december
Active Member
- Joined
- Aug 21, 2021
- Messages
- 171
- Reaction score
- 229
Very different speakers. The G12H-75 is much heavier and the cones are shaped differently. The 70/80 has this thin see-thru mesh in the center. 85Hz resonance frequency on the 70/80, 75Hz on the Creamback, which is more ideal for my drop-D tuning, the low D being 72Hz.
Swapped these in a DSL20CR and put a different set of valves. I didn't like that the green channel was overdrive, even with low gain. I liked the high gain of the red channel but it was more than I need and there was no headroom for using overdrives in front of it.
And it was a bit fizzy yet muddy. I put in:
V1: ECC832
V2: 5751
V3: ECC803s, balanced for phase inverter
KT77 matched pair for power.
The V1 is half 12AU7 and half 12AX7.
I get quite a bit more clean gain now, and I can use the full range of gain on the red channel, with enough headroom to add gain with overdrives and boosts, even using distortion pedals at low gain as overdrives.
The tone has opened up. Brighter yet less fizzy. With a Precision Drive in front, there's still enough gain to get tight heavy chugs. With the stock valves, adding any gain with overdrive made it gritty, like a broken speaker sound. Now it's smooth, articulate distortion.
5 band parametric EQ in the FX loop and it sounds great. Records well with mics. This is the best amp I've ever had (and I've had 4 amps! LOL. Two Valvestates and a Boss Katana.)
Still have the Valvestate 40V 8040 as a 2nd power amp/speaker for a stereo FX chain.
