Does anyone still gig with a 4x12?

english_bob

ICBM said:

That gave me an idea…

If you're going to do that you could actually make the bottom half a completely different cabinet. (I know Mesa already do this, although the idea is still to run both from the same amp.) So if you put the right speakers in, you could make that a bass monitor. Then I had another idea - if you divide it again so it's four separate 1x12"s, you could have one of the top ones for guitar (and leave that one open-back if you want), the other for a PA vocal monitor, and the two bottom ones as a bass monitor and a PA drum feed or some other combination.

Since part of the charm of a 4x12" is the way they look, and that stage space is often at a premium, this would possibly fix a lot of monitoring issues in one go while looking the part and actually not being that hard to move and set up.

It does require the cabinet to be fully divided and isolated internally, you can't do it just by putting four different speakers in a standard 4x12" or they will all interact, but otherwise it should be fairly easy to build.

Tell me this is a stupid idea .

Wouldn't all the internal baffles and crap needed to make this work make for a cripplingly heavy cab?

ICBM

english_bob said:

Wouldn't all the internal baffles and crap needed to make this work make for a cripplingly heavy cab?

Certainly a bit heavier than a standard one, but I don't think cripplingly so - all the heavy stuff would be a vertical and horizontal divider (5/8" ply should be fine, same as the rest of the cab), and maybe the two bottom speakers if they were more bass-spec. The other stuff - acoustic wadding, ports etc - shouldn't add much or anything. I can't see it adding more than about 20lb to the weight, and given that a 4x12" is not far off 100lb anyway and is really a two-person lift, I don't see it being a big problem. It would be lighter than the four equivalent cabs you could replace with it, although I know that isn't the main issue with a single heavy thing.

Tom_g

Just to add a fly in the mix but I use a 4x10 with my JMP 50 and it sounds less bassy at pub gig levels. I actually prefer the sound it seems to tighten everything up

ICBM

I just sold an old Marshall 4x10". Much lighter and more practical than a 4x12" despite not being *that* much smaller in some ways - a one-hand lift.

Deijavoo

I miss my Mesa 4x12 but missed my 2x12's bass response when I had that. Moral is that I'm never happy I guess.

meltedbuzzbox

Gassage said:

^ this.

*cough* Lazy J *cough*

strtdv

My 2x12 has a kickback stand built in so it's not aimed at your knees, so I can hear what's coming out of the amp, and by the time it reaches the audience it's diffused enough that it doesn't make much difference between it and a 4x12.

I like the idea of a 4x10, wouldn't mind trying one.

To be honest much of my playing is now done though a 1x12 cab, which doesn't move air like a 4x12 or even a 2x12, but it puts out plenty of bass due to the speaker in it, and it's dead light.

Also, being a less sensitive speaker than the G12H30's in my Laney, it lets me drive the Matamp a bit harder without it being too loud (or not as much too loud!).

It depends on the 2x12 though, a Marshall 1936 2x12 is nearly the same size as a compact 4x12 anyway, so you might as well use the 4x12