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The answers do exist. Either the responder doesn't know what they are or he'd rather not admit it, because they don't fit the company marketing goals.
What mush?
Not that I disagree with this entirely, but I've heard plenty of mixed rigs carrying the room that weren't mushy. Me, I don't like the sound of the vast majority of mixed rigs I've played, and I do see the point you're trying to make, but to say that it guarantees mush is just as daft.
That's truly a loss. I always wondered why Bill stopped posting in TB...I used this site as reliable resource for years before I joined (i.e. classic lurker).
Not really. Bill left because TB brass requested he be less condescending in his replies and he didn't want to. I liked Bill myself, but he does get a kick out of being condescending. I don't think I'm letting any cats out of the bag there. It's pretty true about Greenboy, though...he left because he was sick of being hammered by anti-fEarful types who accused him of forming a cult and sending this cult out across TB to force people into buying his cabs.
Not according to Bill.
I am sure that's Bill's interpretation of it, but I was there when it happened and actively posting on the thread that ended it for him. Sure, some people attacked him, but that's what you get for having such rigid and unbending beliefs. Bill's scientific knowledge about how cabs work is stellar, but he could be incredibly impatient with people who tried to get him to further clarify his statements or disregarded the science in favor of their own tastes. And he didn't differentiate between them and the people who were deliberately yanking his chain just to piss him off.
My entire professional life has been spent with extreme type A personality military operators and alike, as well as with some of the most brilliant scientists and engineers in the world...make no mistake here, I was pretty much parking cars and serving drinks in that crowd, but that was still the crowd I traveled with.
Right. Ampeg is pure evil. They hate you and they want you to be so dissatisfied with any purchases we make from them that you return them and cost them lots of money eating the returns.
No less of authorities on the subject than Greenboy and Bill themselves have both stated that it's entirely possible to have mixed cab rigs with similar phase relationships that have no ill effects on the sound. Greenboy used to recommend using a 12/6/1 with a 15/6/1 all the time. Still does, too. Hell, Bill used to recommend installing two Jensen Mod 10-50-32's in the 810e's of the mud era (2000-06) to brighten them up! Andy said that when he was working at Genz Benz that they would use speakers with similar phase relationships in their cabs of a given line for this very reason. So did the engineers at Ampeg I've talked to. So the idea that this isn't a consideration is a construct in the minds of those with an agenda. I don't dig the mixed cab rigs, either, but let's not pretend that every company just slaps whatever speakers they can get for cheap in a box.
Right...as they say, the results are unpredictable in those cases, and there's only one way to find out. Personally, I still think it's the safe way to go under any circumstances, but I had to let go of the notion that most people want to do anything more than plug in and play some bass!Point well made Jimmy and you're right, I'm neither an Ampeg hater (quite the opposite actually) nor a "no mixed cabs ever" zealot. The current Mesa Subway line, which I am very familiar with, actually benefits from mixing cabs not only IME, but in the experience of many others according to their representations on TB. I also know that Hartke designed their 115XL and 210XL cabs to be used as a set - a buddy has them and they sound great when he plays them and I enjoy playing on them as well. I could go on, but I think the point is clear.
I tend to agree that any two random cabs in combination, especially from different manufacturers, like say a 115 and 410 or a 610 and 112, are likely going to be a crap-shoot for a great number of technical reasons, but it could work out well. As an engineer my only general caution is to not assume that because say a Subway 112 and 115 or 210 and 115 sound great together, we now have empirical evidence supporting a position that any 210/115 or 112/115 combination will sound good together. In fact we can't even readily assume that any 115, 112 or 210 will sound good on its own.
Absolutely! And here's a thought that many of the "right or wrong, no maybe's crowd" rarely seem to consider (at least when I read their posts): It's entirely possible that two random cabs manufactured decades apart by two different companies might actually sound better to someone or an audience than two cabs manufactured on the same day, by the same company, in the same factory, which were designed from day one to be 100% complementary.
