Eminence Red Coat Series Private Jack 12" 50W 8 Ohm Guitar Speaker - Premium Black Cabinet Speaker for Blues, Rock & Studio Recording

This is a very extensive review, but I am so pleased with the tone from my upgraded speaker, I wanted to share my experience with everyone, especially those guitar players who are on a budget and can't afford the high priced equipment. After much research on the internet, I chose the Eminence Red Coat series Ramrod 10 inch guitar speaker as an upgrade to the stock speaker in my recently acquired (used) Fender Frontman 25R guitar amplifier. Some comments on various guitar oriented web sites advised against upgrading an inexpensive solid-state guitar amp, recommending that you should save up and buy a "better," more expensive amp rather than waste money on a cheapie. WRONG! Personally, I liked the classic "Fender" clean sound of the Frontman and it came equipped with a true spring reverb and two channels, one "clean" and one for gain/distortion. One of the most common criticisms of this (and many other solid state amps) is that the distortion channel sounded harsh and "artificial" as opposed to the warm, more "musical" distortion of a true tube amp. With the stock speaker that's a pretty valid criticism and some 25R owners acknowledged this and said they love the amp mainly for its clean tones, but with the Ramrod installed, the gain/distortion channel really comes into its own. More on tone below.Unboxing the Ramrod and comparing it to the stock speaker, you can see that the Ramrod has a much larger magnet, and is very solidly built. The Ramrod spec sheet says it weighs 6.4 pounds and has a 30 ounce magnet (I wish I would have weighed it before I installed it, but I didn't think of that at the time). The stock speaker weighs just over 2-1/2 pounds on my postage scale! This speaker swap will make your 25R a few pounds heavier, but the tone improvement is well worth it, and its not a very heavy amp to start with. My research on the Ramrod indicates that the speaker cone is ribbed, and is made in England for Eminence (Eminence is an American company) while the rest of the speaker parts are made and assembled in America. Apparently the ribbed cone is at least partly responsible for what they call the "British" tone.Changing the speaker was a very simple procedure on the 25R: Remove two long Philips head wood screws on either side of the amplifier cabinet and press the speaker magnet from behind. The silver cloth-covered face board of the amp will tilt forward and can be lifted out of a slot in the bottom panel of the amp. Before you lift the face panel out, unplug the two speaker wires from the bayonet connectors on the back of the stock speaker (on my amp, the connectors were plugged fairly tight, but they did come off with a little wiggle and a firm pull). On my amp, the white wire is positive and the black wire is negative/ground (this is normal color coding for many amps & other equipment). Both speakers have a + and - symbol on the fitting that the wires plug into. The speaker is held to the face panel by four nuts around the perimeter of the speaker (you can see these through the open back of the cabinet before you start disassembly). Take the nuts off and the speaker lifts off of the mounting bolts. The new speaker has perimeter mounting holes that line up with the mounting bolts. Make sure you orient the speaker so that the bayonet clips for attaching the speaker wires are oriented in the same position as the original speaker, then bolt it into place. Tighten the bolts firmly, but don't go too tight or the mounting bolts could strip or come loose from the face panel. Place the assembled speaker/face panel in the cabinet bottom groove, attach the speaker wires to the correct respective positive and negative bayonet clips, and pivot the top of the face panel into the cabinet. Replace the two long wood screws into either side of the amp cabinet. Screw them in firmly but remember they are wood screws going into soft wood (maybe even particle board) so don't go past "firm" to "stripped!" The process will be similar for many other amps, the variable being how to open up the cabinet. Some amps will require removal of the speaker through the back. To me, the nice thing about speaker replacement is that ordinarily no soldering or special equipment is required.Tone: Eminence makes several different 10 inch speakers for guitar amplifiers and they have an excellent web site that includes a page they call the "Tone Guide." This page has a collection of sound demos for most of the guitar speakers they sell, so you can listen to the different speakers they offer in comparison to each other. They also include a description of the characteristics of each speaker. While these descriptions are highly subjective, I think they are a good indication of the relative merits of the sound qualities of each speaker. Eminence divides their speakers into categories under the names "Patriot Series" (having a classic American - read "Fender" sound) and "Red Coat Series" (having a classic British sound as in "British invasion" groups like the Kinks, the Rolling Stones and the Who). Based on reviews and recommendations from online enthusiast sites and Amazon, I narrowed my choices to the Patriot Series "Copperhead" and "Ragin Cajun" speakers and the Red Coat Series "Ramrod." I then went to the Eminence Tone Guide descriptions and sound demos and ultimately chose the Ramrod over the Ragin Cajun because of its warmer midrange and slightly better sounding (to me) demos, but it was a very close decision, and I am confident any of the speakers in question would have made a big improvement over the stock speaker. Give the demos a listen and choose for yourself. Easily noticeable improvements over the stock speaker are: a) its LOUDER!, b) the clean channel sounds better, the Fender Telecaster I play is known for its "twang" especially from the bridge pickup, and high notes can sound rather harsh, but the Ramrod delivers high end notes that are smooth and bright without being harsh, c) the gain/distortion channel now sounds GREAT in my opinion, and after hearing it for myself, I understand what Eminence and others are talking about when they describe "Classic British" tone. The tones I can now get from the Gain channel are reminiscent of early Kinks (You Really Got Me) and even Rolling Stones (much closer to the authentic "Satisfaction" riff than the stock speaker could produce). Sure, you could get better tones from a real Marshall tube amp, but that could cost over ten times what my used Frontman with a speaker upgrade did (less than $150).I highly recommend the Ramrod as a ten inch replacement/upgrade for modest guitar amplifiers. This is the second amp I have done a speaker upgrade to. After similar research, I put an Eminence Cannabis Rex in my fender Blues Junior and it was also a great improvement, to what I thought was an excellent amp to start with. FYI, I am a self taught guitar enthusiast of limited ability, but I am inspired by the improvement in this, my main practice amp. I've only had the upgraded rig for less than a week, and I'm playing every day because I love the sound of it.I almost forgot to mention the cool guitar picks that were included in the box with my new speaker (along with an "Eminence inside" badge for the amp, which is nice but I probably won't use...). I received two guitar picks with a full color Union Jack on one side and an eminence label and "RED COAT, pick your sound" on the other. Very cool, and my favorite guitar picks when I play my Ramrod equipped amp!