Guitar Amps VS Cabs - Which Matters More?

Today we're taking a look at the age-old question: which affects your tone more, the head or the cab?

We'll compare three different amps, a Mesa Single Rectifier, an Orange Rocker 30, and a Marshall JCM2000 TSL60, and four cabs, a Vox 412 with Celestion Creambacks, a Mesa 412 with Celestion Vintage 30s, an Orange 412 with Vintage 30s, and a Marshall 412 with G12T-75s.

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[JedrekRyker]

70-20-10...Cabs are 70% of your tone and overall sound, Amps are 20% of your texture for your tone/sound, and finally your guitar/strings/pickups are your last tiny finishing touches

[marcusbevz]

Finally
A demo using a tuned guitar and clear audio no clipping

[cleverdood]

Liked the Vox cab the best with the Mesa head. That combo served the song well for my ears!

[erikkublack]

That Mesa amp with any cab was mad buttery. I could "feel" it more so than the Orange and Marshall, which sucks, because I loooove Orange 😩 I may have to look for a Mesa amp....
Great vid by the way, just got my first custom guitar, and was looking for amps, and never knew about the "stacks, " with an amp head and speaker. Always thought they looked cool, and you def cleared things up for me. I had to sub for that.

[rekeesefil]

Wow quite eye opening, demonstrated very well too, thanks for making this!

[scottallen]

Great information here bud. It's also slightly cheaper to purchase and change out cabinets instead of heads. Thanks for the work done here

[peterjohnson]

You have a good handle on the scientific method. Excellent demonstration.

[wutheringheights]

Funnily enough I really liked all the cab combos with the mesa amp, apart from the mesa cab lol. I think the mesa amp/vox cab is probably my favourite

[darryldoesit]

Great video !!! Cabinets make the biggest difference in your guitar sound. Amps of coarse do too but the cabinets more...Ive been researching this topic lately because I just switched over from playing combo amps to head type amps and cabinets.

[ronaldkirby]

Your experiment here confirms what I have always known about overall tone. All the elements, guitar and pickups, amp, cabinets, speakers all contribute to overall tone. Oh and how the guitarist plays as well, is part of the whole overall tone picture. I thought the vox cabinet with the cream backs sounded best, but hard to tell 100% unless you're in the room. Ah the room has a lot to do with sound as well

[ben_jammin]

That Mesa distortion is beautiful almost "clean".. the orange didn't sound like it broke up as much and the Marshall, was the reverb too low? Was lacking that sustain. Loved that initial sound from the mesa

[RD]

super helpful thank you, mind blown.
P.s did you record this during an earthquake haha the camera was shaky the whole time and in and out of focus, no impact on the audio, still a good vid thanks

[atlantakat]

What recording equipment do you utilize. Thanks! The Vox hands down.

[galtt]

I really liked the mesa head + vox cab !

[Mo-rdow]

i dont get it all i have amplifier. what is this thing about head and speaker? its like combo amp but seperate so u can have diff speakers according to occasions? would be nice to explain sorry that im stupid

[preciseaudioblog]

1:20 Hi! You are the second person I hear saying that the cab is what makes most pf the difference. The first was Glenn (long hair man)

[DarkoP.]

Which exact creambacks in the VOX?
very good presentation btw!!

[thess]

You get a good cab with a decent head and you are golden

[GuitarUnderground]

Great video. Much appreciated. Sure, I'd love to have a Vox, a Jazz Chorus, an Orange, and a Mesa, but like most guitarists I simply don't have the space for all of those cabs. Nor can I afford them, so I guess cabsim IRs will have to work for me.

[theavocadoguitarist.]

At first I thought I was going to like the Vox cab the most, and then I heard the Marshall Cab, and IMMEDIATELY I knew it won, hands down