FOUND A 4x12 FOR MY CARVIN HEAD

[jackson111]

I finally took my Carvin X100B head to my friends guitar shop and tried out some 4x12 cabs he had. I tried a 1960 Marshall cab (new) and 2 used cabs he had. one was a carvin that was loaded with Carvin 100 watt british series speakers from the 90's, the other was a home made cab with celestion g12s-50. the 1960 cab sound pretty darn good but at 899 its out of my price range. it had a good tight bass response and very defined high end, but it seemed to lack mid response. no matter how I adjusted the amp it kinda had a scooped metal sound.
the carvin cab sounded more balanced had a smoother high end, nice tight bass response and with the defined mids it sounded nice and balanced and responded well to the tone controls of the amp.
the home made cab sounded pretty darn good as well, not as full as the carvin cab though.
I guess my question is #1 does Carvin make good cabinets? it seemed to be built well and that is after 20 odd years of use. #2 were the 100watt british speakers any good? I had read a review that carvin had sourced them out to be made by eminence and they had requested them to be a vintage 30 / greenback hybrid. is ther any truth to that? oh yeah the best thing is that the carvin cab is on consignment for 150.00

[Demanic]

Re: FOUND A 4x12 FOR MY CARVIN HEAD

I have a Carvin 4x12 from the 80's with the G12M-70's, good sounding cab, a bit on the bright side. I've been thinking of doing 2 Texas Heats with two Swamp Thangs (yes Eminence).
$150? I paid two bills for mine, and thought I got a good deal. Those cabs are made of 3/4" ply as I recall, with t-nut mounting.

[allbutromeo]

Re: FOUND A 4x12 FOR MY CARVIN HEAD

I've never had a bad experience with anything made by Carvin.

[jackson111]

Re: FOUND A 4x12 FOR MY CARVIN HEAD

ok thanks guys, I have called my friend and he is holding the cab for me. I will have to clean the cab up when I get it, its a little dusty but what do you expect from a carvin cab from 1991.

[SlyFoxx]

Re: FOUND A 4x12 FOR MY CARVIN HEAD

I've got a ~1995 Carvin 4x12 with the BS speakers. The thing is a rock, sounds great and has never let me down.

[jackson111]

Re: FOUND A 4x12 FOR MY CARVIN HEAD

awesome slyfoxx, is your carpeted or is it tolex. the one I am looking at has the grey carpet. it has casters mounted on it which is cool because the thing aint light

[SlyFoxx]

Re: FOUND A 4x12 FOR MY CARVIN HEAD

I call it the "Fozzy Bear" series as the head and cab both have that dark great fuzzy stuff. My cat uses it as a scratching post and since the thing is so old I just let him. Stops him scratching on other things I figure.

[Gone_Shootin]

Re: FOUND A 4x12 FOR MY CARVIN HEAD

I used to have a Carvin 4x12. They used 3/4" Baltic Birch ply and it's a very sturdy well built cab.

As far as the speakers go, they weren't bad, but they weren't great either, IMHO.

I ended up selling it because I started to accumulate cabs that I like better than the Carvin. I contemplated keeping the cab and swapping out the speakers, but ended up selling it instead because the cheap carpet it was covered with stuck out like a sore thumb and I didn't want to mess with trying to tolex the thing, and I didn't care for the speakers. But for the $150 I paid for it, it served me well and I got my money back out of it, so I can't complain.

As far as that Marshall cab you tried out, it sounds scooped because it has Celestion G12T-75 speakers in it, which are well known for their scooped out tone. They need an amp with gobs of mids, such as a 5150, to sound good. I've also had good results by simply backing off the treble & presence and turning up the mids with other amps.