First off ... try to remember tone is subject to personal taste AND the equipment being used. I swear, half of the reviews sound like they're written by adolescents discussing the virtues of product "X" after testing it for an hour in their bedrooms on 10 watt practice amps. THAT'S definitive.

That said, let me explain how this speaker solved my particular tone problem. I'm play mostly blues on a MIM fat strat with Tex-Mex pups, bone nut, Callaham block, Fender mid-boost kit, and 11's. The tone on my '95 Blues Deluxe was pretty good until the mid-boost upgrade but the low range was always a bit muddy for my taste.

After the mid-boost upgrade the bottom end lost any articulation and just became a window rattling boom even at low volume; the extra 25db was too much for the stock speaker which is rated at 50 watts in a 40 watt tube amp. Definitely not the Texas Blues sound I like. After reading everything I could about Blues Deluxe upgrades, I decided to give this speaker a try.

After only 20 hours of break-in, for my setup, this may qualify as one of those "best under a $100 upgrades" I've ever made. Those signature strat chiming tones now extend throughout the entire range at any volume I can tolerate. I gained particular clarity in the bottom end. I also gained significant tone improvement with my PRS Tremonti. I expect even better after 100+ hours of break-in. I will probably get another one of these when I build my closed-back extension cab.

So, there it is: my experience with my set up according to my idea of tone.

Installed these speakers in place of the stock Celestions in a Line 6 Flextone III. Amp sounds great and the modeling seems to still work. These Swamp Thang's are very efficient and have a very balanced tone. Love 'em

I play bass through a Bi-amped set up, the upper bass/mids are ran through a 1000 watt Crest power amp which feeds an upright 4x12 cabinet, the sound I attempt to obtain at this cab is basically a loud but tight-punchy yet slightly overdriven tone. I've tried many different speaker combinations in this cab with mixed results (Celestion,EV,JBL,Selenium,B&C to name a few). I happened upon the Eminence site and was glad to see they gave not only a "tone" description but also a graph to pick out what I was looking for in speaker response and sensitivity, since I used above average power I had to additionally find a speaker that could handle the high powered "hot" tone I use for hours at a stretch. Based on these criteria I purchased 4 Eminence 16 ohm Swamp Thangs... after the install I put the cab with these new speakers through its paces-I was very pleased with the excellent tone at medium and low levels-very aggresive yet smooth tone all around however when really pushed these things literally shocked me with overwhelming tone that has to be heard to appreciate-- my Decibel meter showed that at 6 feet away I was pushing an average of 130 db yet I was still obtaining tight upper bass, however the aggresive mids heard at low levels turned into an incredible roaring growl that I've not heard from any of the other speakers I've used, when I added the low frequency speakers in my system (an 18" and 15" driven by another amp)I had the quintensential tone I've always wanted. I would say without a doubt that these are by far the best speakers I've used in this application.