Avatar G212H Special

Avatar G212H Special guitar cabinet. Bought new in March 2008. Black with Fender (silver) cloth...sexy. Open back with one Celestion Vintage 30 and one G12H30. Inset steel side handles. Rubber feet on the bottom. Metal corners. Daisy chain-enabling in/out-puts. 8om. Total quality, through and through. Top-level craftsmanship. Nothing chinsey. A solid, professional-quality cab, for sure. The tolex, the cloth, everything is top-knotch!

I'm a bedroom volume player, for the most part. I live in a townhouse, and can't crank it too loudly. But my amp is a 6505+, which is a fire-breathing dragon. The G12H's open back and Celestion G12H30 allows the sound to punch at lower volumes. I'm able to get full, rich tone at 3/4 volume, not even turned up to 1! I've run my 6505+ through a Marshall 1960A, which is, of course, was loaded with 4 V30's, and it didn't get that bottom-end type of punch until the volume was bordering insanely loud. I was hesitant to go with a 2x12, but I knew that's what I needed here in my townhouse. My only other experience with a 2x12 was an old Ampeg stereo combo amp that sounded like nothing more than a cheap Bandit in stereo. This cab, however, is just remarkable. The TONE is totally professional level, and that's no exaggeration.

I've only had it a few days, but I went over the entire cab to tighten anything that might've been lose, etc. Nothing was, and I can tell you, this is one solid cabinet. No glue runs, no cheap wiring. No velcro holding the grill cloth on. Everything it top of the line.

Now we're getting to the most extraordinary aspect of my experience with Avatar. I called in to ask a few last questions and to place an order, and it was the owner, Dave, that answered the phone an took my order! He's an impressively knowledgeable guy and was more that happy to explain to me why I, in my situation, would be happier with the open back rather than the closed back. I went ahead and placed my order then and there and had a tracking number the next morning. The cab arrived professionally packed and sealed in plastic inside its heavy-duty box. Dave is a rare person, nowadays. His product is better than any of the majors brands, yet he's accessible and helpful. I may just get a 4x12 in the near future, and Dave with be the gentleman I go to, for sure...

I'm a tone freak. I'm very, very picky about my guitars and equipment. I have never sounded this great in my life, and I've owned a little of everything out there. The Avatar G212H Special is as good as a 2x12 can get for under $1200--all the more reason to celebrate it only costing $332 with shipping. I'd recommend this cab to anyone, for any use, from bedroom-volume players like myself, all the way to pros. This cab won't do you wrong. When's the last time you spent a few hundred bucks on anything, music-related or otherwise, that gives you so much quality, joy, and pride.

I selected the Hellatone 60 and Hellatone 30 combination with black tolex, black grill, metal carrying handles, open back and wired wired in series (16ohms). I compared it to Marshall 2x12 and just based on the build material such as the corner gaurds, speakers, etc., it was a no brainer to select the Avatar.

With the Hellahounds it came out of the box sounding smooth and wonderful. Nice top end and tight bottom. I play country, blues and classic rock and this cabinet with the speaker combination is really a pleasure to play through. I used to own a Mesa 4x12 traditional cabinet and a Mesa 2x12 closed back, which are excellent cabss, but sold them because this setup covers the spectrum of music I play very nicely. I also sold my Mesa Boogie Stilleto and am now using a Marshall DSL50 through this cab. The Stilleto just had too much of a piercing sound, just what it is supposed to do so no rub on the equipment just a little too harsh for my taste. I found the Marshall to fit the bill better for my needs and the reverb was a big plus. I play with either a Strat or Les Paul Custom. I only provide the details on the other equipment so that you have a point of reference for the type of sounds I seek in my music. I'm no pro but have decent ability and a pretty good ear.

Built with quality all the way. I am an engineer by trade and pretty critical about quality since I deal with quality, durability and reliablity for a living. No worries, this cab should last and the build is really nice.

I ordered this cab and immediately received a response from the owner. It was shipped the very same day and they sent me an email to let me know that it was on its way. I haven't dealt with them on any problems and probably won't need to. If I do I believe they will come through.

Really nice piece of equipment that sounds great right out of the box. I'm a happy customer.

Just recieved new from Avatar factory two matching 2x12 Special cabs with black Tolex, Fender style silver grill cloth, closed-back cabs loaded with Avatar`s special Hellatone 60L`s wired for 8 ohms. I first placed an order for two similar cabs with orange Tolex, wheat grill and Vintage 30`s. After reading further about the Hellatone 60L`s I changed my mind and went with the cabs with the Hellatones.

I ordered 2 cabs because I am a nut for playing in stereo. I play through a VHT GP3 preamp into the power section of a Rivera TBR-1 (all tube dual 60 watt output) into (normally) a pair of Mesa Boogie Thiele 1x12 cabs in the Road Ready style with Celestion G12-80`s in them. I use a Line 6 ECHO PRO and a T.C. Electronics G1 for FX. I have played that rig for several years. When I got the new cabs, I set them up and was very pleased with the initial sound of the cabs. Really nice bottom end....well defined mids, highs were present, but not painful or overly crisp. I decided to drag out the Boogies and directly A/B them next to the new Avatars. I was really surprised to a great degree how much good bottom end I got from the Boogies as well as the Avatars. The 1x12 cabs seemed to hold their own to some degree. Hmmmmmm. I decided to raise both sets of speakers off the floor with some amp stands and proceed again. Naturally, both speakers lost some bottom response, but this is where the difference between the cabs really showed up. The Boogie/Celestion cab just seemed kinda flabby in the low end and mid compared to the Avatars. The 2 x 12 Avatars had much a more defined and tight bottom end and a nice smooth mid. The highs were really nice....smooth! The more I tweaked the preamp EQ, the nicer the mids became. I use the VHT preamp because it has a nicer more open sound than the preamp in the Rivera. I have historically had some problems with the sound of the mid range tone of preamp section of the Rivera. As I worked with the Avatars, I wondered how the Rivera Preamp would sound using the Hellatones. Much to my surprise the Rivera preamp sounded much better than before. The mids were not only useable, but downright musical sounding! I guess I would have to say the Avatars made my whole setup sound much better. The warm broken in sound of the Hellatones really come to life when driven hard. Really nice singing Eric Johnson kind of brown rumble tone!

Seem real well built, nice for the bucks! No frills, just good quality.

Dave at Avatar was real nice about me changing my mind on the speaker choice mid deal. Good e-mail communication and lightning fast shipping.

I am 53, been playing all my life. I am a jazz-rocker who likes to play with a dark, fat overdriven sound and at pretty high volume. These speakers are a huge upgrade in total tone for me. I couldn`t be happier with the Helltones! I can get that old Cream Clapton tone and other classic sounds perfectly. For the AMAZING price of 288 bucks apiece, these have got to be the biggest bang per buck deal out there bar NONE!!!!!I may even break down and order a couple of tweed open backs from these guys as well.

It's a speaker cab. Not many features to speak of. 8 ohms mono, 2 great speakers and solid construction- its all I need.

I mainly play old style rock and roll/punk, ala New York Dolls, Heartbreakers, Social Distortion, Clash, etc. I would love to rate this cab as a 10 but nothing is "perfect." However, this cab will inject new life into any amp. The semi-open back gives the cab some "air" and projection in all directions that you won't get with a 412 or closed back 212. It will easily fill any room with sound. The low end is still very firm and chunky and the sound with the two different Celestions, a G12h 30th Anniversary and Vintage 30, give a great balanced frequency response. I have gotten many compliments on the tone of this cab with various amplifiers- Traynor YBA-1, Peavey Ultra 60, etc. Rock and roll. Crank it up and shake the walls.

I play in a touring band and I throw this cab around nightly. It stands up to the abuses of the road and seems super reliable. All construction, from the wood and side joints to the metal handles, corners and input jack, are very well constructed.

Avatar's support is legendary, Dave is the best.

The best part about this cab is the VALUE. You can pick up one of these baby's fully loaded for about the price you would pay for the speakers alone at any other store! Simply amazing. This cab is an integral part of my tone and I am super glad to be using it every night. Marshall, Mesa, etc. are all over priced crap compared to Avatar. Don't pay for a name, pay LESS for a MORE quality product!

1 Vintage 30, 1 G12h -- black tolex. I installed the casters. Perfect in all aspects. Unbelievable for the price!!!!

The combination of those two speakers really work nice together. Smooth mids and tops with the vintage 30 and nice punchy low end with the g12h. I'm pushing the cabs with a reissue Marshall 1987x 50w.

This is a solidly built cabinet. I was very impressed with the workmanship.

The best co. I've ever dealed with. Ordered it on a Monday afternoon, got it Wed. morning!

I'll be getting the 4x12 soon! This is one purchase I am absolutely satisfied with.

Solid construction, 2 celestions, wheat grille. that's about it. pretty simple.

Sound is amazing. Better than any marshall or mesa cab I've ever heard. True there are better sounding cabs out there like the bogner shiva 2X12 and the orange 2X12 but lets be honest, unless you're a hard core audiophile, the tonal difference is not worth the extra $300~$400 those boutique cabs command.

Anyways, this cab is really loud. I put another V30 into the cab as I like the tone a little better than the G12H30 that came in it.

For the money, you can't buy a better cab. Period.

I've been using it for over a year and not a single problem out of it. The celestions have a legendary reputation so I'm not worried about them. Every other review here will probably tell you that it's built like a tank. they couldn't be more right. It probably weighs about 45~50lbs. It's HEAVY. But that extra girth I can only assume, adds to the beefy low end this beast bellows out.

Here's my only complaint. I specifically ordered the silver grill and mono wiring but they sent me a wheat grill with stereo wiring.

No big deal. The wiring I was easily able to re-do and the wheat still looks good but not what I wanted. The sound quality is the same though so that's all that really matters anyways.

So in reality, at this point, complaining about the color grill is not even worth the trouble. For the amature musician though, I can see where re-wiring the speakers could be a problem but the prompt email responses I got is proabbly a good indication of how quick they would work to fix this problem if another customer ran into it.

So they get a 9 in my book. A vailliant effort and aside from that minor complaint, excellent service!

Simply unbeatable bang for the buck. It was a close call between this avatar and an earcandy buzzbomb but earcandy just wanted a little too much more $$ for their cab that I coldn't quite afford. I'm sure they sound nice and are excelent build quality and service but I had a tight $300 budget that avatar was able to meet.

I've gotten a raise since I purchased the avatar so if it were lost or stolen, I would probably just grab a Bogner Shiva 2X12. Sure it's $700 but I play a nicer amp that I've hooked up to the shiva cab and it doesn't get any better than that. To me, tonal perfection is worth the extra $400 but for most other guys, the avatar is just as good and less than half the price.

The low end of the avatar will shame any marshall and give the Mesa rectifier 4X12's a run for their money. The avatars have a smoother tone than the mesas. They're too harsh and brittle.

One quick suggestion to the avatar guys. Make the speakers rear mounting so the screws that hold the speakrs into the cab go in from the BACK not the front. This would eliminate the need to remove the grill if you wanted to experiment with different speakers.

So just like the "10" selection for this category says, Fantastic value. It doesn't get any better for the money.

Mine has Fender Grill, Black Tolex, BRITISH Vintage 30 and a BRITISH G12H30 70th Anniversry series speaker. Yes I got lucky by not getting Chinese speakers.

Other than that, this cabinet has no bells and wistles. But that is just the way it is supposed to be. Therefore it gets a 10, being perfect in the fact that it is all you will ever need or want.

This cab sounds very good. This is by far the best investment in improving my tone that i have made.

FOR PEOPLE THAT HAVE COMBO'S: These cabs, and cabs in general, give you a sound much richer that what the amp is stock. If you think that your amp doesnt sound thick or full, or it sounds grainy. I guarantee that a Cab will make it sound MUCH better.

I plugged my combo into it (Marshall DSL401 and a Crate GX-65)and played, then unplugged and played. The differance is amazing. Im running a Les Paul Standard through this and I can get some truly thick sounds out of it.

The only issue with sound is that i have to redue all of my EQ settings to compliment the added bass.

I really can say as i have only had it for six months.

But so far it is perfect.

Very Nice.

The only thing I had trouble with is, they sent me the wrong cab.
But they sent me a more expensive one so, im ok with it. Therefore i will not hold it against them. Hehehe

I have been playing 16 years now. I have a Les Paul, Les Paul Copy, PRS Tremonti USA, Fender MIA Strat, PRS Custom 22.

I also have a Mesa Dual Rec, a Nomad 55 and a Marshall Jcm800, but have not play them into this cab yet.

I love the fact that it is so good for so cheap. Compared to my mesa 212 the tolex is weak, but hey mesa has some of the nicest cover amps and cabs aroung.

The only thing i wish Avatar could do is a
Wine Red tolex color with a Wheat grill, so it could match my mesa. That would be sweet

2 16 Ohm speakers wired parallel to make an 8Ohm cabinet. Two in/out jacks if you want to daisy chain another cabinet with it. (1) Celestion Vintage 30 and (1) G12H30 Anniversary speaker. Partially open (oval) back. Metal side carrying handles, rather than a cheap combo style rubber handle on top.

This thing is amazing. I am driving the cabinet with a Traynor YCV40 combo. Depending on what style music I'm playing, I play a Fender Telecaster, Gibson SG w/ Humbucker, or Gibson SG with a P-90.

I play in both a pop punk band (relatively gainy, kinda like green day/blink182 guitar sound i suppose) and the other is an indie band that uses more clean channel natural breakup jangly guitar tones (kinda like the clash or the jam). the cabinet does both these sounds incredibly.

i was nervous about the open back cabinet, for no other reason than i've played closed back cabinets my whole life. damn was i missing out! I don't think i could go back to closed back again!

I bought this on eBay directly from Avatar for $207. Brand new cabinet, but it was "flawed" in that "the tolex seam is on the top of the cabinet instead of the bottom where it should be". first of all, i could hardly tell. it was one of those things if they didn't tell me, i probably wouldn't have noticed/cared. the box itself is just simple/solid/great construction. I'm a believer in simplicity. good quality wood put together right is just the sound i crave. some of the components are a little on the cheap side though, but you need to look at the price... do you want to pay $600 for a marshall or $200-something for an Avatar. Especially when to your ears the Avatar will probably sound better anyway. the Tolex on the cab is of a cheaper grade it seems than you find on my amps. it's more rubbery/vinyly and less hard like you find on combo amps and marshall cabs. my first gig out it bumped a few walls and the tolex kinda peeled a little here and there. i like the worn-in look anyway though. the in/out jacks and jack plates are very basic. these don't need to be fancy, just treat them gently. one time i forgot to unplug my speaker wire between my combo and amp, picked up the combo, and it pulled on the jack plate/jack on the cabinet a little bit. the jack plate bent ever so slightly and the jack nut came loose. my fault, but just pointing out if you abuse gear, you may have a problem. i am still giving this amp a 9, cause NONE of these things I pointed out makes me love this cabinet any less. I doubt i'll ever buy a cabinet from anyone else again other than Avatar.

I haven't had to deal with support really, but we emailed back and forth when closing the eBay transaction. They seem very nice and very human. I like dealing with companies like Traynor, bob at Eurotubes, and Avatar. They actually give a crap about their customers, which is something that is lacking greatly in this world today. Thanks!

I just got my brand new Avatar G212H special cab, with 1 vintage 30 and 1 G12H30. 2 jacks, 1 for input, 1 for output. high quality wiring and construction. I LOVE the side handles. Everything is super strong and clean. this cab is also very light! I LOVE this feature, because I can avoid puting holes in it for casters, and just carry it. over all its pretty close to perfect!

oh, and I love the open back design, with the hole in the middle. Again, very clean and professional.

I'm playing a Fender Strat modified with a Kent armstrong humbucker straight into a Marshall JCM800 combo, stacked on top of my new cab. The speakers in the cab definetly aren't broken in yet, so alone the cab sounds a little thiner than it surely will in a couple weeks, yet it still sounds awsome! when the combo and the cab are running together, the sound is PERFECT! I've tried a couple other cabs with the Marshall, and none of them have done it justice. The combination of the 2 G12T-75's in the combo with the much more smooth response of the Avatar together are everything I could have possibly wanted! I'm just waiting 'till these babies break in, especialy that G12H30, so I can get the full punch of the low end.

Not to mention, the cab has a wheat gril, which looks awsome below the vintage mid-80's gray grill on my Marshall, and the cab is just 1 inch wider than the combo, so they look really great stacked up like I have them now.

The open back gives the tone a little airy-ness, if you will. that makes my amp sound very wide, open, and punchy as hell. to me closed back cabs sound ok through a huge Stadium PA or in the studio (sometimes), but for the small to medium sized venues we play, my open back tone is far superior to the pretentious closed back guys. the best thing is when some kid from a metal or hardcore band compliments me on my open back cab tone

oh, sorry. . .forgot to mention, I play in a modern pop-punk band, similar to Fall out Boy or the Starting line, called Midnight Aria. We just got signed and are heading out on tour for the next few months, and I know that I can trust this little guy to hold up for me. . .if only I could have the same trust in my Marshall!

See above. . .got ahead of myself. . .

I plan on playing only Avatar cabs for as long as it takes for another complany to start giving me stuff for free!!!

hahaha, but in all seriousness, I have been wanting to expereince avatar for a while, but I've been playing just the combo for the past year. now I don't know if I'll ever be able to go back! I've definetly been convinced, and its an honor to come on here and tell you guys that there is still someone out there making awsome gear for a great price!!!

dave is, of course, the man. everyone knows that. If you don't know that, than your just out of the loop, and you better start catching up with the rest of us!

I've been playing for about 8 years, in a band for the past 4, in a serious band for the past 2. I've been writing for about 5 years, and THAT'S my passion. I'd much wrather write an amazing song than play like Vai or Satriani. I want my tone to serve my songs, and now I have a tone thats thick enough to keep up. Our other guitarist uses a Gibson les paul Classic into a Peavey classic 50 pushing a Tech 21 4x12 cab with Celestion G12H80's. His tone is as thick as a Texas Steak. . .and now I have no trouble keeping up, since I have my Avatar!

I'd defy any new marshall or mesa to sound better than my rig!

It's a well built 2x12 speaker cabinet with one Celestion Vintage 30 and one Celestion G12H30 70th Year Anniversary Special.

It's paired with a THD Univalve (also bought from Avatar at a great price) and the combo sounds wonderful. I've plugged a couple of other amps/heads into it and have been impressed all 'round.

Can see it having any problems. I may have to get the speakers re-coned in a decade or two but that's about it.

Dealing with Avatar was a pleasure. I got some great eqipment (this speaker cab plus a THD Univalve head) at a great price. For $278 this cab is probably the deal of the year.

You can't beat it for value. Great product, great price and Avatar's great to deal with.