Weber C10Q
From biocy–(at)–rols.com Sun Apr 19 09:33:59 CDT 1998
From: “Mark T. Van Ditta”
Newsgroups: alt.guitar.amps
Subject: WeberVST C10Q Review (Long)
Date: Sat, 18 Apr 1998 12:53:06 -0400
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Xref: geraldo.cc.utexas.edu alt.guitar.amps:99195
Like many people on the net, I look to this newsgroup for answers to my
questions about amplification-related products. Many people have
taken the time to produce well written and informative product
reviews. I can only hope that this review does justice to this fine
product.
First and foremost, be prepared to wait longer than the posted lead-time
if you want a speaker with an impedance other than eight-ohms. I
ordered two sixteen-ohm and one eight-ohm C10Qs for my Bandmaster-style
cabinet. After waiting the posted, two-week, lead-time, I called
WeberVST to see if they had shipped my speakers. However, to my
disappointment I was told that they were waiting on sixteen-ohm voice
coils. I have heard this song from many manufacturers before, but this
was the first time I honestly believed what they were saying.
Another week and a half went by, and I started to wonder if I should
drop WeberVST a line to see if the voice coils were still backordered
when, to my surprise, two well-packed boxes greeted me when I arrived
home after work. Like many people, I dropped what I was doing, and
immediately inspected the contents.
The first thing I noticed, after opening the package, was that the backs
of the speakers were bare. WeberVST is shipping the speakers without
the decals affixed; so, that the customer can decided were they get (or
do not get) attached. I choose to put the decals on the backs of the
speakers.
The next thing I noticed, while hooking the C10Qs up, was that these
speakers have very small terminals. Threading two, tinned, pieces of
eighteen-guage, stranded wire through the tiny holes in these terminals
is quite a feat; however, it can be done.
Enough of this negative stuff, how do they sound? Well…it took me
until 10:30 PM to get them hooked up; so, I had to wait until the next
day to give them a test run (Cyndi does not stand for loud guitar
playing after 9:00 PM on weeknights). However, after doing so, here is
my first impression:
Guitars: PRS Standard, Ibanez USA Custom S540FM
Amp: home-brewed, solid-stated rectified, Tweed Princeton-style
design, running open-loop with
360 B+ on the plate.
Playing style: my own which is a fusion of Blues, Funk, Jazz, and Rock
The first thing I have say about these speakers is that they are loud,
REALLY LOUD. I had been playing this amp through the speakers in my
Pitbull Forty-Five and my Marshall ValveState 8240. It sounded good
through the speakers in both of these amps; however, neither came
anywhere close to the volume produced by the Webers. I was quite
surprised to see how loud the C10Qs were because this is not the amp
that I have targeted to go into this cabinet. That amp, a
cathode-biased, 6G3-derivative, is still on my workbench. All I can
say is that Cyndi will probably divorce me after I stick it in the
cabinet :-).
Okay the speaker is loud, but how does it sound? Well…the first
thing that came to my mind, after playing the amp the next day, with a
Svetlana 6L6GC installed, was Stax. You know, that sound Steve Cropper
had when he and Booker T. where the house band. The bottom-end is
tight. The top is bright and steely without being harsh. The C10Q
makes single coils sound like single coils, and to steal a line from
Mike Z., it will take your humbuckers off of life support. It even
makes my midrange-thick PRS sound good clean (the PRS is my acid test
because it turns most amps into mud producers when playing cleanly).
After playing with the amp a little more, I was also able to produce a
wide range of Motown-derived sounds. Do you want James Brown-like
soul? no problem! How about about a little funk? no problem here
either! These speakers are just the ticket for a 6L6-amp player who
wants to do the 60s R&B and 70s soul/funk thing.
Okay, C10Qs do the clean R&B/soul/funk thing, but how about the blues?
Well…I popped out the 6L6, and plugged in a 50’s RCA 6V6GT ( I really
like this tube because, while not having great bottom-end, it produces
beautiful midrange harmonics). The 6V6GT gave the speakers a
completely different personality. Yes, the tight bottom-end and steely
top-end where still there, but the midrange fattened up, and they really
began to sing. The tone produced by the C10Qs was not the “R,”
bass-heavy type of fatness, but something totally different. It was a
tone that could most definitely cut through a muddy mix.
In closing, if you are an aging, but not over the hill, musician like
me, who is looking to expand their tonal palate, getting a set Webers is
a great place to start. They will not create your tone; that
responsibility lies with your fingers. However, they will most
definitely enhance and open-up your tone. Give Ted a call, what do you
have to lose except for bad tone?
Mark T. Van Ditta
