Tone is in the ... cab.

  • Thread starter Thread starter rickenbacker198
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Yup, came to this realization a few years ago. I’ve come to around from playing a 5150 for years and not having the slightest bit of GAS, to being a total gear whore, back to noticing everything sounds like variations on a theme in my hands and sticking to a basic sound and not getting myself lost in the chase. Just plug in and play. If I want to use something extra nice perhaps whatever the next studio I book will have something, or I borrow from a friend. The differences in most high gain amps doesn’t matter that much at the gig. You can tell a difference on recording, but why spend 3-5k on something to use a couple days? Get a solid, reliable workhorse amp, and a great cab and quit overthinking. If you can’t make a production 5150, Recto, JVM, etc sound good, then the amp ain’t the problem.
 
You have to turn your speakers up to deafening volumes to get the magnetic field in the transformers saturated, the tubes cooking a little bit, the speaker excursion and cab resonance..

anything short of all of those items is a compromise and there’s only one way truly make it happen. Whether your miking up or just jamming

who plays like that in a daily basis? and if you do, I’m jealous and I hope you’re wear some for of hearing protection.

personally, I’m using the IR/loadbox for daily playing and practicing. I’ve gone through all the varieties. PPIMV, attenuator, low sensitivity speakers.. it’s just not the same. But I’m happy to be avoiding amp sims of any sort, aside from my IR basically being an amp sim
 
And that's why every man needs minimum 4 quad boxes - G12M, G12H, G12-65 and V30... for starters.
 
My cabs are G12-M, G12H, V30 and MC90.|
The speaker I would like to play is the creamback h75.
 
Those amps all still sounded pretty different to me in those clips. The Marshall sounded best to me, Fortin was the worst one and Engl Savage was the tightest. Recto was a bit dark for my taste, but that’s how that particular model is
 
ZEN Amps said:
And that's why every man needs minimum 4 quad boxes - G12M, G12H, G12-65 and V30... for starters.
Click to expand...

I just put those four speakers in my old Randall cab to record with, might do another with a t75, k85, Marshall g12 and maybe a creamback if I have good results with this one
 
I agree. Cabs make up huge huge part of your sound. Ola years ago did a video response because his subscribers were kinda saying all his demos sound the same tones. He uses that mesa cab a lot. Also used to use Hesu 2x12. on a side note, I didn't care for the sound of the Fortin cab.
 
Do you guys think 4 cabs are necessary or do you figure you can get by with 4 different speakers as long as you account for power? There is a diff between open and closed back but if all you want to do is record than in theory regardless of what they say, you could easily mix 4 diff speakers in a cab and mic them individually.

Just thinking out loud. As long as you don't go for room mics or secondary mics, you would be good to go.
 
Been saying this for years! Cabs are the big difference maker in tone. Even the same cab with different speakers isn’t as important as different cabinet construction and dimensions.
 
well if they sound similar to you it may be the close mic recording but, they actually sounded different to me

anyway i agree that the cab is as important as the amp, pickups, etc
 
Yup, I totally wish I knew this when I was young and stupid... I had such shitty cabs and speakers forever always wishing for better amps but looking back it was probably my cab and speakers making me irked :unsure:

That Marshall though :rock:... and that Fortin amp and cab sounded like crap to me.
 
Yep. Amps are sexier, but cabs impact your tone more.

It's probably best to think of your cabs as your primary "sound" and amps as devices that control the characteristics of your distortion.
 
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Nothing new here.... the cab is everything. And my new Marshall 1960BV is the king, period. It beats out my Mesa OS, and Bogner Uber cab to ME... although it seems many are going back to Marshall... even the likes of Andy sneap etc haven’t touched their Mesa cabs lately... go figure. Everyone chased the Mesa cab 15-20 years ago, and people drank the kool aid. Not saying Mesa’s aren’t great, they are, but they are over built, and don’t breathe, killing the low end...


This won’t be everyone’s cup of tea tonewise, just FYI.

Diezel herbert cab shoot out....

. What we have here is 4 clips. The first 2 are the Mesa OS cab, the second 2 are the Uber cab . Ch2 and ch3 for each cab, in that order of channels. Maxon 808 boost, Jackson Custom Shop 7 string with dimarzio deactivator pickups. vintage unidyne sm57. I’ll be honest this was surprising, I ended up liking the Uber cab a lot more than I thought I would, for different things. Ch2 Uber clip ( clip 3) is slightly lower volume, sorry about that, don’t let it fool your ear.

***These clips are meant to sound ridiculously huge with big humongous low end, THAT WAS THE POINT. I wanted to see how each cab handled the low end and the bloom of the notes on each. ***

* I recommend studio monitors for listening, your iPhone is gonna fart out and not do it justice, in the least.*

All settings were the same for both clips, I may have backed down the level on the 808 on ch3 however, that’s it. Ch3 was surprisingly to me as well, it’s much tighter than Ch2 , but less open. Mid cut activated on all clips at about 10 o’clock.

https://soundcloud.app.goo.gl/A9hi1BCU2vNYErYH7

And the final clip: my favorite, Marshall 1960BV, Same setup. Contrary to popular belief, the Marshall has much more low end, is deeper, and is more balanced than the Mesa cab, closer to the Uber cab in that sense. Just an unbelievable sounding cabinet. Enjoy!


https://soundcloud.app.goo.gl/A9hi1BCU2vNYErYH7
 
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Cab matters a lot but it's not necessarily going to make every amp sound the same. I've run the same cab with a 2204, Recto, and a C+ and even a drummer could immediately tell the difference.

But use the same cab and smash the input of any amps with the same overdrive for super saturated high gain sounds, and things will start sounding more similar.
 
VESmedic said:
Nothing new here.... the cab is everything. And my new Marshall 1960BV is the king, period. It beats out my Mesa OS, and Bogner Uber cab to ME... although it seems many are going back to Marshall... even the likes of Andy sneap etc haven’t touched their Mesa cabs lately... go figure. Everyone chased the Mesa cab 15-20 years ago, and people drank the kool aid. Not saying Mesa’s aren’t great, they are, but they are over built, and don’t breath, killing the low end...


This won’t be everyone’s cup of tea tonewise, just FYI.

Diezel herbert cab shoot out....

. What we have here is 4 clips. The first 2 are the Mesa OS cab, the second 2 are the Uber cab . Ch2 and ch3 for each cab, in that order of channels. Maxon 808 boost, Jackson Custom Shop 7 string with dimarzio deactivator pickups. vintage unidyne sm57. I’ll be honest this was surprising, I ended up liking the Uber cab a lot more than I thought I would, for different things. Ch2 Uber clip ( clip 3) is slightly lower volume, sorry about that, don’t let it fool your ear.

***These clips are meant to sound ridiculously huge with big humongous low end, THAT WAS THE POINT. I wanted to see how each cab handled the low end and the bloom of the notes on each. ***

* I recommend studio monitors for listening, your iPhone is gonna fart out and not do it justice, in the least.*

All settings were the same for both clips, I may have backed down the level on the 808 on ch3 however, that’s it. Ch3 was surprisingly to me as well, it’s much tighter than Ch2 , but less open. Mid cut activated on all clips at about 10 o’clock.

https://soundcloud.app.goo.gl/A9hi1BCU2vNYErYH7

And the final clip: my favorite, Marshall 1960BV, Same setup. Contrary to popular belief, the Marshall has much more low end, is deeper, and is more balanced than the Mesa cab, closer to the Uber cab in that sense. Just an unbelievable sounding cabinet. Enjoy!


https://soundcloud.app.goo.gl/A9hi1BCU2vNYErYH7
Click to expand...
Cool comparison, thanks. As far as speakers go, Marshall G12 Vintage>Mesa V30>>>>>>>>>>>>Regular V30
 
Here's another video showing how big of a difference a cab can make. Pretty interesting.

 
Cabs and speakers matter a great deal. I wish every cab company sold their cabs empty as an option. The v-30 and greenback thing is nice for a while but is worn out. There are a lot of wonderful speakers out there for all kinds of things yet the speakers companies keep shoving the same old stuff down our throats.
 
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