speaker swap/wattage question

[puppiesonacid]

umm i have a marshall 4x12 cab being run by a 5150. i have been thinking about switching the speakers (Celestion GT12-75) out of it for lower wattage speakers like Celestion Vintage30's (60watts a piece) or Greenbacks. I always thought that the lower the wattage of the speaker, the quicker it broke up. But i had some people tell me last night that if i ran a cab that had a RMS of 100 watts being pushed by an amp with 120 watts that it would be cleaner cuz there is less strain on the amp to push the lower wattage speakers. idk if all this is true, i really just want to know if i can switch the 75 watters out for 60, 30 or 25 watt speakers and have no problems. thanks again


God bless,


puppiesonacid

[cin]

Wattage is really how much power the speaker can take until the voice coil burns out.

There is a truth saying that you'll have more control over the speakers with more power, but this isn't as important with guitar amps as it is with bass and p.a. setups, where you can have 1000 watt speakers in your subs.
A 100 watt guitar amp will run a 100 watt, 120 watt, 240 watt, or 300 watt cabinet with pretty much the same ease, I wouldn't worry about having how hard you need to push the amp to get the speakers breaking up too much.

What you need to take into consideration is how much the speakers or the amp are distorting. They both do more than you'd think with guitar amps, a clean sound is actually distorted from a clinical point of view, it's the nature of guitar amps.
Most of the distortion we use is the distortion from the amp. The 5150 has six gain stages in it's preamp, so it's going to be pretty distorted going to the cab.

If you want an answer about which speakers to use, I'd say go the vintage 30s. They have enough bass and clarity to maintain defintion, which would help the 5150 out a lot. The greenbacks would sound a bit wooden and buzzy with a 5150 at loud volumes. They do break up quicker than the vintage 30, but they're also voiced differently.

By the way, this would be better suited to being in the guitar amp forum, not the bass amp forum.