Why did you not choose a cabinet from the same company who makes your amp?

[Nev375]

Amps have more to do with electronics, speakers have more to do with physics. Being an expert in one does not automatically make you an expert in the other.

Fact is there's a lot of popular brands out there who aren't particularly good at either, they just keep copying off everyone else's hard work. Sadly, a few are copying the wrong people.

[krstko]

I would also say money, but in another way. I have a Hartke half stack and if I will ever upgrade, I will probably change cab/head one by one through time

[vbchaos]

I mainly play a traynor yba300 head - i would like to try their cabs too but they are hardly available here in europe. My second head is a trace elliot from the late 80s, but i was never a fan of their cabs. I find them too expensive for what you get in the end.
So i mainly play ashdown cabs - they matched both my requirements and my hobby-budget. Since i have finished my effect board and did turn down the low-end a bit on my head, the cab even sounds better :-)

[BawanaRik]

Originally Posted by bobcruz

For me it was back and shoulder issues that required a featherweight stack. Super light custom or boutique cabs are available but very pricey and I'm just a hobby player, plus I'm a DIY'er so I built a pair of 20-ish pound 112s and couldn't be happier with the tone/weight/cost:



Eminence Basslites (4 pounds), 12mm sandeply with internal cross bracing and a tweeter/crossover in the top cab only = 42 pound stack. Cloth grills save about a pound per cab compared to steel.

I like them. They look great. I am utterly unable to work on reality based structure both by temperament and years of interpreting data on a computer.

I can really appreciate something like that.

[BawanaRik]

I got the WTX 264 pair but to move more air I bought a Schoeder 610 light cab. It's neos and is real light for an efficient cab.

I guess the bottom line was light cab. Nothing can match the SWR Goliath Senior I sold as far as tone and SPL but it was heavy. Real heavy.

[LowBSix]

Originally Posted by lomo

I love my Mesa heads but find my favorite cabs are customs.

I'm getting my first custom LDS 1010/6 in a couple of weeks!!!! I talked to Don yesterday. He seems as excited as I do about it.....

Love my MESA, Eden and SWR cabs

[JimmyM]

I use the same brand amp and cabs.

Hey now?

[Alexander]

Absolutely love my Mesa Walkabout, but wanted more heft to what the Scout cabs could provide. Tried a Mesa 410 and found it to be too dark. Plugged it into my Berg NV 412 and yum!

[morgansterne]

I bought a markbass little mark II when my ampeg got fried.

I watched the markbass 12" cab woofer go on mechanical excursions that would scare lawrence of arabia. I vowed never to buy one of their cabs. The speaker looks like its going to fly out of the cab and knock you flat on your face.

I bought a one off 15" cab from a local maker for one fourth the price of anything markbass would make. Then I painted the baffle bright red, which I would never have done with a "brand name" cab where I'd be concerned about future resale value.

[HolmeBass]

Originally Posted by Green Lantern

Don't be an jerk, you know what I mean. People that buy Strats go through Marshall's, Boogies, etc. they don't want the garbled distortion that Fender has. You also can't compare amps and guitars or basses for a matched sound the same way you have amps and cabs.

You are making an erroneous assumption. There is no guarantee that the cabs are designed to match the heads anymore than the heads are designed to match the guitars.

Also as others have mentioned, the best cabs are usually made by dedicated cabinet makers: LDS, Barefaced, or fEARful builders.

And then there is buying used, and just using your ears to decide what works best. Did you even try out any Bergs with your Aguilar head? Any Genz or Hartke cabinets? How do you *know* that your Aguilar cab is the best match for your head if you didn't do any comparisons?

Not being a jerk, speaking the truth, even if it's not what you want to hear.

[JimmyM]

Originally Posted by morgansterne

I bought a markbass little mark II when my ampeg got fried.

I watched the markbass 12" cab woofer go on mechanical excursions that would scare lawrence of arabia.

Hate to break it to you, but that is perfectly natural and harmless. That is what you call "xmax," or cone travel. Neodymium magnet speakers can have more xmax than typical ceramic magnet speakers because they use a much smaller and stronger magnet. To get that kind of xmax on a non-neo would require a giant ceramic magnet that would be prohibitively heavy. I was totally alarmed the first time I saw it, but it's the way the speaker was designed to operate, and it's not going to explode through the grill.

[Primakurtz]

I will use matching amps and cabs when a company pays me to do so (sponsorship).
Meanwhile, I buy & play what my ears and wallet tell me to play.

[kurosawa]

Whatever's cheap and works. If they ever match, it'll be by pure chance.