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Greenboy DUALLY: Best head?

A

ArturoOsito

Guest
Aug 21, 2012
191
13
#1
Since the dually doesn't have a mid driver or tweeter, what kind of head does it like? Would I be better off feeding it a clean tone a la Shuttle 9.2, or would it prefer the fatness of a Streamliner 900?

I could see the Streamliner sounding like mud through a dually, but am I wrong?
 
#5
Mr. Foxen said:
They'll get on fine with any bass head. They are basically like a standard bass cab with a bit more of everything. You'd need a seriously bad sounding head for it to not work (like broken, it happens more often than you might think).
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+1

To add the Dually is offered with either the Eminence Kappalite 3015's or the Faital Pro 15PR400's. Both are very good drivers, but differ a little in tone. The 3015's are more muscular in the upper mids and perhaps a little more refined in the lows. The 15PR400's are sweeter in the mids, extend up smoothly to the highs, and are a little woolier in the lows.

My preference would be the 15PR400's, paired with the Streamliner 900. That said I could see preferences for the 3015's and the Shuttlemax 9.2, or any iteration of these amps/speakers.
 
#6
I ask because people have said that the STM is very particular when it comes to cabs, and sounds great with some and muddy-ish with others. Since this cab has only 15s, I figured it might be one that would sound overly boomy with the STM. Thanks for the responses though, definitely good food for thought!
 
#8
ArturoOsito said:
I ask because people have said that the STM is very particular when it comes to cabs, and sounds great with some and muddy-ish with others. Since this cab has only 15s, I figured it might be one that would sound overly boomy with the STM. Thanks for the responses though, definitely good food for thought!
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Maybe for tone cork sniffers who cant stand to turn their eq knobs away from noon.

The Dually may only have 15's but these are some of the best 15's in production. They are very full range, and cover the spectrum very well as far as "traditional" cabs go.

I think for a lot of people the 3015's would pair well with the Streamliner 900. The ying/yang of the pairing would be pretty plug and play for a lot of people.
 
#9
I've had my 3015 loaded Dually for about a year now and to be honest I haven't found a head that doesn't pair well with it yet. I know that may be a bit of a cop out answer but its the absolute truth. Off the top of my head I've paired it with:

GK MB800
GK MB200
GK 800RB
GK 200RCB
Amped SVT
Fender Super Bassman
Mesa M9
Aguilar Tone Hammer 500
Aguilar DB751
Carvin B1500
Carvin B2000
TC BH250

I'm sure I'm forgetting some too. It won't give you those crisp, airy highs if that's what your after. But what it does, it does extremely well and that is deliver old school vintage whoop ass at about 60 pounds. My favorite cab ever.
 
#11
husky123 said:
I've had my 3015 loaded Dually for about a year now and to be honest I haven't found a head that doesn't pair well with it yet. I know that may be a bit of a cop out answer but its the absolute truth.
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Doesn't seem like a cop out to me. The number of TB users who owned or played a Dually and love it is growing. These users play different styles of music with totally different amps. Some of the best designed full range speakers in a great enclosure means great results. It seems the only people who wouldn't be satisfied with a cab like this are people who have very specific tonal demands like extreme high end extension which for most players is not really an issue.
 
#12
husky123 said:
It won't give you those crisp, airy highs if that's what your after. But what it does, it does extremely well and that is deliver old school vintage whoop ass at about 60 pounds. My favorite cab ever.
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Old school whoop ass is all ive ever dreamed of...and crisp highs, never heard of em...:D

And that amp list is pretty exhaustive, if only you'd thrown in the GB micro heads...:crying:
 
#13
ArturoOsito said:
Hahaha awesome. Okay fantastic, then it's gonna be a dually. And since Don Barry wrote me back first, it shall be his handiwork.
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Don's builds are scarry good, but all the greenboy builders are putting out a tremendous product right now. The differences of their builds are mostly cosmetic, but some do prefer to work in specific materials (i.e. some have access to and will work in very light weight woods, where others might not have access to the same wood as easily).

I would take a BAD build cab in a heart beat, but I would take one from jHawk, BNA, Gigmaster, Scabby Road, or Mike Arnopol too.

For me I went with Gigmaster to build my 1515/66/1 and 12/6/1's. Dave Homer is local to me, and he builds a rock solid cab. I regularly hit mine with huge amounts of power and have never seen them jump or shake.

Mark Robertson builds cabs with crazy outlanding finish details.

jHawk puts out cabs that make my wallet nervous.

Paul at Scabby Road probably has the shortest lead time right now, so he might be able to get a cab to you the quickest. I know he has a requtst for an F115 to be done by the 31st, so he is hustling on that im sure. After that he might be open up for another quick build.
 
#14
Try both and get the one YOU like best, or if your cabinet is green or has a green logo - a green Trace Elliot amp head might look cool with it.

ArturoOsito said:
Since the dually doesn't have a mid driver or tweeter, what kind of head does it like? Would I be better off feeding it a clean tone a la Shuttle 9.2, or would it prefer the fatness of a Streamliner 900?

I could see the Streamliner sounding like mud through a dually, but am I wrong?
Click to expand...
 
#16
I love to turn my knobs past noon, and sniff cork only when asked to- and I personally found the STM900 to be a bitch of a head to gig with. I still rehearse it twice a week (it sits at my rehearsal studio on top of a GB 410XB)- only reason I play it is because I'm too lazy to set up my SVT7pro for every rehearsal. I've heard countless players agree that it's one of those amps that doesn't quite cut it with certain cabs- very particular.

So for what it's worth I think your question is valid and informed. That said I've never been lucky enough to play a dually- or any other Greenboy cab for that matter, so I can't help you out there ;)
 
#17
I have one and I think the "best amp" for it is completely subjective. That said, even though it doesn't have a tweeter and a mid driver, it's still loaded with full range drivers and have a plenty of mids and treble. I've played mine primarily side by side with an Ampeg 810e and my 3015 Dually had more high end, mids AND low end with the same amp. That's not a slam on the 810 either, I'm just pointing out that the Dually has at least as much high end or more than most of the traditional tweeterless cabs I've owned. My favorite amp to use with it has been my GK MB800, because it's so flexible in both EQ and gain. It's managed to create a new appreciation for some other lower wattage amps that I never found to be particularly flexible before. I've run an old Sunn Beta Bass through it, which was never quite loud enough to compete with drums and loud guitars in a loud practice or gig setting, and been loud enough and been able to get a tone I liked out of it. I primarily kept that head around for guitar, never liked it much on bass before. I've run various late 60s and early 70s Traynor tube heads through it and liked all of them. Anything I've liked through my sealed 10s or ported 15 cabs I've played in the past sounded as good or better through the Dually and a few heads that were never quite gig worthy have stepped up a bit through it.

Generally when I run a head through the Dually for the first time, I end up turning down the treble quite a bit from what I'm used to. In the interest of full disclosure though, I don't like tweeters and any cabs I've had in the past with them, I've turned them off. So take my opinion with a grain of salt, if you love tweeter loaded cabs and you're wondering if the Dually can get you in that ballpark. It's clearly NOT that, if anything I'd say it's a vintage style cab sound...only "more". More volume/efficiency, more low, mid and treble. Less only in the speaker breakup department, I haven't heard that at all so far and I've pushed mine pretty hard.
 
#18
I've played Dually's with a ShuttleMax 9.2 and enjoyed it quite a bit...have played Streamliners and really loved them, but haven't tried one through a Dually yet. I can possibly adress a few things about each amp.

ShuttleMax- I hear a few folks say they're a bit 'sterile' and others say there's too many knobs :) I don't find either of those statements valid for me. I do a lot of upright gigs, so all them bells and whistles can come in handy. They don't do grind very well in and of themselves, but I do lots of caveman, pick style electric bass stuff and can make that amp sound downright primitive. They take pedals very well too. If I had one wish for that amp, it'd be that both channels were FET.

Streamliner- I think for the size and weight, these are shocking little amps. Sounds like a nice CLEAN tube amp, to me. There have been a lot of reports of these things being tough to dial in live, to 'cut through the mix,' but there are about as many who say it's no problem at all. I happen to think the main problem folks have with amps comes when they ask the amp to be something it isn't. The couple times I played a Streamliner I was able to dial it in very quickly, and loved the sound. I have one buddy who sometimes runs an STM with a Faital loaded Dually and he likes it, so there's that :)

In a nutshell, the main differences between a Faital or 3015 loaded Dually, to my ears are;

The 3015's sound a little more muscular because of the mid bass hump and a somewhat aggressive 1.5k (ish) mid range.

The Faital 15PR400 goes slightly lower yet has a bit more of a 'classic' JBL vibe...smoother response from top to bottom, but not by tons.

Honestly, though I prefer the Faital by a very slight margin (this week!) I could happily gig either cab and not feel like I'm 'missing' something. For bass guitar. Upright gigs are strictly 3way cabs for me.

greenboy recently designed the 'Dually T,' which features a very high end tweeter with an Lpad if that sort of thing floats your boat...we're testing a couple different crossovers as we speak. You should be seeing the first two Dually T's coming out very soon.
 

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