Better low end by opening up the back of 1 speaker on my 212

[disassembled]

Hey all,

I've been using an old 80's 212 Peavey vertical cab that came equipped with celestions stock. A great feature of the cab is that the top speaker (which is angled toward your head) can be made open back or closed back while the bottom speaker is sealed off; so basically it's like having two 112 cabs combined into 1 enclosure(kinda like the Roadking 212 and 412 or the old Mark series cabs). I replaced the top 85 watt celestion speaker with an eminence gov red coat series that is probably not even broken in after nearly a year of light use. I was never really pleased with this speaker as much as I hoped I would be from the reviews that led me to purchase it. Lately, I had been contemplating getting a Mark vert 212 to go with my TA and 20/20 setup so I could have a matching Boogie rig. The tone from the cab is fine but the eminence speaker didn't do too much for me and kinda wanted to make me get rid of the cab (it is made very well and is in pretty good shape for being nearly 20 years old so it really wouldn't make too much sense to get rid of it for looks). The eminence had a very focused sound that I would describe as not having much life or breath to it along with not having much low end when compared with the bottom celestion. Just out of curiousity I decide to remove the panel behind the eminence speaker to make it a full open back......wow it sounds so much fuller(more like a combo i suppose) that I find the bass was dialed a little too high. Now I have the best of both worlds with the open and closed back config. I think it really lets the TA and 20/20 shine. The room can probably attribute to 30% of the tone I am hearing but as is the sound is great.


How many people have tried an open cab and closed cab combined? I think for the future I want to have this option available at all times. It's great for providing the open-airy feely of a combo with the tight low end of a closed back cab.

Greg

 

[PRS-Ian]

I play through a MK series open backed combo with a Mesa EV loaded thiele cab and just love the sound. Even when using the TA/20-20 combination I use both open back and thiele cabs.
Ian

 

[disassembled]

How does the 20/20 power the EV's? I image there is 0 speaker distortion even when maxing the 20/20. I am thinking about picking an old mark series 212 cab just so i can matching equipment. I am not positive of the speakers loaded in the 212 cab but i think the top is a Celestion 90 but the bottom might be an EV. One of these days i have to get back to the music store to see if they sold the cab and just check it out.

I just played some more tonight and the tone just gets better as it is turned up without fatiguing my ears at all. I especially love the clean channels being push with my RG in coil tap mode for the bridge and neck P/U's. Reminds me of the tones i could never muster with my old equipment but couldn't justify buying a seperate head just for 1 tone. This is the type of tone that INSPIRES me to play and not worry about amp settings. The greatest part is I can go from this clean/pushed tone to a great crunch at the press of a button! This is the same feeling that i got when i bought my first rig (PV 5150 head and cab) that did great for crunch but was terrible for cleans plus the pre wasn't nearly as dynamic as the TA is. I think I am done for a little in buying different rigs. I can't believe I waited as long as I did to try my current setup.

Greg