EarCandy Buzzbomb 212 Cabinet

Still floating on Cloud 9 after having honeymooned with my custom earcandy cab 2x12. Made in February 2005 by the owner. Has the two ports that appear to be central to the EarCandyCab design

This is the most exceptional and versatile 2x12 cabinet I have ever played in my life and I'm a middle-aged gear-head with gear lust. I play eclectic rock from clean and chimey to slight grit to crunch all the way to crazed wide open distortion both mid-deprived and mid-pushed mayhem. I ldig Adrian Belew, Jeff Beck,Robert Fripp, Zappa, Hendrix, Clapton and Jim Juhn among the many many great guitarists I have enjoyed and I particularlly love controlled melody feedback and bowed type sounds. I play everthing from classical to death metal and everything in between and have sounds dialed in to emulate all my rock gods and this cabinet has taken my sound to another level
From a features perspective the amp is custom every step of the way. That's the second of Tim's two points. The first is that the amp's design and manufacturing will not only blow away every other "Name Brand" 2x12 cab you can think of, it will often blow away, match, or come close to, very expensive 4 x12 cabinets made by Mesa, Marshall, Fender, etc. But it will be sonically different than Mesa or Marshall, not just as good or better but different. And he's right about the 2x12 comong close in immensity to a 3 x121 , you would not believe how much air these push and how much they make the round shake. I've got Marshall 4x12 cabinets, Marshall 4x10 cabs, Marshall 2x12, Fender 2X12 and several custome 2x12's made by San Francisco area boutique luthiers, Jackson 4x12 and recording/testing comparison access to several different expensive flavors of Mesa Boogie cabinets. And these cabs have speakers that include all flavors of the Celestion, Greenback, Fender . In our tests we used a Mesa Boogie Rectifier Head, a Johnson 250 modelling head, a Roland GT-6 into a Peavey 50/50 and Peavey 60/60, and a Mesa Boggie 20/20, all of my cabs and three different Mesa 4 x12s. The Buzzbomb 2x12 shocked us all. The level of detail was as good or better than anything else we had, the bass was heavier than any 2x12 matched up with most of the 4x12's except for the Mesa Boogie 4x12 cabinets but it came very close. The warm natural cab compression was the BEST of all the other cabs and the cab was much warmer sounding than any of the other cabs. We were flabbergasted, to say the least. I paid $534 for my cab with every feature I could think off - mono and stereo wiring, customer corners, custom feet, oxblood around the perimeter, but cherry stained mohagony for front and back and birch for the enclosure. All of my friends, luthiers and amp techs thought the cabinet was worth anywhere from $700 to a $1000. Buy were they suprised what I had paid and if I had just gone for sounded great rather than looks great and has all the boutique options, it would cost much less. If this cab did cost that much it would be worth every penny because of the superior workmanship and beauty and great sound. But for $500 and (cheaper if you don''t pick all the extras I did) this cab is a crazy deal. I don't think that Tim is one of those einstein types who do great stuff but don't recognize how much it's worth. I think he's building an industry rep and I think his prices will eventually double and he'll get a huge crew to duplicate his efforts on an assembly line - just because of the design. He's on to something because his cabinets do not sound like Marshalls or Mesas, and why should they? Marshalls and Mesas already do what they do. Earcandycabs do something else.

I had ead all these kiss-ass reviews that people submit online about Tim Paulsen and earcandycabs and then read his somewhat arrogant website and figured that most of the reviews had been written by him or his buddies. I simply could not believe the endless stream of revies about all the questions he asks, the emails and phone calls, blah blah blah blah. But then it back to me from a friend of a friend that Tim was a Tone Freak and to buy some cabs from him before people find out about him and he can double his proice. But it's true, every word of it. I also did not have a lot of experience with Eminence Speakers (Tim will put in any speaker you want, or let you put the speakers in) but his site is big on Eminence. Now I know why. So I spent about a week listening to Eminence speakers on the web, did research, lurked groups, made phone calls and thought I would use the eminence modellers as I prefer modelling amps. This was my first email to him... (and remember I pretty much tell him he can sell me the modellers and that I would not complain because I thought I had done all the research)

I've heard great things about your company and you
personally, and I want a "different" 2 x12 cabinet,
but cannot decide and would like your input.

My band plays a wide variety from clean and sweet and
poppy to punk and darlk evil metal (singer songwriter
act). Very eclectic as are my guitar tones. My main
axe is an SRV strat with the bridge pickup a Seymour
Duncan hotrail and the other two DiMArzio virtual
vintage with a Callaham custom bridge/arm/block. My secondary guitar is a Hamer with yourclassic JB in the bridge and multiple-octave and partials feedback Sustainiac in the neck position. My third guitar has a JB bridge and a Seymour Duncan Jazz in the neck.

I use either a Roland GT-6 (amp modelling processor)
or a Johnson 250 Millenium (amp modeller with two JJ
12ax7 preamp tubes) through a Peavey 50/50 tube amp
and into a 4x12 The ultimate setup is using the GT-6
for front end fx and models turned off through the
Johnson. I am using every kind of amp model - Fender,
Marshall, Boogie, etc. My guitar heroes are Adrian
Belew, Frank Zappa and Jimi Hendrix, and I love using
controlled feedback for melodic solos. In this band
though, a lot of rhythm playing as well. The Johnson
is very bass heavy and always have to roll the bass
back on the patches at high volumes as all the cabs I
have fart like crazy. For recording I have 15 distortion pedals includng Ibanez mods from people like Keeley and Analog Man and some of the fine products from Fulltone.

I do indeed want a 2x12, with the idea of eventually
buying two of your cabinets, for widebody stereo (and
backup for touring)

I would like option to have both stereo and mono
wiring setups (combo)as most clubs won't want to waste
the extra mic. I guess that the joy of two different
speakers probably would not work with the stereo idea
- or it might be great? or should I just use two
Eminence modeling speakers?

I would like it to look unique as well, though I
understand that all of your cabs are distinctive."

And this was first reply to me:

well, the modeling speakers are great, but i will say this about them, they take time, just like that Johnson, im real familiar with that amp and the gt6, the modelings are similar to those units in the respect that, they take some dialing in, and then again one more time when you break them in, they are definitely not your, "sound great out of the box" speaker!

Mixing speakers in a stereo cab can get strange fast so, id recommend
us finding 2 speakers you will like and put a set in one cab and a set in another cab.What speakers have you used that you have liked?
and, that's the beauty of our stuff, it does not fart out, period!
you may shake the crap off your walls, and drouwn out your bass player, but you will not fart out our cab unless your preset is a farted out preset that would never play through anything, and if you ha

Reliability I guess is too soon to tell, but my friends, amp-techs and I have never seen such great workmanship in a cab. My guess is that this is a tank. We punished it for two weeks of testing and it looks back at us and laughs. Tim even writes stuff about the amp inside and puts your name inside the amp and takes a pciture of it before he closes it up and emails you. How cool is that?

And the fact that you can choose any wood, any speaker(s) any wiring any cover (from black to ostrich leather! I kid you not - a ridiculous array of materials for you to use from - grills, feet, straps, handles, wheels, extendo-arms, the works!

No vendor has ever given me better customer support. How many owners answer the phone? Easily reachable by phone or by email. People like Tim and his wife are far and few between. They have a great product and a great vision. They believe in themselves and their boutique cabs. You can tell that Tim is a freak. That he eats, drinks and sleeps guitar tone. If everyone in my band, and everyone at my company worked as hard as he did, and was as committed as he was, my albums would go multi-platinum and my company would have a huge IPO.

I've been playing for 28 years and if I want something bad enought I can afford to own it, I have everything from tube amps to modellers to a 1937 Electro Hawaiian -Gibson's very first production amp - the one Charlie Christian used to amplify jazz guitar for the first time and bring the guitar to the front of the band as a solo instrument - the very same amp that someone made a mistake and plugged the guitar cable into the microphone cable hole of the '37 EH and created the birth of modern distortion - a distortion that everyone tried to copy, a sound so awesome that I sold my Marshall Stack to be able to afford this prehistoric amp of wonderment. I'm a glutton for tone and I've spend ridiculous amounts of money to pursue.

If this was lost or stolen I would replace it in an instant. I am currently selling off a Marshall 4x12 and a couple of other 2x12s so that I can buy a second one exactly like this to a) back up the first cab for touring and b) because I can't wait to hear this as both a double 2x12 mock 4x12 combo and more importantly to set up the two cabs far apart for some killer stereo action when the soundman at the club knows his stuff.

Made in 2004, these are the features:
# Cab: Antique Pine Cab
# No covering / mahog Stain with Nitro finish
# Sound panel: Diamond Plate over antique pine
# Handles: Deep Dish
# Chrome corners
# Rubber feet
# steel expanded grill
# mono 8 ohm
# 2 ports
# Speakers: Eminence Legend 121/Eminence Legend M12

Tim at earcandy made 2 cabinets to my specs. I play mostly heavier rock styles. This thing has headroom for days.

I use these with PRS guitars (Dragon II/McCarty pickups) and mesa boogie mark iv amps. They are just loud as hell. They have some extremely heavy sounds and can take anything you can throw at them. They will put any 4x12 cabinet to shame; that is no lie. The clean sounds are also awesome. I can go loud enough to make my ears bleed and they are still 100% clean. Wonderful. I don't know why I got 2 of them (except to run stereo). One could certainly handle (and has handled) my Mark IV turned all the way up. That is loud enough for any club here in Austin. Check out the specs on those speakers...you can see why I say they have so much headroom.

They are also stunningly beautiful. You can see them on ear candy's website. They are the mahogany-stained natural pine with diamond plating in the front (no cloth covering).

Never had any problems. Tim builds them like tanks. I don't forsee any problems. I'd gig without a backup, although I have two of them.

Great customer support. Like I said, Tim is the man. He walked me through building these and made some great recommendations. He helped me pick speakers, wood, handles, etc. He really worked with me to meet my needs, not just to make more money off me. Lifetime Warranty w/ 7 year warranty on speakers (which Tim handles).

These cabinets rock. If I need more power, I will definitely buy from ear candy again. If they were lost or stolen, I'd probably get the same thing (although I might look at some of the eminence redcoat/patriot speakers instead). I love the sounds of these things. Like I said, they will blow away any 4x12 I've heard (I think it is the cabinet depth and porting).

This is of course a BUZZBOMB 212 made by EARCANDY and it was made 12/30/2004. The cabinet is versatile enough for everything from shimmering clean sounds to metal seven string tones. The speakers are an Eminence 125 and a 121.

I'm playing all styles of music and it accomodates them quite nicely. I'm surprised at how tight, clear and punchy the cabinet is. Definitely a great cabinet. I'm using this cabinet with the following items:

Gutiars:
2 American Peavey Wolfgangs
2 Brian Moore i2
2 Schecter 7 Strings
1 Schecter Diamond Series 006 Elite
1 Charvel Model 4 (Kahler Tremelo)

Amp:
PODxt
Peavey Classic 50/50

Pedal Board"
Boss EQ
Morely Bad Horsie 2
Line 6 DM4
Danelectro Talkbox

The biggest limiter of sounds is me and not the cabinet.

I don't have any doubts that it will work both in and out of the studio. As a matter of fact, I decided to take it for a test drive and since I use a PEAVEY CLASSIC 50/50 and I run it in mono I wanted to see just how much power it could take and to my surprise it handled the amp wide open. Of course I had ear plugs in as well but it didn't crack or sound like it was struggling in the least. I also used it from day one in rehearsal and everyone in the band was quite impressed by the sound I was getting out of it.

First off, Tim was very prompt in taking care of business and always seemed to find time to talk with me on the phone. He's willing to do what it takes to get the job done. I'm very impressed with Tim as a businessman and he kept his word every step of the way. There is a funny story to go along with this cabinet but I don't want to make you go bind with a long story.

Overall I'm very impressed with what I purchased. I'm so happy with the sound that I will be buying a duplicate as a Christmas gift to myself this year. Thank you Tim for taking the time to work through everything with me and for all your patience. You earned this review.

I ordered this cab new in 2004 from Earcandy direct. It is wired in parallel & stereo. The cab is made from birch & pine wood. I went with Eminence Black Powder & Swamp Thang speakers. Cab is ported. All black with a black grill w recessed side handles. Hand signed to me!!!

Just go buy one!! Seriously this cab is just amazing, I wish I just found these before I went through so many cabs. I play mostly heavy metal & hard rock this cab is just amazing period. I play BC Rich, Gibson, and USA Deans they all sound great. I have a 2 Marshall 4x12 1960AX cabs, one re-issue and 1972 era. I also have a VHT Fatbottom 2x12. The Buzzbomb kills them all. I run a Soldano Avenger out to the Buzzbomb & I run the Marshall through the 72 Marshall 4x12 & VHT 2x12. My Buzzbomb 2x12 on one side, six speakers on the other, do the math! I wanted to add the Marshall 4x12 to the Buzzbomb, but the Buzzbomb just sounds to damn good on it's own. Unreal low end, with great highs and clarity. Check speakers I mentioned they rawk!!!

I have had the Buzzbomb for over a couple a months and it continues to sound better & better. They stand behind the cabs with a lifetime warranty to the original owner, I am not worried!!

Tim is simply a gentleman and a great guy. He answered all my questions and helped me custom design my cab. Anytime I had a question he got right back to me. He stands behind his product 100%

I have been playing for over 20 years and this is the best cab I have played through to date. I plan to purchase another Buzzbomb as soon as I sell off my other cabs. I just can't believe how much sound these 2x12's put out. The cab is just beautiful and can't say enough good things about the sound!!

2004, GREAT FOR ROCK OF ANY KIND AND HEAVY METAL,EVEN CLEAN SOUNDS.
I USE IT FOR SHOWS AND IT BLOWS AWAY ANY 4X12 CAB I'VE EVER HAD,ESPECIALLY,MARSHALL,CRATE,THIS WAS CUSTOM MADE TO MY SPECS

I USE PEAVEY VANDENBERG,JACKSON RR3,DIMARZIO'S AND DUNCANS,ALL THE BEST!I PLAY HEAVY METAL,HARD ROCK,AND JAZZ FUSION.IT'S AWESOME.
THIS Cab is the best sounding

YES,YES,YES!!!!!!!!!RELIABLE

THEY ARE GREAT,EXCELLENT TO DEAL WITH. I WILL BE ORDERING AGAIN,FRIENDLY AND COURTEOUS

DEFINATELY WOULD BUY AGAIN,OR REPLACED IF STOLEN.AS AN OLD SCHOOL METAL GUITARIST,THIS IS AWESOME,THE BEST CAB I 'VE HAD IN 23 YEARS OF PLAYING.
BETTER THAN MARSHALL.CRATE,FENDER,CUSTOM.EVEN MESA BOOGIE, FOR HALF THE PRICE,YOU GET ANY CUSTOMIZATION YOU WANT

I got this made through the custom shop with pine top/bottom /sides, and maple bafle and rear pannel. The speakers are 2 Eminence Swamp Thang 150w Patiot Series monsters. I got it covered in awesome looking black crocodile-pattern embossed leather (pics here: http://www.earcandycabs.com/croc.jpg and here: http://www.earcandycabs.com/croc1.jpg) with black hardware and the tophat handles...which rule for easy carrying without wrecking your wrists like the standard Marshall deep dish handles do. The baffle is also covered in leather. The grille is the killer looking powder coated 3/4" steel full front.
Other features are very nice oxygen-free internal speaker wire and a locking output jack to keep the speaker cable from popping out on stage and frying your output transformer.

I play progressive melodic death metal, and this cab is perfect. After the first gig thst I used it for, I was inundated with e mails about how much it improved my tone live. If you want to see what I do, check out the media section at www.aletheian.com.
This is by far the best cabinet that I have ever played. I was looking for a cab that was loud and rude but still articulate, with thich mids and insane low end (since I tune to C). This cab is exactly what I had hoped for. It is punchy and woody sounding with just enough grind on top and slamming lows. It really blossoms when you turn up as well (probably due to the high power ratings of the speakers). While I am on the subject of the speakers, these have a sensitivity rating of 102 dB, which mkes them very touch sensitive and FRIGGING LOUD! The mids are unreal...big and thick. I found myself turning my amp mids down for the first time in my life!
This cab is also soooo much louder than my old birch, Celestian G12T-75 loaded 4x12 cab, or my bandmate's vintage 30 loaded cab, and it does it with 2 speakers! The G12T's have a rating of 75 watts at 97 dB. For every 10db, the human ear percieves a sound source as twice as loud. So the Swamp thangs compared to the Celestians are 25% or so louder since they are 5dB more efficient. The ported design of this cab also adds to the speaker's compliance, makeing it bit louder still. So any questions about "is a 2x12 loud enough" go right out the window. This thing will knock your socks off, but the high wattage rating will keep them from breaking up too early, so it sounds very nice with clean sounds too!
The 2x12 configuration adds a dimension of "focus" rather then the wide sound stage of a 4x12. But if you run 2 in parallel or stereo, you can really controll the width of the image in ways that a single 4x12 could never do. Incredible.

This thing is built like a rock. The speakers also have a 7 YEAR warrenty, but I have never blown an Eminence speaker anyway. The locking speaker jack is completely enclosed and made of cast aluminum instead of cheesey plastic or stamped metal, so it should last forever.

Tim is the frigging man! I have never had such a pleasent experience with a company in the music biz before. He knows how to get whatever sound you are looking for and will answer your calls or e mails quickly. He also understands the plight of the starving artist and does not overcharge for his stuff, even though it is worth 2-3 times what he is charging.
He really bent over backward to make sure that I was happy with this cab. I'll never buy a cab from anyone else.

I haver been playing for decades and have toured from one side of this country to the other, from NYC to LA, from TX to Maine. I play a Steinberger and other old 80's shredder guitars, a custom built EL34 based 60w head (I have owned Ampeg's, Carvin's, Hughes and Kettner, ADA, Line 6, Crate, Fender, Lab Series, Sansamp, blah blah blah, etc). Until now, I used Carvin, celestian loaded cabs and Ampeg Celestian cabs, but not anymore!
This cab is portable, built like a rock and sounds better than anything else that I have tried. If it were ever stolen, I would have to put out an APB to all my band's fans and have them hunt down the punk to show him how death metal bands handle things. Then I'd have an identical one built. I plan to have another one built up before I go out this next summer anyway...I love this thing!!!!!!!!!!!!

I was happy with my previous two 2X12's. The quest for the best went one step further and since I hardly ever used both cabs I decided a top notch 2X12 was the next step. I wanted it to sound good AND look good with the amp, you can have both, right?

Now that I've used this cabinet for the past three weekends I can say that I am 100% satisfied with the Buzzbomb and the sound quality. I provided two speakers of my choice: Reverend Alltone 1250's. It's nice having that option and Earcandy offers a great selection as well.
The sound is very balanced, enough low end without getting mushy. The design of the cabinet allows it to project very well.

Built like a tank! SOLID ! ! ! All top notch hardware and construction details.

All e-mails requests were responded to promptly and I was kept in the loop on shipping dates to know when the gear would arrive. By request I wanted to match the naugahyde on the speaker cabinet with a recovering job on my Soldano Decatone. Tim obliged and now offers that service for his cabinet customers.
Overall a very good experience with the cab and recovering work.

I've been a part-time musician for quite some time. I would be hard pressed to find a better speaker cabinet and would go right back to Earcandy if it was lost or stolen. I give this my best rating because it has exceeded every expectation so far.

He gives you your choice of speakers, choice of grill cloth, amp corners, tolex, diamond plating....ANYTHING you could imagine, on top of that, he ports the cabs. Only genz benz does that, and their speakers aren't even that great...

Basically, its a totally custom cab, that's CHEAPER than avatar.

This this is BAAASSY. Tim is an acoustics GENIUS. His system of porting and wood choice and the construction of his cab all contribute to a terrific sound. I have a mesa nomad 55 head, and running it through my old cabinet made me dubious of its sound, and i thought i was going to trade it, but i waited till i got the new cab. GOOD DECISION! This amp breathed new life into the sound of my amp, fixing every problem i saw with the old one.

This thing is built rock solid. i can't imagine this ever breaking down on me.

Tim (president of ear candy cabs) is a great guy. He'd have half an hour long conversations with me about the sound i'm looking for in a cab. I basically came to him saying i want vintage 30's, but talking to me about the sound i'm lookin for, he suggested Black Powder Speakers (eminence) which cost half as much than vitnage 30's from him. That's honesty right there. He's a really friendly guy that i can imagine would make 100 more people happy like i am.

For $355 shipped, this cab is a fantastic value. It was completely handmade. So the cost of his custom amp is 30 dollars cheaper than avatar, and avatar doesn't even port their cabs. Avatar cabs makes a great standard cabinet, but if you want something that'll leave you with a grin on your face, go to www.earcandycabs.com

I just received this a few days ago, in the midst of a heavy down pour of rain, and of course, Murphy's Law applied without fail, I had to work overtime, when I was dieing to get home to keep my cab from harm.Praise goes out to Tim, for an expert, watertight shrinkwrap of the package, the only thing that got wet was the shipping label because of a tear in the wrap. The cab in the shipping container, was also wrapped for a double source of protection from any water, or rubbing during shipping. I ordered with Diamond plate front, very nice looking, duel ported, stereo plugs, as well as a mono, compatilble with my other stuff, I chose "Texas Heat" speakers because of power handling capabilities. I chose side mounted handles to keep the cab as solid as possible, but this is not an issue here at all, the cabs are so well built and solid, I found since the arrival.No worries with this company, I will vouch that you get what you want, and it is so good, you will wonder how you would get along without it, I am very pleased with this purchase.

I am using a Guild M-80 w/not sure of pickups yet, just aquired, and havn't changed strings yet, maybe XR-7, possibly duncans of some sort, very good whatever they are, and also a vintage Schecter Strat from 79 or 80ish, s/s/h, a 335 copy by Springfield, a Yamaha semi-hollowbody with hollowed out solid body, with maple top with P-90's, and a strat copy w/Gold Lace pups, and one Holy Grail, so lots of different options, and all sound very good, just dail it in and it is amazing, for amp I'm using a Randall RT-30, 5 AX-7's, and 4 EL-84's, and the amp was just back from a checkup, and repair, so fresh and in great condition. I have found that you have to make adjustments from one guitar to another, but again, you get such an appealing sound from dailing it in, worth the time. I have found that my other speakers were not so tempermental about one guitar to another, but this cab is very much that way, and all my other speakers are Celestions, some old Rola 65's, some G12-H's some vintage 30's, so I'm comparing good stuff to these Eminence Texas Heat speakers. I have found that this cab is inspiring, remember the first time you played a guitar that had you jumping up & down? Well this is a similar experience, it feels like an extention of your instument, none of my other speakers even come close, although they still sound good, this is a raising of the bar. I dimed this amp and the cab was begging for more. I have been simply amazed by this purchase in every way. I can't wait to buy a high end amp to use with this cab, but it is so good now, that I have no complaints.

I would expect that this would be one of the most reliable purchases than one could make, because you taylor your own preferences into your cab, it is built to your own specs, so many options are not adding cost to the purchase, just a preference, one from another, you decide, and cost from one speaker to another is minimal, so go for it.

It is a new recent purchase, but 7 yr on speakers, and lifetime on cab. next catagory please.

I had my lead player play through the new cab, so I could listen, and I know his playing well, and very early on into the session, I could tell he was so into it, he just was playing his heart out, and that was so cool, he is usually a little reserved, but not the case here, he was very fluid, and relaxed, and seemed to really enjoy his own playing, and that was not like him. I have looked at this cab over every inch, and cannot find a flaw anywhere, the only thing I would change, is, the mono plug in, was mounted on the back of the cab, on top of the cover, so it is exposed above the naugahide and could get caught by a brush against, or while loading, the two stereo jacks are in a recessed plate, and I will maybe move that one there if I can squeeze it in there. I still will give this a ten, this cab has amazed me for hours, and has even started to sound better, the more it is played!

I can use this cab in any situation, it has mono, stereo, a mono/stereo port, and parelell output (to line out to another cab), it has wheels and a retractable handle so u can carry it around like a dolly in style, another option was a removable grill, and you can design your own cab!!! how you want it!!!

Surprisingly it is sounding better with time!! and it sounds godly at higher volumes, buy this brand nothing else for all eternity

Soo relable sooo dependable i wouldnt use ne thing else ever!

The service is unbeatable, tim will respond to you within an hour or 2 at all times, he is really devoted to his work. If you are not familiar with something tim will inform you in detail!!! and will even ask your about your setup and work with you to create the ultimate cab!!!

This cab = god