Educate Me On Vintage Speakers

braintheory

Well-known member
So I'm very experienced with trying lots of amps, pickups, pedals, guitars, etc, but actually not much experience with speakers and wanted to ask if you guys can tell me which vintage speakers (from what year range) are most desireable, describe what kind of sound they have and maybe a modern speaker that may be conpareable at all. I've heard some guys swear about certain older speakers from specific years, but can't remember which ones
 
I'm a big fan of G12 65s with really any amp I've owned...SLO, Marshalls or similar, and any Mesa Mark series as well. The first versions were Marshall labeled and were brighter than the following celestion labeled versions. But still the same speaker, by adjusting the highs on the amp you can match tones. 1978-79 Marshall cabs came with the brighter versions and by 1983 they were replaced by the M70. Think of good mids like a V30 but a much sweeter top end, more greenbackish. The new Heritage reissues are spot on to the darker versions of the 65.
I've only played one pre Rola GB cab, and I much prefer the early-mid 70s creambacks to the pre Rola or blackback GBs. Scumback is probably your best bet to get higher wattage GB clones. It's hard to find original cabs these days without issues.
 
Racerxrated":3iy4w9es said:
I'm a big fan of G12 65s with really any amp I've owned...SLO, Marshalls or similar, and any Mesa Mark series as well. The first versions were Marshall labeled and were brighter than the following celestion labeled versions. But still the same speaker, by adjusting the highs on the amp you can match tones. 1978-79 Marshall cabs came with the brighter versions and by 1983 they were replaced by the M70. Think of good mids like a V30 but a much sweeter top end, more greenbackish. The new Heritage reissues are spot on to the darker versions of the 65.
I've only played one pre Rola GB cab, and I much prefer the early-mid 70s creambacks to the pre Rola or blackback GBs. Scumback is probably your best bet to get higher wattage GB clones. It's hard to find original cabs these days without issues.

I briefly had an original JCM800 1960A with the Marshall labeled 65s. I thought the cab was just OK - sounded drier and less aggressive than my V30 and H30 cabs. This was using a Kruse modded 800 and then a Gower modded 1959, I found the same results with both heads.

I remember being a bit disappointed because all over the forums, Marshall enthusiasts generally agree the 65s are killer, but it didn't work for me. :dunno:

I'd be interested in trying some of the vintage 20-30 watt Celestions/pre-rola Celestions though, just to see what they're like.
 
Racerxrated":7h9c7jwn said:
I'm a big fan of G12 65s with really any amp I've owned...SLO, Marshalls or similar, and any Mesa Mark series as well. The first versions were Marshall labeled and were brighter than the following celestion labeled versions. But still the same speaker, by adjusting the highs on the amp you can match tones. 1978-79 Marshall cabs came with the brighter versions and by 1983 they were replaced by the M70. Think of good mids like a V30 but a much sweeter top end, more greenbackish. The new Heritage reissues are spot on to the darker versions of the 65.
I've only played one pre Rola GB cab, and I much prefer the early-mid 70s creambacks to the pre Rola or blackback GBs. Scumback is probably your best bet to get higher wattage GB clones. It's hard to find original cabs these days without issues.
Interesting, what about other vintage speakers besides the greenbacks or 65's? I've not tried the older ones, but the greenbacks and 65's that I have tried weren't my cup of tea. I much prefer v30's

I just got a Kerry wright 4x12 loaded with 65's (not sure version) and it's a great cab, but the speakers aren't to my taste. My ubercab in comparison (with its cross of v30's and t75's) has a much tighter bottom end and is more gritty, aggressive and biting which I prefer, but it can sound a little harsh and fizzy compared to the wright, which I don't like. The wright cab though seems to fill the room more and sound bigger and more balanced and even though the ubercab is tighter, the wright seems clearer and more defined, so it seems like a great cab, but could be more to my taste with other speakers. I also hear a bit of that nasally quality I've heard in other greenback and 65 speakers which I'm not a fan of. The ubercab is not nasally in comparison
 
^^^There are supposedly 45 versions of the 65s, not sure how different they would all be but I did have one B cab that I returned to GC. Seemed they might have been worn out?
Another option might be G12 80s? They are a not as nasally, more neutral but still with good mids. Another speaker that Celestion stopped making in the early 80s. The C90 is a tweaked version, brighter to me than the 80s. You might also like 80s versions of the Marshall Vintages, the older cabs sound very fat and warm to me. Had a vintage Jubilee cab last year.
 
I've owned a lot of vintage speakers over the years. My least favorite was the pre-rola greenback 25's. However, I like the pre-rola greenback 30 w/ 75 and 55 hz. My all time favorite speaker is the blackback H30 w/ 55 hz. I have 4 quads of them. I also love the G12-80's. I currently have the following quads in 4x12 cabinets. 72 greenback 25's (not pre-rola), G12-65's, G12-80's, blackback H30's w/ 55 hz, greenback 25's with 6204 cones (I think that's the number), Anniversary H30's and Celestion Vintage 30's made for mesa boogie.
 
65’s and V30’s sound great mixed. I used a front load 2x12 with a Diezel Einstein and it covered just about any genre. One vintage early 80’s 65 and a pre 2000 V30.
 
Racerxrated":1qdeczre said:
^^^ the older cabs sound very fat and warm to me. Had a vintage Jubilee cab last year.

I feel the exact same way. I have a friend with a 1978 or 79 Marshall Cab that sounds so Fat & Warm. My 1960BHW Cab Comes Close but it's not exact.
 
braintheory":77zgx1b8 said:
So I'm very experienced with trying lots of amps, pickups, pedals, guitars, etc, but actually not much experience with speakers and wanted to ask if you guys can tell me which vintage speakers (from what year range) are most desireable, describe what kind of sound they have and maybe a modern speaker that may be conpareable at all. I've heard some guys swear about certain older speakers from specific years, but can't remember which ones

Vintage speaker tone is pretty wide, braintheory. I have some for sale, and I make recreations of the old pre rola, blackback and 70/80's Celestions. But it's better to know what you are after for tone, with your rig details first.

I've got a recommendation form on my site to narrow it down. If you like, fill it out, send it in and I'll get back to you (usually in a couple of hours) with a decent speaker recommendation. Then you can decide if you want to go vintage or whatever.

Here's the link: http://www.scumbackspeakers.com/recommend.html
 
Go to the Scumback site, read and listen to the samples. Johan Segeborn's multiple YT vids are great as well. Everybody has their own target. I absolutely love the Scumback M75 (my all-time-fave and has been for years now), and I also dig the H75 w/ the large dust cap.

It is a golden age for guitar speakers, with tons of really good options.
 
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