Could anybody offer some advice for buying a cab that could fit in a $400ish budget? I'm looking for used here.....something that can handle alot and maintain clarity and separation.

well, if you were heading in the new direction, I'd recommend Avatar, as they're custom made for you, and very affordable

http://www.avatarspeakers.com/

you may be able to find a used 1960a Marshall for the 400 area....maybe not, prolly more like 450 500, but it would be better than alot of other 400 dollar cabs.
Carvin is ok.

I just checked out those Avatars....they look pretty well built. Super cheap for what they are!

I wholly support the ibanez amp that i use...the 4x12 cab they make can handle a lot of power and still sound awesome...and it's about $300 brand new, if you can find it anywhere

A marshall 1960a or anything with celestian speakers in it is probably your best bet.

I use a crate gt4x12 and it's friggin amazing.

they go for like 450 new.

avoid the cheaper crate 4x12 cab though.

i'm really only a fan of crate practice amps...i've never heard a crate half or full-stack that i like

that's just my ears though

Ya same here.
I used to use a Crate gt75? head, but I was 19, and couldnt afford anything else.
Not a fan.

Avatar, for sure.

Thanks for the help....I've been looking into the Crate cabs, because i use a Crate gt3500h as a head. The only thing holding me back from getting one is past bad experiences with crate combo's speakers. The Marshall 1960 has also been the apple of my eye, but so far i havent found one within my budget

everyones gonna give me shit for this but i like my behringer 4x12. i dont like behringer amps or anything else they make but c'mon....how can you really screw up a cab? it has Jensen speakers in it and i've always had good luck with Jensens.

i used to have a behringer 4x12 with my 5150ii. they're great for the money.

I just bought an Avatar used from a buddy of mine. I love the bastard.

Anonymous said:

I have two crate gt3500 shockwave heads, and I use the GT4x12 cabs and they sound amazing.

They sound better then the behringer, krank, and mesa at my practice space.

I strongly recomend checking one of them out.

As for the crate haters, don't pay them any mind. The Crate shockwave heads are responsible for some of the best tons in metal.

keep saving your money and buy a mesa

DrewBlood said:

or a cab that WONT blow when you plug your 350 watt head into it.

i've beaten the shit out of my line 6 cab over the past 5 or so years and its still goin strong. only problem is that its heavy as fuck (i threw my back out picking it up once)

He needs a cab that can run 220watts program at 8 ohms, 350 program at 4 ohms.

So constantly recomending 100 and 120 watt cabs won't help him.

i got a kustom 4x12 for under 400 brand new and it's pretty damn decent. heavy but clear. and it only weighs about 30-40 pounds.

Niccolai said:

i stand by what i said.

I would sell my marshall jcm 900 1960 cab for like $350
I'd sell my peavey 5150 cab for like $150-200

I have an emporer cab that i'd get rid of for like $500, but that one is pushing me near a cliff. i love that cab.

MarkFuckingRichards said:


someone who finally said something intelligent on here.

i do what i can.

I still stand by my statement that Kustoms are poop.

Nic...what you failed to mention is, that 350 watt head is probably only 1/2 as loud as the 190 watt Mesa Head!!!
Ive never heard of a Mesa cab 'blowing up', but i dont doubt that these things can happen.

powerkok said:


i'm sure you use some gay ass nu-head with whatever cab you could afford. you know nothing about tone. you are poop.

....yeah.

Mesa/Boogie SimulClass 2:95 14 tube power amp head
Decimator Pro rack g NR
Mesa Triple Rect Oversized straight 4X12 Cab.

That alone is worth more than your Trailer home.

If I wanted tone, Id buy a Soldano.

exactly what i thought. thanks for proving me right :-)

Now you are just being fecituous.
Stop that.

powerkok said:

My Crate is MUCH louder than the Tripple Rec.

As far as cabs blowing, it's all theoretical, but the Crate pushed 350 watts into a 4 ohm cab, and Mesa's 4 ohm maximum load is less than that (because it has vintage 30s). It's a bad idea to plug the crate shockwave head into anything with less than 350 watts power handling.

I've plugged my head into the mesa cab without any problems, but it's possible with that power load to blow the crossover of the cab, or the speaker coils.

And it's also worth mentioning that the Kustom cab Devin loves so much has the same exact speakers, is made from the same wood, has the same size and wood thickness, and the same crossover as the Crate Gt4x12 cab.

As a matter of fact, they even have the same casters.

there aren't crossovers in guitar cabinets.

crossovers seperate a signal by frequency. i've never seen a guitar cab with tweeters or a sub. it sure as hell hasn't happened in any mesa cab's i've seen.

secondly, you're not going to blow vintage 30's with that head. i'm not familar with that particular model, but i'm assuming it's solid state since it's 300watts, unless you have some crazy modified tube head. regardless 300 watts from a solid state doesn't push nearly as many decibels as a 100 watt tube head.

and speaker wattage isn't based on what it can handle before it blows, but how much power it takes for that speaker to push a certain amount of decibels.

The head produces to much resistance because of the impedance.

a head that creates 350 watts at 4 ohms will blow a cab than can only handle 100 watts program, 200 watts peak.


And you can bring up decibles all you want, but When you've heard the crate next to the mesa, you can hear the difference.

that was the most bogus arguement i've ever heard. it went no where and you proved nothing.

all you said is that your head's signal has 4 ohms of resistance. what does that have to do with a 16 ohm cab? absolutely nothing.

MadOakDevin said:

my mesa Cab doesn't have a 16 ohm setting.

at 8 ohms, the head produces more power than the cab can handle.