Front VS Rear loaded cabs actual test

[MetalHeadMike]

The deliverance and fatbottom cabs are built differently on purpose to sound different, Steve Fryette's talked about this in the past in interviews and podcasts he's done and about he redesigned them over the years to change the sound more. Unless you use the same cab and remount the speakers I don't think you can really call it a real comparison and an IR doesn't really show you much vs an in room mic setup imo where the difference is really heard.

I had a FB412 and D412 here side by side for a long time and while there was of course some tone differences due to different speakers and slightly different cab construction I guess, to me there was no significant difference in the the way they projected or fill the room and tightness. Many forum posts where folks feel the D412 fills the room with immense 3D sound while the FB412 is "laser beam" focused and is way tighter. I never got that result. To me cabs of course sound a little different but I've never experienced some of the profound differences many experience. Same with tube swaps in amps. I've tube swapped in nearly 70 amps preamp and power and even among varying family of power tubes when an amp allows and its always pretty insignificant change to me. We all perceive things differently is all I can say.

 

[Smash]

I completely agree that the difference in tone between two speakers can be dramatically different even from the same batch, that’s even demonstrated here. Cab being dramatically different though with the same materials and specs, can’t agree with at all. A slight difference… MAYBE.

This sounds most plausible.

No. I would not even use a close mic. If you wanna hear the cabinet, you have to use a single mic, pointing to the absolute center of the cabinet, a few feet back, where the four speakers sound waves join together. Otherwise you're not hearing the effect of the Rear vs Front load speaker, but just the cone itself.
Unless if you're using a 1x12, on which you would have the mic only a couple of feet away from the center of the speaker. Then you can move the mic about an inch back and forth, to accommodate the distance if the speaker is Front or Rear.

That is very interesting. If you are right, that would be a fucking cool way to catch the in the room sound.

 

[Bram576]

This sounds most plausible.

That is very interesting. If you are right, that would be a fucking cool way to catch the in the room sound.

Problem with that is you’d need to swap all four speakers to accurately capture.

The in the room thing I get people talking about. But literally where you stand changes things. When you’re in a room. Close, far, standing, sighting. I prefer close micing for tests because it takes away variables AND the thing guitarists are most guilty of which is confirmation bias.

Can’t even tell you the amount of times I swapped a guitar players tone; or even just had one guitarist double track instead of both guitarists without someone even knowing.

 

[Smash]

Problem with that is you’d need to swap all four speakers to accurately capture.

The in the room thing I get people talking about. But literally where you stand changes things. When you’re in a room. Close, far, standing, sighting. I prefer close micing for tests because it takes away variables AND the thing guitarists are most guilty of which is confirmation bias.

Can’t even tell you the amount of times I swapped a guitar players tone; or even just had one guitarist double track instead of both guitarists without someone even knowing.

I have always close micd. But lately, i became too old to use my goddamned interface so been using phone clips. I miss using my mics. The up front tone i got was nasty, but it didnt accurately capture the room at all. I had to eq for the mic. Kind of annoying also

 

[Kagami]

I had a FB412 and D412 here side by side for a long time and while there was of course some tone differences due to different speakers and slightly different cab construction I guess, to me there was no significant difference in the the way they projected or fill the room and tightness. Many forum posts where folks feel the D412 fills the room with immense 3D sound while the FB412 is "laser beam" focused and is way tighter. I never got that result. To me cabs of course sound a little different but I've never experienced some of the profound differences many experience. Same with tube swaps in amps. I've tube swapped in nearly 70 amps preamp and power and even among varying family of power tubes when an amp allows and its always pretty insignificant change to me. We all perceive things differently is all I can say.

Every setup is different so you will get different results but in the video Steve said he changed the deliverance 2 cab to be more dissimilar as well which would match with your experience.

I have always close micd. But lately, i became too old to use my goddamned interface so been using phone clips. I miss using my mics. The up front tone i got was nasty, but it didnt accurately capture the room at all. I had to eq for the mic. Kind of annoying also

It still takes decent positioning but you can get some nice "in room" clips from a phone for sure. They always remind me how loud strumming and fret noise is though lol, whenever I play at my desk my amp db ratings on my meter is typically the same whether my amp is on or off which is pretty funny.