Different Cabinets Give Amps New Life

Quote from Hurricane

As in real life !The impact of a (real) cab to a (real) amp is huge and comparable to the influence of the pickups to the sound of a guitar.
My experiences during my "tweaking-years" with real amps is the following impact-order-list:

1. Cab
2. Speaker
3. Capacitors of the tone stack
4. Preamp Tubes
5. Phase Inverter
6. Power Amp Tubes

Though the specific impact of each component is not completely comparable and concernes different aspects/components of the overall-sound / amp-behavior

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That's a pretty good rundown. Transformers in the amp matter a lot. And there are other design factors that make or break an amp. I think tubes have much to do with distortion characteristics and harmonic structure. Other than tubes and bias, which I can select for the best sound, I just "lump" the amp into one category. A healthy amp is one major chunk, but how you dial that in for saturation and tone is a big part of the picture. I remember a lot of guitarist back in the day used to dime out almost everything...including bass. To me that was just a lot of over-saturated mud. I would never want that sound. I like full bass, but it has to be tight. The crunch has to be prominent. Getting the right balance of saturation and tone adjustments plays a big part. But after that the type of speakers and cabinet play the next biggest part, followed by how it's captured with mics...and that's always sound altering.

So, when hunting for amp profiles, I try and find that breakup response and tone balance setting I would have dialed in first. Of course the cab used in any demo will mask the overall tone, but if it's not too colored in any one area I should be able to hear what I'm looking for.

It's when you get something that sounds totally different than the demo that "sold you" that has me wondering why that's happening. Ten guitars with a wide span of quality pickups of all types can't be that big of that difference. After all, my guitars sound great on real tube amps. Are these demo recordings getting some "mastering tools" thrown into them? If some additional "processing" like that is being used, I think that would explain why there is such a drastic difference. And that's going to make me look towards another profiler for my eventual purchases. Whoever delivers the tones I like in demo recordings will get a lot of my business. But I'm not going to bother purchasing anything from some well known and popular profilers if their idea of tone and saturation don't appeal to my likes.

Quote from PietH

Great Post! Thanks a lot!
So far I have not used different cabs.
Thanks to your posting I will try it out now.

You should have a lot of fun with that. Pick your favorite amp (and effects...why not?) and lock everything except the CAB section. Then you can go use Rig Manager to double-click on tons of profiles in search of great cabinets. My collection is ever-growing, and some old experiments have been deleted to keep my usable collection more organized. And as I find better cabinets, my usable amp collection is also growing.

Have fun!

Quote from Antipodes

I'd have to agree with the OP here.

Cab "transplants" are the way to go if there is something you are looking for in a set of profiles but not finding. My MO is simple - I select a profile from a different set with the kind of sound I am looking for and lock the cab section. I then go back to the profile set which seems a bit lacking and resave the borrowed cab on any profiles from the set that seem to suit the new cab. I copy them back from the profiler to the source folder of the profile set I am massaging in Rig Manager - I tend to copy the source profile of that cab in there to for future reference or in case I want to repeat the process for more of the set.

Eg today I put the JMOD and Matchless cabs from Tone Junkie (which are stellar IMO) on another set with uniformly great results. I tried the EV12 profile from earlier in this thread also (Deluxe EVM112L is the cab from Heater) and that worked really well on crunch and clean profiles.

Another approach that gets you there. I guess I trust a couple of amp profiles more than combined profiles, and I started out that way, but as my amp collection expands I might do it differently. I will look for those cabs and give 'em a try. Thanks!

I'm finding cabs that are almost universally working for anything. One that I'm currently really digging is:

CABINET
Manufacturer - Normals
Model - 2*12
Location - MERROWSOUND
Author - Keith Merrow
Name - Normals 2*12
Comment -

SPEAKER
Manufacturer - Emine
Model - Go
Configuration - 2*12

MIC
Model - SM-57
Postiton - ON AXIS

I guess these are Eminence speakers...maybe The Governor model??? Can't find any reference to the cabinet. As far as the SM-57 "ON AXIS", that was one heck of a sweet spot! I never got such uniform results with a single 57. Great job capturing all components of the spectrum...especially the mids. This will be heard in the mix! I bet this is "stage ready" (hope to try it someday soon). And here's another thing I like about this cabinet...The exact point of perfect saturation gain (and bass saturation...1.9X) on my TJ JCM800 High profile (gain is 6.4X...yes, that sensitive...maybe 6.48?) can clearly be heard where the top is either too prominent, too weak (low mids and bass prominent), or just the right balance. This cab works best on my new PBall amp profile. It rocks!

So there is another speaker choice I would never had tried in real life or profiled. I just stumbled on it and heard something great that instantly had my approval. Now it's another mainstay cabinet. You gotta love this thing of ours!

Just a quick update...

As it turns out, I accidentally, purely by ear, mated Keith Merrow's "Bog People" amp with his "Normals" cab. The tone and response is pure heaven to my ears, even though I'm finding his music is more like pure H3LL. It's actually really good. Could have been subliminal coincidence, but I swear I was going by ear on these selections. Now that discovered more about his music (and sound), I see some strong relationships with Josh Middleton and even Jared Dines. I like how these guys get full tone, especially midrange definition for musicality. Still has all the improtant high end crunch and low end thunder, but pushes the limits without losing the mids! The Bog People amp is not really a "metal" amp, but more "hard rock". EVERY guitar I put through it sounds like they are on steroids. Great harmonics and fullness. And it was a free offering!

I think I found my favorite profiler. Things are starting to come full circle. I am about to check out Keith's profile offerings. I can tell from his recordings and demo stuff on YouTube that he has excellent ears and taste in amp/cab sound. This going to get even more interesting!

Quote from Antipodes

I was trying to check this recommendation out but in the Factory set the "Bog People" profile has the Laney Ironheart amp and the Normals 2x12 cab. Was this the combo you were referring to?

Yes, I JUST found a YouTube video of the Laney Ironheart Keith did. That's the amp!

I first dug out a couple of cabs in Keith's offerings that sounded good with my TJ JCM800 and TJ JTM45 amp profiles a while ago. Used them with a few other amp profiles too, but The Laney amp profile didn't hit me until last weekend when I dialed up a couple of cabs including one of the "Normals". I have two "Normals" cabs saved. One is darker and the other brighter. The brighter one is what I dialed up, and it all came alive, so maybe that was different than the original.

With minor tone tweaks and gain saturation to the peak of clear distortion, this amp is awesome! I use the same effects and stomps I listed above with maybe a bit more Volume output from the compressor (again to the best crunch without messing up note definition). I actually hear "note bloom" out of guitars I hear it on when I use my own Hughes & Kettner amp. That's a first time for me with a Kemper profile.

So, what do you think of that amp profile? Maybe try some of Keith's other cabs and see if another one fits better. If you want my EQ and Gain settings, I will list them here.. For the record, Keith is an awesome high gain player (seems like a great guy too), but I'm not doing all that high gain drop tuning stuff (beyond my talent level). I'm playing mostly "old school" rock and 80's metal stuff, and this amp does it well. Now I wonder what a 7 string would sound like through with that amp/cab. Stopped at the music store on the way home, but lucky for me nothing fit my taste. Saved me from explaining to my wife what I needed ANOTHER guitar.

Quote from skoczy

Ot would be handy to lock everything except the CABINET with "one click" INVERTED LOCK functionality for LOCK button, to lock all except chosen section, for PREVIEWING CABS

That's a good idea! Instead of locking everything but the cab, have an easier way to "audition" just one parameter...like cabs...or amps...whatever. Everything else would be locked with one button press.

I like it.