Give me your best 110 and 112 cab recommendations. Preferably not crazy expensive.
Iron1
I just snagged a Barefaced Reformer 112. Dunno if it's as loud as they claim (haven't been able to crank it in a one bedroom apartment) but it sounds really great and like a much bigger cab. They make a 1x10 version too if you want your cab to be 16 lbs.
The Mesa C90s are made by Celestion, and they are just a renamed Celestion design. Maybe slightly tweaked.
You'll have to ask Celestion for sure, but off the top of my head I think it's the Classic Lead 80.
A bunch of the speakers go by multiple names. Since how they rate for Wattage isn't a black and white thing, sometimes the companies that rebrand Celestions rate them higher.
You can ask Celestion, they are pretty helpful.
You'll see a lot of talk about Made in China vs Made in UK. I don't think that's current. I think it's all made in China at this point. There was a brief transitional period in like, 2008, where the Mesa V30s were still made in the UK and the off the shelf ones were in China according to some people.
Mesa doesn't make speakers, so anything they make is just a rebranded Celestion.
You'll have to ask Celestion for sure, but off the top of my head I think it's the Classic Lead 80.
A bunch of the speakers go by multiple names. Since how they rate for Wattage isn't a black and white thing, sometimes the companies that rebrand Celestions rate them higher.
You can ask Celestion, they are pretty helpful.
You'll see a lot of talk about Made in China vs Made in UK. I don't think that's current. I think it's all made in China at this point. There was a brief transitional period in like, 2008, where the Mesa V30s were still made in the UK and the off the shelf ones were in China according to some people.
Mesa doesn't make speakers, so anything they make is just a rebranded Celestion.
You might also see them called "Black Shadow", but it's confusing, some Black Shadows and C-90s are identical, but Mesa has also used the term for other stuff.
As far as V30s go, the strength of the V30 is it's great mic'd. It's a set and forget type thing. Seats the guitar perfectly in a place that doesn't interfere with other instruments, makes it prominent enough.
There are a shit ton of people, myself included, who fucking hate them in a room.
Also, as mentioned in other recent threads, Celestion recommends like a 25 hour break in period. The "new speaker out of the box" sound isn't how they are permanently going to sound.
The context in which V30s are most lauded also involves speaker excursion. Like, you can physically see the speaker excursing. Personally, I think a lot of other speakers are better at lower volumes. Some speakers don't sound optimal until they are actually at the point of excursion. Others can take lower signals better.
As far as V30s go, the strength of the V30 is it's great mic'd. It's a set and forget type thing. Seats the guitar perfectly in a place that doesn't interfere with other instruments, makes it prominent enough.
There are a shit ton of people, myself included, who fucking hate them in a room.
Also, as mentioned in other recent threads, Celestion recommends like a 25 hour break in period. The "new speaker out of the box" sound isn't how they are permanently going to sound.
The context in which V30s are most lauded also involves speaker excursion. Like, you can physically see the speaker excursing. Personally, I think a lot of other speakers are better at lower volumes. Some speakers don't sound optimal until they are actually at the point of excursion. Others can take lower signals better.
I've loved V30s forever. Right up until I started plugging things into these open back C90s. Now I fucking love C90s and can't get past how much better/clearer they sound than my V30s. :lol:
Disclaimer: bedroom shredder volume. I can't tell you the last time I cranked my amp. I am old and boring.
Disclaimer: bedroom shredder volume. I can't tell you the last time I cranked my amp. I am old and boring.
Since no one expounded on this earlier when talking about 1x12 cabs and shit and what is the difference between a "Thiele" and a non Thiele cab.
The Thiele designation means that the enclosure was built with a sprinkle of extra science and an eye towards concepts like Heimholtz resonance.
Pretty much all loudspeaker enclosures are tuned during the design process. But some are tuned more exhaustively than others. Thiele was the name of the guy who was involved in a lot of that early stuff.
The important bit to know, is that doesn't make it better. It might or it might not. Opinions vary. The past 70 years of loudspeaker design have featured all kinds of advancements that have fallen in and out of fashion that work with concepts like heimholtz resonance supposedly "better" than a loudspeaker design that is essentially a box.
So, in spite of the fact that all professional loudspeaker enclosures are "tuned" to some extent, some have more thought given to it than others. Functionally, unless you want to read up on Heimholtz resonance, which is no fun, the difference is "a box vs. a slightly more pretentious box"
Ported enclosures are like any other design innovation. They fall in and out of fashion, so it's not automatically going to be better, although a lot of people fucking love them. More common in bass cabs.
Folded horn designs and passive radiators are two other things that were used for the same sorts of purposes of somehow having an advantage over a more basic design that have fallen out of fashion. I have passive radiators in my mains. Cool stuff. Folded horn designs are also really fucking cool.
![Image]()
![Image]()
Never really caught on in guitar cabs, which are less complex by nature due to not having crossovers and shit like that.
The Thiele designation means that the enclosure was built with a sprinkle of extra science and an eye towards concepts like Heimholtz resonance.
Pretty much all loudspeaker enclosures are tuned during the design process. But some are tuned more exhaustively than others. Thiele was the name of the guy who was involved in a lot of that early stuff.
The important bit to know, is that doesn't make it better. It might or it might not. Opinions vary. The past 70 years of loudspeaker design have featured all kinds of advancements that have fallen in and out of fashion that work with concepts like heimholtz resonance supposedly "better" than a loudspeaker design that is essentially a box.
So, in spite of the fact that all professional loudspeaker enclosures are "tuned" to some extent, some have more thought given to it than others. Functionally, unless you want to read up on Heimholtz resonance, which is no fun, the difference is "a box vs. a slightly more pretentious box"
Ported enclosures are like any other design innovation. They fall in and out of fashion, so it's not automatically going to be better, although a lot of people fucking love them. More common in bass cabs.
Folded horn designs and passive radiators are two other things that were used for the same sorts of purposes of somehow having an advantage over a more basic design that have fallen out of fashion. I have passive radiators in my mains. Cool stuff. Folded horn designs are also really fucking cool.
Never really caught on in guitar cabs, which are less complex by nature due to not having crossovers and shit like that.
Also, if you are feeling particularly patriotic, loudspeaker design is actually one of the most quintessentially American achievements. Very cool stuff, highly recommend looking into it. It was only a handful of guys that did the majority of it too. A lot of vintage speakers are not only cool sounding, but are historical artifacts. Altec Lansing and JBL are actually two brands from the same guy. There's only a handful of people that have the claim to "father of loudspeaker enclosure design".
It's actually really surprising how many people don't know the basic history of that stuff. Basically every single post 1850 technological breakthrough in sound tech/film/computing/etc. was American. I think there are a bunch of people who look at the rest of the world thinking, "America is stupid" and have trouble coming up with a list of things to be patriotic about, which is just crazy.
A bunch of people are also somehow unaware that synthesis is an American thing.
Motherfuckers don't even know about the Telharmonium.
![Image]()
It's actually really surprising how many people don't know the basic history of that stuff. Basically every single post 1850 technological breakthrough in sound tech/film/computing/etc. was American. I think there are a bunch of people who look at the rest of the world thinking, "America is stupid" and have trouble coming up with a list of things to be patriotic about, which is just crazy.
A bunch of people are also somehow unaware that synthesis is an American thing.
Motherfuckers don't even know about the Telharmonium.
My local shop has an Orange PPC112 they're willing to deal on in the $300 range. Might lug the Jet City up there and see how it sounds. Like the Mesa Widebody, but at a quarter of the price, the Orange may win.
![Image]()
Not really digging the tan screen, but #spraypaint
Not really digging the tan screen, but #spraypaint
-
?
-
?
-
?
-
?
-
?
-
?
-
?
-
?
-
?
-
?
-
?
-
?
-
?
-
?
-
?
-
?
-
?
-
?
-
?
-
?
