Hi,
New to the Boogie Board so apologies if this thread has been done before.
I'm a long time Duel Rec owner, but recently bought a TA-30 head and instantly fell in love with it.
I have a few cabs, but nothing seemed like the "right fit". I have TopHat 2x12 closed back, loaded with G12H-30 70th Anniversaries, but found it a bit stiff or too direct, in your face. Hard to explain. Plus that cab is 16 ohm and the TA-30 only has 8 ohm or 4 ohm outputs. My Blackstar open back 1x12 loaded with a 16 ohm G12T-75 was also (perhaps not surprisingly) not the best fit either. My 16 ohm Marshall 4x12 loaded with Celestion Goldbacks (25W each, don't know much about them). It was good, but the 4x12 was a little authoritative and in your face for the tones are wanted.
I really wanted a 1x12 or 2x12 that was specifically for the TA-30.
I ended up with an Orange PPC112 1x12 for an entirely different reason. I tried a V30 before, but had had the hots for one for ages for that metal sound (with other amps), albeit it, not in the normal 4x12/V30 setup. To my surprise, I was quite disappointed with the V30. The vocal, prominent midrange peak I thought I'd love was WAY too much and totally uncontrollable and unbalanced. Both with the amps I'd bought the Orange cab for, and with the TA-30. It was ALL midrange, and completed lacked bass and and lacked top end in contrast to the overbearing midrange. This could have been heavily exaggerated by the fact the V30 was in a small, closed back 1x12 enclosure. Perhaps the V30 needs to be in a much bigger cab like a 4x12 to be appreciated? (And I know the Chinese and Mesa V30's sounds quite different too.)
I then bought a used 8 ohm Mesa C-90 Black Shadow and put it in the Orange 1x12. The improvement was incredible. Even better than I hoped for. It was clear to me the C-90 was THE speaker the TA-30 was designed to be used with. Warm. Balanced. Rich. Vocal and clear. Lovely! But I still wondered if my bass was a little stiff and a tad lacking, owing to the fact I'd popped the C-90 in a small (19" wide) closed back cab.
I recently bought an old, empty Mesa 1x12 cab with a 3/4 back (from the same guy I bought the speaker from). This thing is massive for a 1x12. About 26" wide! Surely the increase in size and the slightly open back would fill in and round out my bass end?
Last night I popped the C-90 back in the Mesa 3/4 back 1x12, sure enough, the bass was huge. Everything was huge for that matter. And it sounded a lot loudly too.
After a fairly rigorous play-through, I began to think, on the same control settings as the Orange cab with the C-90, the Mesa cab sounded a tad more scooped. This have the apparent feel/sound of more gain on the same settings, but I was wondering if I'd lost some of that lovely "vocalness" to the tone I felt with the Orange 1x12 with the C-90? That vocal quality was particularly nice for Vox-y sounds and the Marshall-y Hi-1 mode. And was there now a fuzzy quality that wasn't there before?
I played with the EQ a bit but haven't got it quite there yet.
I'm curious what experiences people have had with TA-30/15's with different cabs. I guess the obvious choice is a matching Mesa Transatlantic cab. So I'd be particularly interested in hearing about good results with non-Transatlantic cabs, Mesa or otherwise. I guess in part I'm trying to belay my intial concerns that perhaps the oversized Mesa 3/4 back 1x12 might not be a well suited as I'd hoped it would be.
Cheers everyone.
New to the Boogie Board so apologies if this thread has been done before.
I'm a long time Duel Rec owner, but recently bought a TA-30 head and instantly fell in love with it.
I have a few cabs, but nothing seemed like the "right fit". I have TopHat 2x12 closed back, loaded with G12H-30 70th Anniversaries, but found it a bit stiff or too direct, in your face. Hard to explain. Plus that cab is 16 ohm and the TA-30 only has 8 ohm or 4 ohm outputs. My Blackstar open back 1x12 loaded with a 16 ohm G12T-75 was also (perhaps not surprisingly) not the best fit either. My 16 ohm Marshall 4x12 loaded with Celestion Goldbacks (25W each, don't know much about them). It was good, but the 4x12 was a little authoritative and in your face for the tones are wanted.
I really wanted a 1x12 or 2x12 that was specifically for the TA-30.
I ended up with an Orange PPC112 1x12 for an entirely different reason. I tried a V30 before, but had had the hots for one for ages for that metal sound (with other amps), albeit it, not in the normal 4x12/V30 setup. To my surprise, I was quite disappointed with the V30. The vocal, prominent midrange peak I thought I'd love was WAY too much and totally uncontrollable and unbalanced. Both with the amps I'd bought the Orange cab for, and with the TA-30. It was ALL midrange, and completed lacked bass and and lacked top end in contrast to the overbearing midrange. This could have been heavily exaggerated by the fact the V30 was in a small, closed back 1x12 enclosure. Perhaps the V30 needs to be in a much bigger cab like a 4x12 to be appreciated? (And I know the Chinese and Mesa V30's sounds quite different too.)
I then bought a used 8 ohm Mesa C-90 Black Shadow and put it in the Orange 1x12. The improvement was incredible. Even better than I hoped for. It was clear to me the C-90 was THE speaker the TA-30 was designed to be used with. Warm. Balanced. Rich. Vocal and clear. Lovely! But I still wondered if my bass was a little stiff and a tad lacking, owing to the fact I'd popped the C-90 in a small (19" wide) closed back cab.
I recently bought an old, empty Mesa 1x12 cab with a 3/4 back (from the same guy I bought the speaker from). This thing is massive for a 1x12. About 26" wide! Surely the increase in size and the slightly open back would fill in and round out my bass end?
Last night I popped the C-90 back in the Mesa 3/4 back 1x12, sure enough, the bass was huge. Everything was huge for that matter. And it sounded a lot loudly too.
After a fairly rigorous play-through, I began to think, on the same control settings as the Orange cab with the C-90, the Mesa cab sounded a tad more scooped. This have the apparent feel/sound of more gain on the same settings, but I was wondering if I'd lost some of that lovely "vocalness" to the tone I felt with the Orange 1x12 with the C-90? That vocal quality was particularly nice for Vox-y sounds and the Marshall-y Hi-1 mode. And was there now a fuzzy quality that wasn't there before?
I played with the EQ a bit but haven't got it quite there yet.
I'm curious what experiences people have had with TA-30/15's with different cabs. I guess the obvious choice is a matching Mesa Transatlantic cab. So I'd be particularly interested in hearing about good results with non-Transatlantic cabs, Mesa or otherwise. I guess in part I'm trying to belay my intial concerns that perhaps the oversized Mesa 3/4 back 1x12 might not be a well suited as I'd hoped it would be.
Cheers everyone.