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Hatsubai « Awesome breakup »
Published on 06/18/11 at 08:33The Celestion G12M Greenback has been the staple of classic rock tone for the past 30+ years now. It has been used successfully on recordings throughout the years ranging from Hendrix to Loudness. The Greenback comes in 12’’ format with a 25 watt power rating, 8 or 16 ohm configuration and a ceramic magnet.
The Greenback is the standard when it comes to that old school early speaker breakup tone. It has a lower wattage rating, and it’s a lot easier to push into speaker distortion than the higher wattage speakers. While some types of music don’t want this, that speaker distortion is part of its charm.
First of all, the speaker I’m reviewing is actually the Chinese one. There are about 5 or more Greenbacks on the market, and they all sound different. The Heritage, Classic, Pre-Rola, etc. all have different sounds going for them. There are different camps that argue as to which is better, but that’s not really part of this review. I’m just going to describe my personal feelings towards the standard Chinese version that you can find in the Marshall 1960TV cabs.
These speakers have a little bit of a bite to them, but they’re fairly pleasant in sound. They work awesome with Marshalls, but they can also work pretty well with a cranked 5150. One thing people worry about is the wattage, but in reality, these can handle closer to 30 watts per speaker, so there’s no real issue when running these with a higher wattage amp such as the 5150. Not only do they sound great, but they record fairly easily, too. If you ever get the chance to try out one of those Marshall cabs with the Greenbacks in them, I highly recommend trying them out. It’s probably my second favorite speaker out there.
The Greenback is the standard when it comes to that old school early speaker breakup tone. It has a lower wattage rating, and it’s a lot easier to push into speaker distortion than the higher wattage speakers. While some types of music don’t want this, that speaker distortion is part of its charm.
First of all, the speaker I’m reviewing is actually the Chinese one. There are about 5 or more Greenbacks on the market, and they all sound different. The Heritage, Classic, Pre-Rola, etc. all have different sounds going for them. There are different camps that argue as to which is better, but that’s not really part of this review. I’m just going to describe my personal feelings towards the standard Chinese version that you can find in the Marshall 1960TV cabs.
These speakers have a little bit of a bite to them, but they’re fairly pleasant in sound. They work awesome with Marshalls, but they can also work pretty well with a cranked 5150. One thing people worry about is the wattage, but in reality, these can handle closer to 30 watts per speaker, so there’s no real issue when running these with a higher wattage amp such as the 5150. Not only do they sound great, but they record fairly easily, too. If you ever get the chance to try out one of those Marshall cabs with the Greenbacks in them, I highly recommend trying them out. It’s probably my second favorite speaker out there.