I'm a speaker / cab n00b, help me out! ^_^

[Nadz1lla]

I may or may not have just pulled the trigger on my first ever all-tube amp head.  PDT_024

It's a modded Jet City JCA20H that's been given a second channel with an extra boost stage. So this means that, all being well (fingers crossed! It was an EvilBay purchase so I live in hope...) I will be needing a cab soon.

I would like my note clarity and definition to be similar to that of Nolly's on his RSF material (so any words of advice from you, Nolls, would be much appreciated although I do understand you are snowed-under with other stuff right now...), or Misha Mansoor's from Periphery or James and Acle from Tesseract.

I was looking at the Jet City 2x12 with the convertible back, so could be used as either closed or open. That kind of versatility appeals to me as it is possible I would be gigging with the rig in the future, so different venues / acoustics etc might call for a different cab set up.

The amp was a steal at £195 with an attenuator chucked in to the deal, and I am very much on a tight budget (hence looking at the Jet City cab), trying to stay under £200 if possible (the lower the better). I'm open to all configuration suggestions at the moment (1x12, 4x10, 2x12 etc etc etc...)

I know the budget makes it difficult, but all advice is very welcome!

[ericsabbath]

the jca20h works well with v30's, in my experience

guess a black shadow mc90 would sound great as well (I like this better than v30's with my amps, but didn't try it with the jca20h I had)

if you can find a used hiwatt HG212 "high gain" 2x12 cab, the stock chinese fane speakers are AMAZING
this cab sounds huge, and the speakers sound big, very punchy and modern, similar to the black shadows, but with the "woody" transparent character of a vintage hiwatt cab
these are pretty rare here in brazil, but I bet you can find one easily in the uk

there's a guy in a famous brazilian rock band that always asks my hiwatt for rent for local gigs, as it sounds much better with his orange ad30 than his matching orange 2x12 cab with v30's

[dave_mc]

assuming it's broadly similar to my 50 watt jet city head, my favourite speakers with it are eminence v12s (the ones soldano uses, though 8 ohm versions since they're the only ones you can get easily off-the-shelf). broken in v30s are pretty good too. if you're trying to keep the price down the harley benton g212 vintage on thomann is probably the way to go.

fwiw while the open/closed-back thing is handy to have, the way it's implemented on the jet city cab (mine, anyway) it's a bit of a faff to get on and off. it's not just removing 4 screws like with some cabs, you have to remove both back panels. So it's pretty much a set-and-forget type of deal. Still nice to have the option, of course, but you're not changing it every 5 minutes like you can do with some cabs.

[Nadz1lla]

Ah yes, had overlooked Harley Benton. I always do, despite the fact I used to have one of their 6-string Basses, which for the price was amazing build quality with active pick-ups and a really nice tone.

They don't go into what speakers they use in their cabs, which is why I probably took them out of my list.

Also I am led to believe from "The Tone King" on YouTube that the Jet City cabs basically use Jet City branded versions of the same speakers that are in Soldano cabs, which are Eminence "Legend" series, basically. (I think). So could be a goer.

Eric, I'll have a look for the HiWatt cab, cheers!

[itamar101]

The Harley Benton G212V uses Vintage 30s (hence the V which stands for vintage).
I've never tried them but I hear that they're awesome for the price.

[Telerocker]

The Harley Benton G212V uses Vintage 30s (hence the V which stands for vintage).
I've never tried them but I hear that they're awesome for the price.

A guy I bought a strat from had one. It's not a very deep cab, but it's pretty good for the price

[Toe-Knee]

I highly recommend Roadkill cabs. The one i have is ridiculously tight. Possibly too tight for certain things.

It will push it up to ~£300 but everything is customisable.

I have a review of mine up on my blog which was a 100% custom design right down to the dimensions.

http://www.roadkillcabs.co.uk/product-category/guitar-cabs/

Regarding speakers i'm a big fan of the legend v128. Its like a v30 without the harshness or flub in the low end. Ultra tight and ultra clear.

I'm too big of a fan of celestions as i find they always have grating frequencies somewhere in the range and the low end is too flubby for my liking.

[JJretroTONEGOD]

Orange Cabs and Cornford Cabs are both superb, the oranges have a midrange push that I like. The best though are mongotone...not sure if they still exsist though

[ericsabbath]

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Hiwatt-HG212-Hi-Gain-2-x-12-Fane-Speaker-Cabinet-/281009263879

not cheap, but totally worth the price, in my opinion
the harley benton with v30's is a great option indeed, but the hiwatt sounds pretty unique
sometimes I'm sure it sounds even better than my marshall 1960A with custom MG music black dog speakers (made with weber parts, similar to the silver bell) and scumback H75 weber-made speakers (vintage pre-rola celestion G12H clones)

I'm not a fan of the eminence v12 people are recommending, though
I also have 1x12 with a borrowed eminence governor and I hate it
I like the eminence wizard and the gb12

just to be clear, I do not play djent style, but I do play heavy modern rock and metal
looking at my rig you might think I'm playing hendrix, zeppelin or something  :lol:

[JimmyMoorby]

You can pick up Marshall 1960 cabs off ebay second hand for the £200 mark.

I couldnt afford the £700 price tag for my orange PPC412 so I just got it on finance!

[Nadz1lla]

I don't play that style either, but I do like those clear tones that are commonly used, heh. I'm more into Ihsahn, Isis and the proggier side of Death Metal... well that's the kind of thing I try to write anyway. My playing isn't up to being that technical but layering is my friend, heh.

Other tones I like are Killswitch Engage in "The End Of Heartbreak" era and Scar Symmetry etc. Ihsahn's tone is a bit too saturated and gainy for my liking, but his style of writing is right up my street.

EDIT: Marshall 1960 cabs? I think I tried one of those once, second hand, felt really nice and the sound was pretty good, but that was through a completely different amp. A Randall V2 I believe. Still, I'll have a gander on the 'Bay at one, cheers!

[ericsabbath]

I don't play that style either, but I do like those clear tones that are commonly used, heh. I'm more into Ihsahn, Isis and the proggier side of Death Metal... well that's the kind of thing I try to write anyway. My playing isn't up to being that technical but layering is my friend, heh.

Other tones I like are Killswitch Engage in "The End Of Heartbreak" era and Scar Symmetry etc. Ihsahn's tone is a bit too saturated and gainy for my liking, but his style of writing is right up my street.

EDIT: Marshall 1960 cabs? I think I tried one of those once, second hand, felt really nice and the sound was pretty good, but that was through a completely different amp. A Randall V2 I believe. Still, I'll have a gander on the 'Bay at one, cheers!

1960's are the rock and metal standard cabs
but the stock g12t75 aren't the best for what you want
I'm not sure they are good match for the jca20h
they are punchy but pretty scooped
you could swap a pair of speakers

[Nadz1lla]

Okies, thanks for the info! The more info the better, heh.  :D

[dave_mc]

The Harley Benton G212V uses Vintage 30s (hence the V which stands for vintage).
I've never tried them but I hear that they're awesome for the price.

doesn't seem to be much wrong with it to me. Granted I don't play at much volume so how useful my opinion is, i dunno. But worst case scenario, the cab sucks and you've still got the speakers for roughly the same price as buying the speakers alone. though the exchange rate has got worse over the past couple of weeks, so that'd be worth bearing in mind. It's not as good value as it was, unfortunately.

[Nadz1lla]

Orange Cabs and Cornford Cabs are both superb, the oranges have a midrange push that I like. The best though are mongotone...not sure if they still exsist though

I seem to remember Nolly using an Orange 2x12 in his rig at some point? If so, that might sound pretty nice.