W/D/W home rig - 3 amps - what dry cab?

Hi,

So, i have 3 amps:
1) Mesa Boogie Mark V
2) Mesa Boogie Dual Recto Reborn
3) EVH EL34 100W (soon to be purchased)

I´ll build a W/D/W rig for home playing in order to retain the punch and clarity of each selected amp.
I`m thinking a relatively compact rig, because too much volume can become overwhelming for my ears.
I will select 1 amp at a time with a head switcher, then go to the Fryette PS-2 (or Boss WASA- haven´t decide yet) to attenuate the volume and finally to the center cabinet.

I am interested in one cab that can work well with all 3 amps.
i was thinking the EVH 4x12 5150 III cab, as i have read very good comments for that cab for overall sound and build quality. The speakers are low efficiency and they don´t need too much volume to push some air.
Was also thinking a Bogner 2x12 OS but that costs as much as the EVH and its almost as big as a 4x12. Also, the V30s don´t really help at low volumes, so i have heard.
Maybe a 2x12 semi open back?

Which cab would you suggest?

No one with experience on the subject?

Just curious what cabs/speakers have you run with your amps so far? Any feedback or characterization on them?

psihiatros said:

Hi,

So, i have 3 amps:
1) Mesa Boogie Mark V
2) Mesa Boogie Dual Recto Reborn
3) EVH EL34 100W (soon to be purchased)

I´ll build a W/D/W rig for home playing in order to retain the punch and clarity of each selected amp.
I`m thinking a relatively compact rig, because too much volume can become overwhelming for my ears.
I will select 1 amp at a time with a head switcher, then go to the Fryette PS-2 (or Boss WASA- haven´t decide yet) to attenuate the volume and finally to the center cabinet.

I am interested in one cab that can work well with all 3 amps.
i was thinking the EVH 4x12 5150 III cab, as i have read very good comments for that cab for overall sound and build quality. The speakers are low efficiency and they don´t need too much volume to push some air.
Was also thinking a Bogner 2x12 OS but that costs as much as the EVH and its almost as big as a 4x12. Also, the V30s don´t really help at low volumes, so i have heard.
Maybe a 2x12 semi open back?

Which cab would you suggest?

Click to expand...

Asking what cabinets to use is like asking what flavor ice creams to get LOL. I love Mesa cabs, and the Avatar cabs are very high quality at a decent price.

Which amp will be your Dry amp? That is the amp that will be generating your guitar tone, and where you will want to spend time matching the cab and speakers.

The Wet amps and cabinets are just pushing effects and are not as critical.

Not sure what you will need the head switcher for, each amp will be dedicated to its position (and cab).

When I ran W/D/W with my Roadster I used my Recto 4X12 for my Dry cabinet, and a Mesa Recto 2:One Hundred with two Recto Vertical 2X12’s for the wet amps and cabs. I used the slave out (thru an EQ) from the Roadster to feed my Wet effects, which I sent to the 2:One Hundred power amp.

When using different models/brands of amps in a W/D/W setup be prepared to deal with phase issues. If the bass response drops and the sound is ‘hollow’ in the mids one of your amps is out of phase.

I’m curious on how you plan to use the head switcher in a dedicated W/D/W setup, I’ve never seen that before and I’ve been gigging for decades. You will need a switching matrix for your effects source as well.

Dom

domct203 said:

Asking what cabinets to use is like asking what flavor ice creams to get LOL. I love Mesa cabs, and the Avatar cabs are very high quality at a decent price.

I used the slave out (thru an EQ) from the Roadster to feed my Wet effects

Click to expand...

LOL I know huh? I always taste test at the ice cream shop.

Yea and running the Slave out thru an EQ is a good move.

I would audition each amp individually and whichever amp I liked the sound of best for my unprocessed tone would be the middle.
The other two, I would probably dial in for a much cleaner tone for the wet effects since I would want the side amps to add the least amount of additional colour and/or distortion which would pretty much negate or cover up the main tone.

Assuming, of course, you're talking about a traditional W/D/W setup. Lots of people have different ideas of what W/D/W means.

Reading the o.p., so you want only one amp on ( out of 3) to be your left wet/ dry middle / right wet?....well,that's certainly one way to do it,out of many ways.Whatever cab is your dry cab,you want it to be a good one,probably one that is very organic, raw,immediate feeling,punchy,tight,and articulate.
As said,your l/ R cabs won't matter as much for effects.Try out as many cabs as u can till u find what u like.