# Greenbacks for metal, thoughts?



## op1e (Feb 10, 2010)

Somebody on Craigslist wants to trade a Ampeg 212 for a 412 and is open to my cabinet. Says he plays metal and wants something more for that. I'm just worried that it might be too bright and underpowered. I'm running a stock mp-1 and picking up a Velocity 250 for power tomorrow. As for my sound, well, garden variety palm muted metal with 7s in drop A.

Right now I'm running my presence almost cranked, treble almost cranked, mids on 8 and bass on 0 on this ADA to get anything resembling bite out of my PM's. Maybe bright would be a good thing for me, considering. I'm inviting him out to practice so we can test drive each others cabs.


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## Arminius (Feb 10, 2010)

My bandmate has a cab that has greenbacks (i'm pretty sure) and he always uses it even when he swaps amps. Sounds great, lots of chunk in the low end, but no annoying boom. 

If you have the bass on 0 and the presence and treble super high, and still not getting any "bite", something is wrong somewhere.


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## Groff (Feb 10, 2010)

I've played my 5150 through greenbacks. They're very punchy, meshuggahish. They're great in combination with a stronger speaker, like a GT100 or so. I enjoyed it, it was a cool tone on its own, but when paired with another speaker, the complimentary combination is awesome.


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## sami (Feb 10, 2010)

6505 speakers are basically peavey branded higher powered GB clones.


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## jsousa (Feb 10, 2010)

greenbacks are awesome imo. Can't take bass @ high volume really though.


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## LordOVchaoS (Feb 10, 2010)

hmmm... in my old death metal band I gigged with for 5 years, the other guitarist loaded his cab with greenbacks and it turned his tone into total muddy shit. The cab was a crate Blue Voodoo cab that came stock with V30's. Sounded 1,000,000,000,000,000 times better with V30's and I don't like V30's much. He played a 5150. Low wattage = lots of breakup. Speaker breakup = shit metal tone.


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## Beardyman (Feb 10, 2010)

Greenbacks are really warm and smooth, and the lower wattage greenies will break up when you play at high volumes. Keep in mind, I mean at least gigging volume, if you don't gig they'll never break up on you. They sound great for leads, they're very fluid, and full, but for most metal, they're probably not ideal. They're not really all that tight, they're not exactly loose, but not as tight as a v30 would be, they would probably mush out on you.
I could see them possibly working for some progressive metal, but thats about it.


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## cradleofflames (Feb 10, 2010)

I know somebody who used Greenbacks with a Mark IV for death metal and they sounded great. Admittedly they didn't play particularly loud and his sound was pretty bright.


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## op1e (Feb 10, 2010)

Eh, maybe I wont then.


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## TMM (Feb 11, 2010)

They may just be my favorite speaker, and I'm definitely into the tech-death genre. I personally like the little bit of grit they get when you start to push them... it all depends on your amp setup. They seem to work better with some amps than others. They record beautifully, too.


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## jokerlamo (Feb 11, 2010)

LordOVchaoS said:


> hmmm... in my old death metal band I gigged with for 5 years, the other guitarist loaded his cab with greenbacks and it turned his tone into total muddy shit. The cab was a crate Blue Voodoo cab that came stock with V30's. Sounded 1,000,000,000,000,000 times better with V30's and I don't like V30's much. He played a 5150. Low wattage = lots of breakup. Speaker breakup = shit metal tone.



I totally agree with him...the sound of greenbacks gives you those clean leads and break more if thats what you're aiming for BUT V30's do a much better job for heavy distortion PERIOD


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## Leuchty (Feb 11, 2010)

Yeah I agree with Joe. I had the 6505 cab and they were COPIES of GB's and sounded like muddy shit.


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## Jango (Feb 11, 2010)

I have a GB in my amp, and I seriously dislike it. Its way too flabby, and no matter how I eq it I can't get a good chunk out of it.


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## Beardyman (Feb 11, 2010)

Jango said:


> I have a GB in my amp, and I seriously dislike it. Its way too flabby, and no matter how I eq it I can't get a good chunk out of it.


 
Its just about impossible to get those things to sound chunky under a fair amount of gain 
Its just not what they're voiced for. I personally love them for leads.


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## Edroz (Feb 11, 2010)

Scott Burns managed to get some chunky death metal sounds out of greenbacks...

alot of the early death metal tones that came out of Morrisound studio were from a cab loaded with greenbacks.


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## Jango (Feb 11, 2010)

Beardyman said:


> Its just about impossible to get those things to sound chunky under a fair amount of gain
> Its just not what they're voiced for. I personally love them for leads.



The OP mentioned he played a lot of palm-muted metal in Drop A; therefore, I gave him my opinion on how it handles it. They may be decent or even good for leads, but in this case he needs something that'll sound good while playing heavily distorted high AND low register. The greenback is not that speaker, in my opinion.


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## Necky379 (Feb 11, 2010)

about a year ago i played a triaxis->vht power amp->marshall w/greens setup and it sounded great. i didnt bring it up to giging volume but it was loud enough. since then ive decided that when i get the fundage for a cab upgrade im gonna go green. if you like the greenback tone you might want to look at greenback copies with a higher wattage. splawn uses an eminence greenback copy (55 watt small block) and eminence offers the private jack (50 watt) which is suppose to be a little different but in the same ballpark. lorantz makes a 30 watt version. also the g12h30 is supposed to have some similar qualities to greenbacks with a higher power rating and better low end control.
all i have personal experience with is celestion greenbacks but this info might save you some online research time or point you in the right direction if you still want to go the greenback route.


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## op1e (Feb 11, 2010)

I just got my new power amp loaded in. Made a world of difference over the standard PA amp I was using. NGD to follow, but probly tomorrow. Maybe I'm not done with this cab yet. At least till I try a couple replacements in it.


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## Beardyman (Feb 11, 2010)

Jango said:


> The OP mentioned he played a lot of palm-muted metal in Drop A; therefore, I gave him my opinion on how it handles it. They may be decent or even good for leads, but in this case he needs something that'll sound good while playing heavily distorted high AND low register. The greenback is not that speaker, in my opinion.


 
Lol, I only agreed with you bro, and I stated that imo they're voiced better for metal leads.


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## Jango (Feb 11, 2010)

Beardyman said:


> Lol, I only agreed with you bro, and I stated that imo they're voiced better for metal leads.



My bad. Sounded like you were being condescending XD. I will agree, it's nice for some leads, but not so much rhythm. And considering i'm my band's rhythm player...i'm looking to trade my 16 ohm GB for something tighter ^_^


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## TMM (Feb 11, 2010)

Jango said:


> The OP mentioned he played a lot of palm-muted metal in Drop A; therefore, I gave him my opinion on how it handles it. They may be decent or even good for leads, but in this case he needs something that'll sound good while playing heavily distorted high AND low register. The greenback is not that speaker, in my opinion.



I've had my Greenback-loaded H&K GC412A for about a month now, and I'm loving how it sounds with the Oni, which is tuned to a low D# (1 fret from being an octave below drop D). Very clear, crisp, and well-defined, and we play _loud_. It sounded great with my Dual Rec, and I played it tonight with an E570 through a 6L6 poweramp, and it sounded even better.

This impression that people seem to have about Greenbacks not working for death metal strikes me as unfounded - I could see an argument against them for more 'djenty' playing, where you're looking for a more pronounced midrange, other-worldy headroom, and absolutely zero speaker breakup, but good ol' DM, no way. Some breakup is actually a good thing for a heavy, hi-gain guitar tone, at least in the extreme metal realm. As noted above, quite a few good DM bands use(d) them in recordings we all know and love, and the close-mic'd tone on all my tracks for my band's upcoming album is a nice, broken-in Greenback.

And if you don't want to take my word on the speaker breakup issue, take Mark Lewis':

http://www.sevenstring.org/forum/ge...chapel-album-amp-shoot-out-9.html#post1846802


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## metalvince333 (Feb 11, 2010)

I have a vintage 30 and a greenback in my framus ruby riot and I get sweeeet metal tones out of that amp!I cant stand my cheap randall cab anymore even if it has my hughes & kettner on it. I Have to get a new cab and im thinking about mixing v30s with greenbacks like in the framus or just get a krank with v12's in it. I love the v30/greenback mix and I play pretty damn loud sometimes. Ill post a video later of me playing the combo.


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## TMM (Feb 11, 2010)

metalvince333 said:


> I have a vintage 30 and a greenback in my framus ruby riot and I get sweeeet metal tones out of that amp!I cant stand my cheap randall cab anymore even if it has my hughes & kettner on it. I Have to get a new cab and im thinking about mixing v30s with greenbacks like in the framus or just get a krank with v12's in it. I love the v30/greenback mix and I play pretty damn loud sometimes. Ill post a video later of me playing the combo.



That's what I did in my GC412A last week - swapped 2 Greenbacks out for V30s, so I have the G12M / V30s in a X pattern. Love it!


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## metalvince333 (Feb 11, 2010)

please do me a favor and skip it to 35sec...XD running trough the framus ruby riot with a boss super overdrive and a ns2 at the moment.I love the tone but It just makes me want to get a framus dragon with a maxon overdrive so badly!!!I was in drop c by the way


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## raximkoron (Feb 12, 2010)

I played around with an ancient peavey cab that had it's speakers replaced with Greenbacks. Guy had a Dual Recto piped into it, and it was crushing to say the least. I think it would be best suited if you always had your cab mic'ed for shows though, as they don't handle crazy high volumes like most 'modern' speakers do.

Still, there was an incredible amount of low end, but very tight and articulate.


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## newamerikangospel (Feb 12, 2010)

Greenbacks seems to go well with a sterile/overly tight amp (they sound awesome with the framus cobra, in my opinion). However, they do start to "less faithfully" reproduce top end when turned up, so a dark amp that isn't very tight+greenbacks can be bad. Using too much gain will also mess up your tone with g25s.

I like my g25+t75 combo (actually hm75s from Warehouse).


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## Beardyman (Feb 13, 2010)

Jango said:


> My bad. Sounded like you were being condescending XD. I will agree, it's nice for some leads, but not so much rhythm. And considering i'm my band's rhythm player...i'm looking to trade my 16 ohm GB for something tighter ^_^


 
Haha, no sweat brah. Maybe give some G12k-100s a go? I've been pretty interested in loading my Orange with either an x-pattern of k-100s and v30s or a quad of k100s lately. They're supposedly quite balanced, and tight. I figure the balanced sound might work great with my Axe rig.

Back on topic. I hear you guys about the speaker breakup thing, but a lot of people don't like speaker breakup, including me. It works for some people, and some others just don't like the sound of it. I suppose they could work for old school Death Metal, or a heavy tone that dosen't need to be really tight, but GBs are pretty warm and fairly loose. They do indeed work great with brighter amps!


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## Scoop_89 (Jun 25, 2010)

Mechanical Scent on MySpace Music - Free Streaming MP3s, Pictures & Music Downloads

Here's a few samples from our upcoming EP. I was recorded using my ENGL Fireball 60 through an Orange 1*12 loaded with a Greenback and I must say that I'm impressed by the result.
I think they are truly awesome speakers


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## abhinav1102 (Jun 25, 2010)

wat do u guys say about the celestion G12T 'hot 100'??


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## metalvince333 (Jun 25, 2010)

Scoop_89 said:


> Mechanical Scent on MySpace Music - Free Streaming MP3s, Pictures & Music Downloads
> 
> Here's a few samples from our upcoming EP. I was recorded using my ENGL Fireball 60 through an Orange 1*12 loaded with a Greenback and I must say that I'm impressed by the result.
> I think they are truly awesome speakers


 This makes me really want to do a x pattern with 2 greenbacks and 2 k100  is that even possible? is there a higher wattage version of the greenback?


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## Sepultorture (Jun 25, 2010)

i've played the hughes and kettner triamp through both their V30 and Greenback loaded cabs, and i much prefer their green back cabinet


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## op1e (Jun 25, 2010)

Holy thread resurrection Batman! Forgot about this. I sold my Peavey cab and grabbed a new B52. Played a show Friday before last, probly my last for a while. Drummer woes again, scrambling to find somebody before the festivals we're playing in late August.


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## Scoop_89 (Jun 26, 2010)

Hmm just wondering, does Eminence have an equivalent to Celestions Greenbacks?


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## Zugster (Jun 26, 2010)

I don't like Greenbacks myself. I agree with LordOvChaos.  Early cone breakup isn't for me.

That said, you can use any gear you want to play anything - it just may not be someone elses idea of good tone. Hell, you can play death metal on a telecaster if you like the feel of that instrument.


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## Gamba (Jun 26, 2010)

Scoop_89 said:


> Hmm just wondering, does Eminence have an equivalent to Celestions Greenbacks?



Yes they do, I just can't remember the name
I like greenbacks, the only problem is that they are only 25W


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## groph (Jun 26, 2010)

Edroz said:


> Scott Burns managed to get some chunky death metal sounds out of greenbacks...
> 
> alot of the early death metal tones that came out of Morrisound studio were from a cab loaded with greenbacks.


 

Yeah, Valvestate 8100 or 8200 into a Marshall 4x12 with Greenbacks if I remember correctly. Basically the Death tone.

Not really "modern" sounding, but I love a lot of those old DM tones. 

I don't know how well such a speaker would hold up under "today's" metal applications, cause you will get a bunch of breakup which I guess you either love or hate. I've never tried a Greenback loaded cab before, but I've liked the clips I've heard involving them.


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## whosdealin (Jun 26, 2010)

It really depends on the amp in my experiences.... Greenbacks can sound great for Metal or like a flub fest. They have a good amount of low mids, a large amount of character and sing for leads. they are more of a rock speaker but can do Metal with the right amp , for example the Framus Cobra.


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## warlock7strEMG (Jun 27, 2010)

Gamba said:


> Yes they do, I just can't remember the name
> I like greenbacks, the only problem is that they are only 25W



its the Legend GB128. they are rated at 50 watts so they may be a little better for metal than the Greenbacks are, since they wont break up quite as early.


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## etiam (Jun 27, 2010)

That may be, but the one I was thinking of is the Private Jack:

Eminence - The Art and Science of Sound


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