4x12 guitar cab works for me at present....

P

Pete

Inspired
So I've decided to stick with my guitar cab for the time being... The reasons being....

I know what it sounds like :)
I've tried a set of full range pa speakers but just having a real hard time getting a nice loud sound.. They seem to lack feel and "oohhh" ...hard to explain. So off came the cab sims and with a little tweaking I arrived at a much better sound much faster than I had managed with hours of tweaking the pa speakers....

Now I appreciate they may have been crap pa speakers... Hence the comment of "knowing" what the 4x12 should sound like. I may take a plunge and get some atomics as I feel I am missing out not using the cab sims as they do sound great and add so many possibilities to a set up.
 
Nothing wrong with that... a lot of Axe users (including my self) started out this way and ether stayed with it because of application or went to FR cabs again because of application. The FR road takes a little getting used to as you are hearing a mic'd cab through a FR speaker.
 
Do yourself a favor and buy a second 4x12. I hooked up my Axe-FX to a Mosvalve MV-962 and have it running into a Marshall 4x12 with V30s and another with 75 watt speakers and it sounds awesome!! Everything sounds even more open and clear and the effects are more noticable and full.
 
I hear you Pete!
I went FRFR to have the maximum flexibility, but it is different.

A little more time needs to be spent with your presets that is for sure. That feel, you are talking about yeah it is a bit different. Putting sound aside for a moment, there is a difference between as 4x12 cab, and a FRFR cab with maybe a horn in it. The way each shakes your drummers skins and symbols, a table with say some glasses on it and even the floor. Stuff you might not consider music but we as guitar players are so in tune with. IMO yes there is more of an openness with a real cab but since I got the AF II I feel this gap has closed allot.

Things I like about the FRFR, maximum flexibility top of the list, cabinets are smaller and lighter (at least what I have) if I even use them at all. I never thought I would be comfortable going straight to a PA and call it a day, but I am. I like this method allot with smaller places especially, things just sit way better in the mix. It has always been important to me to get the best sound for the audience and years ago taming a Mesa Boogie in a small bar and getting what I want out of it was not always an easy balance. And although we’re not talking about a Boogie I feel you have to push your real cabs a bit to get what you want out of them compared to your FRFR counterparts. BTW nothing major, not a fight like taming a tube amp at low volumes but felt it was worth mentioning.

Room for both, unless it’s due to money or storage space, why does it have to be one or the other, both have their ups and down’s, comes down to what you’re doing and were. As you can see in my signature I have a couple of passive Atomics but I still have a Mesa 2x12 Recto cab loaded with Warehouse Guitar speakers (Veteran 30’s) and thinking of getting another one.
 
Nothin' wrong with sticking with the 4x12. I'm happy with my Matrix/Atomic set up, but I still wouldn't mind trying maybe a 2x12. I live in a single bedroom 2nd floor apartment though, and my current rig takes up enough space as it is, not to mention the weight of carrying it up and down the stairs. So fortunately for my bank balance, convenience outweighs curiosity for now and I'm sticking with what's working for me anyway. :)

I will say though, the quality of the PA you run through definitely makes a difference. The first time I ran my Axe with anything other than my monitors, it was through a crappy PA at a rehearsal studio. Sounded VERY average indeed. No amount of global EQ tweaking was gonna fix the harsh high end or the bizarre midrange, and it took some pretty huge cuts to tame the low end.
 
I have an Atomic Reactor FR Cab, and I was comparing it to using an solid state power amp / Recto 2x12 cab. I can get great sounds from the Atomic Cab, but I prefer the 2x12. But using the 2x12 instead of the FR cab I lose the ability to get a wide variety of sounds by using different cab models.
 
Gjeven said:
I have an Atomic Reactor FR Cab, and I was comparing it to using an solid state power amp / Recto 2x12 cab. I can get great sounds from the Atomic Cab, but I prefer the 2x12. But using the 2x12 instead of the FR cab I lose the ability to get a wide variety of sounds by using different cab models.
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This was exactly my issue… I wanted to use FR due to the lush sounding cab sims… but for the time being I need a killer sound fastish and sticking with the cab ruled out a lot of fiddling.
I still use the Cabs when at home and plugged into the studio monitors and I’ve just ordered a new cab and speaker set up that may allow for more Cab sim on action..
 
Although not the same as switching between different cab sims, you can still get a wide range of tones using guitar cabs with the vast selection of FX and parametric EQ's available. I haven't felt limited at all using guitar cabs, but still have some interest in giving FRFR another go (1st experience was disappointing).
 
axel said:
Although not the same as switching between different cab sims, you can still get a wide range of tones using guitar cabs with the vast selection of FX and parametric EQ's available. I haven't felt limited at all using guitar cabs, but still have some interest in giving FRFR another go (1st experience was disappointing).
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To be honest, even though I'm running the Matrix and Atomic, the large majority of my sounds are just using the one IR mix anyway. Rather than having a whole bunch of IRs to play with and change between, I've found one combo that works well for me for a lot of stuff and I basically work the rest of my tweaking around that. I've bought a whole bunch of RW sets that I've never even loaded single IR from. I found the right Uberkab combo for me pretty quickly and just stopped trying others after that. Didn't stop me from buying more, I just haven't used them at all. :lol
 
DNW said:
To be honest, even though I'm running the Matrix and Atomic, the large majority of my sounds are just using the one IR mix anyway. Rather than having a whole bunch of IRs to play with and change between, I've found one combo that works well for me for a lot of stuff and I basically work the rest of my tweaking around that. I've bought a whole bunch of RW sets that I've never even loaded single IR from. I found the right Uberkab combo for me pretty quickly and just stopped trying others after that. Didn't stop me from buying more, I just haven't used them at all. :lol
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Yeah, I find I can get close enough using guitar cabs, Amp EQ, and if necessary, PEQ, and I still have that "in your face" presence of the guitar cabs, which I like. Besides, I already have the guitar cabs, which I will keep to use with my Marshall head (when I feel the urge).
 
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