Speaker question for Danny

craigb


Hey Danny, all that tone talk got me curious, what is/are your favorite speaker(s)?
 
I've only got Vintage 30 & Celestion G12H30 70th Year Anniversary Specials left (the two 1x12's you saw in that pic with one of each and an ADA 2x12 Slant Stack with one of each).  Needless to say, speaker choice can have a big impact on tone too - hence the question!
 
Ooo...  One more related question if I may!  I'm familiar with Fletcher-Munson curves and also with having to play at a volume that doesn't get you evicted...  Just how loud do you have your stuff turned up when you're recording?  If you happen to know the actual volume that would be killer (since I have a Radio Shaft sound meter) but, if not, just an overall idea is great too.
 
Thanks!

LOL you picked my least favorite other than JBL's. Speaker are like pups, Craig. It's something you have to experiment with until you find the sound you're looking for. Now for me with the more gain oriented sounds I like, I found that I had to be more careful in a live situation. Most cabs get loose and give you that muddy tone...while others (like say Marshall 300 watters) will give you a 4k nasal tone.
 
I went on a search years ago bringing my amps with me to a music store that had just about every guitar cab you would consider for a rock/metal tone. After I tried them all, I really wasn't blown away by anything. Then my sales guy says "well, we don't stock these, but I personally use and like the 25 watt Greenback Celestions". He ordered me a cab to try out and as soon as I plugged into it, it was exactly what I was looking for. Nice and warm, yet not boxy.
 
The other cool thing about these cabs, due to the low wattage, you can get away with less pre-amp gain which can stop your sound from tripping over itself. This was one of my biggest issues with the Marshall 800's. They just sounded weird and the gain pumping through them needed to be quite a bit before I liked the tone...yet it was too much. Like I couldn't get that happy medium, ya know?
 
So more about the Greenies....after I tried the one, I ordered 3 more so I eventually had 2 tops and 2 bottoms. I was blown away by them...seriously. The first thing I noticed was, the sound is very focused. Meaning, they were made for mic'ing. After about 8 ft away from them, they sort of get a little thin sounding. But to me, if you can really hear your cabs to where they bother you at 8 ft away on stage, you're too loud. I like to be at a sane level and have the soudman put me through my monitor.
 
But my recorded sounds were so good, it was a night and day difference. The other thing was, I noticed I could get rid of my gain in my pre-amp because these speakers didn't need as much. This tightened up my sound and allowed me to use way less gain than I was using in my other cabs. You know how it goes...the less gain, the better. So now my tone was getting the results I had always hoped for. You can't use too mcuh bass in these cabs either...which I love.
 
It's like a big hand comes out of them with a finger pointing at you yelling "NO!" We need less bass in a guitar tone than most people realize. These things totally stop that from happening because they start to get very honky sounding and you can tell that the low end is really pushing the speakers in a bad way. It's not that they sound terrible, it just seems like a warning mechanism to me that "hey, there's no need for this much bass in a guitar tone pal."
 
Having gotten so used to them, I opened up for a band one night at a club. We did so well, they asked us to play there every Thursday night. We just needed to bring our amps etc and we used their cabs. Well, the dude had the same speakers as you. I couldn't believe how bad they sounded through my rig. Very harsh considering these speakers were supposed to be about warmth. I thought for sure maybe his speakers were on their way out. I loved playing with these guys...but man, I hated plugging into his cab. I asked him if I could bring mine the next time and told him he could use it. He was cool and said yes. He loved it...the next week we played, he had a Greenback. LOL! :)
 
So, here I was thinking his cab was just on its way out. From being in the studio business, I've had several vintage 30 guys come in. The first thing they say to me is "what's wrong with your mics?" while I'm saying "what's wrong with your cab?" LOL! I have NEVER and I mean NEVER had good results with any vintage 30 that has ever been in my studio. When a 421 and a 57 don't work on it and you wind up using a combination of different mics on each speaker, you know there's a problem. I tried everything I could think of on those things. I'm not alone in saying this. I go out with a bunch of engineer friends each week for dinner and a few drinks. We have awesome conversations about recording and the things that have happened to us over the week. They all hate the 30's too.
 
BUT....if you don't use a high gain sound through them, you don't have any problems at all. For a classic rock sound or when you go with low gain and crank the amp to get output tube power...these things come to life in a good way. That's what they were made for and why they come to life. But if you run a newer Marshall or a Mesa or a Bogner through it...man, you're better off going direct and using a cab sim. They just do not work for extreme gain situations. As a matter of fact, it's one of the worst speakers I have ever heard in that situation.
 
Actual volume stuff: I've never really took any notice to that, Craig. I like to mix at 69-72 but for recorded guitar, I make it as loud as it needs to be to sound good. The only time I really nail something is when I want that Angus Young type sound where it's output tube tone. If I had to take a guess for my own tone personally speaking? Wait, let me fire up an amp....gimme a sec.
 
I'm seeing 90 dB as a rough average give or take. Depending on what chords I play, it ramps up a little here and there. Probably as loud as a lawn mower maybe? Now in my studio down the shore, we have an isolation booth for the cabs and sometimes we can really nail them there. But again, sometimes the louder you go, the worse it sounds. I would say use a volume that best compliments your sound that also gives you a nice signal level to disc. That's what really works the best for me. :)
 
-Danny

Interesting.  I actually had Greens but, when I had to start selling everything, they were some of the first to go leaving me with the one's I posted.  Maybe those have a lot to do with my "hit or miss" tones?  My best speaker was an Alnico blue - unbelievable cleans on that one!  But very expensive and I had to sell it...

Maybe I'll put what I've got up for sale and get a couple more Greens.

Thanks for the speaker opinions and the volume answer too!

Of the speakers you have available, I would say the G12H Anniversary is my favourite. I have a couple old Vintage 30's from England and they do sound better than the current Chinese version.