Raising The Tone Green And Pleasant Brand
Jamie Dickson explores the magic of celestion’s fabled Greenback speakers – and helps find the best fit for your rig
Plenty of guitars have acquired legendary status over the years, such as Sunburst Les Pauls from the late 50s, but it’s less common for speakers to have a cult following. If any model can lay claim to that rare status, however, it’s Celestion’s ‘Greenback’ speakers of the late 60s. Built with ceramic magnets, rather than the Alnico-magnet based models that preceded them, Celestion’s Greenbacks first appeared somewhere between late 1964 and early 1965. Thanks to their warmbut-edgy sound, which paired so well with Marshall amps in the hands of players such as Jimi Hendrix, Greenbacks have become the definitive choice for classic rock and blues-rock speaker.
The term ‘Greenback’ refers to the green plastic back cover that was used on a range of speakers launched by Celestion during that period – and does not denote a specific model. In that sense, the term is used in a similar way to saying ‘Plexi’ or ‘Blackface’ when referring to Marshall or Fender amps of a certain era, basically shorthand for a family of products with a signature sound and performance characteristics. The first of the Greenback breed was the 20-watt G12M (the M denoting its medium-size 35oz ceramic magnet) and it came in a choice of 55Hz ‘bass’ or 75Hz ‘lead’ voiced cones. In the most classic 60s Greenbacks, these were made for Celestion by a thirdparty supplier, Pulsonic.
Power rating was upped to 25 watts around 1968 and it is this version, argues Paul Gough of custom cabinet makers Zilla Cabs, that people are typically thinking of when they talk about Greenbacks. Paul insists that one of the reasons that this speaker has become associated with great classic rock tone is that it is relatively inefficient, meaning that the amp has to work relatively hard to produce a given level of volume from the speaker, which in turn promotes juicy crunch tones.
“The Greenback was probably quite an efficient speaker back when it was launched, but now, compared to something like a Vintage 30, you have to push your amp a fair bit harder with a Greenback to achieve