# 1x12 cab (for metal)



## mindwalker (Feb 15, 2013)

Hi there brothers of metal,

I'm considering getting a cab to have around the house for noddling and maybe recording some stuff. This cab would go with my Blackstar HT-5 or perhaps a soon to be new toy. 

I have considered getting a 2x12 cabinet for a fat low end (like the Zilla Fatboy) however I think portability will be limited and perhaps it is too much to have around inside an apartment. So I'm looking at 1x12 cabs. My Blackstar HT-5R combo already produces a good satisfying sound with it's own cabinet but perhaps slightly thin in the low-end department. I haven't tried to record it with a mic cause I don't have one yet.

Would there be a decent 1x12 cab that can produce comparable thump as a 2x12 ? My main goal is that the cab is under 20 kgs and that it sounds good. What about a Mesa Mini Recto cab ? Are those any good ? Maybe an Orange PPC112 ? Zilla Mini Modern ? I checked some videos on youtube but it's hard to gauge their effectiveness.. but I'm assuming any of these must produce a bigger sound than my HT-5R combo.

Also would I be able to plug in a big head into these 1x12 combos ? Like a 100 watt head ? It's not like I'm going to turn up the volume all the way up anyway with a powerful head but just to have an idea!

Rock on!


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## Quitty (Feb 15, 2013)

In my experience, the low end increase between a 1x12 and a 2x12 is minimal at best.
4x12 is another story and there's a good, solid deal of physics to back that up.

If you intend on using another speaker in the new cab, than the speaker is the most important part. For a 5-watter i wouldn't take anything with V30s in it as they sound terrible at low volumes.
If it were me, i'd look for something naturally scooped to 'emulate' the effect of a higher volume - so, a gt75 or a K100 (also known as gh100 nowadays).

If you plan on removing the internal speaker and using that, converting your HT-5 into a head of sorts (which i'd do. Otherwise, you've got a redundant, big, heavy box around) -
than i'd go with as large a 1x12 as i can find as that's pretty much the only thing that boosts low end.

You might want to try and score a ported cab. When they work, they'll have all the low end you could wish for - but that depends on the quality of the construction and varies greatly with different speakers.

Boy, that came out long. Sorry 'bout that


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## flexkill (Feb 15, 2013)

The Egnater Rebel 1x12 cab is my favorite ever. I have 2 and I love them.

Egnater Rebel 112X 1x12 Guitar Extension Cabinet | Musician&#39;s Friend


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## Justin_Blackened (Feb 15, 2013)

If your worried about floor space but dont wanna settle for a 1x12.

Get a 2x12 vertical cab, or get a 2x12 and stand it on its side. Effectively making a vertical 2x12.

About the same footprint, double the speakers. price difference minimal.


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## guitarfishbay (Feb 15, 2013)

Quitty said:


> In my experience, the low end increase between a 1x12 and a 2x12 is minimal at best.



Really depends on size.

I had an Orange PPC112 and still have a Mesa Recto 2x12. They both have V30s, but the difference in bass and 'size' of tone was huge. The Orange cab sounded really small, and when you cranked them the difference was huge.

So I'd say avoid the PPC112 for a big rhythm sound (especially with v30s), but a bigger 1x12 will probably sound better (the PPC112 is quite small). I agree that a more scooped speaker will sound good at low volumes.

Personally I don't see the advantage of a 1x12 for metal unless you absolutely can't store, lift, or transport a 2x12. A 2x12 will also double your power handling so if you ever did crank it you'd be less likely to blow a speaker (generally speaking, depends on the speakers and amp!). Most 2x12 cabs are less than 30kg, which I know is heavier than you want, but it isn't *that* heavy really if you're an average sized male without health problems.

You can always fit castors for rolling a cab on the flat, and if you get help from a friend stairs aren't much trouble with 2x12 cabs in my experience.


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## mindwalker (Feb 15, 2013)

yep for me the issue with the 2x12 is weight and portability. Many of them weight around 27 kgs (59 lbs) which is fine if all you do is lift the cab into a car and go but since I don't have a car right now and the cab is more to just use around the apartment (so I wouldn't crank it anyway) is the reason why I was considering a 1x12.

my HT-5R with a 12" black bird speaker sounds decent.. however I haven't tried a 2x12 so I can't compare. Maybe I just keep the HT-5R combo as a cabinet if I need to use another amp head and connect it to the combo's internal speaker. I just thought I could get a better sounding 1x12 cab


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## mindwalker (Feb 15, 2013)

it's a bit of a contradiction that I'm worried about the weight of the cab if it's going to sit mostly in my apartment! I just prefer light things I guess.. the day that I bought my HT-5R and I had to bring it home walking and using the public transport I nearly died


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## GizmoGardens (Feb 15, 2013)

Get a 1x12 and put an Eminence Alpha 12A in there. That should satisfy your low-end cravings... Or just get a sonic maximizer. All the bass a guitar player could ever want and should probably never have


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## flexkill (Feb 15, 2013)

Check out the Egnater man....it sounds great.


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## 4Eyes (Feb 15, 2013)

if you could find old vht (fryette) 1x12 fat bottom cab it's nice option to consider. small, light, it has 4 vents in the front baffle which give you huge, 4x12-ish type of sound. really great sounding cab, it haa VHT designed speaker by eminence - P100, kinda brown or dark sounding speaker. but overall impression was great.

bogner cube 1x12, mesa thiele are great options, too, for small and huge sounding cabs


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## djpharoah (Feb 15, 2013)

Mesa Thiele w/ EV12L


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## TRENCHLORD (Feb 15, 2013)

This w/k100 dressed anyway you want.
G112W


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## mindwalker (Feb 15, 2013)

hmm these are some interesting options! Going to try to spot some of these around to see if I can check them out!


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## sage (Feb 15, 2013)

djpharoah said:


> Mesa Thiele w/ EV12L



This. If you want bass and fatness out of a 1x12, this is the business. You can make 'em yourself fairly easily as plans are all over the net. If you're not up to that and can't find the Mesa, Glaswerks makes one also Glaswerks GW112TH Theile Aligned Cabinet but at that price, you could buy all the tools you need and build six friggin Thiele cabs.


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## cardinal (Feb 15, 2013)

I've run a VH4 and a SLO through oversized, ported Diezel 1x12 cabs with v30s (at moderate volumes, obviously). Sounded ok until I played it back-to-back with more speakers, then it's clear how small and boxy even a large 1x12 can sound. Maybe a different speaker would help, but I really like v30s when I can use more than one.


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## RustInPeace (Feb 15, 2013)

I run my mark v through a mesa 1x12 wide body 1/2 open back cab with a WGS vet 30 (a V30 replica thats better IMO). I sometimes run my MXR eq with the bass boosted to get a little more thump when I can push the volume. Its really handy to have though, and I think it sounds great at low volumes.


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## great_kthulu (Feb 15, 2013)

Another vote for Egnater, though I myself am a fan the tweaker cab, the rebel is great as well.


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## orange1 (Feb 16, 2013)

Orange cab in black


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## EOT (Feb 16, 2013)

djpharoah said:


> Mesa Thiele w/ EV12L



Although I've never played one that is what I'd be looking at if I wanted a 1x12. I run a 5w amp into a 4x12 full of 12ls and it's pretty sweet. Plus one 12l will handle a 100w head.


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## Talmaci (Feb 16, 2013)

Krank Rev. 1x12" are also great in my opinion!


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## Mop (Feb 16, 2013)

If it has to be a 1x12 I'd go for a Mesa thiele cab, if you can swing a 2x12 grab a horizontal Mesa 2x12 recto cabinet


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## TRENCHLORD (Feb 17, 2013)

orange1 said:


> Orange cab in black


 
Is this Hallowen? 
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kehDsnCWxzg


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## noUser01 (Feb 17, 2013)

Mesa Boogie Recto 1x12 is beast.


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## mindwalker (Feb 17, 2013)

I've been researching a bit on the mesa thiele cab and here on this side of the pond it seems I can only buy the one with the C90 speaker. Is that as good as the electro voice speaker ? I just want minimum fuss.. Don't want to be changing speakers myself.. Also the price isn't very cheap! Same as a 2x12 Zilla Fatboy. Granted.. I said I wanted a 1x12 for portability but I kinda wished that I would keep the cost down relatively to a 2x12. Well I guess you can't have everything..


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## Quitty (Feb 17, 2013)

I own two homebuilt Mesa thiele clones and a homebuilt oversized 2x12.
In my experience, the thiele thing works for any speaker provided you pump enough volume into it and can pump more low end than a 2x12. It will provide less benefit with the c90 but will still work - but again, it's volume dependant.


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## Sam MJ (Feb 17, 2013)

mindwalker said:


> I've been researching a bit on the mesa thiele cab and here on this side of the pond it seems I can only buy the one with the C90 speaker. Is that as good as the electro voice speaker ? I just want minimum fuss.. Don't want to be changing speakers myself.. Also the price isn't very cheap! Same as a 2x12 Zilla Fatboy. Granted.. I said I wanted a 1x12 for portability but I kinda wished that I would keep the cost down relatively to a 2x12. Well I guess you can't have everything..


 Zilla make a thiele cab.
Custom Cabinets and Guitar Amp Cabs | Zilla Music UK


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## ESPImperium (Feb 17, 2013)

Bogner 1X12 Dual Ported Cube

Sounds huge with any of the heads i have, my Mesa F30 gets an amazing sound with it, my Egnater is also as good, and as for my little Blackstar HT-1RH it just wants to play modern down tuned metal with it.

Truly versatile cab, best £349 i paid in my set up, and may be one of about 3 or 4 things that stay in my 2013 gear set up review.


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## mindwalker (Feb 18, 2013)

ESPImperium said:


> Truly versatile cab, best £349 i paid in my set up, and may be one of about 3 or 4 things that stay in my 2013 gear set up review.



Looks like it goes for quite a bit more new though 
Bogner Custom 1x12 Cube Closed Back Dual Ported - BOGNER


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## mindwalker (Feb 18, 2013)

Sam MJ said:


> Zilla make a thiele cab.
> Custom Cabinets and Guitar Amp Cabs | Zilla Music UK



That's cool! I'm going to ask them for a quote! I imagine that this one comes with the EVM12L speaker.


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## sage (Feb 18, 2013)

There's something about that Thiele design that just works to add more oomph to whatever speaker it encounters. I'm running a Z Best cab, which is basically a 2x12 with the Thiele design with a pair of WGS Retro 30s (similar to a V30) in it. I've heard the same speaker in a closed 1x12 box and, while nice, didn't have the power. So, long story short, the ported design reacts with most speakers and whether you end up with the EVM12L, a C90, or some other flavour, it's going to sound different in the ported cab. For my ears, that difference = nicer. For others, not so much.


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## mindwalker (Feb 18, 2013)

But do you need to pump up the speaker to benefit from the Thiele design ? More often than not I will be limited to a bit more than TV levels (maybe something between 70-80db). If this isn't good enough to sweeten that Thiele cab then I might as well go for a more volume friendly alternative even though I may not have as much bottom end. Perhaps even a 2x12 is better in this scenario albeit the the space / weight considerations


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## Quitty (Feb 18, 2013)

*tl;dr: Yes, you do.*


Warning: this is a coarse simplification. My physics prof. would kill me.
The Thiele design has two elements.

The first of which is the actual Thiele 'element' - meaning that the proportions of the cabinet are 'tuned' specifically to a particular speaker - which is why a C90 will not work as well as the EV12L these cabs were meant for.
With that said, guitar speakers are all fairly similar, spec-wise, so it will work partially. When it works, it lowers the low-mid bump that guitar cabinets have and balances the response of the cabinet so that all your notes will have the same volume.

The second element is the porting, which means the hole in the front.
That serves to turn your cabinet into a speaker of sorts - when the cabinet vibrates it creates sound waves much like a speaker does - and now with a hole in the front those sound waves can come out. Because the cabinet is heavy, it only vibrates significantly on low frequencies - meaning it produces low frequencies itself when vibrating, which accounts for the extra bass coming out the porting.
That's also why the 'tuning' thing is required - it helps calm the low mids back down.

It's also why you'll get nothing if the cab doesn't vibrate, preferably hard.


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## mindwalker (Feb 18, 2013)

Quitty said:


> It's also why you'll get nothing if the cab doesn't vibrate, preferably hard.



Then I guess that for my current conditions it's useless to have such a cab or even a 2x12

My HT-5R at 1/4 volume can be heard by my neighbour upstairs and likewise I can hear my lovely neighbour downstairs during his 6pm to midnight DJ sessions. Ahh... gotta love century old buildings


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