Mike wrote: ↑Sun Dec 04, 2022 9:03 pmGet a greenback
Don't do this. Sounds like shit. I don't care what anyone says. We had an anniversary model with two greenbacks that was gifted to my brother by Bernard from New Order. It had a busted transformer, so we thought it sounded shit because of that (for the five minutes it would stay on before the sound just faaaaaaaded ooooouuuut...), but we got that fixed and it still sounded like shit. So we plugged it into a Sound City cab with Vintage 30s and it sounded incredible.
Greenbacks are wank. I don't understand why people like them. They're proper shit. Total shit. Really, really bad.
I'm joking, they're not that bad, I just didn't like the way they sounded. I think it was something to do with the totality of the setup rather than "just" the speakers, but it was also the first time I'd ever fully realised what a difference different speakers actually made when I was A/B'ing the differently-equipped amps and cabs we had available. The AC30 was fucking skull-crushing at high volumes, and something about the Greenbacks made that kind of painful in a way that I can't quite explain (not least because this was way over ten years ago and I used to be wasted near constantly so WHO THE FUCK REALLY KNOWS), and plugging it into literally any other speaker smoothed that out in a much more pleasant way. From that point on I sort of never really "got" the appeal of Greenbacks. Specifically, I never got why they kept being loaded into AC30s. I can actually fully imagine them sounding great for all kinds of other amps, but the AC30 just seemed ill-suited to them. Another thing I appreciate now is mixing speakers, so a Greenback paired with another with differing characteristics... that could probably sound ace. Obviously not an option if you've got a 1x12 model.
I also think I have a problem in that I seem to be absolutely fucking addicted to slapping Celestion Vintage 30s in everything. I bought an Ampeg GT50 that had this Celestion 7080 speaker in it. It sounded fine. So I slapped a V30 in there and it sounded amazing. I have an Orange Tiny Terror combo with a V30 and it sounds great. I used to love my Peavey Classic 30, even with the stock Blue Marvel speaker. But I tried a friends with a V30 in it and it sounded so much better that it made me depressed. I had a custom Zilla cab built and loaded it with... well, Eminence speakers, actually, but one of them was basically just a copy of a Celestion V30. It sounds great.
So maybe don't listen to me. I just think everything should have a Celestion V30.
It
would sound good with a V30, though. Maybe.. maybe look into that.
And yeah, speakers are fucking insanely expensive now. As I remember, back when I was building shit and doing things, I was picking proper Celestions/Eminence speakers up for somewhere around £60-£80. It's been 10 years since I replaced a speaker but that doesn't feel like enough time for the prices to have literally doubled... I dunno, maybe it is. Cost of living crisis, Hurb.
