So I'm saving enough money from a new job to be able to snag a VH140c off of Ebay before June. The thing is, I want to also replace my messed up Marshall 4 X 12 with a brand new cab by then, ideally two so I can run the VH140c in stereo. What are some ideal choices for cabs I should look into that will go great with the VH140c? Or, should I be more concerned about what speakers the cabs are fitted with (I heard Celestion Vintage 30's are a good choice)? What would be the ideal speaker & cab combination in this case... I'm going for maximum kickage of the ass here.
Cheers.

__________________

One of the Ampeg cabs designed for it(there are some Ampeg cabs with low quality speakers, and ones with better ones). They show up on ebay often, and Ampeg halfstacks also show up often for cheap.

I don't know any stereo 4x12 cabs outside of the Marshall 1960, you'd have to research on the ones available to you. Or buy whatever one you want and have it converted to stereo. Be sure to get a cab that'll work with low ohmage(8 or 4) to get the most out of the VH by barely having to push that master volume.

An avatar might be a good choice, as you can get whatever speaker config and ohmage you want, but I have heard at HC that their bass response aint so great as they're not built extremely as good as something like a Framus, Boogie, etc.

I've heard some clips done with a Mesa Boogie standard cab with v30's and was floored.

__________________

Are you saying a VH140c half-stack shows up once in a while on Ebay? Fuck, I gotta keep my eyes peeled for that.

Yeah dude I remember you told me Celestion Vintage 30's were a good choice because of how they have a midrange that compensates with the bass and treble that the VH puts out...

I guess I thought that "running in stereo" meant having two cabs hooked up to the head's output channels. Am I misunderstanding something here? I don't see how you can run one cab in stereo, as it'd just be one cab. What if I don't use stereo cabs with it, what's the disadvantage of that?

I really don't want to get an Avatar for the very reason that I used to play with a guitar player who had one and my mutanized Marshall 1960 sounded much better on his head, lol... but I'll see what my options are. Thanks for the input, I really want to go for broke here and get my rig finally right this time.

__________________

the stereo feature is only for the onboard chorus right? idk how much you'd use it ... the one on my ss140c sounds like a raygun/korn

for 275 i feel like i got a good deal, but honestly you might want to try before you buy (if you haven't) ... or at least before you build a rig around it.

anyways, yeah warm mellow mids in the speakers would tone down some of the harsh tone.

the range that comes out is similar to a bass amp ... lots of bright highs, and lots of punchy bass. the mids are walking a fine line ... a tiny tweak on the one eq and it goes from scooped to overriding everything and turning it into mud. or maybe mine's just broken in this department idk. i've noticed that the tone takes on a life of it's own when the master is above 7.

By stereo I meant running a cab that has 2 inputs, because the Ampeg only puts out 70W per side, it's meant to be used with a stereo cab(one with 2 inputs). It has 2 seperate poweramps hence why you need to run it into either 2 cabs or 1 cab with 2 inputs, like the 1960?

Keep in mind the VH is a little more modern and refined sounding than the SS. But kleenx I really think your SS is busted, you should take it to a tech.

And like with any amp, you need a good cab to get good definition. 95% of the time all muddy amps are muddy because of bad/unbalanced speakers + improper EQing. Some speakers sound so scooped that even when you fuckin dime the mids the tone doesn't change at all. I had this problem with my Marshall Mode 4 cab, not with my Framus 2x12 with v30's now.

__________________

Mildy off topic, what about a 2x12? I guess V30's are perfect but they aren't powerful enough (2 x 60w= 120w). What would be recommended if you could only go for a smaller cab?

__________________

hey. yea it might be damaged ... but have you heard the tone in person?

in another thread here someone compared it to a metalzone pedal, and to my ears thats exactly what it sounds like. it's high gain, but kinda shitty tone. also i've noticed with low notes below E it's like the distortion isn't applied or something ... like clean leaks through as a 50/50 mix. have you heard of that happening?

but i guess i should get it checked out.

sry for the topic derailment guys

It definitely sounds as if yours has a problem man, it may be something fairly simple though, might just need a thorough clean of the electrics. Also I'd point out that unless you can go for a 4x12 cab with V30's I would have thought eminence would have more suitable speakers than celestion as they often have higher power handling.

__________________

Eminence would be a great choice to, +1, I just don't know what characteristics each of their models have so I can't suggest any.

kleenx I've never played or seen a VH/SS in person myself but have listened to many samples and countless records done with it, and many VH owners testify that it sounds exactly the same in person, probably due to the fact that all those oldschool death metal records were not that processed like studio's do it today, hence maintaining the integrity of the amp's sound a lot more.

This channel bleeding thing is a clear indication of a problem, most likely input jacks and something wrong with the channel switching mech.

__________________

I was checking out the Eminence website and it seems as if Manowars and Swamp Thangs would be a good choice, as they both have 'Aggressive mids'. Genz Benz G-flex 212 seems a decent choice too, I'd rather go with that over a 4x12 tbh, advantages of the bass response and projection of a bigger cab, but easier to move around.

__________________

I noticed that when my ampeg wasn't run through a stereo cab at only low volumes it had the clean channel bleed through a bit...when I went to the matching stereo Ampeg 4x12 it went away. KleenX sounds like yours has a bit of a problem.......I've heard the cold solder joints are known for going bad on ampegs, and noticed on ebay almost every one listed they state that some of the pots are scratchy...so I'd get it checked out. I also can say, someone I know has an identical SS-140c to mine, and the sound is not anywhere near as ballsy/clear as mine for whatever reason. Keep in mind, these amps are almost 20 years old.....

__________________

ok thx josh ... im using mono at practice volume so that might be part of it.

do you have any soundclips of yours up? i'd really like to hear another one to compare.

I have a pair of Man-O-Wars and Swamp Thangs that I am selling if you are interested.

__________________

how much you asking for them?

__________________

No sound clips yet...my band might be doing a demo soon, so if and when that gets put up I'll post on here so people can hear it in action.

__________________

Alright, so I checked out my options and am really liking what I hear about and read about Vader cabinets. They basically come hand-built and loaded with four 120 watt Eminence Legend V128's, and these speakers are pretty much comparable to Celestion V30's. I'm in the process of finding out what kind of inputs these honeys have, and I hope it's like a MESA standard cab with two 4 ohm inputs for a stereo amp as well as a 8 ohm. But so far, looks like Vader is what I'm going to go with. Thanks for the responses too, I'm learning quite alot through this whole experience.
P.S. - no sweet VH140c heads have popped up on eBay lately but I'm keeping my fingers crossed.

EDIT: Adam from Vader cabs gave me a reply regarding the wiring, this is what he said:

__________________

Did you even get the Vader cab or any other cab? I just bought a Crate GX 130C Head and I am now looking for a cab. Anyone else have some suggestions?


Peter

__________________

Can you select the Ohms for each power amp speaker output on the ampeg and crate?

__________________

Nope. But you can safely hook it up to either a 4 ohm or 8 ohm cab. 4 would be optimal, hence in your case I suggest an Avatar with the configuration you want, or get an old Ampeg cab.

__________________

Hey Soeru,

What is the congifuration I want? LOL

I see a buch of thread s about the Crate GX130C and the Ampeg VH140C being a stereo head and needing to have 2 lines coming out of the head and both the 2 lines going into the cab. Are both lines going into the cab mono or stereo?

Could you expand a bit more on this?


Peter

__________________

What is my best bet for $500 or under at guitar center?


Peter

__________________

in case you were wondering.
VTX
GX

Hey Soeru, I was checking out the Avatar was site and the reviews on harmony central and I was very impressed. This was a quate from the web site:

"With the Mix of two Celestion Vintage 30 and two G12T75s, you get the pronounced mids and upper mids from the Vintage 30s on top which are famous for projecting and really cutting through the mix ...then the bottom two G12T75s have big bass , scooped mids and sizzling highs. These two compliment each other very well and are the absolute favorites for extreme hard rock and death metal"

Would you agree with this?

How about in a "live" show when only one speaker is usually miced? How would you go about getting the best sound then?

__________________

Hey Peter, congrats on your new Crate GX-130 head!


That is correct. Both these amps have two poweramps. Each speaker out is a mono line. The VH140c's are rated 70 watts individually so when they are both used at the same time you get a total of 140 watts, which is why you need a stereo cab (a cab with two inputs) or 2 standard mono cabs.

This is a picture of the back of a MESA Standard Rectifier 4 X 12 cab. You see how there are two inputs? They are both mono, and as the writing explains, "split for stereo or bi-amp." And they are wired @ 4 ohms, which is perfect. The kind of cabs you want for your GX-130 will have the same configuration. Like Soeru pointed out, there's no way you can select the ohmage of the cab wiring from the amp head (wouldn't that be kinda cool + dangerous). You need to make sure whatever cab you get is suitably wired for your head. This whole ohmage issue really is a big deal when you're talking about soild-state amps. As far as I understand ohm ratings are critical so you get the maximum wattage that a solid-state head is rated for.

As far as your options go for what cab, you have a few choices.
The old Ampeg cab and Avatar cab suggestion would be the most price reasonable, and especially with the Avatar you could order one wired exactly as you need. If time is an issue just go for an Avatar. You could also get a standard MESA cab like the one I was talking about before (apparently Mesa cab w/ Celestion v30's + any early 90's Crate or Ampeg solid-state head = brutality beyond belief.) The good news is these cabs are freakin' everywhere because MESA is so goddamn popular, but they need a little more money to acquire. After that you could get a Genz Benz or Framus or Vader. I myself am not ordering my Vader until I score an Ampeg VH-140c head (I'm building my new rig totally from scratch.) From what I read in another thread, Vader cabs are very sterile and transparent, and don't color your tone so much. They have lots of headroom (due to the insane 480 watts) and excellent bass response.

__________________

Yeah man, I am very happy I got the GX130C head. I plugged it into to PA speakers tonight at my practice room and even with those the sound was killer. I kept the volume down a bit as I was not sure about the PA speakers but damn, the distortion was killer and it sounded so much better then my Marshall MG.

I am still confused as hell about the ohms and connections but I posted more about that in the other thread.

I am looking at the Avatar and Vader cabs online and from the reviews of both on Harmony Center they are great. I would love to be able to get these at my local guitar center as I could jsut trade in my Marshall combo and put that toards it.

So much to learn!!!

__________________

Oh yeah, the head as 2 inputs for the guitar:

-6db and 0db

What one should I be using?

__________________

One input is the clean channel, the other is for the high gain channel.

__________________

Yeah the -6 db one would be the "low gain" while the 0 db would the "high gain" channel. You'd wanna go for the 0 db one.

__________________