I played a gig on Saturday. We were stuck deep in a large bay window area with a low frontal arch so it trapped the sound in there a fair bit. It was a great gig but personally, I was a little unhappy about my own sound again. So the next day I finally dug my way into my understairs time vault of everything old in my life and pulled out my old setup from my 20s/30s. (That is "my" not "the"!) This is a Marshall Super Lead 100 and Marshall 4x12 100W cabinet from the late 1960s, all original. The cab in particular has 4 x G12H 30W Celestions. I was half expecting them to have given up the ghost it's so long since I used them. Anyway, it sounded great, but loud, way too loud, and tooo clean so I would have needed to go out on that "pedals, pedals and more pedals" line which just isn't me! So I took the once again flawed GM36 and plugged that in.
Oh my! To say it was different is to describe Hendrix as a pretty fair guitarist. It was UTTERLY AWESOME. I thought I had the GM sorted out to its best with my JJ valves and Greenbacks in their two utility 1x12 cabinets and I was happy to soldier on with that as my base. Little did I know how much there was left which could still be achieved. The change to these classic speakers in a 4x12 rather than two 1x12s has not just improved things it has moved them to a totally different plane. There is absolutely no trace of any issue now in the top end. The tone controls all work as effectively as normal ones do. It is now creamy, buttery, smooth, has that wonderful throaty rasp that I have looked for, and the mid hump which classic rock thrives on is really there in spades. I can do Marshall, I can do Fender, I can do boutique. Just as VoodoJeff says, the GM is not exactly the same as any of them but close enough to immediately recognise what it is you are trying to get at and it does things well in its own right.
Yes, some of you have obviously got there long before I have as you reported just what I am saying way back. The answer to all of the GM's problems really is speaker choice. If only I had not assumed that old cabinet had really had its day and needed to be retired. I just can't stop playing.
Oh my! To say it was different is to describe Hendrix as a pretty fair guitarist. It was UTTERLY AWESOME. I thought I had the GM sorted out to its best with my JJ valves and Greenbacks in their two utility 1x12 cabinets and I was happy to soldier on with that as my base. Little did I know how much there was left which could still be achieved. The change to these classic speakers in a 4x12 rather than two 1x12s has not just improved things it has moved them to a totally different plane. There is absolutely no trace of any issue now in the top end. The tone controls all work as effectively as normal ones do. It is now creamy, buttery, smooth, has that wonderful throaty rasp that I have looked for, and the mid hump which classic rock thrives on is really there in spades. I can do Marshall, I can do Fender, I can do boutique. Just as VoodoJeff says, the GM is not exactly the same as any of them but close enough to immediately recognise what it is you are trying to get at and it does things well in its own right.
Yes, some of you have obviously got there long before I have as you reported just what I am saying way back. The answer to all of the GM's problems really is speaker choice. If only I had not assumed that old cabinet had really had its day and needed to be retired. I just can't stop playing.