412 Half-Back ((hoping for some help ID'ing))

[DRC]

Greetings and salutations!

First off, sorry if this is the wrong place to ask this.. I hum'd & haw'd for a few minutes then decided this was the best spot. (there's a forum that specifically says it's for bass cabs, but none that I saw for guitar cabs)

A few years ago I scored a killer deal on a Mesa/Boogie 4x12 Half-Back cab and to this day I've never been able to find out much info on it.. next to none actually.. and it's driving me nuts! I can't even find a picture of one on google images or anywhere else I've looked.. A few similar ones, but never exact. I've never seen that particular grill nor those snazzy handles in any pics yet. I saw one other with a similar badge on the front, but the letters were two-tone black/white rather than solid white like mine. (and that one had diamond-holes in the grill rather than square like mine)

I emailed Mesa recently and all they could tell me was: "From the picture you sent you have a 4x12 Half-Back cab and those were made in the late 80’s and 90’s." I replied asking if Half-Back was a name or description and they replied it was the name.

"..late 80's and 90's." isn't satisfying enough so I gotta ask you fine folks if maybe you could give me any more info; like, oh I dunno, how rare/common they are.. what head they were commonly matched with or sold with/for.. Any info at all'd be killer! :mrgreen:

All I know about this beast is, 1) my DC-3 head sobs uncontrollably when I take it off it to bring it upstairs to plop it down on a 1x12 for its living-room duties.. 2) I'm going to be buried with it.. and 3) I got an amazing deal when I paid $500CAD for it 5-6-7 years ago..! :lol:

Anywho, here's the beast! :twisted:
(Sorry the pics are so big...... :evil: Fought with photobucket for long enough while sitting at work on a Friday after noon after-hours.. )

(don't you think the look of that cab matches the original 1974 carpet and wood paneling in my basement perfectly?! :lol: hahaha)

 

[lockbody]

I've had four of them, and I've never seen that style grill either. Looks like a old Randall grill, I think. The top speakers were probably C90s if those MS12s are stock. One of mine had a logo like yours. All of them had the same style handles.

I think a single input jack means it's an earlier one, but I could have it backwards for all I know.

 

[lockbody]

I have one with the very same grille!
Pretty sure it's an early 80's cab maybe late 70's.

The MS-12 is stock.
I have seen other early 80's Mesa cabs with the Celestion G12H-100 in them. I have had communication from the original owner of one of these 4x12's who claimed they never swapped them out. I believe him.

Mesa did use G12-65's in some of their early cabs (according to Mike B. at Mesa - I spoke with him about this not too long ago), so why not 100's!

I'd say it's a stock cab all the way.

Ah, you learn something new every day. I sure like the G12-65s that are in mine. I've always assumed they were swapped in, but who knows now?

 

[JimAnsell]

i had one like that with the square grill.
it had those black shadow 150 watters in the top and celestion g12-80's in the bottom.
early 80's/late 70's all the way.

 

[DRC]

Thanks muchly for the responses folks! You've got me curious now about trying the MS-12s in the top and G12H-100s in the bottom... /ponder I think I'll wait til I get my Triple Rectifier and try it as-is, then swap em to see what's what.. :twisted:

Can anyone give me an idea as to what head this was "meant for", or most commonly paired with when it was sold new?

PS: Thanks if a mod fixed the photos' size.. It may have been a firefox glitch, but they were displaying way too big Friday when I posted..

 

[Restless Rocks]

I'm pretty sure the handles are the older cabs like mine from 82' I've also thought the plastic cup style speaker plug was from the era. The square holes grills I've seen were more recent and had unlabled round handles. And mine has the early diamond grill which is just a flat peice with plastic edging over the left and right sides. My 82 also has the solid white letters of the logo. It could be possible yours had a newer grill put on it at some time. During the 80's the Mark II's and III's were pretty much the thing (no recto's yet) and as such for some reason I've always refered to these style cabs as well as all the tolex covered stuff with metal corners as "Mark series".