4x12 or two 2x12s?

StefB · October 2014

I've got the rare chance of buying a Laney TT412A cab locally, to match my TT50 head. They don't come up very often, especially within an hour's drive, and I'm tempted to buy it.

At £200 it's more than I'd like to pay for a Laney cab, but it is in top condition, built from ply, has 4 V30s factory fitted and is designed to match the TT heads. Still cheaper than 1960s seem to be available for at the moment, which wouldn't match the Laney and thereby a problem for the OCD in me!

The other option is to buy two V30 loaded Harley Benton 2x12s from Thomann, for around £300 all in delivered. The 2x12s would be more convenient and allow a modular option so I can use both or just one depending on the gig. Two together still won't give me the same oomph at the 4x12 though, right?

ICBM · October 2014

At £200, buy the Laney! If you have the space for it. It should be a no-brainer, the speakers are worth that even second hand.

samzadgan · October 2014

Laney...

4x12 always sounds better than 2x12's...bigger box and more air moved...also...you could even sell 2 of v30 and mix another type of speaker in an X pattern.

StefB · October 2014

Thanks gents, you've helped make my mind up.

I was favouring the Laney, and will collect it on Saturday. I already have a H&K Statesman 2x12 cab, Eminence loaded, that I can use with the TT50 head if I prefer, so best of all worlds hopefully!

Cirrus · October 2014

I prefer the sound of 2x12 cabs to 4x12 cabs personally, but with that choice I'd definitely pick the Laney.

guitarfishbay · October 2014

In all honesty if you find a 4x12 you like and you're happy to move it then go for it as you won't get the same resonance characteristics out of a smaller cabinet, especially something like the HB cab which isn't full depth IIRC. £200 is over what I paid for and sold my TT412 at but in real terms it is very cheap for a good quality cab with 4 V30s. Also worth pointing out my cab had two seventy 80s mixed in, and wasn't 4x V30.

I'm going the two 2x12 cab route at the minute. I've decided that overall the Mesa 2x12 Rectifier cabinet is my favourite however it has some downfalls. The biggest of which is it is too short, so I'm going to get a second one to build it up to pseudo 4x12 height. Well, as soon as I can find a reasonably priced one that won't require 6+ hours of driving to collect. Then in theory I stop buying cabs (hah!

)

57Deluxe · October 2014

it's either 4x12s or 2x15s that are the options...

ICBM · October 2014

57Deluxe said:

it's either 4x12s or 2x15s that are the options…

You're not thinking big enough. You want a 4x15".

Listen to this demo and you'll see I'm right...

By far the best-sounding cab there!

StefB · October 2014

I was going to pick the Laney up on Saturday but some bugger gazumped me for it tonight, allegedly paying £260. Grrr. Quality of the cab aside, that's more than I was prepared to pay for it in the current market. An identical cab sold on eBay for £102 last week, albeit a 300 mile drive from my gaff.

ICBM · October 2014

StefB said:

I was going to pick the Laney up on Saturday but some bugger gazumped me for it tonight, allegedly paying £260. Grrr. Quality of the cab aside, that's more than I was prepared to pay for it in the current market. An identical cab sold on eBay for £102 last week, albeit a 300 mile drive from my gaff.

I hope the seller is happy with his sixty pieces of silver pounds...

guitarfishbay · October 2014

Honestly the 4x12 market is a weird one. Almost all are collection only so it depends on what is available in the area at the time and who wants them.

My bandmate picked up his 1960A for £130, used it for a year, then sold it for £210 within a week of listing.

When I sold my Mesa 4x12 nobody wanted it for months, apart from one person who was keen then stopped messaging me it really was radio silence. I eventually sold it to a friend of mine who already had 2 other Mesa 4x12s.

I want to buy another Mesa 2x12 but I haven't had any luck recently. They're all 5-6hours round trip away and I want to avoid that really. There was one locally recently but I got beaten to it by someone else!

The prices on the Mesa 2x12 are all over the shop. I paid £400 for mine in mint condition, s/h from Andertons, shipped to my door with the original box, cover, and castors. Loads of used market sellers want close to £400 (sometimes more) and half the time have damaged it, lost the castors or don't have the cover. And not only that they're always hundreds of miles away so by the time I add fuel it isn't really a great deal anymore. I just can't bring myself to buy a new one... even though I really like them.

midlifecrisis · October 2014

ICBM said:

57Deluxe said:

it's either 4x12s or 2x15s that are the options…

You're not thinking big enough. You want a 4x15".

Listen to this demo and you'll see I'm right...

By far the best-sounding cab there!

wow, you can certainly hear the difference even on my laptop, but I don't understand how it works as the mic is just aimed at one speaker, id understand if it was recorded from further away to pick up the overall sound.

guitarfishbay · October 2014

Cab size makes a difference even at close range in my experience.

Haggerty's Music did a comparison of the oversize and standard sized Mesa 4x12 cabs, mic'd with a Royer 121 a few feet back. The only difference between cabs is the Recto cab is taller by about 2 inches.

http://youtu.be/f22Nsx6pHp8

ICBM · October 2014

It's not at all true that the cab makes no difference when the speaker is close-mic'ed. The internal volume and resonance of the cab has a fairly big effect on the movement and damping of the speaker cone.

It's also affected to some extent by the total number of speakers in the cab, even if the volume per speaker is the same, since the speakers interact with each other.

ThePrettyDamned · October 2014

ICBM;368857" said:
It's not at all true that the cab makes no difference when the speaker is close-mic'ed. The internal volume and resonance of the cab has a fairly big effect on the movement and damping of the speaker cone.

It's also affected to some extent by the total number of speakers in the cab, even if the volume per speaker is the same, since the speakers interact with each other.

Not to mention speaker variation - look at the recently posted fricker video where he mics (centre of cone) 4 vintage 30s in the same cab, and they all sound different! Different enough to be considered a different model of speaker in one instance, imo.

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4x12 or two 2x12s?

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