Choosing cabinet for low tuned guitar

[Silent Sound]

I'm not the best person to ask this, as it's not in line with my musical style or personal experience, but I did have a 1960a cab for a while and I can tell you from personal experience on that that you don't want those G12T-75 speakers if you're looking for low end. In fact, I'm not too thrilled with those speakers for much of anything. They lacked bottom end and the top end sounded more like a hi-fi speaker than a guitar speaker. The cabinet itself was really well made, so for a long time I thought about switching out speakers, but in the end just sold it and got what I really wanted (a combo amp). I have limited experience with V30 speakers and haven't used one in years, but I don't remember them being very bass heavy either. However, I do remember them sounding better than the G12T-75's with less harsh of highs and more midrange honk. After a few bad experiences I now avoid Celestion speakers. It's not that they're not good speakers, but I seem to always settle on other brands that I like better and cost less.

If I were looking for a thick, chunky sound, and once again, this isn't my area of expertise, I'd look at a Mesa Boogie oversized cab.

[carlheinz]

You might want to look at the Mills cabs.

Traditionally,Mesa Recto cabs seem to a work well.

Also make sure your amps have fresh tubes and remember speakers can take a very long time to break in before they sound great...then they change and loose stiffness over time

[sr2000]

We do mostly low tunings as well in the range of drop D down to drop G - went through the same quest about a year ago and found that the Mesa 4X12 straight back was the best for low tunings. The Marshall 1960's were mediocre and we found some other cabs that were better for leads - but for rhythm guitars in a drop tuning - I don't know of anything better than the Mesa

[narcoman]

When faced with this same issue I got matamp to make me two differently voiced 4 x12 and one 2 x12.

[fastlanestoner]

I love Mesas for really downtuned, low-endy stuff!

[Jerrick]

Id go Mesa too. I have a 4x12 roadking cab which sounds great. I only go as low as A for our songs but ive gone lower than that and it just sounds awesome.

My favorite cab is the Traditional/Stiletto cab, I like the way the midrange sounds with one, where as the Standard/Recto cab is more scooped/sizzling, which isnt really a bad thing.

Used you can find them from $300-$500. I always see them for $400, wouldnt go much higher unless I was desperate and needed the cab asap.

Out of your list, all the cabs are pretty nice, and id probably go with the Port City.

[FFTT]

OR.........

Pick up a Reproduction Ampeg B-15 Portaflex style cab from fliptops.net and run it as a low end extension cab.

If you want to add serious bottom handling to your sound, the fliptops 70's Flat back SVT style 4X10 would also work and make your low end punchier.

[kneelie]

Celestion's site lists their speakers frequency response which is a good place to start, plus they have sound clips on their site.
Guitar - Celestion - Guitar, Bass & Pro Audio Speakers


Celestion speakers are all voiced differently and are not designed to achieve a linear response like a studio monitor, but they do have frequency response limits, and your mentioned tuning is Bb1 = 58.27Hz. All models with a low cut off at 75hz have a high end cut off at 5k. Frequency response is given at +/-10 db. The two models that offer the lowest bass response are:
G12H(55) 55-5000Hz
Vintage 30 70-5000Hz
Most of their other speakers hit 75-5000Hz and they may offer a good option too. There are a few that do not hit 75hz and I would pass on those.

A few other options that may be worth a try:
* ISP Technologies Vector Active Guitar Cabinet
* 4x10 with a horn bass cab - This is definitely worth a look if you are thinking about an 8 string guitar. This gives a real tight sound but your eq settings may need a little tweaking.
* bi-amp with a cross over. This is an expensive option but works well. Split signal before going back in the effects loop with a crossover run the low end into a bass amp run the highs back to the guitar amp.

[kerryjosber]

me too, I always see them for $400, wouldnt go much higher unless I was desperate and needed the cab asap.

[guitaryoder]

Low end is just simple math: more speakers=more thump. You can never get enough low thump from 1 cabinet, it really takes 2 4x12 cabinets. I just went through this for the last 2 months trying to get more low end THUMP from my Soldano. I tried every frickin cabinet that has been made and I finally discovered that 2 cabs is where the sweet spot is. Preferably one with 75s and the other with V30s. Ignore the negative comments about the 75s, some love em, some hate em, I love em.

[Frodebro]

Originally Posted by guitaryoder

Low end is just simple math: more speakers=more thump. You can never get enough low thump from 1 cabinet, it really takes 2 4x12 cabinets. I just went through this for the last 2 months trying to get more low end THUMP from my Soldano. I tried every frickin cabinet that has been made and I finally discovered that 2 cabs is where the sweet spot is. Preferably one with 75s and the other with V30s. Ignore the negative comments about the 75s, some love em, some hate em, I love em.

Cabinet size and resonant frequency tuning play a large part as well. A compact 4x12 is going to have a weaker bottom end than a larger cabinet with the same speakers in it.