HFloyd
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- Apr 14, 2021
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So I've been geeking the fuck out.
I've been doing a lot of experiments with guitar speakers, cabs and amps recently. I've got a lot of thoughts rattling in my noggin that I wanted to talk about. They're all linked. Somehow. I don't know how. But this is what I've been doing recently, what I've discovered and would like to know what people have experienced as well. But I also just wanted to write it all down somewhere to put my thoughts into some semblance of order. ENJOY.
I started off with 2 cabs:
- Mesa 4x12 loaded with:
Celestion V30s
These are V30s. You've heard them 18 million times. While the Internet is currently turning their nose up because "OmG eVeRyOnE iS uSiNg ThEm" the reason why everybody uses them is because they're fucking great. I've found them to be a midrange cannon with a nice open sounding top end for distortion. I do find them to be pretty lifeless when it comes to cleans or anything without a decent amount of distortion. They don't "chirp" very well for crunch or anything. However they're super easy to record too as I find that it gives you all the guitar noises you want to emphasise in a mix, without much extra (okay, a few notches between 2k and 4k are probably a good idea but you get the point).
Eminence DV77s
I bought these based off YouTube demos and....I'm not a huge fan of them in the flesh. I find them to be everything that V30s are not (which is why people may love them). but I find that they aren't that mid-focused, have a dark bottom and, and a very tight\controlled top end. The controlled top end can be "useful" but anything with a really well tamed top-end overall sounds dark to me. A bit like it has a high cut on them already. To be honest, they remind me a fair bit of Creambacks and while I know there is a strong Creamback fanbase, they've never made sense to me? Would love somebody to explain to me what they hear in Creambacks which make them so happy.
- Marshall 1960B loaded with:
T75s:
Even though this is my least favourite speaker, it definitely serves a purpose and I don't hate it out of existance. The good points of the T75 is that it's got a wide frequency range to it without a massive emphasis on anything. Tight enough to chug, but loose enough to not be surgical. I found that it didn't love any amp, but it didn't HATE anything either. What I DO hate about the T75s is that they seem to have this abrasive, fizzy top end. However, I think T75s serve a really good purpose on being a generic guitar cab speaker. If I was running a bar and wanted ONE cab for backline, I'd probably get something loaded with T75s. No, it'll never be the best choice of speaker for a situation but it absolutely will never be the worst choice of speaker.
Greenbacks:
Love. Starry eyed love. Big gooey mid push from them, but the way the top end breaks up for me is my absolute favourite thing. They CAN be dark, but that means you're not hurting them enough. These speakers sound better the more you abuse them and get that top end snarling. They're not particularly tight, but I found MOST things get on really well with Greenbacks. I am going to acknowledge my bias at this point in time that I just like Greenbacks so my opinion on "everything sounds great" with them may be biased.
My intention for these two cabs was to have the Mesa 4x12 as a chuggy metal cab with precision and an expert at all things distortion, meanwhile my Marshall cab would be for pretty and cleans and not necessarily metal.
My Mesa Cab I love the sound of. It's punchy, it's tight and I'm able to easily dial in tones with it. Though I'm not a fan of the DV77s, I feel like they're a great compliment in the same cab with the V30s and help give me information that the V30s don't.
However, I wasn't happy with the sound of my Marshal 1960B. While I love Greenbacks to death, and don't HATE T75s...
These two in a cab together I found was a horrible experience. That top end that I love so much about Greenbacks just clashed with the fizzy T75s and just created this piercing top end that I couldn't figure out no matter what I did. When mic'd up, the GBs still sounded killer, but there's just a weird clash with the T75s. So I went through some speakers to see what combination I liked best. THIS IS WHERE THE EDUCATION STARTED.
So my first attempt at "fixing" the Marshall cab was to replace the T75s. I found that I loved all alnico speakers. All of them are pretty. All of them are fluffy and lovely and...yes fizzy up top, but a NICE and oddly smooth kind of fizzy instead of a "ear scratching" fizzy. I couldn't decide which I liked most out the Gold, Ruby, Blue and Cream Alnicos, so I ordered a set of Cream Alnicos. Since they can handle 90 Watts of abuse, I figured these would be the most hardy of the Alnicos, and be useful in a wider range of scenarios. Golds were my second favourite, but ultimately I decided I just wanted that Alnico thing in my life. So I put them into the Marshall cab which now had Greenbacks and Cream Alnicos.
Thoughts on Cream Alnicos:
These are probably my second favourite speaker. I'm glad I got the Cream Alnicos because I've discovered that Alnico speakers aren't terribly versatile, but goddamn are they glorious. However these speakers play into a very particular bias for me that I have already mentioned. I found that the Cream Alnicos have a very similar midrange to a Greenback. Honestly, if I was to describe the Cream Alnicos, I'd ask you to imagine a Greenback, now add the Alnico fizz on top, and a smooth, but indistinct bass. That fizzy top end can be a bit tricky to reign in, also the lack of definition in the bass means that I find these speakers are great for anything you want to be PRETTY, but not necessarily tight or precise. They ARE quite punchy in the midrange though. I would suggest you could get away with Guns N Roses style drive with them, but anything more than that is gonna be rough with the fizz. Considering my goal for the Marshall cab was to turn it into a PRETTY thing, these were absolutely the perfect speaker for what I wanted it to do.
...
However.
The Greenbacks were sadly now an issue. Remember how I said that the Alnicos have a similar midrange? The cab overall now sounder dark and snotty. As much as I adore both the GB and the Alnicos, in the same cab I found they were stepping on each other's toes too much. They were too similar, while being different that they didn't compliment each other well.
As a result, I went and ordered a pair of Celestion G12H30 70th Anniversary speakers and put those in with the Alnicos.
Thoughts on H30s:
OOOOH BOY. I can totally understand why some people hate these speakers. These aren't my favourite but they are absolutely killer. The H30s have a super wide frequency range like the T75s, but they DON'T have the fizzy top end that makes me hate the T75s. Also, the H30s to me seem like they have a fairly balanced sound with a slight mid push across the spectrum. They're also super tight and handle all gain well. I'd suggest that these speakers are the nerd speakers. They will show you, with some brutal honesty, exactly what noise your amp is making. They are bright and clear and super sensitive to everything. I'm not a fan of a fuzz face running through these speakers as they're so sensitive to any sort of distortion that it's really tricky to get them to "clean up" enough with a fuzz face. The H30s are also super tight which I think is both an advantage and a disadvantage to them. Since they're so tight, they're great at any gain stage, but I think that's also what makes them so...eyeball stabby as well. They LOVE cleans, but honestly, they handle all gain stages with aplomb. I suspect that the H30s would almost always be an excellent "B" speaker to support another speaker.
So how do the Alnicos and the H30s sound togehter?
DAMN GOOD. But I've now created an interesting beast of a cab. The wide range of the H30s in a way "cradle" the Alnicos in the sense that it provides a whole bunch of top\bottom which the Alnicos don't do. Since the H30s are so tight and defined, it compensates for the fizzy\indistinct Cream Alnicos. Meanwhile, the midrange of the H30 stays out of the big fluffy midrange of the Cream Alnicos. Speaking of which, all the pretty fluffyness that the Alnicos bring? I'm pretty certain that they're doing a killer job of preventing the H30s sound like a total ice-pick.
I've been doing a lot of experiments with guitar speakers, cabs and amps recently. I've got a lot of thoughts rattling in my noggin that I wanted to talk about. They're all linked. Somehow. I don't know how. But this is what I've been doing recently, what I've discovered and would like to know what people have experienced as well. But I also just wanted to write it all down somewhere to put my thoughts into some semblance of order. ENJOY.
I started off with 2 cabs:
- Mesa 4x12 loaded with:
Celestion V30s
These are V30s. You've heard them 18 million times. While the Internet is currently turning their nose up because "OmG eVeRyOnE iS uSiNg ThEm" the reason why everybody uses them is because they're fucking great. I've found them to be a midrange cannon with a nice open sounding top end for distortion. I do find them to be pretty lifeless when it comes to cleans or anything without a decent amount of distortion. They don't "chirp" very well for crunch or anything. However they're super easy to record too as I find that it gives you all the guitar noises you want to emphasise in a mix, without much extra (okay, a few notches between 2k and 4k are probably a good idea but you get the point).
Eminence DV77s
I bought these based off YouTube demos and....I'm not a huge fan of them in the flesh. I find them to be everything that V30s are not (which is why people may love them). but I find that they aren't that mid-focused, have a dark bottom and, and a very tight\controlled top end. The controlled top end can be "useful" but anything with a really well tamed top-end overall sounds dark to me. A bit like it has a high cut on them already. To be honest, they remind me a fair bit of Creambacks and while I know there is a strong Creamback fanbase, they've never made sense to me? Would love somebody to explain to me what they hear in Creambacks which make them so happy.
- Marshall 1960B loaded with:
T75s:
Even though this is my least favourite speaker, it definitely serves a purpose and I don't hate it out of existance. The good points of the T75 is that it's got a wide frequency range to it without a massive emphasis on anything. Tight enough to chug, but loose enough to not be surgical. I found that it didn't love any amp, but it didn't HATE anything either. What I DO hate about the T75s is that they seem to have this abrasive, fizzy top end. However, I think T75s serve a really good purpose on being a generic guitar cab speaker. If I was running a bar and wanted ONE cab for backline, I'd probably get something loaded with T75s. No, it'll never be the best choice of speaker for a situation but it absolutely will never be the worst choice of speaker.
Greenbacks:
Love. Starry eyed love. Big gooey mid push from them, but the way the top end breaks up for me is my absolute favourite thing. They CAN be dark, but that means you're not hurting them enough. These speakers sound better the more you abuse them and get that top end snarling. They're not particularly tight, but I found MOST things get on really well with Greenbacks. I am going to acknowledge my bias at this point in time that I just like Greenbacks so my opinion on "everything sounds great" with them may be biased.
My intention for these two cabs was to have the Mesa 4x12 as a chuggy metal cab with precision and an expert at all things distortion, meanwhile my Marshall cab would be for pretty and cleans and not necessarily metal.
My Mesa Cab I love the sound of. It's punchy, it's tight and I'm able to easily dial in tones with it. Though I'm not a fan of the DV77s, I feel like they're a great compliment in the same cab with the V30s and help give me information that the V30s don't.
However, I wasn't happy with the sound of my Marshal 1960B. While I love Greenbacks to death, and don't HATE T75s...
These two in a cab together I found was a horrible experience. That top end that I love so much about Greenbacks just clashed with the fizzy T75s and just created this piercing top end that I couldn't figure out no matter what I did. When mic'd up, the GBs still sounded killer, but there's just a weird clash with the T75s. So I went through some speakers to see what combination I liked best. THIS IS WHERE THE EDUCATION STARTED.
So my first attempt at "fixing" the Marshall cab was to replace the T75s. I found that I loved all alnico speakers. All of them are pretty. All of them are fluffy and lovely and...yes fizzy up top, but a NICE and oddly smooth kind of fizzy instead of a "ear scratching" fizzy. I couldn't decide which I liked most out the Gold, Ruby, Blue and Cream Alnicos, so I ordered a set of Cream Alnicos. Since they can handle 90 Watts of abuse, I figured these would be the most hardy of the Alnicos, and be useful in a wider range of scenarios. Golds were my second favourite, but ultimately I decided I just wanted that Alnico thing in my life. So I put them into the Marshall cab which now had Greenbacks and Cream Alnicos.
Thoughts on Cream Alnicos:
These are probably my second favourite speaker. I'm glad I got the Cream Alnicos because I've discovered that Alnico speakers aren't terribly versatile, but goddamn are they glorious. However these speakers play into a very particular bias for me that I have already mentioned. I found that the Cream Alnicos have a very similar midrange to a Greenback. Honestly, if I was to describe the Cream Alnicos, I'd ask you to imagine a Greenback, now add the Alnico fizz on top, and a smooth, but indistinct bass. That fizzy top end can be a bit tricky to reign in, also the lack of definition in the bass means that I find these speakers are great for anything you want to be PRETTY, but not necessarily tight or precise. They ARE quite punchy in the midrange though. I would suggest you could get away with Guns N Roses style drive with them, but anything more than that is gonna be rough with the fizz. Considering my goal for the Marshall cab was to turn it into a PRETTY thing, these were absolutely the perfect speaker for what I wanted it to do.
...
However.
The Greenbacks were sadly now an issue. Remember how I said that the Alnicos have a similar midrange? The cab overall now sounder dark and snotty. As much as I adore both the GB and the Alnicos, in the same cab I found they were stepping on each other's toes too much. They were too similar, while being different that they didn't compliment each other well.
As a result, I went and ordered a pair of Celestion G12H30 70th Anniversary speakers and put those in with the Alnicos.
Thoughts on H30s:
OOOOH BOY. I can totally understand why some people hate these speakers. These aren't my favourite but they are absolutely killer. The H30s have a super wide frequency range like the T75s, but they DON'T have the fizzy top end that makes me hate the T75s. Also, the H30s to me seem like they have a fairly balanced sound with a slight mid push across the spectrum. They're also super tight and handle all gain well. I'd suggest that these speakers are the nerd speakers. They will show you, with some brutal honesty, exactly what noise your amp is making. They are bright and clear and super sensitive to everything. I'm not a fan of a fuzz face running through these speakers as they're so sensitive to any sort of distortion that it's really tricky to get them to "clean up" enough with a fuzz face. The H30s are also super tight which I think is both an advantage and a disadvantage to them. Since they're so tight, they're great at any gain stage, but I think that's also what makes them so...eyeball stabby as well. They LOVE cleans, but honestly, they handle all gain stages with aplomb. I suspect that the H30s would almost always be an excellent "B" speaker to support another speaker.
So how do the Alnicos and the H30s sound togehter?
DAMN GOOD. But I've now created an interesting beast of a cab. The wide range of the H30s in a way "cradle" the Alnicos in the sense that it provides a whole bunch of top\bottom which the Alnicos don't do. Since the H30s are so tight and defined, it compensates for the fizzy\indistinct Cream Alnicos. Meanwhile, the midrange of the H30 stays out of the big fluffy midrange of the Cream Alnicos. Speaking of which, all the pretty fluffyness that the Alnicos bring? I'm pretty certain that they're doing a killer job of preventing the H30s sound like a total ice-pick.