J Design Cabinets 212 Cabinet

Well, not a lot of features can be packed into a cabinet. I'm going to give them a 9 here for the options they offer. I basically had J Design make me a copy of another cab that was custom built for me a few years ago and it turned out great. I went with the cornerless tolex option and piping/vein similar to Marshall styling for this cab. Another nice touch was the handle on the back panel for ease of removal and the side handles that were installed. It's really easy to carry with the full size 4x12 handles instead of a regular amp handle on the top.

I happened to order a set of Eminence Tonkers for this cab on a whim from a reccomendation of a friend. I tend to lean toward higher wattage speakers in 2x12's just because I use 100W amplifiers and need the extra power handling. This combination of cab/speakers works very well for what I wanted to hear. Nice highs that aren't overly bright or harsh and a lot of low end similar to a 4x12. A very good, balanced, and even tonality.

I've had this cab about a month and a half now and had no problems at all with it. My other custom 2x12 (from a company whose name rhymes with JoJo) came in and after about a month, corners peeled and vein came loose. Not here. Jeff puts in the extra effort to make sure that all of his cabs are top-notch. Everything is tight and looks like it will stay that way even with some abuse.

Customer support is A-1 with J Design. Super responsive with e-mails and no waiting what-so-ever. It's nice to e-mail someone about something custom and have them respond so quickly.

Overall I'd give them a 10. I really like this cab a lot. It sounds very similar to the other cab it was meant to complement and has it's own tonality with the Eminence speakers. Once the speakers were broken it, this cab became like home. About the only thing I should have ordered but didn't would be removable casters, but that's only because I didn't think about it while ordering.

Sealed back speaker cabinet with two 12 inch Celestion Vintage 30 speakers ( 16 ohms each ) , stereo / mono jack plate with switch and dual 1/4 inch inputs ( 8 or 32 ohms mono / 16 ohms stereo ) , cabinet is made from Western White Pine with a clear satin polyurethane finish , black metal handles and black metal corner hardware , Black grille cloth and heavy duty 3 inch removable caster wheels.

This cabinet looks and sounds incredible !!! It is versatile enough to use for any style. I play Rock , Metal , Country and Jazz. I also own a recording studio with Major and Indie Label clients that perform the same styles of music as well as R & B and Hip Hop. This cabinet is used by everyone when it's time to record , as well as for personal use at my live performances with my bands. This cabinet will make any amp sound great. The better the amp , the better the sound. Jeff at J Designs is the man !!!

My personal guitar rig consists of a Rocktron V2.0 Preamp with an Eventide GTR 4000 in the effects loop , into a Marshall EL84 20/20 All Tube Power Amp that has been custom modified with two Electro-Harmonix 12AX7EHG Gold Pin Preamp Tubes , one Electro-Harmonix 12AU7EHG Gold Pin Phase Inverter Tube , and four Platinum Matched Electro-Harmonix EL84 Power Amp Tubes. The two outputs of the Marshall Power Amp feed the two inputs on the back of the J Designs 2x12 cabinet. I use a Rocktron Midi Mate Midi Controller to control both the Rocktron Preamp and the Eventide effects unit via a 7 pin midi cable that allows the midi controller to be phantom powered by the Rocktron Preamp. All speaker wires and patch cables are Monster Cable Studio Pro 1000.

This cabinet has received many hours of use and touring. So far it has performed as great as the first day I got it. I always bring a backup cabinet and amp to live gigs because you never know what may happen on the road. Every professional musician travels with a backup. I will be ordering more cabinets from J Designs in the future , but until then I have another cabinet and amplifier head just in case of an emergency. The only thing is , I haven't needed to use my backup stuff since I bought this amazing cabinet from Jeff at J Designs.

I never needed to use any customer support other than placing my order. Jeff from J Designs builds incredible stuff that lasts. I would think that if there ever was a problem it would be attended to immediately. Jeff sent me e-mails and photos of my cabinet as it was being made and called me personally to let me know it was completed and on its way. It was even finished two weeks early !!!

I have been playing for twenty years. I researched many cabinets before deciding on a J Designs. The quality , value , and sound can NOT be beat. It looks as great as it sounds !!!! It sounds better than any Marshall or other big name cabinet that I have played through. It sounds just as huge as a 4x12 but it is half the size. I would , and will , definitely buy again. Hey , you could never have too many great sounding custom cabinets. Especially if they're a J Designs. Don't waste your money on mass produced big name cabinets. You only end up paying for all the money those big name companies spend on advertising to make you think that their product is the best. The proof is in the test drive. Please consider buying a J Designs cabinet. You will definitely be satified and you will definitely save alot of money.

My cabinet and speakers were a special order,,I asked and got a custom built 2-12 cabinet dimensions were similar to a marshall 1936 cabinet,,thats what I asked for,thats what I got.I ordered two weber blue dog 30 watt speakers.I ordered this cabinet to match a full size marhall jcm 900 valve amplifier.Im very happy with it.The quality is way above any stock cabinet you would purchase in a store.

Im using Fender and Gibson guitars.I wanted this set-up for outdoor shows,,I intend two run the marshall and another amp simultaneouly.Its basically a stereo type set-up primarily for blues.Depending on how you set your controls on the amps you can play any style from rock,blues and even jazz.

I dont see a problem with dependability,and besides Jeff Earl backs up all his cabinets with a great warranty.

Jeff Earl is very into what hes doing.Hes dedicated, and Im sure hes has done, his homework and research, to make great products.I believe the standard warrany is two years providing YOU dont burn up the speakers because you were not focused.Jeff Earl was as helpful as anyone could possibly be.I highly recommend is products.This is a hand made cabinet with high quality control standards.Its also tested before its sent out.

Ive been playing for 27 years.Lots of different gear as well.Yes,I would buy it again.I compared it to stock cabinets and speakers that I didnt want to buy.Most of the speaker cabinets are either to big or it has, the wrong type of speakers in the cabinets so why waste money and also be unhappy with what you bought.Jeff Earl uses only premium quality speakers.If you dont know what speakers to use email Jeff Earl or Weber speakers for advice.

Made in 2004. 2x12 custom dimensioned cab, with mono/stereo jack plate and removable back panel for open or closed back design. Black levant tolex, black basket grill cloth, wide face, nickel corners, 3/4" birch plywood. Metal side recessed handles.

Very well constructed and built. The tolexing is flawless, the inside is very clean and built like a tank.

I play classic rock, hard rock and metal. The brich cab suits all those styles very well. I have a homemade pine 1x12 and comparing them both with the same speakers -- the pine cab seems to be more bassy and less middy. The birch cab puts back the mids and has enough bass without being overpowering.

So far so good. It's a well crafted cab, very roadworthy. In fact this cab is better built than most Marshall 4x12's I've seen in stores.

I worked with Jeff entirely through e-mail. He was very patient and guided me through what would be best for my sound. HE IS THE BEST TO WORK WITH!! And the turn-around time was fast.

If this cab were stolen I would not hesitate to order another one from Jeff at Jdesign. After all the researching I did on cabs, brandnames and costum shops, JDesign was the right move for me. The selling point for me was not only the kind customer service but the mono/stereo jack and the overall "look" of the cab. And now that I've heard how great these cabs sound and how great they are crafted, it was the best decision I could have made.

Thanks Jeff!

Closed-back 2 x 12 horizontal guitar cab. Made in 2003. Black Levant tolex and black nylon grill cloth. 4 swivel casters and a top mounted handle. I bought it empty and loaded it with Celestion Vintage 30's. Looks awesome; kind of like a hand-crafted piece of furnature!

I used this cab with a 2 channel Mesa/Boogie Dual Rectifier. I have a PRS Tremonti SE with Tremonti USA pickups, PRS Custom 22 and I PRS Singlecut with #7's. I play hard rock/metal; Creed, Alter Bridge etc... This cab sounds awesome! I am accually looking at different speakers because I think the V-30's are just harsh sounding (not the cab's fault). I am thinking of grabbing some USA made Eminence's. I think this can would sound great with just about any speaker combination!

Very, very, very soild constructed cab. It could probably withstand a long fall, put I don't think I will ever try it. Just a solid piece of equipment. The price was just right, too.

I can't really say because I've had this more than maybe a year or so and haven't really needed anything, but I have heard a lot of great things about Jeff.

This cabinet is just a 100% awesome piece of equipment! If it were stolen I would probably cry and then order a new cab. This is just a great cab to play guitar through. I just wish Jeff wasn't all the way in California!

Made March 2004, 2x12 closed back horizontal cab 15-Ply 3/4" Baltic Birch, dove tail joinery Baffles are built with premium 9-ply 1/2" Baltic Birch. The craftsmanship of this cab is second to none. Makes my Mesa/Boogie 2x12 look like it was a by Fisher Price toy. I've heard so many folks compare Boogie as "Made like a Tank" well with that being said my JDesign Cab is a "Tank piercing Missle" cause side by side theres just no comparison. The 1/4" input jack is countersunk and has a very tight fit. I also like the fact that being coutersunk the speaker jack doesnt stick out a lot which can be a problem if you ever push your cab to close to a wall broke or damaged the input jack.. Good attention to detail. Also my cab has the recessed handles on the side which is great when you use a rack rig. How many other rack riggers like me has a problem with trying to get you rack not to teeter totter on the top handle of your cab.. It's a pain in the rear. Also one other feature is speakers, you can have Jeff load these cabs with just about any speaker brand and wattage. cool beans. Jeff will build you about anything you want ..just let em know what your after... awesome..

Oh yea the Sound, I've been playing 30 years and play everything from A/Z.. My two main axe's is a Gibson SG loaded with Seymore Duncan's and a Carvin DC 135. I'm using my JDesign 2x12 loaded with MOD 70 Jensen's.My rack guitar setup consist of a 120 watt classic tube amp by peavey into my Mesa/Boogie rack V-Twin pre-amp into my BBE sonic maximizer. I use a tube floor effects processor. I have a 4x12 5150 cab and a 2x12 3/4 back mesa/boogie cab. I know longer use my 4x12 as I'm becoming lazy in my old age and opted for 2x12's instead. SO with the setup that I'm using I've always liked the rounded warm tones I achive with my amp setup and my 2x12 boogie but it was always just a little to dark.. not muddy but a little dark even with my bbe which helped tremdously but without any presence control on my 120 classic peavey I just couldnt brighten it up with the 3/4 back boogie cab, although I'm very satisfied with the overall tone of the 2x12. and in my opinion my 3/4 back boogie blows my 5150 4x12 out of the water for sound clarity and punch. Well I wanted a cab to compliment my boogie and the JDesing Cab does just that. This cab produces a warm punch with clarity. Its brighter than my boogie 3/4 back but not to bright. I'm very satisfied with the Mod 70 jensens and the resonance of the cab just adds the right amount of punch and brightness. This cab sounds great!!! and for the price I paid.. Are you kidding me! Awesome indeed.!

Cant say because I've only had it about 4 weeks, but given how well it is built I cant forsee any problems.. again sitting next to my boogie 2x12 it looks head and shoulders tougher..I'm not knocking my boogie cab but thats the reality of it..

Great support from Jeff. He always answer's all of his emails even on his day off... if he gets any :-)... Also he'll send photo's and answer any and all questions you may have..

Again I've been playing 30 years and have had just about everything that has come and gone throught the years, I've played on great gear and have tried some crap, and let me tell ya'll if your considering buying a custom cab.. BUY FROM JDESIGN CABS!! they will not disapoint you.. They have got to be the best kept secret in the cab building circle.. QUALITY QUALITY QUALITY .. all at a very affordable price... THANKS JEFF..

Open or closed back operation
Casters
Elephant tolex
Wired for parallel operation

I added the speakers, so difficult to rate. As an engineer, I was more interested in the quality of the construction. The construction and the materials were excellent in my opinion.

The enclosure will be very dependable. As a 2x12, this will be my most used piece of gear.

I have experienced no problems, but the warrenty is available if I need it.

I have been playing 40 years. I have a Les Paul, a Fender Blues Jr, A Marshall TSL 100 Head, a 1960A 4x12 Cab, and now the 2x12 Cab. I would buy this cabinet again tomorrow if the need arose.

I just had these custom made through J Design Cabs and my expectations were exceeded on my first ever custom cab order!! Jeff Earl was not only helpful and knowledgable but he also gave me a bit of an education on wiring, the diiferent types of woods, speaker needs and options, and gratefully put up with my annoying e-mails!
I ordered two 2x12's with black taurus tolex, oxblood yellow grate, and 1/3 open/closable options, in/out plugs for daisy chaining cabs, additional wiring and wiring diagrams for future possible stereo rig set-up.
One cab I ordered empty which I run Celestion G12M-70's and the loaded cab I decided to try out the Jensen Neodymium's. I didn't like the neodymiums distortion at first because they were just too well rounded. The clean was amazing, but thank God I ordered the 1/3 open option! As soon as I openend it up, the cab stopped farting due to my overwhelming need for heavy metal, and the bass and tone of the speakers infiltrated the room and also relieved the cone compression that my low end 7 string had been causing.

I use a humbucking 7 string and also a Strat with noiseless single coil pickups. One cab I run out of my Mesa Dual Rec and the other runs out of an Ampeg VH-140C solid state. What a great tonal explosion these two heads cause. If you're into everything heavy, you should give my secret a try!

Hand made custom quality to the max!!!!! Great warranty on his products!

Jeff is the customer service master. Do Not overpay for a name brand manufacturer MORE money for less product with no options.

I've been using these for one week now and can't stop relaying my good experience to everyone about his products and service. Try one, or two or three.......I'm going back for more!

This cabinet was made in 2003. It has 2 Celestion Vintage 30, mounted offset to fit in a 24" wide cabinet. I play jazz and gospel and ocasionally rock, blues, pop. The speakears are wired to be used either in mono or stereo, with two 1/4' jacks for each speaker and a switch to go from stereo to mono. There are recessed handles in the sides, and a high quality handle on the top. The tolex covering is done well. The baffle is stained and clear coated with round metal speaker covers (instead speaker cloth, which eventually tears). Appearance wise, this thing is beautiful. A back panel is removable to get an open back or sealed enclosure sound.

This cabinet is feature rich because I custom ordered it. About the only thing I would change would be to have the entire cabinet stained and clear coated instead of using tolex. I asked the proprietor (Jeff) about this, and he indicated that his construction techniques (joints) lend themselves better to tolex. This is why I assigned a 9 instead of a 10.

With high quality speakers, materials and construction it is hard to go wrong. I play a Cort thin hollow body that is quite customized with a single Seymore Duncan humbucker. I also use a Carvin DC 127 and a Godin Multiac classical. I use this 2x12 with a J Designs 2x10 that I had built to match. I drive the stack with a Peavey Classic 50. I do not play rip roaring rock, my experience is with lower volume levels in which the stack produces a wonderfully balanced, even mellow sound. Of course, because I have the guitarist gene, the first thing I did when I got the cab was to crank it up to 10 and is really seemed to put out, shake the house, cause ear pain etc. Rock players would probably love this thing, but that is not my main genre.

I can't imaging anything would go wrong with this, but time will tell. I will leave this a no opinion for now, but from what I can see in the construction this will probably be a 10.

This is why I bought the cabinets from J Design. I contacted two other custom speaker manufacturers and they were not nearly as responsive as Jeff. I started out wanting wood finish cabinets (no tolex) but the builders I contacted had difficulty providing simple specs like cabinet dimensions and weight. They were also about twice the cost of J Designs. Jeff kept me informed through out the building process. We ran into a slight bump because the tolex I ordered was no longer available, and Jeff immediately emailed me pics of other choices. He even went above and beyond when specifying the baffle stain. He emailed me pics of several stain colors that he put on wood samples and asked me to choose. I asked Jeff to used T nuts instead of simple wood screws in some places and he did so at no extra charge. I believe the warranty is 2 years, but do not expect to need it. If the cabinet needs work, I'll probably do it myself.

I've been playing for 30+ years and have more gear than time to list here. I am an engineer by day, so I can afford more toys than if music was my only gig. My other main amps are a Marshall JTM 60 combo and a Polytone mega brute. I drive the J Design cabs with a Peavey Classic 50 head that is new (2003). The Peavey is an incredible value, so I felt I could splurge a bit on the cabs. I was not really cost constrained in my choice. If I found somethig I wanted at twice the price, I would have bought it. I'd prefer not to mention the names of the other two custom speaker builders I contacted because I don't want to slam their name. I considered a Mesa Boogie 4x10 cab, but the lead time was 4 months. Not to slam Boogie, but they are probably loosing business because of the lead times (they lost mine). J Designs was by far the most responsive builder that I worked with. Jeff turned the product quickly, and delivered on his promises.

Custom built in 6/2003. With 1 Celestion V30 & 1 Celestion G12H30, at 8 ohms.The cab has a larger Baltic Birch box and is sealed. Recessed metal handles on sides,cornercaps, rubber feet, Black tolex and grill cloth. It looks great. Jeff's site offers lots of features to build the cab you want.

I like to play everything from 50's Rock to contemopary Rock. This speaker set up works very well for me. I tried as many different cabs as I could find, and I found that cabs with this combination of speakers sounded great every time. This Cab is first rate, built for my needs. I place it on its side (speakers horizontal placement) and I think it sounds best this way. You will not find a better cab,anywhere near this price. It sounds great and is a dynamite deal.

Built very solid.

Jeff went out of his way to make sure the cab was built exactly to my specs. He built and had it shipped to my door step very quickly.

I have been playing four years, mostly for myself in my livingroom. I have a Hamer Artist and a Charvel Model 6, and I use pedals (London Fuzz is my favorite) about half the time. I wanted more clean headroom than my Mesa Boogie Subway rocket could give. I descided to move up by first buying a cab, then later a Head Amp(Dr. Z KT-45?) I am very happy I went this way. A good Cab can do wonders to your sound. This is a well built product with great sound. The price to value ratio is incredible. Jeff is very helpful. The quality is first rate. The cab looks great, and helps me to create the sound that I want.