Whoopysnorp
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In my apartment, I play my modules through the effects return of an Egnater Tweaker running into a single 12" speaker. For the longest time, the only cabinet I had available was my Mesa Studio .22 combo cab, which was loaded with a Vintage 30 removed from an old-school metal-grille Mesa cab. Eventually I decided that the V30's raspy midrange character just wasn't a great choice for MTS, and I needed more of an all-around speaker. I wound up scoring a used Celestion MC-90, which has been Mesa's choice of stock speaker in many of its (non-Rectifier) cabinets for years. It was just what the doctor ordered--nice full sound, not too much of any frequency, lets the varied tones of my modules shine through.
One module that seems to prefer the Vintage 30, though, is the SG Diablo. When I play it through that speaker, it's clear to me why Mesa chooses V30s as stock in its Recto stuff. They just play really well together. So I set out to find a closed-back 1x12 cab into which I could mount the V30 as an alternate choice for recording and whatnot. I wound up finding a Sunn T50 1x12 cab locally. This is a nicely-made oversized plywood cab with a pair of ports on the front panel. When I first loaded up my V30 into it and played through it, I had it on my floor, and the bass was just overwhelming. I got it up off the floor and on top of something else, and that helped a lot. Still, every time I would compare the MC-90 in the combo cab to the V30 in the Sunn cab, I felt like it sounded kind of boxy and mushy.
Tonight I decided to swap the speakers around so the MC-90 is in the Sunn and the V30 is in the Mesa combo cab, and that helped a great deal. The Sunn still has a little bit of the boxiness, but I'm thinking that might be because I play it at pretty low volume. I bet it'd open up if I could get it loud. The V30 sounds much better in the open-back cab. This kind of confounded my expectations, because the conventional wisdom is that V30s are better in closed-back cabs. Can't argue with success, though. I'm thinking it might be due to the ported design. I don't think I'm aware of any ported cabs on the market that come stock with a V30. Have any of you guys ever tried a V30 in a ported cab and had success with it?
One module that seems to prefer the Vintage 30, though, is the SG Diablo. When I play it through that speaker, it's clear to me why Mesa chooses V30s as stock in its Recto stuff. They just play really well together. So I set out to find a closed-back 1x12 cab into which I could mount the V30 as an alternate choice for recording and whatnot. I wound up finding a Sunn T50 1x12 cab locally. This is a nicely-made oversized plywood cab with a pair of ports on the front panel. When I first loaded up my V30 into it and played through it, I had it on my floor, and the bass was just overwhelming. I got it up off the floor and on top of something else, and that helped a lot. Still, every time I would compare the MC-90 in the combo cab to the V30 in the Sunn cab, I felt like it sounded kind of boxy and mushy.
Tonight I decided to swap the speakers around so the MC-90 is in the Sunn and the V30 is in the Mesa combo cab, and that helped a great deal. The Sunn still has a little bit of the boxiness, but I'm thinking that might be because I play it at pretty low volume. I bet it'd open up if I could get it loud. The V30 sounds much better in the open-back cab. This kind of confounded my expectations, because the conventional wisdom is that V30s are better in closed-back cabs. Can't argue with success, though. I'm thinking it might be due to the ported design. I don't think I'm aware of any ported cabs on the market that come stock with a V30. Have any of you guys ever tried a V30 in a ported cab and had success with it?
