCo and ceramic magnet tone character with extreme versatility and in-your-face vintage guitar tone.

Celestion AlNiCo Gold G10 Nutrition Facts:

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I thought of adding this short tutorial video showing you how to access the Lower Pricing on certain products. These are products we need to display with the Minimum Advertised Price, per whole-seller policy.

However, as you like deals, we love deals too! Se we provided a more personal way to access a lower price than the one advertised, similar to what many sites or magazines do, where you see “Price Too Low To Advertise”, or “Call For Price” – instead of  price tag. This way we keep everybody happy since we do advertise at the Minimum Advertised Price, but also provide a personal customer-to-seller way of a special deal.

But, instead of you calling in for the price, we made it much easier. You only need to submit your email to request the special pricing. In that email you will receive personal instructions how to access the lower prices for those products that have a Lower Pricing button next to their regular price – like this one:

So, keep your eyes open for that button as you navigate the www.GabKits.com web site. You never know what sweet deals you might stumble upon! Once you do, go and spread the word! Here is the video tutorial:

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Heritage G12 M

Celestion Heritage G12M

Introduced in 1960, the Celestion G12M speaker was presented as a version of the already popular G12 guitar speaker.

The G12M, known widely as The Greenback (because of its green magnet cover) featured a medium size magnet (thus the M in its title) able to produce smooth, silky and warm tones with a very well balanced brightness and punch that was able to cut through the most foggy mix of the band.
The Greenback was a very articulate speaker, and prepared the way for many rock guitar players of that age.

But as time passed, the Celestion Greenback’s tonal character deviated from its original counterpart made in the 1960s, since the factory had to adapt to the available materials at the time, but nevertheless, staying the speaker of choice among for the amp builders.

The currently available Heritage Series G12M is a detailed truthful design and reproduction of the 1960s original speaker down to the same available materials used in that era (voice cone) and technology, featuring even the the solder-on connectors.

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Celestion Speakers

What’s up with the fact that every  guitar amplifier using Celestion Speakers receives almost instantly a proper British accent? What on Earth makes them so coveted in our amps, what’s that mystery or aura that defined and sealed the tone of rock for ever?

Read along about the characteristic of some of the most popular Celestion speakers that are on the market today!

What speaker goes with my guitar amplifier?

This proves to be a debatable question very close to a foodie asking “What wine can be paired with my dish?”

Given the fact that each and every guitar amp type (or rather to sound geeky – amp class) has a very distinct tonal character to begin with, it would make sense to match it with the optimal set of speakers. I’ll mainly talk about UK amps as we know them, to narrow down the multitude of existent amp flavors.

A very intriguing aspect is that the amps form one side of the pond will simply not sound proper or as we know they should with the speakers from the other side. There’s a very distinct tonal character in each amp that defines its own historic personality and popping a speaker that comes from another world or time will result in a tone with an identity crisis. For instance, how would a Fender Bassman sound with Celestion speakers, or a Marshall JTM45 through a 4×12″ cab with Jensens?

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Amp Cabinet

If you ever thought building an amp cabinet is an easy and fun job for the DIY guitar amp builder, think again.

After I built my first 18w 1×12″ combo amp cabinet back in 2002, and toiling through dovetail joining the shell, gluing the bracing, stretching the grill cloth on the speaker baffle, not to speak about gluing the tolex on the routed corners of the cabinet, – I decided I’d rather pay someone else who does this for a living and does the job right.

Stage Craft Gear

Boys and Girls, please welcome maestro extraordinaire in guitar amp cabinet artistry, Anthony Bonadio of Stage Craft Gear (also known as the creator of Reason Amps)!
Anthony has been building the cabinets for my Gabriel Amps for the last 5 years that have the now well-known “Bumblebee” look (yellow-black tolex).

And also, since 2007, Anthony is building the amp cabinets available at the Gabkits.com online store for a wide variety of Ceriatone amp models, kits, and with an outstanding degree of customization unheard of in any other amp cabinets sources, like choosing your own tolex color, grille cloth, handles, welt, piping, and so on. Not to mention the outstanding prices available for you!

Now you can finally have that purple- red with pink fuzzy front amp cabinet you always dreamed of !!

A Factory Tour Video

Watch this Stage Craft Gear factory tour video where Anthony explains some of the procedures and materials used to put the amp cabinets together. I am very glad that people like him exists so I don’t have to endure the pains of building an amp cabinet myself!
Check that cool 1909 box joint machine!!

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G12 Celestion Speaker

There are many excellent emulations, copies, clones of Celestion speaker models on the market at very accessible prices and with great tone, but really, when it all boils down, they are just impersonators of the real thing.
I have great respect toward Celestion speakers, simply because they have history. And even if there are many wonderful speakers that try to copy them on Planet Earth, they are really just slightly different flavors of the original Celestion guitar speakers.

The Celestion History

The earliest known record of Celestion’s birth is dated somewhere in 1924 with Cyril French jump starting a small loudspeaker shop in Hampton Wick, UK. French had one of the earliest known cone speaker. It consisted of a bulky cabinet that looked just like a piece of furniture.
As the radio era was in full development, the popularity of Cyril’s invention gave birth to a patent and later was launched under the “Celestion” name (given by Cyril’s brother Ralph) in 1925 as “The Loud Speaker of Distinction”.

From there, Celestion Limited was formed in 1927, producing ‘the finest loudspeaker procurable at the price’, and being advertised as ‘The Very Soul Of Music’ for the hungry radio listening world tired of using headphones.
The 1930s brought Celestion to a full blown manufacturer and was the main speaker source for the entertaining industry (gramophones, etc.).

Later, Celestion had to go through hard times faced by a war-crippled economy along with a fierce competition from British Rola Company (a branch of the USA based Rola Company from Cleveland, Ohio).
A post-war Britain, a hard winter and a shortage of fuel, and power forced Celestion in 1947 to a complete production shutdown.

In 13 April, 1947, Celestion Ltd. was bough by British Rola, and later (July 1948) moved all machinery and staff from Kingston-upon-Thames to Thames Ditton, giving birth to a consolidated company named Rola Celestion Ltd supplying the Television industry speaker needs.

Another acquisition was made in 1949 when Truvox Limited, a public address (PA) manufacturer, bought Rola Celestion Ltd., covering virtually the entire speaker domain from TV sets to cinemas.

A major event dear to our guitar player hearts (and ears), with the rise of the rock era and need for music amplification, was the great fame and success of the Celestion G12 speaker, present in notorious amps of the time such as the lovely Vox AC-30 (Beatles). Strangely, the G12 was in Celestion production since 1936 and was never designed to suit guitar amps.
Notable here is the acquisition of a site by Thames Ditton on Foxhall Road, Ipswich, where the G12 12″ speakers were first to be made in Dec 1968.

(sources: Celestion)

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