JT_Marshmallow
Well-known member
I found this mysterious Mesa 2x12 cab used at Guitar Center. I wasn't sure if I was going to like it but I took a chance on it anyway. It is 1/3 open back, where the middle third of the back is open, and the top and bottom thirds are closed. I've never seen a cab like this. I looked on Mesa's site to see if they offer anything like this. Nope. I even went to the Wayback Machine and browsed cached versions of Mesa's website going all the way back to the late 90s trying to find when they sold this particular cabinet. Still couldn't find it. I'm really interested in which amp line these were associated with - like if it was supposed to be a special type of Rectifier cab, or for the Heartbreaker, etc. If anyone knows anything about it, please chime in!
I don't know what the stock speakers would've been, but this one is loaded with a WGS Veteran 30 and a Jensen C12N. I was not familiar with the C12N, and after doing some reading it appears to be close to the response of a full-range speaker; quite different than the Vintage 30. I read a lot of negative reviews about the C12N so I was a little worried it might not be a good match for the Veteran 30.
When it arrived, the first thing I did was try my Tremoverb head through it. As you can see in the pics, it just so happens to match the grille cloth of my Tremoverb, so my brain was expecting them to sound great together as well... but on my first impression, I was already feeling like I should return it. The high end was a bit fizzy and the low end didn't sound very good to me either. I kept zeroing-out the tone controls on my Tremoverb and starting over, trying to dial in a good sound. After ten minutes or so, I plugged back into my VHT Fatbottom cab with Vintage 30s and went "ahh, that's better..." At this point I was pretty sure I was returning the new Mesa cab.
Later that night, I plugged my Triaxis/2:90 into this new cab. WOW! While it didn't work very well with the Recto, it seems to work REALLY well with Mark-type amps. I then proceeded to play it for hours and completely lost track of the time. This is a keeper! It excels at lead tones, but also holds up great doing heavy rhythm guitar. I will say that it also does not match well with the Lead 1 Red (Recto) mode on the Triaxis - I guess Rectifiers really tend to work best with closed-back cabs.
Now I've got it running in stereo with my Carvin Legacy 2x12 cab on the other side. Talk about "3D" tone!
I can't seem to embed these pics from Google Drive, but here are the links:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/0Bz3rYJ6FPfE4Z3lPUmNDTGZZZjg/view?usp=sharing
https://drive.google.com/file/d/0Bz3rYJ6FPfE4M19vanJubmJRbkE/view?usp=sharing
https://drive.google.com/file/d/0Bz3rYJ6FPfE4NXdDRXJLclBSemM/view?usp=sharing
I don't know what the stock speakers would've been, but this one is loaded with a WGS Veteran 30 and a Jensen C12N. I was not familiar with the C12N, and after doing some reading it appears to be close to the response of a full-range speaker; quite different than the Vintage 30. I read a lot of negative reviews about the C12N so I was a little worried it might not be a good match for the Veteran 30.
When it arrived, the first thing I did was try my Tremoverb head through it. As you can see in the pics, it just so happens to match the grille cloth of my Tremoverb, so my brain was expecting them to sound great together as well... but on my first impression, I was already feeling like I should return it. The high end was a bit fizzy and the low end didn't sound very good to me either. I kept zeroing-out the tone controls on my Tremoverb and starting over, trying to dial in a good sound. After ten minutes or so, I plugged back into my VHT Fatbottom cab with Vintage 30s and went "ahh, that's better..." At this point I was pretty sure I was returning the new Mesa cab.
Later that night, I plugged my Triaxis/2:90 into this new cab. WOW! While it didn't work very well with the Recto, it seems to work REALLY well with Mark-type amps. I then proceeded to play it for hours and completely lost track of the time. This is a keeper! It excels at lead tones, but also holds up great doing heavy rhythm guitar. I will say that it also does not match well with the Lead 1 Red (Recto) mode on the Triaxis - I guess Rectifiers really tend to work best with closed-back cabs.
Now I've got it running in stereo with my Carvin Legacy 2x12 cab on the other side. Talk about "3D" tone!
I can't seem to embed these pics from Google Drive, but here are the links:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/0Bz3rYJ6FPfE4Z3lPUmNDTGZZZjg/view?usp=sharing
https://drive.google.com/file/d/0Bz3rYJ6FPfE4M19vanJubmJRbkE/view?usp=sharing
https://drive.google.com/file/d/0Bz3rYJ6FPfE4NXdDRXJLclBSemM/view?usp=sharing
