The ESP Guitar Company

What's a "bogner"?

I was just joking around...

Mesa traditional all the. Cant beat it. I'm now running Eminence Legion 12's. It's the same they through in soldano cabs, not that soldano really has a rap for building cabs. Find a Mesa traditional, not oversized, and you'll never need to buy a new one.

Not sure about you guys, but I was thinking of pairing it up with the matching 6505 Peavey cab. I heard mixed reviews on it..but for my style of playing..I like a little bit more treble..would the matching cab give that to me?

In my opinion yes-the 5150/6505 cab will give you slightly more high end....

A couple years back I did an extensive comparison between a Mesa Recto Trad. 4x12 with Vin30s in it and my 5150. both were slant cabs.
And I also had a side by side 5150 head comparison at the same time as well-1 head had only 2 power tubes to halve the power output to 60 watts.

For example, a riff was played.. then we quickly hit Standby & switched which amp it was plugged into and therefore the cabinet changed as well, and then played the same riff. And we'd switch back and forth mid riff just to hear if it really changed..
We also would swap the speaker cable(s) out so that we could get both full power & half power sounds... although both amps weren't cranked much louder than 3-4 on the full power head and about 5-7 on the half power head, which this was done to compensate for sound levels and try to equalise overall volumes..

We did a few other things but this is enough to let you know that we tried to be as fair and impartial as possible.

In the end it was decided that the Mesa cab had more low mids while the 5150 cab had more upper mids. Sonically they both sounded great.

In retrospect an ABY pedal would have been safer for the amps & easier. But we didn't have 1 at the time & the whole thing came about because I pal & I both have 5150 amps & we were jamming some.. lol I don't quite recall who came up with the idea to compare cabs... but it was enlightening.

Hope this helps some..

Peace

how much sonic impact does the actual cab itself make? Is the tone like 50% cabinet, 50% speakers, or is it more like 10% cabinet 90 % speakers? Also, out of celestion G12T 75's or Mesa MC90's, which would give me a warmer, thicker tone, with less harshness?

/\/\ good question hessian... I'm not totally sure to be honest. Speakers do make a difference for sure. But so does the interior architecture of the cabinet itself. have to ask a builder or a true tone freek for more info on this.

I never thought that the cab reallly mattered... I guess it does. The Marshall I am looking at is a sealed straight, and the Mesa is a half open(halfback?) slant cab. Which would give me a 'darker' sound?

Half open is BAD for hard rock/metal. The low end will boom and fart and it will not be pleasant. You want a full closed back, like the Marshall.

^thats really good to know... I was about to go for the mesa. I like your description-Definitely dont want my amp booming and farting all over the place.

How would you describe the tone of Celestion G12T 75's?m Are they warm and chunky sounding, or bright and harsh sounding?

Celestion G12T 75's are pretty much good for anything. Not "the best" but by no means the worst. I would give my cab up for the marshall. But if price wasnt a problem I would do a mesa, but NOT any open back. Those are for blues or Keith Richards, will he ever wear a shirt?

What speaker would you reccomend for a warm tone with emphasis on bass and low mids?