Eminence SWAMPTHANG 12-Inch Lead/Rhythm Guitar Speakers

I have been A/Bing the 12" Swamp Thang, Cannabis Rex and Celestion G12H 70th Anniversary in 3 Pre CBS Fender amps (black face Princeton Reverb, black face Vibrolux Reverb and brown Vibrolux) with 3 Fender guitars ('66 Telecaster, Nocaster relic, Esquire relic). I have not made up my mind as to which speaker to put in which amp but will say this- the Swamp Thang is an impressive speaker. It is efficient (loud), punchy (dynamic) and clean. It does not crap out on the bottom end and the highs come through with no clouding. I think it gives me everything the amp is putting out. The Princeton sounds bigger than it is and there's no fuzziness on the bottom end. The BF Vibrolux thinks it's a Twin Reverb (but in a good way!) and the brown face Vibrolux sounds like I hadn't heard it with the other speakers it's had in it over the decades (Altec, SRO, original Jensen). Now, do I love it? Yes and no. Being a Tele/Esquire player I love the clear bottom end the Tele puts out but it's ultimately important to not cause pain in the high end. The Swamp Thang is very open on the top. I love the tight bottom end. I kind of wish I could have the top end of the Cannabis Rex with the bottom end of the Swamp Thang. The Cannabis Rex has a lovely warm/softness. It softens the two black face amps nicely. It gets a little fuzzy on the bottom end with the Princeton Reverb. I might put the Swamp Thang in that one. I have to be careful with the tone knob on the Tele/Esquire. Chords ring out nicely. Leads on the unwound strings can be kind of bright. It makes the PR louder than any speaker I've had in it. If I was playing more country gigs (anybody playing dance gigs these days?) this would be a perfect match for the black face Vibrolux. It's loud and clean. For blues, r&b, r&r the Cannabis Rex is better. With the Swamp Thang in the brown face Vibrolux the tone controls become powerful. Once again, I have to be very careful with the treble knob. The Cannabis Rex in the brown Vibrolux is perhaps the warmest, softest amp I've ever heard; really sweet with a lot of character and personality. The Celestion is not bad by any means. Just much prefer the two Eminence speakers.

First off, this is a honest review, coming from a common person. I have no affiliation with any companies what so ever. I have for sometime been reading reviews, and articles about how to improve my newly purchased Fender Blues Deluxe (purchased March 2024). Not that I thought the amp sounded that bad stock. I will say that I have noticed that it has a transparent cloudy, muffled tone. Let alone would my ears notice a $150.00 speaker upgrade. Amazon had the Eminence "Swamp Thang" on sale, and thought its got to be a improvement regardless. The speaker was delivered today 2/12/25, and all I can say is WOW !! This speaker is incredible. I was worried that my ears couldn't really tell a difference. The difference is night vs day. It even increased the touch sensitivity to a level, I didn't want to put my guitar down to clean up the mess I made. Fair warning, keep fingers out of the electronics, very high voltage. Remove the tubes, unhook speaker cable, reverb tank. Then remove the entire chasis. Installation was straight forward after that. Tighten speaker screws diagonally to avoid warping speaker frame. Kudo's to Eminence Speakers for a FANTASTIC speaker, thats 100% American made. You will notice a BIG difference from the stock speaker. Honestly I thought all the propaganda I was reading was a sale tactic. If you have a Fender Blues Deluxe and looking to upgrade, this speaker is a BIG step in the RIGHT direction. Spend the money, buy the " Swamp Thang !!! "

I don’t normally write reviews, but if you’re reading this, then you’re probably well into the bottomless pit of speaker demos & reviews, so here goes, hopefully this helps. I chose this speaker to replace the worn out Jensen in my custom shop Hot Rod Deluxe. My HRD is one of the limited edition stained wood cabinet editions fender put out between 2001-2003 I believe. They only made about 500, but I’m pretty sure it’s still the standard HRD guts in a pretty box. Anyway, right out of the box there was a noticeable difference. Mainly, it was much louder, so much louder in fact, that it caused me to notice that my power tubes were about to die, but that’s another review. I’ve got about 15 hours on it & it’s starting to loosen up & break in. At first the bottom end was deep & “crunchy” for lack of a better word & the painful ice pick highs were gone. The bottom has smother out a bit, but still pretty gritty. In the last few days the top end has really started to brighten up. So much so, that every couple of days I find myself adjusting the EQ to compensate. I actually think I like it a little better when it was darker & more subdued. As a couple of other reviews have stated, this won’t change the sound of your amp as much as it makes it sound bigger & louder. As it breaks in it seems like it’s a pretty neutral speaker staying true to your amp. For me the bottom end was the biggest difference because the old Jensen was just flat & worn out & this rounded it back out. I think if you’re looking for a heavier juicy thick tone maybe consider the Texas Heat. If you like your amp/guitar combo & just want a louder more rounded full sound without quite so much harsh high end, the Swamp Thang might be a good choice. My 2nd biggest reason for this purchase was the price. I got mine for $109, but it looks like they have gone up in the last couple of weeks. Really wanted one of the Celestion Alnico series, but at $200-$300, yep wasn’t happening. Didn’t want to get into decibel ratings & all that because too much info made my shopping for speakers take 6 months. I’ve been playing & gigging for 40 years & don’t have a clue about most of the info in the demos & reviews, just wanted it to sound good. Eminence look to be well made speakers & I don’t think anyone can be disappointed with their quality. Good luck, hoped this helped!

I have a Carvin SX200 2x12 combo that is 150 watts and i wanted speaker that will handle the power rating. It was the same size as the stock V12 speaker. I'm thinking this original was also an eminence they look the same. The Swamp Thang cleaned up my lower end nicely without getting muddy. It was easy to setup. Weight is the same as stock. It sounds loud and clear. I play clean classical music through Seymour Duncan Sentient neck pickup and this speaker sounds great paired with the Texas Heat on my open back combo. Definitely improved my sound and tone. It still hasn't broken in but I'm sure it will sound better with time. With these speakers i didn't even need my EQ in the effects loop. All the strings sound loud and clear.

This thing thumps! I replaced the stock speaker in my Mustang III v2 with this Swamp Thang (the black speaker in the pictures) and I'm loving the new sound that it puts out. It's louder - much louder than the stock speaker, a Celestion Professional G12T-100 (the silver one in the pictures), and lets me crank the volume without the without making the sound seem strained. It used to be that if I pushed the volume past 6 on the stock Celestion, the sound came out like it was missing mids and bass. I play a Strat so the bottom end loss makes this bright axe sound like it's squealing instead of screaming. With the Swamp Thang, you can hear it all the way to 10! Perfect fit; no mods or drilling needed. The Celestion's magnet was about 5.25" in diameter while the Swamp Thang measures at about 6.25" and is taller both in the magnet and the cone. Obviously, the extra magnet weight makes the speaker heavier when transporting to and from but I can live with that knowing that the sound and volume I've been looking for is now available with that weight. This Eminence product shows off the company's workmanship as the speaker's build is great - true to the prideful statement of being Made In America. I couldn't be happier with the results - and for less than a Benjamin Franklin! I play blues, gospel, rock, and country and this speaker compliments each style with a fatter sound that can be warmer if you want while also being able to handle the grit if you want crank up the distortion. Fender should have put these in the box to begin with - Great stuff Eminence! I'll be buying two more for a cabinet later on.

Awesome speaker! I took it and put it into one of those Harmony the speaker boxes cut out a third of the back hooked it to my power amp and that baby really cranks out some nice clean sound. Thank you

So far, the speaker sounds great. Having to adjust my eq quite a bit from the unmarked Chinese speaker that came in my Peavey Bandit, but more settings sound good than before. Was afraid the bass would be too boomy, but it's actually fairly tight AND extended. The speaker is easy to eq. One thing I didn't like, and another reviewer had the same problem, is that the dust cover came dented in. Couldn't get it out, so just installed it as is. Also seemed to be a crease in the surround, but nothing really bad. But, for the price, I expected more. Whatever, it sounds good. Clean or dirty, but mostly dirty, it sounds awesome.

These Swamp Thangs Sound Great and built quality is superb. Highly recommend if you are looking for an upgrade. Eminence is the way to go for solid sound.

I have a hand wired Hoffman BLACKFACE DR and it had a 20 watt Celestion Greenback when I got it. I tried a 25 watt Weber 12F150 that sounded good at low volumes but anything past 4, the bass would get mushy. The Swamp Thang sounds fantastic right out of the box. At low volume, I can turn up the bass setting to 8-9 and get that rich deep bass that sounds so good with a Strat. At higher volumes I just turn the bass down to 4 or so and it remains tight. I was going to get a Celestion Redback, but at half the price, this speaker is fantastic. The highs come through clear but not ice pick at all. A telecaster simply sings through this amp speaker combo. +10 on the satisfied scale.

I absolutely love to tone of this speaker! I generally do clean stuff: jazz, blues and country mostly. This speaker provides a very full and rich tone for jazz. It also has a nice deep tone country leads, especially picked on the bass strings. With a tele or strat, this speaker does a good job taming any harsh highs so you can really dig in. It also brightens up reasonably well if your tone controls have the range; that's the nice thing about building your own amp. I especially like the way this speaker sounds with the '63 fender reverb tank and fuzz face distortion! The extra lows really fill out the sound with these effects in a way I didn't expect. If you play clean Jazz, country (Waylon, Cash, etc..) or just generally like a nice full clean sound, this if for you. If you're into heavier stuff, I'm sure you won't be disappointed with the mids and bass...this thing will melt your face. Currently, I'm using a home-built 100W transistor amp. Really, for cleans, the speaker is largely what defines your sound, and this speaker has a lot of character. Without question it was the right choice for my style and my amp!

Put this speaker together with an 8 ohm The Governor in a ported Seismic 2 x 12. Absolutely fantastic!! Clean tones are sparkling. Crunch channel does exactly that. Super crisp and meaty. Very easy to get lead tones to sing at every tone dial position. Crushing bass and mid bass for anyone who tunes down. All channels have great depth due to the two different speaker frequency curves. Highly recommend the combo for anyone who plays blues to ground shaking metal. Now I want to combo Private Jack and The Wizard.

I needed a bit more power on gigs from 100 watt speaker I’ve been using. I put the speaker in rocktron cabinet with the swamp thang replacing the speaker that came with it. I found for the jazz and Latin stuff I was doing mostly clean I got great tone, more depth than 10 inch I’d been using and more than enough volume for club dates. Warren

Heavy magnet easy install still braking in the speaker, but I like it so far.