What made the MILLS 4x12 so loved and hated?

  • Thread starter Thread starter Klauth
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Klauth

Klauth

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I didn't start collecting 4x12's till after the rise and fall of the "MILLS cab" so I'm playing catch up on this guy. Any actual owners on here that can share their experience of it?
 
Klauth said:
I didn't start collecting 4x12's till after the rise and fall of the "MILLS cab" so I'm playing catch up on this guy. Any actual owners on here that can share their experience of it?
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I had a few. They were awesome cabs. Mine were loaded with H75/H55 from Scumback and sounded huge. Downside was that the cabs were gigantic and a pain in the ass to move around. I think some of the negativity around them came from the fact that they were comparatively expensive at the time and the builder Dave seemed to rub people the wrong way. Always seemed to be in a perpetual state of going out of business until he finally did.
 
I love mine. I have mine loaded with h30 annies. I rewired it to mono as it should be. The owner hated stereo cabs but had to cave into the headscratching fad. I dont think it is particularly special. No fairy dust. Just well built and sounds great
 
They worked great with modern amps and not so great with vintage ones. Paradoxically, the woodworking on the cabs was top notch but they came with laughingly cheap/crappy hardware (undersized casters, drywall back panel screws, plastic speaker jacks, extremely tiny speaker mounting screws/nuts/washers, etc).
 
KSR builds a nice cab and they use an internal baffle similar to the “afterburner” in the Mills cab.
 
advantages: Sound great
disadvantages: back breakers
 
Ive had a couple of them. I found them to cut through a mix really good but they have a neutral sound to them that can translate to being harsh. The speaker gets very little coloration from the cab so keep that in mind. I think I would have liked them more with a warmer sounding speaker because I did not like V30s in them which is my favorite speaker. Both Mills cabs I owned had V30s , also worth mentioning is they don’t have a massive lowend like you might assume. They are the opposite, being very focused in the mods and highs.
 
the4thlast1 said:
Ive had a couple of them. I found them to cut through a mix really good but they have a neutral sound to them that can translate to being harsh. The speaker gets very little coloration from the cab so keep that in mind. I think I would have liked them more with a warmer sounding speaker because I did not like V30s in them which is my favorite speaker. Both Mills cabs I owned had V30s , also worth mentioning is they don’t have a massive lowend like you might assume. They are the opposite, being very focused in the mods and highs.
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That tends to happen with overbuilt cabs, yeah. The extra solid construction usually doesn't allow for the extended resonance you'll find in less over-engineered cabs.
 
For me the weight and cost were greater than the improvement in sound.

Great cabs, but more of a luxury item imo
 
mhenson42 said:
KSR builds a nice cab and they use an internal baffle similar to the “afterburner” in the Mills cab.
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I bought some 2-mills cabs from Bill Keliher, sold them because I hated how they sounded. KSR builds some of the best cabs around for sure.
 

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thegame said:
They worked great with modern amps and not so great with vintage ones. Paradoxically, the woodworking on the cabs was top notch but they came with laughingly cheap/crappy hardware (undersized casters, drywall back panel screws, plastic speaker jacks, extremely tiny speaker mounting screws/nuts/washers, etc).
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I agree. When i took off the back, the wire broke in half. I replaced everything: jack, wiring, even speakers now. But the cab is built like a mexican spaceship
 
Klauth said:
I didn't start collecting 4x12's till after the rise and fall of the "MILLS cab" so I'm playing catch up on this guy. Any actual owners on here that can share their experience of it?
Click to expand...
I had purchased two of the Mills 4x12's near the end of him making them (without going into the details I was lucky that I had finally received them).

I wanted to return them since they weighed much more than I was expecting with the EVM 12L BL and the cabs were too wide to lift by myself after the combined weight of everything so once they made it upstairs then they never came down again until I sold them.

I think the cabs ended up weighing something like 180 lbs and the width plus where the handles were placed on the sides made it pretty much impossible to lift and I lift pretty heavy weights at the gym ?

They came in huge crates so they were properly shipped and I had to pick them up at a shipping terminal.

The sound was okay to me but I believe it was the EVM 12 BL speaker choice (my friend liked them with some Celestions).

I did pay for an upgrade for the casters to some 4 inch wheels since there was no way the standard 2 inch wheels would have held up or even allowed movement across carpet.

I believe I was the first person he had installed a jack plate with all the extras similar to a Mesa Boogie jack plate.

The cabs looked amazing but the heavy weight and really awkward side handles placement made me sell them since I was going to have to leave them downstairs if I ever used them somewhere else.

One of my friends purchased one of them and he ended up tearing the tolex over and over again since he had a really hard time lifting the cab over the edge of his rear trunk area on his SUV.

The other guy I had sold the last one said he loved the cab (I sold it to him without any speakers and he placed his favorites in the cab).
 
It is a shame when people build high quality shit and are terrible businessmen. At least mills faded into the background and doesnt continue to take more people's money like others..
 
the4thlast1 said:
Ive had a couple of them. I found them to cut through a mix really good but they have a neutral sound to them that can translate to being harsh. The speaker gets very little coloration from the cab so keep that in mind. I think I would have liked them more with a warmer sounding speaker because I did not like V30s in them which is my favorite speaker. Both Mills cabs I owned had V30s , also worth mentioning is they don’t have a massive lowend like you might assume. They are the opposite, being very focused in the mods and highs.
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Exactly what I've found with them. You'd think they'd be boomy based on their size but they're very focused.

I'm currently in the middle of swapping 2xv30 and 2xredbacks into mine
 
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