Celestion Vintage upgrade

A few weeks ago I upgraded the speaker in the Fender Hot Rod Deluxe I purchased about six months ago.

This came about after a discussion at Sam Ash about the Fender Deluxe Reverb Blue reissue. I tried the Deluxe Reverb Blue Reissue a while back and loved the sound. It’s got a Celestion Blue speaker and I was playing it through a Gibson ES-335.

It was one of those moments where you find a tone that is sublime and you want to figure out a way to save it, pack it up and take it home.

Of course, costs are a consideration so I can’t do that every time I’m in a music store. Given the short amount of time I had the Hot Rod, I thought it might be possible that the dealer would give me a good trade in and I’d be able to upgrade to the Deluxe Reverb. No such luck – the salesman indicated they’d only give me a few hundred bucks.

However, he suggested an alternative approach to improving my sound. He explained that the the speaker in a Hot Rod Deluxe is a fairly inexpensive model while the Celestion Blue in the Fender Deluxe Reissue is a $250 speaker. Upgrading the speaker, he opined would give me a bigger bang for my buck.

After a few days investigation, I decided to buy a Celestion Vintage ($120). Within a few days it was IN. I brought it home to test. It’s a world of difference. It’s a much richer, three-dimensional sound. The regular speaker, although nice, is a bit harsh and flat sounding in comparison. I had heard that it could take months to fully break in a speaker but this one sounds pretty good – if it improves over time – all the better.