10" Speaker Recommendation

[PDC]

I recently grabbed a used Marshall Mini Stack Cabinet with the stock Celestion G10D Speaker. It lives behind the sofa and I use it solely for practice with my Bogner Mini Head. The cab sounds equal parts sterile, boxy and flat. (FWIW - the little Bogner sounds surprisingly good driving either of my 4x12s)

I am considering swapping out the G10D with either a G10 Vintage or a G10 Creamback and I wonder if anyone has any first-hand experience with either speaker. I know this practice rig / single 10 will never rival 12" variants, but I am convinced it can sound better than it does with the G10D.

I appreciate any thoughts!

 

[VonBonfire]

I appreciate any thoughts!

With that in mind I thought it might be good mention that a nice pair of suede Carlos loafers can improve the tone of even the most doggy practice rigs. Also might consider the Marshall mini fridge since having the cold beer of your choice within easy reach also makes any amp sound better. Happy saturday.

 

[ChurchHill]

Maybe the G10 Greenback? If not, I'd go with the Vintage. Any of them will be a major improvement over the G10D.

 

[DanTravis62]

It depends on the type of tone you're going for

... if you're wanting this to do high gain? Anything that could remotely be defined as enough gain for 80s metal, classic metal, power metal, thrash metal, modern metal?

Then you're in luck because the answer is super easy!

...Replace it with a 12 inch. Seriously. The 10 inch speaker will literally never sound good for high gain tones, and trying to make it sound good just leads to wasted money and sadness. I tried almost a dozen different 10" speakers before admitting defeat and giving up.

If you want to do blues and rock? Yeah get a 10" vintage or creamback, that will sound great for that.

Mind what I said though, because I've gone down this road before and know from painful, money-wasting experience. You are never and I mean ever, going to get the 10 inch speaker to sound "right" for anything high gain. It can sound fantastic for blues, classic rock, roots, americana, garage rock, and anything else that doesn't require it to be tight and heavy. It will never sound right for heavy metal. People are going to say "try the _____ 10" and "Try the ____ 10", it sounds almost like a 12 inch".

They won't. They don't. You're asking it to do something it wasn't made to do.

 

[ChurchHill]

I'll second this. The only thing I've ever liked about 10" is old Fenders and even then I don't like most of them. Anything higher gain than classic rock just doesn't work as well as a 12".

 

[rsm]

get a 12"

 

[DanTravis62]

I'll second this. The only thing I've ever liked about 10" is old Fenders and even then I don't like most of them. Anything higher gain than classic rock just doesn't work as well as a 12".

Yep this. 10"s sound great in old fenders for playing classic rock style stuff or clean tones, but they never sound "right" playing anything gainy

And I absolutely love me a vintage bassman or bassman LTD, those amps can sound freaking amazing

Just not for anything gainy. They sound like farty shit for gain, because no matter how much you massage it, EQ it, swap tubes/speakers/pedals/cables literally anything - they sound like 10 inch speakers. Which sound freakin' glorious for clean, blues, classic rock, etc, but not for high gain sounds.

I've done everything imaginable to try and get around this and something about the physics just doesn't work.

 

[Rottweiler]

I recently grabbed a used Marshall Mini Stack Cabinet with the stock Celestion G10D Speaker. It lives behind the sofa and I use it solely for practice with my Bogner Mini Head. The cab sounds equal parts sterile, boxy and flat. (FWIW - the little Bogner sounds surprisingly good driving either of my 4x12s)

I am considering swapping out the G10D with either a G10 Vintage or a G10 Creamback and I wonder if anyone has any first-hand experience with either speaker. I know this practice rig / single 10 will never rival 12" variants, but I am convinced it can sound better than it does with the G10D.

I appreciate any thoughts!

4:26 is where the 10" samples are. The link should take you right to that spot. Might be a few before that but the Greenback 10" is at 4:26 and a few seconds

 

[PDC]

4:26 is where the 10" samples are. The link should take you right to that spot. Might be a few before that but the Greenback 10" is at 4:26 and a few seconds

This helped a lot. The 10" Greenback, Creamback, and Vintage each sound SO much better than the stock G10D - makes you wonder why Marshall settled on the worst sounding speaker for the Micro series in the first place. It can't be THAT much cheaper when ordering bulk runs.

 

[PDC]

I totally get everyone who says just get a 12. But literally the only thing I am ever going to do with this is practice in front of the TV. I had an ancient solid state practice amp with a generic 8" speaker that somehow delivered a remarkable clean tone. I could feed it pedals like the Pinnace or BE-OD and that little thing sounded killer for practice only. It recently died and my local amp repairman declared it a total loss.

Point is - this does not need to sound great - it just needs to sound 'passable' and the G10D has got to be the worst speaker I have ever heard in my life.

Found a guy locally selling a G10 Vintage for $50 so I'm gonna swap that in. The G10 Vintage sounded pretty decent in most of the inline comparison vids I have run into.

 

[Speeddemon]

I totally get everyone who says just get a 12. But literally the only thing I am ever going to do with this is practice in front of the TV. I had an ancient solid state practice amp with a generic 8" speaker that somehow delivered a remarkable clean tone. I could feed it pedals like the Pinnace or BE-OD and that little thing sounded killer for practice only. It recently died and my local amp repairman declared it a total loss.

Point is - this does not need to sound great - it just needs to sound 'passable' and the G10D has got to be the worst speaker I have ever heard in my life.

Found a guy locally selling a G10 Vintage for $50 so I'm gonna swap that in. The G10 Vintage sounded pretty decent in most of the inline comparison vids I have run into.

If that's your goal, consider the Eminence Legend 105 as well. It's quite neutral for a 10" and has above-expectations low-end. Not 12", but still...
I replaced the crappy, sputtery Oxford speaker from my '74 SF Princeton Reverb with this one, since I wanted to use some drive pedals with it, that could still sound passable for classic rock and 70's hard rock. But yeah, not playing Reign in Blood on that amp...

Thinking back though, I probably should have gone with the Copperhead, which I did try out. It had less low-end than the Legend, but seemed to suit the country/surf types of tones a tad better; it had more character than the Legend basically.

 

[DanTravis62]

I totally get everyone who says just get a 12. But literally the only thing I am ever going to do with this is practice in front of the TV. I had an ancient solid state practice amp with a generic 8" speaker that somehow delivered a remarkable clean tone. I could feed it pedals like the Pinnace or BE-OD and that little thing sounded killer for practice only. It recently died and my local amp repairman declared it a total loss.

Point is - this does not need to sound great - it just needs to sound 'passable' and the G10D has got to be the worst speaker I have ever heard in my life.

Found a guy locally selling a G10 Vintage for $50 so I'm gonna swap that in. The G10 Vintage sounded pretty decent in most of the inline comparison vids I have run into.

That makes sense if you're just gonna use it as a living room practice amp - just keep it in mind, it's never going to be like a "grab 'n go" TGP sciatica gigging amp with a 10" speaker for high gain tones

It will probably function fine for the use you have in mind, but in the future don't be surprised if it doesn't work, if that intended use changes

Personally I have a handful of things that I use for this - normally a kemper, but I also have a couple of those tiny joyo mini amps, a vox amplug, etc etc, but I almost always use them with a 12" if I'm not using headphones

 

[ChurchHill]

Point is - this does not need to sound great - it just needs to sound 'passable' and the G10D has got to be the worst speaker I have ever heard in my life.

Yep. I've got a couple of those mini-stack Marshall cabs. They make great decorations. If those aren't the worst sounding speakers I've ever heard, they're really close to it. You should be happy with the G10 Vintage, it's definitely an improvement.

 

[S̷͖͑m̵͎͂á̵̺s̸͚̈́h̴̬̑]

It depends on the type of tone you're going for

... if you're wanting this to do high gain? Anything that could remotely be defined as enough gain for 80s metal, classic metal, power metal, thrash metal, modern metal?

Then you're in luck because the answer is super easy!

...Replace it with a 12 inch. Seriously. The 10 inch speaker will literally never sound good for high gain tones, and trying to make it sound good just leads to wasted money and sadness. I tried almost a dozen different 10" speakers before admitting defeat and giving up.

If you want to do blues and rock? Yeah get a 10" vintage or creamback, that will sound great for that.

Mind what I said though, because I've gone down this road before and know from painful, money-wasting experience. You are never and I mean ever, going to get the 10 inch speaker to sound "right" for anything high gain. It can sound fantastic for blues, classic rock, roots, americana, garage rock, and anything else that doesn't require it to be tight and heavy. It will never sound right for heavy metal. People are going to say "try the _____ 10" and "Try the ____ 10", it sounds almost like a 12 inch".

They won't. They don't. You're asking it to do something it wasn't made to do.

Did you ever try a 10" gold? They do high gain and cleans pretty fucking well, imo

 

[DanTravis62]

Did you ever try a 10" gold? They do high gain and cleans pretty fucking well, imo

Yep, don't think they sound great for high gain. sound excellent for cleans and mid gain type stuff though

 

[S̷͖͑m̵͎͂á̵̺s̸͚̈́h̴̬̑]

Yep, don't think they sound great for high gain. sound excellent for cleans and mid gain type stuff though

I will make you a clip this week

 

[DanTravis62]

I will make you a clip this week

You can if you want to, but you aren't going to change my mind

They are great speakers for a lot of tones but I don't think any 10 inch speakers sound good for high gain

 

[S̷͖͑m̵͎͂á̵̺s̸͚̈́h̴̬̑]

You can if you want to, but you aren't going to change my mind

They are great speakers for a lot of tones but I don't think any 10 inch speakers sound good for high gain

I understand. You remember when I got the Maz? On GC, it was advertised as a 2x12. When I got it, I didn't notice it was a 2x10. But I had already played it a lot and fell in love. I was irritated that they had misclassified it, but the proof was in the sound.

I usually just play the LP into it for cleans and mid gain, but one day I wanted to fuck around with it and just see if it could do some metal.

So I hooked the Jackson into it, and ran my normal board into it. I will be damned if it didn't nearly match the MGL. It is a special little combo

 

[DanTravis62]

I understand. You remember when I got the Maz? On GC, it was advertised as a 2x12. When I got it, I didn't notice it was a 2x10. But I had already played it a lot and fell in love. I was irritated that they had misclassified it, but the proof was in the sound.

I usually just play the LP into it for cleans and mid gain, but one day I wanted to fuck around with it and just see if it could do some metal.

So I hooked the Jackson into it, and ran my normal board into it. I will be damned if it didn't nearly match the MGL. It is a special little combo

The maz is an excellent amp that sounds great for just about everything, but high gain is pushing it even for that amp

I got mine to sound pretty rad with a boost and the LPD 68 double boosting, but it took a lot of finagling and fucking around to get it sounding right

 

[ChurchHill]

They are great speakers for a lot of tones but I don't think any 10 inch speakers sound good for high gain

I've got a Super Reverb that gets some amazing sounds. Same thing with my Bassman. But for anything remotely resembling metal, um, no. I've heard crap 12" speakers, too, but even average ones do gain better than the best 10", IMO.

For a low-level practice amp, those mini-Marshall stacks aren't terrible, but they don't really do high gain well, either. I use mine for a bench amp and I could definitely see using it as a late-night alternative to a 4x12. Marshall really should have gone with a better stock speaker.