Old mesa 1/2 back 412

GuitarGuyLP

GuitarGuyLP

Active member
I found a good deal locally on an old mesa 1/2 back 412 one with the metal grill. Has two MC90s in the top, and supposed to have celestions in the bottom, but he doesn't know what model. I remember reading that those cabs weigh a ton other than that what is the consensus on them?
 
No EVs in it. It is front loaded and the speakers all look the same. Ribbed cones, steel frame. A couple eminence delta pros could easily fix that
 
Dont remember bitching about the weight when I had one years ago.
Plus they are smaller than a traditional 4x12 so you can bear hug it and run up steps. :LOL: :LOL:
The side handles on those kill your hand .
 
they are pure sex with any mark series amp. I went rack once and was using a pod pro in stereo, it was also pure sex. the one I had with ms12's paired with a vh4, single rec, and road king was pure sex. did i say they are my favorite cab?
 
JackBootedThug":38dbfhpt said:
they are pure sex with any mark series amp. I went rack once and was using a pod pro in stereo, it was also pure sex. the one I had with ms12's paired with a vh4, single rec, and road king was pure sex. did i say they are my favorite cab?
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:LOL: :LOL: They are nice. I gave mine to my son when he graduated HS, had C90s/EVs. I have a 2x12 halfback now with EVs, just a huge sounding 2x12.
 
Could be 4 MC90, or the bottom could have eminence vintage 50's. Boogie used a lot of different speakers.
 
Great find! Do you have the top panel for it? I have two bottom cabs like that w/out the top panels..would like to have the panels in but mesa told me they haven't made them for many years. I remember seeing Stryper in 80's and they had almost 40 on stage,dont know if they were all real or not but sure looked impressive.
 
I will be picking it up later this week. I don't think it has the back panel, but it is easy enough to get a slab of Baltic birch, and a bit of tolex if I want to get fancy. I was thinking about sealing up the top, and depending on how that sounds maybe port it.
 
They're pretty huge sounding as is, sealing up the back makes for a tighter sound. I have the back off my 212 and it's just giant sounding.
 
I have a pair of them and they sound great! One (the upper) is significantly lighter than the other, but hey, they're 4x12s, they're never gonna be featherweights..
 
I've had many of these and they are fantastic. The standard version came with the MC 90's up top, and a celestion V30 set in the bottom. The magic is the Halfback feature that is its namesake. You get the tight and percussive sound of the bottom enclosed with the open airiness of the open top. These are the best cabs Mesa ever made, IMHO. They look bad ass too. They have a smaller footprint that most 4x12's but weighed about the same, unless you ordered it with the optional EV's which were quite a bit heavier. Usually, the EV optioned cab came with the EV's in the top open half, while the bottom enclosed part still had the V30's. Those that got the high wattage EV option up top typically did so to get a loud and polished clean tone out of the cab. I have seen pics of all kinds of famous players using this cab back in the day, from Pete Townsend to Slash. The slant cab is seen more often than the bottom 4x12. The 2x12 slant is awesome as well. A pair of these on either side of the stage sounds huge! Wish they still made these. Some people had issues with the grill being prone to opjects puncturing speakers (i.e.drumsticks and the like). They are one of my favorite cabs. The only thing they have made that comes close to these is the Road Kind 3/4 4x12 cab, which has half of one side open, hence the 3/4 designation. It is also open vertically, not horizontally like the 'Halfback'.
The Halfback is definitely a keeper brother, and in a pinch, you can take the front grill off and cook up some steaks!
 
Those cabs are designed to make two people very happy.
1) you, when you play through it
2) your chiropractor when you have to lift it.
 
You could actually order the cabs almost in any config you wanted to. I remember seeing 2x12s and 4x12s with ev's the whole way around! talk about a heavy cabinet.Stereo or mono split speakers was also an option.I still have the dealer price lists from the 80's and 90's somewhere.I have two bottom 4x12s..Would like to find 2 more.And the wheels on these cabs are so much better than many other cabs.Probably best wheels ive seen on a cab.
 
Little B":mpvn43pp said:
You could actually order the cabs almost in any config you wanted to. I remember seeing 2x12s and 4x12s with ev's the whole way around! talk about a heavy cabinet.Stereo or mono split speakers was also an option.I still have the dealer price lists from the 80's and 90's somewhere.I have two bottom 4x12s..Would like to find 2 more.And the wheels on these cabs are so much better than many other cabs.Probably best wheels ive seen on a cab.
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Amen to those wheels bro. They were like shopping cart wheels. Rolled smooth and true! :rock:
 
I'm picking the cab up Wednesday. The price is right, and its in good shape. The cab is not much bigger than the 3/4 back 1x12 I just picked up.
 
Bought one of these cabs ages ago, for a Dual rec.
Sold it like an idiot. :doh:
It had the black shadow EVM speakers on the top portion which sounded amazing.
Crazy amonuts of head room.
The cab did was pretty heavy, partly due to the EVM's.
Still think the Orange 4x12's are one of the heaviest cabs around.
 
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