# Marsland Princess Ten Speakers



## tonenut (Mar 1, 2019)

I don't see much information out there on vintage Marsland speakers used in guitar amps, so I thought I'd put my two cents in. I found a pair of perfect condition Marsland Princess Ten speakers in an old home-built stereo system, so I pulled them and tried them in my Peavey Delta Blues 210 amp. The Princess Tens are 10 inch, 15 watts, 8 ohms, ribbed paper cone with a wizzer cone, light dope, and smallish ceramic magnets. I have to admit I wasn't expecting them to sound like much, but I was actually surprised by their great tone. Compared to the Blue Marvels that came with the amp, the Princesses had less lows, more mids, and similar highs. To me the Blue Marvels seemed like a fairly neutral sounding speaker, but the Princesses had a lot of colour. They have less detail and touch sensitivity than the Weber speakers I have used, but they are still very usable in this regard. The Princesses are kind of reedy, somewhat raw, and really jangly especially with slight blues overdrive. With overdriven sounds they add a bit of fuzz to the mix, probably because of the enhanced treble from the wizzer cones. They have an edgy sound that really cuts through the mix. They sound great paired in the Delta Blues, and the overall tone is enhanced when I plug in my 15 inch Weber Thames extension cab that delivers super rich lows and breathy detail.


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## Tone Chaser (Mar 2, 2014)

I built hi fi or stereo speakers around 1970. I used 12” Princess speakers and Phillips dome tweeters. They sounded great for the money and work required.

However the Princess speakers had foam surrounds. I drove those speakers hard.
The foam surrounds disintegrated by the early ‘90’s.

I still have a high end coaxial alnico Princess 12” from the ‘50’s. It was a benchmark speaker that has Stromberg Carlson badging on it. It is a beast of a speaker, but have never tried it with an actual guitar amp. I did try using the Stromberg Carlson hi fi tube amp and the large, ported cab, that sported the alnico Princess with my piece of shit, Japanese Galaxy, semi acoustic guitar in the ‘60’s. I bought that hi fi gear for $10 from a customer, when I was delivering Admiral colour TVs for a job.


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## Granny Gremlin (Jun 3, 2016)

Welcome to the joy of cheap speakers. Even in the ceramic era, there were some Marslands that were good - mostly the hifi ones. By the end of the 70s the Marslands in Traynors and Garnet were shit (especially the ones in the 4xX PA towers and smaller/cheaper combos), but they did have aftermarket guitar speakers (e.g. Tallman series) that were still great.

The Princess 10s, being Hifi speakers, will have extended top end (maybe bottom too) and less of an upper mid bump than 'guitar' speakers of the same size, which can be just the right thing with some amps. I use a whizzer cone 12 in my 1x12 at home - bit more full range and I never know what I'll be testing so that's handy, also wouldn't be too sad if I blew it. Still sounds great with my guitars.



Tone Chaser said:


> However the Princess speakers had foam surrounds. I drove those speakers hard.
> The foam surrounds disintegrated by the early ‘90’s.


It's amazing they lasted that long. Easily replaced/known consumable. I don't business with foam surrounds anymore because they do deteriorate - luckily they have fallen out of fashion.


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## Mikeeh (Sep 29, 2020)

tonenut said:


> I don't see much information out there on vintage Marsland speakers used in guitar amps, so I thought I'd put my two cents in. I found a pair of perfect condition Marsland Princess Ten speakers in an old home-built stereo system, so I pulled them and tried them in my Peavey Delta Blues 210 amp. The Princess Tens are 10 inch, 15 watts, 8 ohms, ribbed paper cone with a wizzer cone, light dope, and smallish ceramic magnets. I have to admit I wasn't expecting them to sound like much, but I was actually surprised by their great tone. Compared to the Blue Marvels that came with the amp, the Princesses had less lows, more mids, and similar highs. To me the Blue Marvels seemed like a fairly neutral sounding speaker, but the Princesses had a lot of colour. They have less detail and touch sensitivity than the Weber speakers I have used, but they are still very usable in this regard. The Princesses are kind of reedy, somewhat raw, and really jangly especially with slight blues overdrive. With overdriven sounds they add a bit of fuzz to the mix, probably because of the enhanced treble from the wizzer cones. They have an edgy sound that really cuts through the mix. They sound great paired in the Delta Blues, and the overall tone is enhanced when I plug in my 15 inch Weber Thames extension cab that delivers super rich lows and breathy detail.


Anyone looking for set of Marsland Princess Tens? I have a pair available


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