DIY Cab Shootout!
As if I didn’t already have trouble choosing what to use on any given day, I just added to the menu.
It’s really cool though – I now have three live setups for my Quilter ToneBlock depending on my mood or what the job dictates. Here they all are:
1×8 Combo:
First up is the DIY 1×8 platform – not all that pretty, but it’s cool and it works great. It has a Celestion TN0820 8″ speaker in it and it’s a sleeping giant.
This is probably good enough for most gigs, rated at 150 watts rms this is, ironically the highest rated amp setup of all my options and really it’s just my practice amp due to the small size.
1×10 Combo:
Moving up in size we have the 1×10 platform, originally the cabinet that housed a Fender Princeton Recording Amp (which completely died on me).
Inside is one of my prized pieces of guitar gear amidst all my budget stuff – a Tonetubby Alnico 10″, original H1 formula (favoured by Billy Gibbons and Carlos Santana apparently), hand picked and gifted to me by the late John Harrison of A Brown Soun – Mr. Tonetubby himself (I miss my eccentric friend).
This speaker is rated at about 40 or so watts rms. I’ve had it since 2003 and it recently moved out of my ISO cab to go in this cab in favour of the 2 8″ speakers I had in it before. If I had to sum this speaker up in one word, that word would be “Smooth”!
1×12 Combo:
The most recent platform build, comprising of a Kustom Defender 1×12 cab, one of the cheapest 1×12 cabs on the market. This 12″ speaker is “Kustom” branded, who knows what company actually made it and it’s only rated at 30watts, which is a bit risky for using with a 200watt ToneBlock I suppose. However it has done a great job at countless gigs since November 2014 and still going strong. For the record I’ve never needed to push the Tone Block past 10watts on the master dial – well maybe once it went one click over.
The Comparison:
The video contains samples from the three “combo” formats. There is a little post processing on the sounds, but this is not a scientific test, just a showcase of how they generally differ for any given application. The one I prefer depends on my mood and (probably) the weather on any given day.
I also wanted to demonstrate the ToneBlock’s sound with pedals through each cab too and therefore tried some tones from both extremes of the spectrum: Clean to outright offensive filth, which I understand isn’t everyone’s idea of good tone! That was more of a way to show how varied a palette of tones you can get from a single, small amp like the ToneBlock.
Which one do you like the sound of best?
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