All these people moaning about mic placement, wrong creamback image, blah blah blah, etc, etc. This guy's generously using his time to record his findings and share them with the rest of us, which is VERY USEFUL. If the habitual whiner's, faultfinders, gripers can do better, then let's see what you've got, or better still... STOP F"(^&")G MOANING and watch something else, give the guy a break. Thank you Zaloral for posting this as I'm in the process of changing speakers.
lo5man Absolutely! If your so deaf that you cant hear the clear difference's in this guys recordings and tell witch speaker comes closest to the direction you want to sonically travel then you should probably stop playing guitar because your tone deaf!! Just saying. Great demo of each speaker dude! Your also showing that this is an incredible amp!! Props
For real. It's march of the pedans in this comments section. Just saw a "If I made the video" comment, the poster's reply explaining what he did, then a reply to that with yet another "If I made the video" comment. Unbelievable.
The seventy 80 sounds stuffy and shrill when new, but once you've broken it in, its bass opens up and it balances out nicely. I was speaker rolling with a Weber ceramic Blue Dog, a WGS ET65, and an Eminence RW&B- and opted to keep the stock speaker (a rebranded seventy 80) in my HRDx III.
Excellent video , and everything I needed to hear to stay away from the Seventy 80. Redoubled respect for the Greenback and Creamback. Thanks for taking the time to make this!
I also have several (6) Seventy 80s in a couple of different cabs. Once they are broken in they lose a lot of the 'scratchy' tone that they have new, as their response softens and mellows in the presence region. They are actually pretty awesome speakers despite being the Celestion budget offering. All they really are really is a Classic Lead cone fitted to a cheap middle-weight magnet.
i got laney irt and g212 cab for trade. İ thought i would get rid of the cab immediately. They werent fancy speakers but 70 80s in laney sounded very good and actually i kept it.
i have the same amp, DSL40C. Bought it in 2016. I have what i need for my tone, guitars, JHS pedals, but no matter how much i tried to roll off the fizzyness and the harshness of the sound coming from the amp, I could not do it...because of the stock speaker. So after listening to a couple of reviews, this review actually made me order just now the Creamback G12M-65. Can't wait for it to come and install it and blast some tones out of that speaker...I mostly play with tones resembling of Satriani and Timmons and Lukather...so..this should do the job very well. Thanks for the review..5 years later it still helps a lot :) Cheers!!
Fantastic comparison done the right way. I have a DSL40C as well with the stock speaker and think it sounds pretty good once it breaks in. Many say it's trebly but I think it helps cut through the mix in a band or live situation. That Creamback sounds really good though and may have to give one a try.
Thank you sir! It's true, the Seventy 80 break the wall of sound, but I prefer the Greenback all the time. The Creamback is more dark but give a lovely and punchy tone.
I have always been a G12M kinda guy. Even preferred it over the V30. However that creamback is kickin ass. Sounds so good. Like a G12M but also with some of good qualities of a V30.
The Seventy 80 speaker really sounds fizzy in your recording, but is a speaker I love in my really warm sounding Valve 70's Traynor. My amp needs brightening up, and the amp now sounds fantastic especially on gain. The 70/80 has a nice bass response. This speaker was designed as a one speaker do it all for combo's all around the world. It's also known as the the G12p-80. It also comes in 2 magnet sizes (2.7kg and 3kg version) according to production runs. Your amp seemed to take to the g/backs imo. I had the originals in a 70's MArshall 4x12 B, and the whole thing sounded too bassy/muddy. Adding G12T75's brightened that cab up. Celestion to my knowledge have made very few 'bad' speakers (maybe the twin cone G12's in the 70/80's era), but today guitarists are spoilt for choice! The chinese ones these days are all high quality.
The greenbacks sound great but they’re really “spacey” so I could see them being suited to closed back cabs to break up some of that. Creambacks are probably the best overall, cleans, crunch, distortion all sound just right.
My personal favorite is the creamback. It absolutely owned on clean and had a very nice but distinct tone on crunch and lead. The greenback sounded really good cranked but it didn't have the bass response I'm looking for. The seventy-80 just sounded brittle.
The greenback got a lovely low-end frequencies. You can't hear it because the sound is compressed by youtube and the quality of record is not professional.
I like the 80. It's very clear and would complement my amp with the mids on 6-8 and treble at 3-4, where I like the response, but the speakers I've used in the past have been too dark to support that setting without an EQ in the loop.
difficult to see where that 80 would work. The greenback excels in the heaviest of metal. The cream back is a relaxing balance that wouldn't do best for metal. I was quite impressed by the differences as I did not expect so much variation. cream back has a nice balance and seems to carry the sustain clearly across the mix. Now I am really fixed on seeing that white VOX 15 with a creamback resting like a faithful bulldog at the end of my leash.
All of them sound very good with different voicings. I have Celestion 70/80 in Harley Benton Tube 15 and it's perfect for this particular amp. I would like to have all of these speakers to get different sounds and vibes.
The creamback is by far the best option here. The greenback sounds too brittle and the seventy 80 just sounds like shit. Nice choice on the Custom 5 in the bridge, it's easily one of my favorite bridge humbuckers.
The thing is that this amp can add or subtract frequencies to compensate for highs that take your head off or speakers that lack bottom end etc. I'll bet the 70/80, which is too bright for me, could be sculpted to sound good tweaking the Presence, Treble and Resonance controls to taste. I think the Creamback is sweeter and the greenback is under powered. I'd like to hear a Vintage 30 for comparison. Thanks for the video!
I dont know guys but my les paul with a dimarzio superdistortion bridge pickup and a fully broke in70/80 in my dsl 40c sounds amazing especially cranked !
Nice comparison, of speakers and sound difference. Creamback hands down, warmer and fatter both single coil and humbucker, clean and dirty channels. The 80 is way to thin, greenback OK.
I just bought a Monoprice 15 and was researching for the very same reason. Not at all familiar w the 70/80. Of course doesn’t sound bad at all with the amp, which likely has been tuned around that speaker, but always have to wonder if an upgrade will make it that much better. After hearing this clip, I’m going for the Greenback. Also the G12H Anniversary sounds great in just about anything and will try as well. Thank you Zaloral for your comparisons! Very helpful.
I have been looking at the celestions freq curves.. I think the 70/80 brightness comes from an extra peak at ~ 1.7kHz which I don't see on the other celestion speakers. Also the other "greenback" type speakers drop of gradually after 4kHz while the 70/80 has a small peak at 5kHz which could give a little fizz with distortion. EL34 based amp especially with a preamp that is aggresive in the high mids benefits from a more smooky speaker like the 25W greenback. EL84/EL34 pentodes tend to have more 3rd odd harmonics compared to beam tube (6v6/6l6). I have an Laney LC50 amp with EL34 and the celestion 70/80 and my bandmate has a traynor ycv40 with the same speaker. The tubes amps are not so different in terms of topology. Clean channel is a plate driven fender type one, long tail phase inverter and a class AB push pull stage with negative feedback. My bias is around 61% on the EL34 tubes. His amp has 6l6GC tubes propbably with a cold bias. His amp has a much better built birch plywood cab with a bigger and tighter bass than my Laney but the fairly cold biased 6l6GC tubes are also very strong and tight in the bass. But the midrange is also different.. It seems like his amp jives better with the 70/80 than my amp (EL34 tubes has often a high mids focus and 6L6GC more a lower mid focus. Here is a comparison between two fairly similar amps but one with EL84 tubes (pentodes) the other with 6v6 tubes (beam tetrodes) ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-sifDOnBqCAg.html
This is a great demo coparasin of new speakers. I wonder what they would all sound like after 6 months of breaking in and in different cabinets? I have heard 70/80s breakup at lower volume with age. The Greenbacks sound great out of the box though, These all have different performance curves.
Thanks - great comparison! This confirmed my decision to get a DSL with the Creambacks. I like the Greenbacks best, but I'm getting a great deal - and I already have Greenbacks in another amp.
Just purchased a new Marshall DSL40C that came with the Creamback 65. At first I was not happy with it - very shrill and tin sounding with flabby bottom - but after a couple if hours it is beginning to break in. When I pushed the volume to around 3.5-4 it came roaring to life and sounded awesome. I was playing a Gibson Les Paul with 57 pups and a Jackson USA Soloist with Seymour Duncan JB, for context.
thanks so much for this comparison. I actually own all three of these speakers and just started making cabinets, because I can't afford 500 bucks for a 2x12, or even more for a 4x12. This comparison helped me a bunch but I'm still going to run it through my rigs, amps, and see what sounds best through a vox hw ac30 and a PRS 50 watt archon. Thanks again and great playing! Keep strumming brother.
Which speaker did you initially use to set your tone on the amp - clearly it wasn't the Seventy 80? I have five Seventy 80's (one in a Marshall DSL 40C like your test amp) and they sound MUCH better than the one in this demo; I also have some Greenbacks and they sound very good too BUT not at the same amp tone settings. These three speakers are so different that the amp tone settings need to be different too - but then the pure comparison idea doesn't work either. I like both shrimp and steak - boiled shrimp taste good but a boiled steak doesn't! Both are good but different and need to be treated differently.
The eq for all speakers was in flat. I don't have a professional devices for recording and I put the mic in a wrong position. The video want a give a idea of the difference between the speakers, I never pretend to reproduce the true sound.
Hmm- the 70/80 in my amp sounds tons better than the one in this demo. Its crystal clear and has a nice full, bottom end to it. This one sounds all scratchy and fizzy. I'm glad mine doesn't sound like that. I'm fixing to upgrade mine to the Cream back 75 heavy magnet- my amp is going to weigh a ton, but it's going to sound amazing. 169 bucks new- I'm probably going to buy used- they're already broken in.
Nice video, thanks. I like the 70/80, been using them for years in all my cabs (212, 112, and 412) all 70/80. Very versatile, not sure why people hates these
Just got a DSL40 and used it at a gig over the weekend, playing classic rock. I like the amp, but I will definitely be switching out the seventy 80 for a greenback. I thought I'd be putting in a creamback, but this excellent shootout helped to inform me. I'll usually be running the amp in triode mode so that I can push the power tubes and still keep stage volume reasonable, so I don't think the reduced power handling of the greenback will be an issue. Thanks sooooo much for putting this together, great job.
The Zoom mics sound terrible imo with guitar amps. Harsh high end. I think the 70/80 is a decent speaker if you EQ for it or have a dark amp to begin with. A recent marshall however is going to be too shrill with it, IMO.
I tried 4 Celestions and 3 Eminence speakers through Marshalls and Evh amps, and my fav. was the 70/80. G12m flubbs out unless use 4 or very low volume, v30 sounded spikey and harsh, g12h sounded generic and bad solid statish. 70/80 had mids of greenback with power and upper mids of v30.
I actually think the Seventy-80's would go well paired with the Creamback 65's in a 4X12 for a distorted high gain/modern metal tone judging from this comparison. I'm considering loading a cab with the Creambacks and V30's myself. Good demo!
Thanks Much To Zaloral For Your Time And Effort, For The Rest Of The Bitches And Complainers ,Speaker Preference Is Subjective. Everybody Will Prefer X Over Y Over Z And So On, I Split The Difference And Picked My Favorite 2 And Put One Each In Their Own Cabs And Play Them Together, Result....Great Kick Ass Celestion Sound!
And the winner is.... totally subjective. It's all a matter of matching the right speaker for each amp. The seventy 80 gets a lot of negative reviews but I put one in an older Peavey and it's just right. Greenbacks sound great in a 4X12 but thin on their own. One person's "nice and warm" is another person's "too dark"
Thanks for the review. My 17 year old son has a Marshall DSL40C with the Seventy/80, it is very bright, but accurate. I have a Celestion G12 Vintage 30 coming for a surprise . I will post up how he likes it. After Xmas.
Greenbacks for me. Yes the seventy 80 speakers are new and not broken in, but even the greenbacks I had sounded great new. I have the origin 2x12 cab today. I was replacing the speakers with 30 watt g12h celestians anyway. Plugging the sv20h I got today with the schaffer booster into my 4x12 with greenbacks was amazing sound.
I would say it tops a Fender Hot Rod deluxe made in Corona, Ca hands down. And the owner of the Hot Rod (my bands guitarist) would defo agree. the Marshall dsl40c is a monster even with a seventy/80.
70/80 just can’t hold down that gain. By the later clips it’s starting to fart at the low end and just isn’t coping. Not too bad on the cleans though. Greenback handles everything and doesn’t sweat it. Probably loses to the Creamback in the cleans and mid-level gains, but the Greenback comes into its own once the gain is really cranked. The Greenback has to be the standout here, it really is the best allrounder. The Creamback would probably be delightful for cleans and blues style gain, though. Has a really nice warmth to it that really suits blues classic rock, and some hard rock. It’s not for metal though.
great video and nice playing . for me the creamback is my top choice here for versatility it sounded very good with all settings . for lead playing I would l pick the greenback for its extra top end clarity sizzle and break up for everything else I would go creamback . it's the fullest Thickest and most open sounding of the three speakers which makes it killer for rythum playing it also has far more low end than the other 2 and that became very apparent on the heavier parts especially the 7 string section . the greenback was a close second for me it was very open and had the most presence of the 3 which makes it the best of the 3 for lead playing and single notes and it had that classic greenback mid range compression . the creamback was very similar to the greenback it was just a bit more open and full with more low end and a bit less top end sparkle and breakup the creamback is considered by many to be just a classic rock speaker as it's basically a greemback that has more low end and higher power handling but the extra bass and low end tightness plus it's fuller more open sound make it great for heavy riffing and rythum . the 70 80 was very tinny and sharp sounding . it was very compressed and had a narrow range and sounded harsh overdriven.
Creamback is the cleanest. But I almost would like to find 2 2x12 cabs. 1 w seventy 80s and 1 w greens. 2 channel eq (rack unit) w the 100 watt 🍊 pedal baby
I got 1 of those H-B 15 watt cabs w/o the amp part. In other words FREE CAB. With the 70/80 speaker. Got one of those Hotone Mojo Diamond (Fender Tweed) amp head and these 2 play together nicely.
Excellent demo ! I hate the CL80 except with heavy saturation, where he's bassy and modern. I prefere the V30 (here close to the G12h) to the greenback all the time. With heavy saturation the greenback is interesting also.
This video isn’t intended to show how these speakers sound “in general”… it’s intended to compare how differently they sound with an equal EQ. It doesn’t matter if your 70/80 or G12 “sounds different”... the differences in general tone are all relative…like what type of amp is used, the preference of the player, and EQ of the equipment. In my opinion, the 70/80 is the worst sounding speaker Celestion makes. But I prefer more bluesy classic rock tone. I feel like the 70/80 would fit perfect for a modern metal head. Because they love that digital and solid state tone. The G12’s are old school and more British voiced which is used more often in classic rock and blues. And yes I know there are some metal players that use tubes, but in general the consistency of solid state is more often preferred. So try not to get all butthurt by what I’m saying 😂
Just one thing, the image in the video shows Creamback 75, not 65. I think the 75 has the heavy magnet and sounds a bit different from the 65. Great comparison though, as I am shopping for these speakers at the moment.
Nice video man, appreciate the time and effort you put into it. Good video overall and can get a sense of how each sounds. There is something up with the recording though. I hear a weird high frequency noise that doesn't sound like the amp or speaker. Sounds like the recording, H4n or SM57, is clipping. Happens mostly on the 70/80 and G12M but can hear it on the Creamback too but it's a lot less. Not sure if it is a clipping thing or eq. It's something like when you record audio/video at a concert with your phone and you get the high frequency noise from overloading the mic input. Did you check you weren't saturating the mic inputs?
Unfortunately, I don't have professional recording equipment. Now I have learned to better manage gain, microphones, eq etc. But I will remain a guitarist forever, I will never be a sound engineer 😉
so... like they each have their own respective sounds, I'm liking the seventy 80 for the lack of frequency response and enjoying the idea of mixing it with a cream back Rob Chapman also has a neat review of greenback vs blue-black and they mix it at one point
The 70/80 was very bright, and did not settle down during a break in of 6 months. I bought a G12 Vintage 30, 60 watt speaker and right out the box on Xmas day it was night and day better than the 70/80. I has been in that amp for 6 months, so is now well broken in and sounds great across the range. It has the tangy highs but also covers the mid and the lows much better that the 70/80. We have a Strat and 2 LP's and they all sound fantastic thru this. I also have a 72 non-master volume Super Reverb that is 45 watts and insanely loud but clean all the way up and all the guitars sound great thru that too. The Marshalls great points are the 4 channel sounds, switchable from clean to dirty thru 2 channels. I am not a fan of digital reverb, the Super is so much better with the spring/tube reverb but that's a story for another day. I think anyones standard DSL40 will benefit from any Celestion upgrade, but the $116 G12 Vintage 30, 60 watt that I bought sounds fantastic. We are happy and now nearly deaf !!!!
I have the same amp and I swapped the 70/80 for the creamback, the sound is way better. I thought the sound was really good till I actually did this c19 cap mod (reversible) then I was totally blown away. It also helped eq the balance between the clean and ultra gain. IMO the amp now on par with fender (super or twin) and marshall 2000's or even orange rockerverbs. try you will not be disappointed.
In my experience, the age of the speaker and thus how much it's been played is critical to how it sounds. The greenback in this demonstration seems brittle like it's new. Whereas the 70-80 sounds played. Just an observation, am I correct? Just so I'm clear I am a fan of the 70 80s. I also have vintage 30s and greenbacks in cabinets as well. So I'm not a snob by any stretch
V30 is very 80s hard rock Creamback has more oomph (or mids) but maybe too much for heavy gain in the last demo. Darn it! I need to change mine right now!
This is an excellent demo, thanks. I think it would be best not to put the mic in the center of the speaker though, I think it's standard practice not to do that -- you get the really shrill highs. A little bit off center is ideal I think.
My now 18 year old son is getting a graduation present tomorrow, a 2020 Gibson Les Paul standard 1950's copy gold top. Video tomorrow with the Marshall and Celestion, and maybe with my 72 silver face Super Reverb.
As many experienced tweakers know, the G12P-80 comes into its' own after being broken in. Careful what you say here though...some people are easily triggered (".)
