Cabinets. Should we collect those over amps?

[Clashcityrocker]

There has been a lot of talk about cabinets and speakers having a bigger tone effect than pickups, tonewood etc. My Kemper sounds more like a real amp playing through my 1X12 and 2X12 cabinets than through my recording monitors. What are your favorite cabinets?

 

[Greywolf]

There is wisdom in that , they do greatly effect tone. My Cabs are a bit diverse each with thier own flavor :

DG30 2 x12
Paisley close back 2x12
Marshall Slant 4x12
Homebuilt 2x10 ported with 100w 16 ohm Celestions
Bergantino 2x12 w horn
Mesa 2x15 w horn

 

[WEDGE]

The little Mesa Recto slant 1x12 is a closed back and light little beast. Pushes some air and is TIGHT. Plus they are easier to carry than a 4x12 which is a good thing.

 

[Bogner]

If You Have The Room For Many Cabinets Then I Say Go For It. I Only Play 4x12's And Have A Bunch Of Them With Various Speakers And From Various Makers. Cabinets And Speakers Can Make A Massive Difference In The Overall Tone. Why Not Have Some Different Flavors To Add To Your Sonic Soup? Happy Cooking!

Edit: The OP Asked About Favorite Cabinets. Here Are Some Of Mine.
Bogner Front And Rear Loaded
Diezel Front And Rear Loaded
Fryette Front And Rear Loaded
Sound City Rear Loaded
EVH Rear Loaded
Soldano Rear Loaded
Mesa Boogie Rear Loaded Traditional And Recto
Marshall Rear Loaded Vintage
Friedman Rear Loaded
Suhr Rear Loaded

 

[Tony M.]

My all-time favorites that I have owned and gigged with.

2 Pre CBS Fender Bassman 2 X 12 cabinets
loaded with 2 original EV SRO 12s each.

Early '70s Sound City 4 X 12 loaded with Fanes.

 

[Clashcityrocker]

I have a Mad Sound 2X12 cabinet. This company is long out of business but I picked up a cabinet off Craigslist a while back. I have 2 Weber Signature speakers in it.

https://web.archive.org/web/20050204080819/http://www.madsound.com/gallery.htm

 

[Lewguitar]

I like my Matchless cabinets. I have a 1:12 with one Celestion G12H30 Heritage and a 2:12 with two Celestion Silver Alnico G12's taken from a 60's Vox Super Beatle.

The 2:12 is the same size as a Vox AC30, one of my favorite amps.

Both cabs are open back.

I loved playing through Marshall 4 x 12 cabs back in the 60's and 70's.

Might've been my favorite sound ever.

Way too loud though.

 

[Greywolf]

It's no surprise the good taste in guitars carries over to the Cabs as well ..

 

[gush]

Cabinets??? Oh yeah!!!!

6505 4x12 UK V30s
1960a celestion alnico golds
1960a G12T-75s
1960a G12-65s
1960a G12L-35s
1982b UK Greenbacks
Mesa road king Half open half closed

2x12 celestion creamback 65s
2x12 weber blue alnico

So far I prefer 1960a G12T-75s

 

[gush]

I will mention this. I bought a used 1960a marshall cab from a guy I know. He sold it pretty cheap and told me he bought it new from GC.

It has the gold badge in the lower corner but it had Chinese G12T-75s.

I was surprised to see that. Must have been a GC cost cutting measure.

Always check what speakers are in there.

Also......the G12T-75 cab I like has a single input jack and no stereo circuit board. I bought it used and played it for a couple of months BEFORE realized it had been rewired for 4 ohm.

Always throw the meter on a new cab purchase.

Ugh

 

[László]

I can't recall having a speaker cab that was an epic fail. I've always bought high quality stuff by good manufacturers, and that usually adds up to good-sounding cabinets. But I do have a few all-time favorites:

PRS DG 2x12, ported pine, PRS-modded V30s. (current)
PRS Deep Back Big Mouth 2x12, closed back birch ply. PRS-modded V30s (current)
Mesa 4x10, open back birch ply, Creambacks (current)
Bogner Oversized 2x12, closed back birch ply with slightly canted front panel, V-30s
Two-Rock 2x12, ported birch ply, Two-Rock-labeled OEM G12-65 style speakers made by Eminence
Mesa Recto 2x12, closed back birch ply, V-30s
Mesa 2x10, birch ply, unlabeled alnico speakers (they were painted blue, without any printing at all, with square magnet assemblies)
Mesa open back 2x12, birch ply, Jensen Blackbirds
1967 Fender Bassman 2x12, Pine shell, ply baffle and back, JBL D120 speakers

Bass Cab:

Mesa Road Ready 4x10 Bass cab, birch ply, finished in formica with aluminum valances, EVs w/ tweeter. Without doubt the finest-sounding bass cab I've ever heard or recorded.

I've had lots of great sounding combo amps, but since both the cab and the amp combine as one to create the sound, I didn't list them.

There have been some good sounding 1x12s here, but I'm irredeemably a 2x12 guy. So I'm not listing the 1x12s.

 

[JasonE]

Cabinets and speakers make a huge difference in your tone. I learned this many years ago with a small test in my own home. I still have the amps that I did this test with. I took my Mesa Roadster and Peavey JSX 2x12 and ran them into each other's cabinets. Much to my surprise, the Roadster sounded just like the JSX did through the open back combo cabinet and the JSX sounded just like the Roadster when ran through the 2x12 sealed Mesa cabinet with vintage 30's in it.

IMHO, if your amp isn't sounding like you want it to, I would start with a speaker or cabinet change to get it where you want it. I have also run a sealed extension cabinet with an open back combo. That gives it the top end sparkle of the open back an the low end punch of the sealed cabinet. I have a Fender Hot Rod Deluxe and the 1x12 extension cabinet for it. It really changes the sound of that amp when running the extension cabinet with it.

In playing with the speakers and cabinets that I have, I have determined that I like the Celestion Creamback over the Celestion Vintage 30's in my Mesa Roadster cabinet. I have often though of trying some Greenbacks in my main gigging amp. It is a hand wired version of a Vibrolux Reverb. The circuit is modified from the standard Fender circuit. It has 2x10 speakers in it. What has stopped me from trying it? I really like the sound of the Rajin Kajun speakers in it. I also don't want to have to spend the time breaking the new speakers in.

 

[DreamTheaterRules]

I have also run a sealed extension cabinet with an open back combo. That gives it the top end sparkle of the open back an the low end punch of the sealed cabinet. I have a Fender Hot Rod Deluxe and the 1x12 extension cabinet for it. It really changes the sound of that amp when running the extension cabinet with it.

This is a great idea, as well as, mixing one alnico and one ceramic. If you do the alnico in an open back and ceramic in closed you further enhance the strengths of both.

I often mix alnico open with ceramic Thiele as well

 

[Lewguitar]

This is a great idea, as well as, mixing one alnico and one ceramic. If you do the alnico in an open back and ceramic in closed you further enhance the strengths of both.

I often mix alnico open with ceramic Thiele as well

I have a 50's Jensen P10R (alnico) and 60's Jensen C10N (ceramic) in this '51 Fender Super.

They compliment each other nicely and kind of fill in for each others weaknesses and make each other sound complete.

Each very different sounding speakers.

https://imgur.com/ZABAdSJ

 

[László]

https://imgur.com/ZABAdSJ

Willya look at the fantastic condition that thing is in! My goodness.

 

[Bogner]

Speaking of Jensen Speakers This Is A Great Video With A Lot Of Wonderful Information.

 

[László]

Speaking of Jensen Speakers This Is A Great Video With A Lot Of Wonderful Information.

Superb! Thanks for posting!

 

[Bogner]

Superb! Thanks for posting!

You Are Welcome. I Found It To Be An Excellent Video And I Like The Guy Hosting It Aside From His Obvious Antics And His Go To Outro Sayings. He Does Have Some Interesting Ideas And Ventures Down Some Less Travelled Paths That Are Great To Break Up The Standard Approach To Things. I Enjoy That!

 

[László]

You Are Welcome. I Found It To Be An Excellent Video And I Like The Guy Hosting It Aside From His Obvious Antics And His Go To Outro Sayings. He Does Have Some Interesting Ideas And Ventures Down Some Less Travelled Paths That Are Great To Break Up The Standard Approach To Things. I Enjoy That!

Yeah, seems like a good guy. The speaker designer from Jensen was also pretty cool. Great information share!

 

[Maertl513]

My first cabinet was a DIY I purchased with my tube amp top acoustic Amplification G100T. The speaker was a Celestion G12S 50.

Later I owned a Hughes & Kettner Statesman 4×12 (with four Celestion V30).

Former - more than two decades employee - Hughes & Kettner sound designer Thomas Blug started his own business with BluGuitar.
I bought his miniaturized 100 watts amp Amp 1.

Depicted is the Mercury Edition (on top of the cabinet). Although Blug offers 1×12 cabinets (Nano- and FatCab), but those 60 watts afraid me of colouring the sound of the amp (break-up). Therefore I decided to buy the TwinCab with 150 watts (mono). Mounted are BG-12 speakers.

Enjoying to tour Afghanistan a second time I spend my off duty time somtimes with watching YouTube regarding guitar gear. And I discovered a GBR based company named Barefaced with their innovative Augmented Vent Diffractor back, which supports surrounding sound.
I ordered one and went my own way regarding the speaker. I wanted a neutral speaker (low/no break-up), so the amp could breath his voice.
Barefaced cooperates with Celestion, and the Neo 250 Copperback was the speaker which fulfilled my requirement perfect.

(On top is the Iridium Edition of the Amp 1. Later I sold the Mercury Edition, because I like the overdrive sounds of the Iridium Edition more.)

I compared sounds of the Barefaced with the TwinCab with the Statesman. The smallest offered the richest sound, the biggest was second best. The medium sounded harsh. I sold it to a guy, who liked to get a second TwinCab. Two guys lucky.

End of 2021 we had arranged a local PRS owners meeting. That was the point I got the right push to be straight ahead concerning cabinets.
Two of the guys had their Kammler cabinets with them, one 12" and 10". Kammler is a German based engineer who started to build cabinets a decade ago in Hamburg. Aswell delivering surrounding sound, but with totally different engineering approach. The cabinet and speaker are stiff connected with a construction named Tunator. They sound huge aswell.
Having sold my 2×12, I had a lack of that format.
I asked Dietmar Kammler for building me a 2x12 (Big-Bi) with the Celestion Neo 250 Copperback.
But having already a cab with a Neo 250, it slightly bored me, to have a something nearly comparable sounding cabinet.
Dietmar Kammler spoke about his Fusion named cabinet (a housing for a 12" and a 10" speaker). This attracted me, but there was no 10" Neo 250 Copperback available. Which 10" speaker would fit best? We met in Hamburg and partnered different speakers to the Neo 250.
I chose the EVM-10M. Aswell a neutral sounding piece, 200 watts, 8 ohms.

I let paint it with my tag and the scorpion my luthier designed.

W/o grill:

Back:

This is my cab for lifetime.
Old, small, and heavy speaker and new, big, and light speaker turned out be perfect to me.