Dsl’s And Greenbacks?

[crossy67]

Who else thinks DSL’s sound better with greenbacks? At least the 2k models do to my ears. Not as harsh it seems.Thoughts?

 

[royslead]

I like Greenbacks with most amps, I could see where I would like them with a DSL, if I were to buy one again.

 

[solarburn]

Yep. 5153 412 loaded with G12M's. All my amps sound better GB'd than my V30 cabs.

 

[67mike]

Prefer mine with g12t75s.

 

[ken361]

Creambacks also!

 

[Seventh Son]

One of the things I find most frustrating in home recording with my DSL15C is how explosive the mids sound. One way to deal with that is to turn mids down and turn bass and treble up, but then the treble frequencies sound brittle and harsh, probably for the same reason that the mids sound so explosive. Is this something that could be improved with a better speaker, such as the Greenback, or is it rather a matter of recording technique?

 

[ColeJustesen]

I bought a Hughes & Kettner CC412 loaded with UK Greenbacks. The intent was to pull those speakers and replace them with my quad of Fane Medusa 150s. That was until I ran my SL-X and other amps through it. Those speakers sound excellent! I agree with your statement too, as my buddy's DSL100H sounded fantastic too.

Cole

 

[Michael Roe]

Who else thinks DSL’s sound better with greenbacks? At least the 2k models do to my ears. Not as harsh it seems.Thoughts?

My experience: It depends on the room you are in. If it is a very bright room with hard surfaces, T75's might be best. V30s work good in a normal room but, are the worse in a bright room. If I had to only choose one speaker for each room, I would go with greenbacks. Although, the cabinet size and grill cloth can change things as well.

 

[ricksconnected]

my best sounding cab is GB loaded. ive had it since 1992 and bought used.

 

[slide222]

my favourite 2x12 is greenback H/M mix and that does sound good with every amp, and at present it is connected to my 2525c

 

[crossy67]

One of the things I find most frustrating in home recording with my DSL15C is how explosive the mids sound. One way to deal with that is to turn mids down and turn bass and treble up, but then the treble frequencies sound brittle and harsh, probably for the same reason that the mids sound so explosive. Is this something that could be improved with a better speaker, such as the Greenback, or is it rather a matter of recording technique?

Yes I think it would improve. Greenbacks are warmer and crunchier. They have mids but they’re very pleasant to the ear, give them a try as I think they make nearly every amp sound better.

 

[KraftyBob]

Prefer mine with g12t75s.

I have a G12M-65 Creamback in the combo and am rebuilding a speaker cab. I bought a c. 2008 G12T-75 for the speaker cab and while I’m not done, I tested it out with the combo and I think those two speakers compliment each other nicely. Very happy with tone.

 

[KraftyBob]

Prefer mine with g12t75s.

I have a G12M-65 Creamback in my DSL40C and am rebuilding a speaker cab. I bought a c. 2008 G12T-75 for the speaker cab and while I’m not done, I tested it out with the combo and I think those two speakers compliment each other nicely. Very happy with tone.

 

[Seventh Son]

Yes I think it would improve. Greenbacks are warmer and crunchier. They have mids but they’re very pleasant to the ear, give them a try as I think they make nearly every amp sound better.

That sounds very encouraging. I will definitely give it a try.

 

[Seventh Son]

I recently came across this thread and have experimented a lot with Ken's suggested settings to make my DSL15C an DSL20CR sound a little smoother. My take on it is that it is counterproductive to dial in your tone as Ken suggests. Even though the EQ controls are interactive, there's no need to overcomplicate it. If you want more bass, turn the Bass knob up. If you want more treble, turn the Treble knob up. My two DSLs have a ton of mids on tap, and I've found that most classic sounds are found around all preamp EQ knobs set to noon. If you're doing recording with the amp, start with the source and get the sound in the room the way you like it. Then place a microphone and move it around the middle of the cone until the recorded tone sounds close to what you hear in the room. The Deep switch does improve the sound in the room by giving it a 4x12" character, but I haven't found much use for it in recording, as the amp already has a ton of bass for that purpose.

My DSL15C came with a Celestion G12E-60 and my DSL20CR came with a Celestion 70/80. The 70/80 sounds a bit more like a G12T-75. A little more scooped and less bursting in the mids. There are some small differences between the amps, but both of them sound good to my ears. The consensus among users and experts, however, seems to be that a speaker upgrade would significantly improve the sound of the amps, and the Celestion Greenback appears to be everyone's favorite. The user feedback on the Greenbacks generally suggest that Greenbacks make pretty much any amp sound good and that you really can't go wrong with putting a Greenback in your amp. When it comes to other speakers, such as the V30 or the G12T-75, the opinions are a bit more over the place. Some people think that those speakers don't work well in open-backed small combo amps, but sound great in 4x12's.

 

[clutch71]

I do. I started with a 1960B with G12T-75's and then tried the following

• G12T-75's and Peavey Sheffield 1200's
• Marshall Vintage
• Marshall Vintage and G12T-75's
• Hellatone 60 and 30 (great combo BTW)
• G12EVH

The last option has been in there for a couple of years and I have no desire to change it for my DSL50. I feel it made all 4 modes sound better.

 

[paul-e-mann]

Who else thinks DSL’s sound better with greenbacks? At least the 2k models do to my ears. Not as harsh it seems.Thoughts?

They are the best speaker for a DSL IMO, I've had a DSL50 in the past and the best it sounded was with greenbacks, I currently own a new DSL20 and it as well sounds its best with greenbacks.

 

[paul-e-mann]

Prefer mine with g12t75s.

DSL sound really good with these too.

 

[Micky]

Greenbacks (or equivalents) make everything sound better.

 

[6StringStewie]

Out of curiosity, have you tried the Ceestion V-Type speaker with the DSL? If so, thoughts?

 

[Goldmember]

I've finally figured out what was causing the unpleasant mids on the DSL15C. In short, read this thread and the first post by Ken starting from the top.

Now the longer version. First, the DSL has a ton of mids in the normal mode with the Mid Shift feature turned off. I dialed in some of my favorite sounds tonight, and my mids were on 2. And that's still only a somewhat scooped tone, a la Maiden England, but if you're going for more classic, mid-heavier tones, you still won't need to set mids at more than 5. Even that would already be pretty extreme. Second, if you are going for something more scooped, you are probably thinking, "Turn Bass and Treble up, Middle down." That would only be partially correct. The reason for this is, as Ken pointed out, that Bass and Treble do the opposite of what they state on the panel. Turning Bass up cuts treble, and turning Treble up cuts bass. No wonder I have been chasing my own tail for so long with this. So, if you want a very scooped sound with a lot of bass and treble, turn Bass and Treble almost all the way down, that is, around 1. Then set Middle somewhere from 1 to 5. As mentioned above, I got a really cool Maiden England-esque sound with Middle on 2 (and Bass on 2 and Treble on 1). As it was getting close to midnight, I did this at fairly low volume, so you may have to fine-tune it when the amp is turned up louder.

What this also means, pretty much, is that most of most of your favorite sounds are probably going to be somewhere in the 1–5 EQ range. I also used the Deep switch (sounds lovely) and put Presence on 10, as recommended by Ken. Worked like a charm.

Maybe some of you will find this obvious, but given how little information on how the EQ works on this amp there is in the original documentation as well as on the Internet, I thought I'd report it on here. I even watched the original Marshall demo for the DSL15C with Chris George and thought his settings were pretty counterproductive, probably because he, too, started with the assumption that the amp is in neutral with everything at noon, and then boosted and cut from there, thinking that more is more, and less is less. No wonder people thought the demos sounded bad and drew wrong conclusions about the amp from there. This is also the approach that many other sources recommend, but it does not work on the DSL15C at all. In fact, it will make you do the exact opposite of what you are trying to do, thus sending you on a futile quest, as was the case with me for a while.

It takes a while to get the hang of how the EQ works on this amp, but once you've wrapped your mind around it, you should find it easy to approximately dial in almost any Marshall sound that you have in your head. It really worked for me. By keeping Bass and Treble at 1, and Presence at 10, the top end brilliance that I have often complained about on here as missing was back, putting my concerns with the DSL15C finally to rest. The amp is actually very usable. If you're not getting anything satisfactory out of it, it is user error, not a flaw in the design.

Now, if the amp sounds this good with the stock speaker, it is likely that upgrading the speaker would be a wise investment, especially if the DSL15C is your workhorse amp for practicing and recording.

Great info, Seventh. Thanks for posting. My DSL15c has the Greenback plus ECC823 in V1.