Why does a Mesa Recto 4x12 sounds better than my V30 2x12?

[massless]

Yeah, they are. Like Screamingdaisy said, there are a few reasons why 4x12's aren't that great at being carried around ...

Unless you got Roadies for that :lol:

And they don't work for free :lol:

 

[afu]

A port needs to be a particular diameter based on the dimensions of the cab to be tuned correctly. I ported a cab years ago and used an online calculator to ensure it wouldn't have a weird resonance. Even if your cab does alright with other amps, a Recto has a lot of sound down to around 80 Hz - 90 Hz. You might consider double checking it to see if any changes need to be made to the port.

Side note: Yesterday, I rewired my cab to be top and bottom stereo pairs. I use it as a 2x12 once in awhile and less often as a two amp stereo cab. In 4x12 mono it sounds the same as always. As a 2x12, the top pair are tighter than normal; the bottom pair are about the same as mono, but not in my face. I like that I can get different uses/responses from one cab. Eventually, I'll hook up two amps to it and see how that plays out.

 

[massless]

I've ended up swapping the speakers the 2x12s, the chinese V30s are now in a closed back carvin cab, and one carvin speaker and one G12 (or maybe a GT75?) are in the ported cab. Both sets sounds much better in their new cabs. Probably just a fluke. The V30s didn't work well in the ported cab.

 

[afu]

I've ended up swapping the speakers the 2x12s, the chinese V30s are now in a closed back carvin cab, and one carvin speaker and one G12 (or maybe a GT75?) are in the ported cab. Both sets sounds much better in their new cabs. Probably just a fluke. The V30s didn't work well in the ported cab.

http://www.eminence.com/2011/06/sealed-vs-ported-enclosures/

 

[afu]

Go a few paragraphs under the "Ported" header and it shows "Fs/Qes=" as an equation for suitability. The electro-mechanical Q (Qes) for a V30 is .56 and Fs is 75. Celestion doesn't advertise all their parameters, so a search has to be done to find Qes. I can't find it for the G12T-75, but comparable replacements are between .97 and .99. Its Fs is 85. If the Qes is close to the replacements from other companies, it's much better for a ported cab. I like them with open backs, too.

 

[Jorn218]

Wheels don't work on stairs.

Sure they do, they work like they do anywhere else. Due to the physical design of said stairs you cannot easily roll the cabinet down or up the stairs, though with casters, pulling a cabinet up the stairs is actually easier than going down. This is where a bandmate comes in handy to help you. Roadies? Unless you're making 5 figures yearly playing out these are non essential items to have on retainer. You can always get a folding hand truck and some nylon come alongs to strap the cabinet to that. Up and down stairs is easy then. Just one step at a time.

Nor can I roll a 4x12 into the back of a truck.

You can't roll a smaller cabinet into a truck either. You roll your cabinet over to the bed, or hatch if in an SUV, lift it high enough to clear the bed/hatch space, then allow cabinet to roll into an area past the rear axle if you want to retain decent steering of your vehicle. My Mitsubishi Montero Sport's hatch is large enough to lift my Recto Straight cab onto the bumper, allow it to gently roll onto the face of the cabient,then push forward until it stops against the portion of the storage space where the seat is folded over. Move it left or right against one of the wheel wells. Head fits between cabinet and side of truck rear of wheel well and the hatch has about 3" space clearance between either head or cabinet. In either a truck or SUV, broken down moving boxes under your gear is your friend.

Probably kind of hard to squeeze a 4x12 into a lot of cars.

Two person job
Mesa Recto cabinets fit into the rear seat of a Geo Metro. Push passenger seat all the way forward, and hit the seatback lock so it will move forward to rest on the dash. Person 1 lift cabinet then rotate it 90 degrees, while angling it in similar plane to angle of pushed forward seatback, start gently easing it into car. Person 2 enters rear seat area from Driver's side and helps guide cabinet through passenger door. Go slow and cabinet will fit without rubbing against headliner, or doorway interior moulding. Once bottom of cabinet clears the doorway, push that heavy *** thing up onto the back set and angle the cabinet to lean back against the rear seat back. Adjust both seats so they act somewhat as a forward stop for the cabinet. You can even fit a guitar case in between the seat and cabinet. Head goes in the boot. Not hard at all, just need to be careful about not damaging the car's interior. The Rectifier Straight cabinet will also fit in the passenger seat of a Smart Car sans casters. I know about the Smart Car because my old bassist decided to buy one for two reasons, 1, he has aspirations to be a dirty hippy; and 2, he was using it as an excuse to get others to load his gear into their vehicles so we loaded his Ampeg 8x10 into the passenger seat. THAT was hard but it worked. He quit a week later.

I donno... it wasn't too hard for me to think of three reasons and I didn't even try all that hard.

The main reason why guys really don't want to move a 4x12 around is that they don't know how to lift and yes a 4x12 is heavy. Watch how most guys lift their gear up to load it on/off stage, into their vehicle, etc... They bend over the piece of gear and use their arms and back. Total recipe for injury. Might be just me though as I am used to lifting and moving heavy items at work. Stuff such as loading and unloading air conditioner condensing units solo out of my truck. moving them over to a ladder and pushing them up on to a roof of an apartment building using the ladder as a makeshift ramp(sucks total ***). Moving refrigerators and other large appliances up and down stairs using a hand truck solo, moving water heaters off stands or the short ones off a darn shelf above a washer and dryer in a utility room(old ones can weigh upwards of 200+lbs from calcium deposits), etc... I'm not a very muscular guy either. I weigh about 195-205lbs at 6' and am 45 years old. Granted I understand older guys than me not wanting to lug heavy gear around, but anyone younger and they aren't permanently injured, sounds like whining. :wink:

Aside from the reasons why not to lug large cabinets around and my rebuttal, I was quite serious about the side armor adding something to the tone of those cabinets.

 

[screamingdaisy]

I am impressed you put that much effort into justifying something that amounts to personal preference.