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| Mesa Traditional 4x12. |
I grabbed a reference-quality 4x12 cabinet for $600 from Main Drag Music. The cabinet is a Mesa Boogie Straight Traditional 4x12. While the cab is not the mythical Standard Oversized cab, the Traditional size does have its fans. The Traditional 4x12 apparently is more mid-focused and not as scooped sounding as the Oversized 4x12.
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| Mesa 4x12 opened up. |
The cabinet is loaded with four 8 ohm 70W Mesa OEM Vintage 30s produced in May 2001. The early 2000s Vintage 30s are considered to be a desirable period for the speaker as a result of the popularity of its use on many rock and metal albums.
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| T4335 Vintage 30 with 18EL date code. |
These Mesa Vintage 30s do indeed sound less harsh than my other Vintage 30s. For the past few years, I’ve moved around my 2011 MIC Vintage 30 from cabinet to cabinet to get it to sound like every other clip online. I can stop trying to approximate that sound with this Mesa cabinet now. Whatever the recipe may be (UK manufacturing differences, 8 ohm impedance, cabinet construction), it sounds good. I also have four speakers to choose from in a recording context.
The cabinet sounds great with all of my high gain amps.
More to come.
