Bring new life to a tiny and cheap combo!

[Sil88]

Hi,

I recently had to rely on my old, and normally unused, Frontman 15G ( ) - since for now I don't have access to my routine bigger amp which I don't keep in my apartment. Anyway, I was actually surprised to see that I could get an acceptable clean sound from the little combo, and I managed to use pedals to get good overdriven or distorted sounds.

All good until yesterday, when I started to hear what seems to be a voice coil rub sound (not sure how I can upload an audio file, but I have a recording to share in case). Anyway, the speaker is surely not working properly and the amp is almost unusable with clean sounds. I guess this has to do with the fact that I frequently use an octave shifter pedal set to 1 octave down in combination with a Proco RAT 2 to get some kind of Royal Blood or Muse like sound. Even if I never went above volume 3, I guess the speaker was so cheap that it could not handle this properly and got damaged.

So I was thinking of replacing the speaker with a Celestion Eight 15 (https://celestion.com/product/8/eight_15/), to fix and also improve the amplifier.

Do you think this speaker would be able to work fine with an octave shifter+distortion (again at low volumes, less than 3) or will it also likely be damaged?

Alternatively, do you know any good guitar combo that costs less than 150 USD or EUR that could do the job? And what specifications would be the crucial ones? Speaker size or frequencies maybe?

Thank you, hopefully this is also useful to other users!

[newholland]

ah nice!

im a frontman appreciator myself, though id urge you to find a 25r if you want cheap and decent. i put a celestion 10/30 in mine and have used the hell outa mine! for like 70 bucks... sheesh.. youd be hard pressed to find a better more serviceable amp- clean or dirty!

[newholland]

meantime.. i wouldnt put any money in a 15-- id find a frontman 25 or 65 and run with it. a 15 is okay, but aint much to it. a 25 is actually a usable amp- 15s are kinda still toys.

[Sil88]

Thanks for your opinion newholland!

Yes I agree with the 15 being a toy (and not even a great one), but since I have it around and I'm now facing the problem with the speaker I thought I could improve it by putting the Celestion 8 15.

My only worry is about the ability of that speaker to then handle an octave shifter with a relatively heavy distortion, even at low volumes. For example, would the 25r be fine with these lower and heavy sounds?

Also,I'd like to learn what to look for to understand if a speaker can handle these things or not

[newholland]

Thanks for your opinion newholland!

Yes I agree with the 15 being a toy (and not even a great one), but since I have it around and I'm now facing the problem with the speaker I thought I could improve it by putting the Celestion 8 15.

My only worry is about the ability of that speaker to then handle an octave shifter with a relatively heavy distortion, even at low volumes. For example, would the 25r be fine with these lower and heavy sounds?

Also,I'd like to learn what to look for to understand if a speaker can handle these things or not

guess it all comes down to volume, right?

an 8" speaker is never gonna go very low unless its REALLY powered and has a REALLY high excursion, or is in a big displacement cabinet. and a frontman 15 is none of that.

stepping up to a 10 (like the FM25) or a 12 (like the FM65) will get you much closer with more there there... but i dunno that a low octave and a single speaker open back combo is EVER gonna get you where you wanna go... it'll get you further down the road for sure, though.

most of the issue with frontmans is just that they're relatively cheap, lightweight cabs, and cheap speakers. otherwise.. it's just a basic solid state combo that serves the purpose. the speaker certainly helped mine. the 10/30 sounded great and did clean and dirty tones a world of good. that said-- it's not a FM15, which is pretty compromised from go. i can't make the 25 super loud and hold together... but it does a decent facsimile with the 10/30. the only reason i say don't blow the cash on the 15 is, it's more than likely better not to squander the money and to put it towards a better used amp that WILL come closer to the target. an 8 is always gonna splat under the conditions you're talking about unless it's at speaking volume, even WITH a better speaker IME. you kinda just need more firepower, 8's just bottom out early.

the 10" did okay for me even tuned to c at times, and didn't flub. it's not perfect-- but it did fairly well, and never had issues with the 25 blowing up pretty much ever once i put a $35 celestion in it.