NVCD Vintage G12-65 content

thegame

thegame

Well-known member
New Vintage Cab Day! Scored this killer 8 ohm Marshall cabinet yesterday. Oddly this is the second old Marshall cab I bought in the last 2 years without a center post lol. Tolex is a bit rough here and there but who cares. Grill cloth and piping seems like a retrofit as the cloth is super thick (can't see the cones even with a flashlight and piping is blacked out). Anyway, the speakers date to 1981 and sound vicious, sharp and sizzling. The following clip is not mine but my speakers sound identical to this guy's example from 1981. The Heritage and even the 1983 practically sound like a different model entirely.

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Sweet. Great speakers. I have two vintage JCM800 1935 cabs, a Lead 4x12, and a Bass 4x12. Both are loaded with G12-65's, 75hz in the Lead cab, and 55hz in the Bass cab.

They're both high up there on my favorite Celestions ever list, right with the 55hz and 75hz G12H-30's.
 
Hiwatts-n-Gibsons said:
Sweet. Great speakers. I have two vintage JCM800 1935 cabs, a Lead 4x12, and a Bass 4x12. Both are loaded with G12-65's, 75hz in the Lead cab, and 55hz in the Bass cab.

They're both high up there on my favorite Celestions ever list, right with the 55hz and 75hz G12H-30's.
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Nice. Do your 55 hz 65s have even larger dust caps than the 75 hz ones? I'd surmise the 55hz have more mids that sit lower in the frequency spectrum than the 75 hz versions? I'm particularly fond of the 55 hz G12-80 speakers as well.
 
thegame said:
Nice. Do your 55 hz 65s have even larger dust caps than the 75 hz ones? I'd surmise the 55hz have more mids that sit lower in the frequency spectrum than the 75 hz versions? I'm particularly fond of the 55 hz G12-80 speakers as well.
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Nope, the dust caps look the same, but the 75hz cones are a bit lighter grey compared to the 55hz cones. The cabs came from two separate purchases, so I don't know if they faded from environmental exposure, or just the way they were from the start?

As far as the tones, yes. The 55hz sound fatter and juicer with a big punchy lowend, but they still retain midrange grind and bite with a great heavy high gain tone. The 75hz are very upper midrange aggressive, and cut like a chainsaw with a taut low end.

I have to give the edge between the two to the 55hz versions. I particularly love what they do for clean tones compared to the 75hz. It's a bigger richer sound. On high gain tones for me they get a slight edge as well for filling out and slightly smoothing the tone compared to the more metallic and biting tone of the 75hz version without losing that aggressive grind when you want it.
 
Very very cool! I am a newbie to speakers from that era, but I recently picked up a Canadian 2204 with matching cab that came with the old vented G12t-75 speakers.....wow, do they sound good...and quite different to the newer ones, as has been discussed.

Are there similarities between the old white table G12t-75 and g12-65?
 
VHTStark said:
Very very cool! I am a newbie to speakers from that era, but I recently picked up a Canadian 2204 with matching cab that came with the old vented G12t-75 speakers.....wow, do they sound good...and quite different to the newer ones, as has been discussed.

Are there similarities between the old white table G12t-75 and g12-65?
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The brighter voiced specimens of 65s are pretty similar overall to the vented 75s with the main difference being that the 65s will still have a bit more midrange emphasis and the overall texture is just more silky or liquidy. The 75s have a bit of a rougher edge or scratchier texture to my ears. It's probably due to the 75s Kapton voicecoil material vs fiberglass on the 65s.
 
thegame said:
The brighter voiced specimens of 65s are pretty similar overall to the vented 75s with the main difference being that the 65s will still have a bit more midrange emphasis and the overall texture is just more silky or liquidy. The 75s have a bit of a rougher edge or scratchier texture to my ears. It's probably due to the 75s Kapton voicecoil material vs fiberglass on the 65s.
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Congrats on the cab!

One of my faves. There were some 35+ different versions of 65s....The versions from the early 80s that I've owned, sounded pretty similar to each other and live up to the 'dark' speaker rep they can have. Of course, with some volume they come alive even more so that other Celestions. My Fav of all the 65s I've had, are the Marshall labelled T3120s. They are a good bit brighter than the others, and are closer to a 'high wattage greenback' than the vented T75 or other 65s. I've had 2 cabs with them, both checkered from 78 and 79.
 
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