Any examples of a bad cab choice?

chris

Owner's Manual Reader
i'm no expert in IRs and cabs for sure. often i try cabs with amps and think that almost anything could be usable. i'm aware there are better choices for many situations.

can anyone throw together some audio (or video) showing something like here's a bad cab choice and how it sounds, and here's a much better choice? or anything showing what a bad cab choice sounds like.

not looking for "bad IRs" or anything hehe. more about the choice for the amp or situation. thanks :D always trying to learn more.
 
That would depend on your definition of "bad". Most choices can be useful in one or other way. But if you are looking for a specific tone, then most random choices are "bad" for what you want
 
You have to look at the cab as the "voice" of your guitar tone. Choosing the right voice will make your tone feel inspiring. Choosing the wrong voice will feel like something isn't right.

Sticking with the vocal theme, think about Adele singing "Smells Like Teen Spirit" and Kurt Cobain singing "Someone Like You"... they would both have their own take on those songs, but Adele probably wouldn't be able to deliver the volatile aggression "Smells Like Teen Spirit" deserves, and Kurt (if he were alive) probably wouldn't be able to deliver the emotional dynamic performance that "Someone Like You" requires. Kinda like playing a Dual Rec through a Vox AC30 cab or a Tweed Deluxe through a Marshall 4x12 with T75 speakers. You could get some interesting tones, but it's not the best fit for typical applications.

Now if you had Jeff Buckley (if he were alive) sing Someone Like You and Adele sing Hallelujah, they have the voices and dynamics to compliment those songs and they'd both be amazing. Kinda like a Matchless DC-30 through an AC30 cab or a Soldano SLO 100 through a Marshall 4x12 with Greenbacks. They're pairings that aren't "stock," but they still sound awesome and inspiring.
 
To me bad IRs to me are any ones that sound too thin, have offensive high frequencies, and have no balls when compared to the same real cabs, and no matter how you set the amp you can't get it to sound good with that IR.
 
For me there are 3 basic things I try to rule out- Too much bass, too much treble and the fishbowl sound. I think I said it on this forum recently, but my studio regularly sounds like someone moving a mic around a fishbowl as I'm auditioning IR's. While my main sound is definitely more on the metal side, it's not super scooped. Somewhere between Jerry Cantrell and John Petrucci, I suppose. Once I find a cabinet that works for that, it'll almost always translate well with my 3 basic tones; hi-gain, crunch and clean. I try to get all three of those sounds from my volume knob, even though I have ample space for scenes/presets to do the same thing.

I'll toss a quick demo together tomorrow night. I seem to be a master at finding every IR I don't want for an amp.
 
thanks for the info so far everyone :)

just to reiterate, i'm not really talking about a "bad IR" in general. like one that isn't created well, or just sounds bad with everything.

more so discussing choosing the "right" IR. i see so many people ask "what IR goes with this amp" or "i can't find any good IRs for my sound" or something similar.

i just wonder if they are hearing a choice they made and thinking "but no one suggested this IR, it might be wrong" or something like that.
 
There once was a IR called "The Best IR in the world" that claimed to substitute all the IRs in your collection. I never found that one useful. It is not even loaded at my User Cabs anymore
 
My "worst IR" was actually my Axe-II's favorite trick of setting the Speaker Size parameter to 0.25 whenever I'd create a new cab block. It just became a habit whenever I thought "this thing sounds like ass!" to go check that parameter and set it back to 1.00. I don't think I ever saw anybody else mention that as a problem, but it sure bit me a lot!
 
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There is only one true IR, and that's the pignose 1x4.

All others are untrue according to the Norwegian black metal God Hans-Gunnar who lives in the forest and puts on puppet theater with dead squirrels, and are therefore per definition, bad.
 
after this discussion, to me it seems similar to a "bad amp choice." i could use a IIC+ gain channel to create a clean tone by reducing input trim, gain, etc. but it's not the best choice for that sound.

so i personally don't have interest in spending hours finding the perfect cab for every single tone if - generally speaking - any cab will work. i feel we have a ton of EQ available to adjust things. if i'm spending a ton of time EQ'ing, then i probably have a poor cab choice. same as with adjusting advanced parameters in the Amp block, forcing it to "work."

if a cab i choose has a mid range honk, maybe that'd work in some situations and not others. i've built presets on livestreams and tried say 4 different cabs and asked chat which one sounds best. all 4 sound best to different people, and one group can't understand how another thinks Cab 1 sounds usable at all, and the other group can't understand how the other ones sound usable, etc.

so it's definitely personal preference, perception, and maybe experience as well.

i'll keep buying IR packs here and there, as i do enjoy hearing new options. lately i've really enjoyed the York Audio IRs, but since i do a lot of customer support, i use Factory Cabs mostly so i can share presets, etc. more easily.

interesting topic for conversation, for sure.
 
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