Which speakers do you prefer with your Recto?

[Metaltastic]

Perhaps V30s weren't necessarily the source of your complaints with the sound in at least a few of those circumstances? I find them to sound quite smooth, especially in a Recto cab 8)

 

[Anonymous]

Ya, the greenbacks are interesting speakers. It should be mentioned that both the G12m and G12H are considered greenbacks because that was just a slang name for the green magnet cover. The speaker most people are referring to are usually the G12m 25 or G12m heritage (20watt) when they talk about greenbacks but the G12H 30 or G12H Heritage are very similar sounding speakers, just with a better bass response and higher efficiency.

G12Ms for me; 25 watt version.

The sound is very different with greenbacks than a CL80 or V30 because they have a lot more speaker breakup. It is really a question of taste whether you like it or not. The positive is that the tone sounds way better at lower volumes than a v30, but the speaker is very loose and distorts like crazy at high volumes. The low end tends to be farty but aside from that, the overall tone is very creamy with a nice midrange crunch. (Great compliment to el-34s) The farty low end is probably less of a problem with a fullstack (or a marshall) but when you start getting huge volumes, it can become annoying, especially if you want a really thumpy sound. If you don't need the bass, the problem is mitigated substantially. You really have to redial your tone for the speaker, and back of the gain quite a bit because the speaker has a really thick sound. Basically, a G12T - 75 sounds like a cross between a v30 and a greenback minus the annoyingly scratchy highs you get with the G12T. Personally, I'd use a Greenback for blues, older rock, punk, or anything that doesn't require a super tight and gainy tone. I prefer using the Marshall 1960ax cab with the vintage settings on my two channel dual. I feel the cab is not suitable for modern gain tones, where I'd rather run a standard rectocab or a Marshall 1960a.

Like I said earlier: the greenback full stack responds very similarly to a V30 half stack. The notable differences are a creamier midrange, like you mentioned, a much silkier high end, and in all honesty, a better bass response. Now please, take what I'm saying with a grain of salt because everyone has different preferences and hears different things, but to me, the V30s resonated more and provided slower tracking.

In terms of size - full vs. half stack - this isn't a fair comparison. However, I think it's alright to proceed because the greenback stack is only rated at 200 watts.

What I definitely want to get across is that before actually trying it, I would have written greenbacks off pretty quickly for working well with a Recto - especially for metal. After trying it, my thoughts have changed! Again, I'll try to get some clips going and report back. Recordings - probably more often than not - don't lie!

 

[Cleekster]

Perhaps V30s weren't necessarily the source of your complaints with the sound in at least a few of those circumstances? I find them to sound quite smooth, especially in a Recto cab 8)

you could be right.

 

[greg_moreira]

I own a triple recto solo 3 channel, and Im really digging the V30's. Thing is....in modern mode, and in the gain channels, you can never really "un-metal" this amp. Its just always going to be an aggressive beast. But(and I know this is probably going to be contradictory of what you typically hear).....I find that the V30 does help to settle this head down and bring it away from metal a little and into rock territory.

If you dial the high end and low end out of the head a bit, and roll back a tad on the gain, and let the natural mid charactor of the V30 speakers do its thing, it gets a little more "marshally" in tone, yet keeps the thick gain character that these rectos produce.

I was using an oversized 4X12 with 4 eminence texas heats...and lemme tell you....the combo of the big cab and those speakers can produce utterly DEVASTATING sound that Im sure the nu metal crowd would be into. Also a great blues tone from this setup! Problem is, in my band, I dont play much straight blues or modern metal. I still do from time to time, so I keep this cab for when I need it, but the V30 cab goes with me when my regular band plays cause its easier to coax a hard rock sound out of it. Its still a modern type of hard rock sound though. Never tried a nu metal sorta sound with the V30's because they just dont seem like they would lend themselves to that sound as well as my texas heat equipped cab. If I had no choice though....Im sure it could do it well enough. And, V30's for sure for the traditional metal stuff(over the heats at least).