Anybody tried a Celestion G10 Creamback?

Mr Grumpy

Mr Grumpy

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It's quite a new speaker that supposedly keeps the best elements of a 12" Creamback.

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Anybody have experience of Creambacks and/or experience of Greenbacks and Creambacks?

I know these are 12", but they give a decent example:



If I got one, it'd go in a low watt amp, 5w, so I usually put the 25w/30w 10" Greenback because they're easier to drive and break up nice and early. For example, I put one of those in a 5w Marshall DSL and a 20w Marshall Origin and both were greatly improved over the stock speakers, imho.

The Creamback sounds great to my ears in videos, even against Greenbacks in comparison videos, but I'm a tad worried that the higher wattage might be a problem for a 5w amp (the amp has an attenuator, so can be driven flat out). Any thoughts?
 
The Celestion alnico cream sounds fantastic in this video, by far my favourite. But, it's a totally different size and too big in at least two dimensions for my application.

 
Celestion make it difficult... There are similar sounding names which are quite different:

G10 Creamback is a ceramic speaker, but I can't find any sound clips of it.

Cream alnico in the clip above - very fine speaker, imho.

G12M creamback and G12h creamback are also in the clips above, but don't sound as good (nowhere near), imho.

Alnicos do seem to have more smoothness, to my ears, than ceramics, and here are the Gold, Blue and Cream:


I like this video, shows the speakers well, and his explanation is good too. The creamback just had the nicest overall sound for me. But, the only Celestion alnico in 10" is the G10 gold, but it's too deep to fit into my cabinet hence why I'm wondering about the slimmer ceramic G10 cream (which I can't find a clip of).
 
They seem to be a completely different animal than the original "Cream Backs" which were only 30 watts.

Going by all of my various 25 watt "Green Backs" in my '70s cabs compared to the early G12T-75 speakers in my Silver Jubilee cabs, I know that the higher wattage Celestions will be a cleaner speaker. Having a 45 watt speaker in a low watt amp will yield hardly any natural distortion. Any distortion would come from the amp's gain stage. Having the amp cranked to the max wouldn't damage the speaker. How it would sound is another story.

Here's a good reference chart for older Celestion speakers:

Celestion Loudspeakers: From Blues to Greenies and beyond


**Edit** I also have "Black Backs" in my fawn '78 cabinet. They are a great sounding speaker. The original "Cream Backs" had two eras, so to speak. The early ones were still using Pulsonic cones, then the switch to RIC cones which were made by Celestion after the fire at the Pulsonic factory. The "Black Backs had Mueller cones which are much nicer that the RIC cones. I'm curious as to which "Cream Back" model these new speakers are based on. It may sound fine in your application.
 
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They do make it tough by offering so many solid choices. I considered a Creamback when looking at upgrades for my Princeton. I have a lot of experience with the Greenback 10 and figured that family sound with more headroom would be a good fit in the amp. Listened to all the clips and considered what kind of amps they seem to get used in. After thinking long and hard I got a G-10 Alnico Gold, mostly for the extended high end. It ended up being the perfect fit for that amp.
 
SG John said:
Here's a good reference chart for older Celestion speakers:

Celestion Loudspeakers: From Blues to Greenies and beyond
Click to expand...
This article has a ton of interesting info about Celestions. Thanks for posting it. The author also gave out a nice compliment to Scumback Speakers at the end of the article. I'm a big fan of Jim Seavall and his Scumback speakers... "British Speaker Tone Done Right"... Made in Whittier, California!
 
Mr Grumpy said:
Anybody have experience of Creambacks and/or experience of Greenbacks and Creambacks?

I know these are 12", but they give a decent example:



If I got one, it'd go in a low watt amp, 5w, so I usually put the 25w/30w 10" Greenback because they're easier to drive and break up nice and early. For example, I put one of those in a 5w Marshall DSL and a 20w Marshall Origin and both were greatly improved over the stock speakers, imho.

The Creamback sounds great to my ears in videos, even against Greenbacks in comparison videos, but I'm a tad worried that the higher wattage might be a problem for a 5w amp (the amp has an attenuator, so can be driven flat out). Any thoughts?
Click to expand...
I prefer the Greenback in the video. It may be because I am more used to to it. I have one in my Traynor YCV-20WR.
 
not that Im aware of----- I have had celestions-- pressntly one in the VOX and one (I think ) in the MEsa-- but its a "Black Shaddow" or some such?
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oh wait nevermind--- its an EMINENCE speaker--- so -- just the one in the VOX at the moment but it aint no cremeback
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SG John said:
They seem to be a completely different animal than the original "Cream Backs" which were only 30 watts.
Click to expand...

Yeah, you're right, and I can't find any sound clips. I may take the risk or may not, still thinking... Thanks for your comments, good food for thought. By the time I've put the SD Antiquities in the Special and sorted this new amp out, it's good be spectacularly good (not as good as your amazing gear, but...). :cheers:

SG John said:
Having a 45 watt speaker in a low watt amp will yield hardly any natural distortion.
Click to expand...

With the little wattage amps, a 25/30w that breaks up early (like a greenback) works for me. My new amp has two modes, one clean, one quite overdriven to sound like a 60s plexi but at much much lower volumes, so not a million miles away from the Marshall Origin series which a greenback works well in - greenbacks are just a solid choice for small amps that need power amps to be driven before you get the best sounds, in my limited experience.

gball said:
They do make it tough by offering so many solid choices.
Click to expand...

The eight/15 and ten/30 that came stock in a couple of my Marshalls were poor, imho. I had a cab with a G10N-40 (I read somewhere, might be wrong, but you'd probably know this..., that Mesa use this speaker as a foundation for some of their Celestion custom speakers?) and that sounded really good. My only other Celestion is a greenback 10" which I put in both the Marshalls and it worked great.

By the time I've bought the speaker and put it in, I could buy a cab and just connect to that (the amp has the output connection), and I've seen 1x12 Palmer greenback and 1x10 G10N-40 cabs at around $240 or so (including delivery). Might be a good option.

Kerry Brown said:
I prefer the Greenback in the video.
Click to expand...

Yeah, they are good speakers. The Celestions are more different to each other than better sounding; it's all about the application because they all sound nice.
 


The Seventy/80 sounds terrible.

The Greenback sounds really good, but sometimes a bit nasty on the highs.

The Creamback sounds really nice and balanced, not so many highs (might be considered a tad lacking?), enough in the mids and lows, but not as much as the Greenback.
 
This is an interesting video which supports a lot of what SG John said:


I'm quite enjoying these videos, but would still like to see a 10" Creamback pushing a low powered amp... I had the 40w G10N with a Bugera T5 head, and it sounded good; the amp was getting the gain (I didn't really think about it that way at the time). I did notice though, and this was the same with my DSL5, that the amp(s) sounded a lot better on the 5w setting than the lower power settings even when the volume output was around the same.
 
So, as we know, there are all sorts of rabbit holes and areas to obsess on, and I've gotten really into these Celestions, and the Zilla cab videos.

I'm thinking about just getting a custom 1x12 made by Zilla to match the Cornell amp, and maybe put a 15w blue in it. :alien:
(I'm feeling a bit Robert - and I say that in a good way!)

All these speakers sound really nice, they just have slight differences.


Of course, I could just buy a 10" greenback and the amp will sound amazing. But, if I got a custom Zilla 1x12 with an alnico blue it'll work with every small watt head I'll buy in future. :dood:

Anybody got a Zilla cab?

Custom Speaker Cabinets | Handmade in England | Zilla Cabs

Our goal at Zilla Cabs is to make the best guitar and bass speaker cabinets possible. We take great pride in our name and put love and experience into every custom speaker cabinet we make.
www.zillacabs.com www.zillacabs.com
 
This is an excellent comparison of 4 speakers - starts at 8:20


All 4 sound really good. Just depends on the amp they are going into and your preference.
 
Truthfully ive found ya never know whats gonna sound good with what. Just a big experiment and crap shoot.Ive found pups you think will sound good sound like poop and vice versa. Better get them all Grump that way you can test them out hahahahaha
 
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