Different guitar cabinets do matter and impact the sound of the tone your electric guitar will produce.
A few important factors of a guitar cabinet include the wood they are constructed with, the size of the cabinet, the thickness of the wood if it has an open or closed back, and how well it is built.
As someone who has played guitar and bass for over seven years, I can confirm that the cabinets you are playing through can make a huge difference in your overall tone and how your guitar playing will sound. There are several options for cabinets available to you, depending on what sort of effect you are going for.
Please remember that there are several good options for cabinets, depending on your budget and your goal. Your best bet is to try many different options of cabinets to see what creates the best possible tone for you and your budget.
This article will go over these topics in more detail to assist you with finding the best option for you. These topics will detail the factors that make a good guitar cabinet, if the preamplifier is more important than the cabinet or not, and include a recommendation of a good guitar cabinet based on an affordable price and good reviews.
We will also go over some frequently asked questions such as can I use my combo amp as a cabinet, is a 2×12 louder than a 1×12 cabinet (this article will also go into more detail regarding the sizes of the cabinets), and what size cabinet should you get.
Also Read: Using Amp As Monitor, Cabinet & Speaker: The Differences
Do Guitar Cabinets Make a Difference?
Guitar Cabinets can significantly impact the sound your guitar will produce. Every aspect of your gear that you play the electric guitar with will have some influence on how your tone will sound.
Even though it can’t be seen, the sound from your guitar playing is a physical wave. The wave will travel through wires, internal circuitry, and the cabinets you will use. The material, size, thickness, and overall construction of the cabinets will influence how your tone sounds.
What Makes a Guitar Cabinet Good? (What To Look For)
1. Wood Material
The most best and great wood to construct are pine and birch
The best wood to construct a cabinet are birch and pine. While birch is a stiffer, more solid wood and pine is slightly softer.
The advantage of the softer quality of pine is that it absorbs the vibrations of the sound more easily. Pinewood cabinets were used primarily in Fender cabinets used by early rock groups to define their sound.
In addition to the material of the wood that is used, it also relies on how the wood is constructed. Do layers of plywood compress the wood, or is it one solid piece of wood for each side of the cabinet? Solid wood will resonate better and provide a better tone.
2. Size
The cabinet size had always great impact on the sound and tone of your guitar playing
The cabinets’ size also will greatly impact the sound and tone of your guitar playing. It will influence the capacity to play at higher volume levels (the larger the cabinet, the better you will handle the volume output.
Cabinets (generally speaking) are designed to hold a speaker that is one twelve-inch speaker or up to four separate twelve-inch speakers. These are 1×12, 2×12, 3×12, or 4×12, respectively.
A 1×12 cabinet that holds a single speaker is a popular choice based on its cheaper cost than larger cabinets. They are also more portable and work well for practicing and a small-sized room or apartment.
Depending on the preamplifier, it may be able to handle a small to medium-sized venue if you are playing live.
A 2×12 cabinet holds a pair or more speakers. This increases your tonal range, volume, and the clarity of the tone of your playing.
Another advantage of the larger cabinets is that they are better at handling the overall tone of the effects you play with, such as distortion, reverb, gain, etc.
A 2×12 cabinet will also greatly help play to a larger crowd, as it produces much more volume. It will also provide an excellent middle ground between a one-by-12 cabinet and a four-by-12 cabinet. The larger the cabinet, the louder and better tone you can produce with your guitar playing.
The 3×12 and 4×12 cabinets are more expensive but also louder. I suggest playing through as many different cabinets as possible to experience them all.
3. Thickness
The ideal and best thickness of the wood cabinet that is constructed should be 3 by 4 inches
The ideal thickness of the wood guitar cabinet is constructed from should be ¾ of an inch. This strikes a happy medium in thickness for the best tone possible.
A thickness of one inch or more will be very solid and robust and will produce a tone that is darker, tighter, and blunt. Although, some musicians like to play through this.
A thickness of a half inch will produce a thinner tone and will accentuate higher frequencies better. Although there are several guitar players that play cabinets of varying thickness depending on the type of tone they are going for, the best compromise between the two for thickness is ¾ of an inch.
4. Open or closed back of the cabinet
Closed cabinet will give you tighter bass whereas open cabinet will give you a widespread sound
Cabinets are produced with the rear side of them behind the speakers with an open construction, meaning the back of the cabinet is missing, so the speakers and their internal wiring are exposed (to one degree or another).
It can also be closed, meaning the back is closed, and the speakers are not visible from behind the cabinet.
Speakers are designed to produce sound from the front. However, they also make a sound from behind them as well, which sounds less bright and will have more of a bass sound to them.
Open-back cabinets allow the speaker to have a more multi-directional sound, which will dissipate and spread more easily across the room. This is a good style for recording, as the sound resonates better around the room in which you are playing.
The closed-back cabinet will trap all of the rear sounds that the speakers themselves in the cabinet are producing.
This creates a heavier bass tone with a tighter output (this is why bass amplifiers and cabinets are usually closed in the back). In guitar amplifiers with closed backs, the guitar will sound tighter and more melodic.
The cabinet you choose, be it an open-back or closed-back cabinet, will influence how other musicians you play with will hear you. A closed-back cabinet will point your sound straight ahead.
Specific frequencies will sound slightly different depending on where you stand while you are playing (this is why some folks use amp risers for closed-back cabinets to point the directional sound where they want it to go).
Open-backed cabinets will help shape your sound to match the room you are playing in and will usually sound better for recording. The best option between these two will depend upon who you are playing with and what tone you are going for.
5. Quality of the construction
A cabinet made from solid pine wood might sound round and full
The quality of how the cabinet is assembled and constructed will have a massive impact on how you ultimately will sound.
This has been proven with the use of Impulse Response, or Impulse Technology (aka IR technology).
IR technology is a snapshot of a sound measured in ones or zeros. While the sound of the recording may not be discernible to the human ear or naked ear, the same sound does show differently when measured by IR technology (even if it is very slight and minimal).
Therefore, the IR technology of your cabinet is catching the cabinet’s sonic identity, which is influenced in part by the quality of the cabinet’s construction itself.
Amp Vs. Cabinet: Which Is More Important?
The cabinet is the more critical part than an amp. The amplifier is all electrical with no mechanical internal moving parts.
On the other hand, the cabinet has mechanical moving parts (namely, the speaker or speakers inside the cabinet itself); how the internal speakers in the cabinet move and how the cabinet is constructed will significantly impact the tonality of your guitar playing.
A good amplifier with a good cabinet will sound better than an OK amplifier with a great cabinet. The combination of different cabinets and amplifiers will vary based on your budget and the tone you are going for.
Feel free to experiment with as many combinations as possible to get the best sound for your desired tone and budget.
Also Read: Guitar Amp Vs Speaker: Key Differences & Using Interchangeably
Recommended Guitar Cabinet
The Seismic Audio Guitar Speaker Cabinet 2X12 PA/DJ is a great choice on Amazon. Although there are several great guitar cabinets, this is just one very well-rated option and is a reasonable price point.
FAQs
Q: Can I Use My Combo Amp as a Cabinet?
You can technically use your combo amplifier as a cabinet if you wish. This is also a good option if you no longer use the compo amplifier to play through. Here are the steps to assist you with this process:
- Remove the back of the amplifier
- Remove the speaker and the amplifier
- Cut the wire that connects the amplifier and the speaker
- Strip the ends of the wire
- Connect an input jack to the wire
- Drill a hole in the back of the cabinet to secure the input jack to
- Test it by playing through it to see how it sounds.
For more detailed information on how to use your compo amplifier as a cabinet, please refer to this link below:
Use a Combo Amp As a Cabinet (cheap and Easy) : 7 Steps – Instructables
Q: Is a 2×12 Cab Louder Than a 1×12?
A 2×12 cabinet is louder than a 1X12 cabinet due to the extra speaker added to the cabinet. The more speakers that are involved, the greater the output of the volume will be.
In addition to the louder volume, a larger cabinet will also help produce a more transparent tone for different effects that you may be playing your electric guitar with.
I recommend playing through a 1×12 and a 2×12 cabinet and experimenting with them to experience this for yourself. You can also go up to a 4×12 as well if you choose to do so.
Q: What Size Guitar Cab Should I Get?
Ultimately, the correct answer depends on your budget and what you are trying to accomplish with your cabinet. Both smaller and larger cabinets have their advantages and their disadvantages.
If you are playing alone or with a small group of musicians in a small venue or a practice area, then the 1×12 option is probably your best option. These are easier to move and transport than the 2×12 option.
However, if you are playing with a group of musicians who are playing very loudly and want to play in a large public setting, then a 2 x12 cabinet is the better option.
While these are louder and produce a more comprehensive range of tones due to their larger size, they are also heavier and harder to move.
Conclusion
This article went over several topics in more detail to assist with finding the best option for you.
These topics included different factors that make a good guitar cabinet, whether the preamplifier is more important than the cabinet and a recommendation of a good guitar cabinet based on an affordable price and good reviews.
We also covered some frequently asked questions such as can I use my compo amp as a cabinet, is a 2×12 louder than a 1×12 cabinet, and what size cabinet should you get.
Please remember that although this is a lot of information, you will no doubt find the best option for guitar cabinets based on your needs and budget with some due diligence and research.
Play through as many cabinets as possible to find the one that helps you produce the best-sounding tone possible for what you need. Have fun with it and enjoy the process!
