Favorite speaker cab and why?

[Cleveland Metal]

So...

What is your favorite speaker cabinet, and why?
What is it loaded with?
What style you play...
What do you like or not like about it?

I know what dreamleand rebel will say, haha...


I have a pair of Ampeg "Lee Jackson" bottoms, loaded with 75 watt celestions.

They are crisp, with a nice edge and nice defined or tight low end.

But, they are a bit brittle sounding, and have a sort of harsh upper register that I can't dial out.

I play pretty heavy stuff, like Slayer,but heavier actually. The sound I shoot for is sorta like a cross between VanHalen I on steroids, and Zakk Wylde No more Tears. Lotsa Edge and chug, with a nice pinch harmonic squeal ability.

I also have a pair of old Marshalls with Greenback 25s in them.

Warm, nice tome pretty sounding with nice mids. But, can't take much abuse or wattage. They get hot and start to distort under the heavy chug. Sounds truly great in the living room though.

Just played my rig through some MESA V30 recto cabs, big bummer, as I think I just found something to drop some duckies on, yeeesh...

[markD]

Re: Favorite speaker cab and why?

i use and favor open back rivera 1x12 cabinets. they are hard to come by where i live so i also use and love the mesa lonestar 1x12 cab. these are almost the same dimensions, about 26" wide. the extra width seems to give them a beefier sound. all my 1x12 cabs are loaded with EVM-12L 200 watt speakers. i hate ANY distortion coming from the speaker, so each cab has a 200 watt handling capacity!!

what i hate about them is they don't LOOK as menacing as having 4x12 cabs on stage...people seem to think that i'm going to sound weak becasue there are 4 1x12 cabs on stage instead of 2 4x12's!! but i use a wet/dry setup. my master (dry) head is a Rivera S-120 stereo head, and it takes a marshall 4x12 on one side and a pair of 1x12s on the other. the dry signal is sent through the effects rack over to a Rivera M-100 (wet signal) combo (with an EV of course). the combo runs its internal speaker, plus another pair of 1x12s hooked in parallel. it's a pretty killer sounding system.

i like open back cabs because they spread the sound out more than a closed back cab. i'm not into the woofing bass when i palm mute. i like to be engulfed in the sound...shit, i even cut the back of my marshall 4x12 in half so the sound would spread (it's really a 2x12 now...i only run the bottom 2 speakers which are JBL G12S).

i play classic metal and hard rock. i'm really into sounding similar to the Scorpions on World Wide Live and Skid Row on Slave to the Grind. i've got to have a great clean sound, too and that's another reason i like open back cabs!!

[Drsracing]

Re: Favorite speaker cab and why?

I love the Peavey cabs loaded with the sheffeilds. I like a tone, that's a VH tone but a little bluesy kinda like slash. the sheffeilds just have that nice mid range and still get a nice kinda chuggie bottom, but not like a mesa cab.

[1959burst]

Re: Favorite speaker cab and why?

i've got quite a few speaker cabs but my favorite ones are these RARE full size MARSHALL 70's 4x10 speaker cabs loaded with 10" 15watt 16 ohm celestions, making these 60watt cabs at 8 ohms each. i play metal,blues,fusion,jazz................they sound sweet and break up nicely.........awesome sound for me.

[taxistationary]

Re: Favorite speaker cab and why?

1 slanted MESA Recto 4x12 - pumpin from V30's for me. [img]images/icons/grin.gif[/img]

[skidd]

Re: Favorite speaker cab and why?

I sold all my cabs but one. I have a Marshall top I think it’s a 1960 (stereo). I got it sometime between 89-91. I’m not sure when. It’s the perfect match to my Boogie. My tone is a combo of sorts a little Lynch/EVH/Henderson/Holdsworth sort of thing. I always got a lot of complements on my tone when I played out.

[dinkyjacksonman]

Re: Favorite speaker cab and why?

It depends on what amps I use.

At this morment, I have 5cabs.
2 70's Marshall 4x12 Slant cabs with 25watt speakers.One of them sounds great.
1 6x10 Bogner,1 5150 Straight cab and 1 Rect 2x12 with Vintage 30's.

I usually use one of my 70's Marshall cabs which sounds great with most of amps I have owned.

I am missing my Mesa rect 4x12 Straight cab I used to own for 5years.
That was my favorite cab and looking for one now.
Vintage 30's sound best to my ears.

[Boxcar Willie 84]

Re: Favorite speaker cab and why?

I've got a Laney AOR 4x12 cabinet that's got some Celestion 70 watt speakers in there. I love it because it sounds tight and chunky but plenty warm too. Tomorrow I'm gonna treat it right and buy some of those Ernie Ball pop-in amp casters so we can go mobile. It's also got this awesome metal grille protecting the speakers instead of some piece of cloth. The only thing I don't like about it is that it is only a mono cab and I think the Line 6 stuff I'm gonna buy has to have a stereo cab, and the fact that I'm not currently using it in a band.

[Lordofgain]

Re: Favorite speaker cab and why?

So far out of all the cabs I have played through I still like my Marshall 1960BV the most. Very taught response and a little warmth until I crank the head and things just get buttery after that. This may change when I get my Engl Savage head, I will have to wait and see. I might want to go with 75's.

[thenine]

Re: Favorite speaker cab and why?

UberKab for me. [img]images/icons/grin.gif[/img] V30's and 75's in an X pattern. Tightens up any head. Very cool cab, but it weighs a ton.


9

[Sancho]

Re: Favorite speaker cab and why?

I like my Marshall 1960 G12T75 cabs best.
Any amp I've ever played (and I've played a lot!) sounded good through them, sometimes even better than through the amp's dedicated speakercab (5150, Laney GH100)

[DJROBA]

Re: Favorite speaker cab and why?

JCM800 cabinets for me. I like the JCM900's as well. Laney also makes nice cabinets. I just really like the way the JCM's sound. I play 80's metal, and classic rock through mine, and they really sound great when shredding comes a calling. I also have a roland (forget the model)stack that is pretty sweet. It is loaded with 8-8"speakers(unknown) and has a tube simulator type option. It really is a nice amp, and has pretty good distortion(85watts)at lower volumes. Cleans up really nice @ higher volumes. It isn't a full size stack, but is 2-3 times bigger than the marshall minnie stack.

[Chuckracer]

Re: Favorite speaker cab and why?

I have this one JCM800 cab with 65 watt Celestions that sounds terrific no matter what head is pushing it. I like it because it has the full range of frequencies and seems very neutral, though it still sounds quite "Celestiony".
I sold all my other cabs, including another 65 loaded 800 cab and kept this one as it's just a killer sounding cab.
Its actually sitting in a garage on my folks property here in the woods as I don't really need it right now, but I won't sell it without some long thought.

[Shawn Lutz]

Re: Favorite speaker cab and why?

I only have experience with the Marshall cabs and really saw no reason to change. I like the JCM 800 4x12with 75 watt celections when only using one cabinet. When I had four cabinets I liked 2 cabs with 75 w and 2 with 30 watts. They sound good together but I felt the celestion 75's sounded better by themselves. I only have one JCM 800 1960A cab left. As my tone taste changed over the years I probablly would like the vintage 30's better now but I haven't thought about changing them.

I think if I was to go gig again where I needed multiple cabs I'd probably go with all 2x12's instead of 4x12's. Those are a biotch to lug around but look cool as hell [img]images/icons/grin.gif[/img]

[zeegler]

Re: Favorite speaker cab and why?

I've been really lucky with cabinets.

For years, my main cabinet has been a Peavey Butcher 412 loaded with Celestion G12K85s. I never ended up finding another cabinet that I liked as much. It has awesome bottom end, but isn't loose and sloppy sounding at all, and most importantly isn't muddy. The high end holds up really well.

Recently I decided to build myself a new cabinet, and I bought a set of the Madison Symphonys because they are supposedly a copy of the Celestions in my Peavey. In fact they use the same G12K85 model number as the Celestions.

As it turns out, I think I like the new cab even better than the Peavey. The bottom end is thunderous! But again, without losing any of the clarity of the top end. Plus, the midrange on it is marginally better than the Peavey. The difference might be due to the amps I am running. I am using a Blue Voodoo with the Peavey, and a Randall RGT100 with my new self-made cabinet. I cannot interchange them because they have different impedance requirements.

My playing style ranges from Black Label Society to Corrosion of Conformity to Slayer to In Flames, and both of my cabs fit the bill nicely.