Im addicted to speaker videos on YouTube

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OldGtrGuy

OldGtrGuy

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I've been spending HOURS watching shootout videos to the point where I'm losing my mind about it. Have a lead on a "golden era" V30 mesa cab to buy this weekend and definitely excited about that.

I am curious however. I play metal and that's it and it is the modern kind. There are lots of great sounding speakers these days which is awesome but when it's all said and done. I'm curious do any of you think there is a more aggressive, more "throaty" sounding speaker out there than the vintage 30?

I've tried a small handful. I really liked Scumback speakers and I'm curious to try the Redback but there's just something about the V30 that I don't think can ever be beat.
 
IME the V30 is a good speaker that is good in most departments we want in high gain, but not the best at any given be part of it (same with the vintage ‘80’s V30’s, but they’re better)

I would say for aggressive, the 20w Greenbacks (I love them) are more aggressive in the center and uppermids than V30’s, less aggressive elsewhere and I find a bit faster, tighter as you can get with lower wattage speakers

Redbacks IME have more lower mid growl than V30’s, which can make them more throaty, but they are on the loose side and don’t work as well IME with low mid heavy amps like Recto’s or Uberschall’s

Some of my favorite vintage speakers JBL’s, Fane Crescendo’s and Altec’s are stronger and more aggressive in the lows and highs than any Celestion is capable of with more powerful chugs too than any Celestion and the Altec’s are also more aggressive in the low mids than V30’s

V30’s are good IME, but not the best at one particular thing and with various mixes of these speakers mentioned above the V30 IME doesn’t bring anything special to the table vs them. Sadly for the non-Celestion ones you won’t find much high gain clips at all with on YouTube, but they are among the very best IME. I guess if we’re limiting to speakers made within the last ~25 years V30’s would be one of the better options
 
V30, greenbacks, creamback, g12h100, g12t75, all sound good with specific amps.
 
The throatiest, woodiest cab I’ve heard are the two early 70s Marshall 4x12s I own. Both loaded with original creambacks, one has the 75hz and one has the 55hz. They’re unbeatable IMO for a certain kind of sound, but I’ve been recording with V30s lately for straight metal tones.
 
There is no such thing as “golden era” v30s. They all sound different. Sometimes newer ones are amazing, some times older ones suck. The difference in most of them is how the high end sits above 3k or so, it all depends on what your flavor is, but don’t go down the rabbit hole of buying a specific year of them: the real rabbit hole is trying as many as you can from different periods and see what you like. Speakers are a lottery, period.
 
VESmedic said:
There is no such thing as “golden era” v30s. They all sound different. Sometimes newer ones are amazing, some times older ones suck. The difference in most of them is how the high end sits above 3k or so, it all depends on what your flavor is, but don’t go down the rabbit hole of buying a specific year of them: the real rabbit hole is trying as many as you can from different periods and see what you like. Speakers are a lottery, period.
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This. I would say there are multiple "golden eras" - Late 80s marshall branded, early 90s UK made, early 2000s UK made for mesa, etc.

I've heard newer ones with the updated perforated dust cap that sound quite good, too.

And even if you do get a "golden era", you could get unlucky and get a shitty quad even of those.

Honestly it well and truly depends on your amp. v30s, DV77s, Redbacks, creambacks, scumbacks, etc all are popular with the modern metal guys, but what I would recommend depends completely on what amp you intend to use with them and for what tone.
 
I have been looking at speakers lately also, and I am curious about the Eminence DV-77.

I typically use V30/G12T75 mixes.
 
braintheory said:
Redbacks IME have more lower mid growl than V30’s, which can make them more throaty, but they are on the loose side and don’t work as well IME with low mid heavy amps like Recto’s or Uberschall’s
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Hmm. I guess a V30 might sound tighter 'cause it has less lows but it also breaks up earlier than a Redback so I've always thought of Redbacks as tighter. Smaller magnet speakers usually sound looser to me, same with lower wattage. I've never thought of Redbacks a being on the loose side, but not the tightest speaker either. EQ a V30 to put out as much lows as a Redback and I bet it starts to get kind of farty in the lows. But yeah, Redbacks have a shit ton of low mid.

Shask said:
I have been looking at speakers lately also, and I am curious about the Eminence DV-77.
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The DV-77 I had was dark and had a lot of bass, it was too bloated for my downtuning. Defnitely not tight. Never liked it at all but maybe it's cool for standard tuning. It gets compard to a V30 a lot which is quite the stretch, it's way different. I know the DV-77 gets some praise on the interwebs but it was an instant fuck no for me. I have a boner for EVM12L's and Redbacks, for reference, and I love a bunch of different Celestions.

OP, per your description I would check out the Tonespeak Liverpool 1275. And I'll be another to say Celestion Creambacks are worth checking out, too.
 
boltzthrower said:
Hmm. I guess a V30 might sound tighter 'cause it has less lows but it also breaks up earlier than a Redback so I've always thought of Redbacks as tighter. Smaller magnet speakers usually sound looser to me, same with lower wattage. I've never thought of Redbacks a being on the loose side, but not the tightest speaker either. EQ a V30 to put out as much lows as a Redback and I bet it starts to get kind of farty in the lows. But yeah, Redbacks have a shit ton of low mid.


The DV-77 I had was dark and had a lot of bass, it was too bloated for my downtuning. Defnitely not tight. Never liked it at all but maybe it's cool for standard tuning. It gets compard to a V30 a lot which is quite the stretch, it's way different. I know the DV-77 gets some praise on the interwebs but it was an instant fuck no for me. I have a boner for EVM12L's and Redbacks, for reference, and I love a bunch of different Celestions.

OP, per your description I would check out the Tonespeak Liverpool 1275. And I'll be another to say Celestion Creambacks are worth checking out, too.
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It could be the case with Redbacks's vs V30's, not sure. I definitely prefer the tone of redbacks other than it just sometimes getting boomy when I use a very low mid heavy amp

I generally find lower wattage speakers to be faster responding, more complex sound, more forward sounding and I often find tighter actually until you overpower it with too much volume or lows and then of course it loses definition while the higher powered speakers have lots of room to spare, but I find as long as you don't get to that point they're often tighter IME. The 20w Greenbacks (especially my '60's ones) might be the tightest speakers I've had so far (some of my favorites). Yes Redbacks have lots of low mids and imo really good growl, chewiness and tone in that region, but I find not as much actual low end for a speaker rated as high as it is (150w)
 
boltzthrower said:
The DV-77 I had was dark and had a lot of bass, it was too bloated for my downtuning. Defnitely not tight. Never liked it at all but maybe it's cool for standard tuning. It gets compard to a V30 a lot which is quite the stretch, it's way different. I know the DV-77 gets some praise on the interwebs but it was an instant fuck no for me. I have a boner for EVM12L's and Redbacks, for reference, and I love a bunch of different Celestions.

OP, per your description I would check out the Tonespeak Liverpool 1275. And I'll be another to say Celestion Creambacks are worth checking out, too.
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I like darker, bassier tones in general. I like chunk n' crunch :D

The DV-77, Swamp Thing, and Redback look interesting to me right now. It seems like the Redback might be more lower mids than bass as mentioned above. I want more bass than lower mids. I generally scoop out the lower mids.

The Swamp Thing seems similar to the GTK100 to me, but I could be wrong.

The V30/G12T75 mix seems to work well, but always interested in other things.
 
Shask said:
I like darker, bassier tones in general. I like chunk n' crunch :D

The DV-77, Swamp Thing, and Redback look interesting to me right now. It seems like the Redback might be more lower mids than bass as mentioned above. I want more bass than lower mids. I generally scoop out the lower mids.

The Swamp Thing seems similar to the GTK100 to me, but I could be wrong.

The V30/G12T75 mix seems to work well, but always interested in other things.
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I prefer lower mids tbh. I know it isn't great for guitar for cutting but I like how it sounds. Or just years of no plugs ruined my high end hearing
 
I feel like we have similarish taste…. Yeah V30s and Marshall Vintage are my shit. Two favorites.
 
OldGtrGuy said:
I prefer lower mids tbh. I know it isn't great for guitar for cutting but I like how it sounds. Or just years of no plugs ruined my high end hearing
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I like fatter lower mids, like when you hear a Recto, like a Nevermore tone or something, but I hate that 500hz or so range that sounds like cardboard.
 
FWIW, I prefer Greenbacks over Vintage 30's in the room.

In the room, I also prefer Marshal Vintages over the other Vintage 30's.

But mic'd up, Mesa V30's are kinda that sound.

I don't like Eminence speakers in general. It's hard to find models that don't have that ugly thing goin in the highs and mids where they sound distant and almost phasey/hollow.
 
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