Bass into a Greenback!!!

[SkyMonkey]

As some may be aware, the early Stranglers bass tones created by Jean-Jacques Burnel were created by him running his Hiwatt valve guitar amp into a Marshall 412 guitar cab.
The abuse of the speakers in this way gave him that 'final stage' distortion sound.
This vid by Celestion shows what was probably going on inside his cab.

 

[Clockworkmike]

As some may be aware, the early Stranglers bass tones created by Jean-Jacques Burnel were created by him running his Hiwatt valve guitar amp into a Marshall 412 guitar cab.
The abuse of the speakers in this way gave him that 'final stage' distortion sound.
This vid by Celestion shows what was probably going on inside his cab.

Its actually been a popular speaker for a lot of the late 60s, mid 70s bassists who often used a full marshall stack just like the accompanying guitarists. They have a nice natural grit when driven, even without added gain

 

[Thatbastarddon]

They did have a 55Hz cone model, referred to as a “bass” cone. Not really for bass guitar though.... I don’t think....

 

[SG John]

This '72 Super Bass cabinet has 55Hz greenbacks. I can see why Paul Kossoff and Duane Allman loved them. They are great speakers.

 

[Clockworkmike]

This '72 Super Bass cabinet has 55Hz greenbacks. I can see why Paul Kossoff and Duane Allman loved them. They are great speakers.

View attachment 51163

I got a buddy that had a reissue vintage cab with Greenbacks and for whatever reason and i will never understand why, he traded it at a local store for a used 1960B Cab with G12T-75s AND had to fork $50 on top of it. I got a couple 1960A cabs and i love them but that was a gross mistake if you ask me

 

[eSGEe]

 

[SG John]

I got a buddy that had a reissue vintage cab with Greenbacks and for whatever reason and i will never understand why, he traded it at a local store for a used 1960B Cab with G12T-75s AND had to fork $50 on top of it. I got a couple 1960A cabs and i love them but that was a gross mistake if you ask me

I hate when stores hose people like that. You know that they doubled the price they gave him when they sold it, and made much more than they did on the cab they sold him.

 

[Clockworkmike]

I hate when stores hose people like that. You know that they doubled the price they gave him when they sold it, and made much more than they did on the cab they sold him.

Absolutely. It was a terrible local store that burned me before my buddy got burned. Unfortunately i didnt find out i got burned until some time after. Just a real despicable person who ran it and he had a lot authorized dealer's licenses like Gibson, Marshall, Mesa Boogie but was just a scumbag.

He hooked me when i was 13 years old on a Marshall JCM900 SLX 2500 EL34 model. Bought it new in 1996 after honestly busting my ass for over two years helping my dad rewiring a ton of houses ( whats child labor laws? Lol). I found out a few years ago by researching serial numbers that its actually a 1993 5881 model that was obviously used and someone attempted to convert it to an EL34 but he sold at a brand new price.

 

[eSGEe]

That is what happens when Ferengi go Evil

 

[Clockworkmike]

That is what happens when Ferengi go Evil

To be fair, he looked eerily similar to Meatloaf and rotated almost weekly between driving a Ferrari 550, BMW Z3 and a Corvette C5 in those days, despite operating a two-bit store in the hillbilly town of Beckley, Wv. He either burned a TON of people on shady equipment sells or was moving , ahem, another kind of product. But thats purely hearsay lol

 

[ivan H]

This '72 Super Bass cabinet has 55Hz greenbacks. I can see why Paul Kossoff and Duane Allman loved them. They are great speakers.

Hendrix was another user of the 55Hz G12H greenbacks. Cheers

 

[SkyMonkey]

I have an 8 ohm G12B-150 that I pulled out of my 1912 cab and I have been curious about what else it can be used for.
The frequency range is 60-4000Hz, so a fair bit of a shift towards the average bass speaker range of 45-3500Hz.
In fact it is almost the same as the G15V-100 Fullback (65-4000Hz).
But the G12B-150 resonant frequency is 77Hz, and therefore more inline with most guitar speakers.

I've wondered if four G12B-150s in a 1960A might make an excellent 600W 8 ohm 412 baritone cab (imagine a full stack!!!).
The main sticking point to the project would be that the G12B-150 is only available in an old 1912 cab or a new JVM215C.
So that's somewhere between £150 and £1000 per speaker!