The Chinese-made greenbacks are pretty reasonable speakers as it happens.

Tone-wise the V30 (and the neodymium magnet Century Vintage) are both pretty bright, I've a Century Vintage in an Orange cab I converted to a half open back and it will let my Tiny Terror cut through anything with the master around three quarters and gain around half way.

As for the power rating, I'd say 25W is probably OK, though I wouldn't push it too hard. Marshall and similar amps tend to have conservative ratings, hence Marshall recommended two cabs be used with the 100 watt heads.

For more volume a more efficient speaker is a good way to go rather than more amp power if you want a cranked tone.

man, i've got a V30, and just hate it.
 
 

I have a 12" 25W Green back in a cabnet and it works great with my Princeton ( 22watts) 
The Princeton is 10" open back and the 12" is a closed back cabinet so it's two very different tones 

ampfixer
Right now my main amp is a single ended class A model producing about 8 watts. I'm using the WGS Veteran 30 that is rated for about 50 watts in an open back single 12 cab. It drips with tone. Huge bass response and very clear treble and mids. In fact, I designed the amp as a utility item for recording studios. You can plug any instrument into it for recording. It runs a guitar but will also allow you to run a 5 string bass with active electronics (using an appropriate speaker cab). Try that with a Fender champ. 
 
Many years ago, it was a conversation with the late Ted Weber that hipped me to the relationship between warmth and power handling. Ted understood speakers like nobody else so I listened to every word.
 
Acoustics and the mechanics of hearing are very strange things. I would bet that the difference in your amp sound between the 5 watt and 20 watt settings is very similar until it gets wound up. Our ears and brain don't tell us the same things about sound that measuring equipment does. If you wanted an amp louder than your 20 watt model you should start looking at 80 watts and up.
 
In your case I would recommend getting a cheap VOX cab on sale. I picked one up for $100. Take out the Chinese greenback and replace it with a WGS Reaper. You have plenty of power to get it working. Another option is to get the same speaker with the 55 Hz cone. Typically these have way less doping on the surround and tend to let the cone move more. It's rumoured that the Celestion G12-30 55Hz is the speaker that Hendrix used in his Marshalls, but I have no direct knowledge.

I've had WGS on my list for quite a while, but haven't heard them.  For general use from clean to heavy dist, realizing one won't be ideal for all, would you recommend the Veteran 30 or Reaper?
 
It will likely start life in my Bugera V22 combo which I also use as a 1x12 cab for other amps.  One day a proper cab will be it's home if it "drips tone".
 

I went in to test drive the Green Beret, but couldn't get sound to come out of the speaker cabinet. I have a feeling that there may be something wrong with the speaker jack on the back. GC was extremely crowded on this lunch hour, so for now, I walked away from it.

I spotted a new Fender Bass Breaker Cabinet with a 1x12 Celestion G12V-70. I hope to go back and test that. Any one have any experience with this speaker?

The G12V-70 details are here http://celestion.com/product/142/V_Type/

They're a bit cheaper than a greenback, at least in the UK.

batsbrew
man, i've got a V30, and just hate it.
 

I'm not keen on them either. The Century Vintage is sort of the same idea but sounds a but less bright and faster responding. Has a bit of a Jensen flavour mixed in with the Celestion and less of that kind of "haze" round notes the greenbacks have if you see what I mean.

Works quite well with my Orange which is a quite dark amp. Better than the stock V30 in the Orange cab anyway.

V30s with a bright Marshall can be painful

michaelhanson

I spotted a new Fender Bass Breaker Cabinet with a 1x12 Celestion G12V-70. I hope to go back and test that. Any one have any experience with this speaker?

Not that exact one but similar.
 
I have 2 x http://celestion.com/product/14/g12_century_vintage/ in a 100w combo and they are nice.
 
I took it for some repairs a while back and the tech ended up ordering a set for his amp after hearing them.
 
(+ they are lighter than a speaker with a ceramic magnet which is a nice bonus)
 
 

 



I've had WGS on my list for quite a while, but haven't heard them.  For general use from clean to heavy dist, realizing one won't be ideal for all, would you recommend the Veteran 30 or Reaper?
 
It will likely start life in my Bugera V22 combo which I also use as a 1x12 cab for other amps.  One day a proper cab will be it's home if it "drips tone".
 



I'd probably go for the Veteran 30. It's warmer and they have a more linear frequency response than the Celestion V30. They describe the Reaper as a drop in replacement for a Celestion G12H30 Anniversary. I don't know how they can say that. One has a resonant frequency of 75 Hz and the other has a resonant frequency of 126 Hz. They are both good speakers.

Thanks John ... warmer would be my pref as long as it's not wool blanket