Mesa/Boogie 4x12 Halfback Cabinet

How many features can a cdab really have? One 8 ohm in and one parallel out for stringing two together to essentially make a 4x12.

I use this cab mainly for the purpose it was intented.... sounding huge, and let me tell you, it does an amazing job considering the size of the enclosure. Lots of headroom as well. Despite the fact that this cab is basically aimed at big rock/metal tones, it sounds very good with almost all tones, from clean to that AC/DC crunch all the way through to full on saturation. If you want a compact cab that will sound huge to playvery heavy guitar, but also need some versatility, this is the cab for you.

Well, sad to say, I'm forced to give a Mesa product a bad reliability review. When I got the cab, I took it home, and noticed that I was getting sound only out of one speaker (why I didn't notice in the store is a question I can't answer). I took it back in and it turned out it was just a bad solder joint, probably got jolted during transportation, se we soldered it back up and all was well.. but it wasn't. The newly-working left speaker was buzzing (sounded like a punctured cone) but we couldn't find the problem. Needledd to say I was pissed off because I am now broek because of this cab.. but anyway, the store called up Mesa and will have a new speaker for me as soon as their next shipment comes in (soon), so at least it's getting fixed.

However, the thing is built like a tank, and even though I've had some initial troubles, I'm pretty sure I can depend on this thins, and I can't afford a backup, so it better be reliable. :)

Read the above story, you'll see.. I bought it from Murch Music in Cambridge, Ontario.. good place, they ordered me a speaker (free of charge) and fixed the minute solder problem right away.

Overall, this is a great product that sounds fantastic, better then any cab I tried of comparable stats.

Would be 10, but the fact that it didn't work properly when I bought it kinda skewed things. :)

Angled 4x12 guitar speaker cabinet, with two "Black Shadow" Celestion Custom 90's on top and two "Black Shadow" 12L's (I think) on the bottom. Can be played closed back (my personal preference for the fullest sound), open top, or open bottom. It has casters (though they seem kind of unstable). 8 ohms mono, 4 ohms mono, or 4 ohms stereo.

Sounds incredible. I'm running a Mesa Boogie Mark III 100 watt head through this cabinet, and it sounds great. I think this model of cabinet was originally designed to be the match for the Mark heads. This cabinet has completely opened up the sounds of the Mark III. Very, very loud. I guess the sound is just a bit treble-y, but tweaking the presence controls on the amp solved this problem. Very full, Mesa sound.

I think this cabinet will be around for many years to come. It weighs somewhere around 90 lbs. and is a total pain in the ass to move. The metal grille on the front seems firmly in place, although, as another reviewer mentioned, small children can easily poke their fingers and various other objects through and damage the speakers, so I recommend getting a slip cover if you have kids. Overall, very reliable. I would play out without my spare Kustom 4x12 cabinet, primarily because it sucks.

Okay, anybody who has ever had to contact Mesa for whatever reason knows that they do stand behind their products and they will always help you out if you have any questions about your equipment.

Overall, I love this cabinet. I had originally planned on purchasing a Recto 4x12, but found this one used at a local guitar dealer and it completely blew me away, plus it was $200 cheaper than a new Recto cabinet. The only things I wish it had are the new Track-Loc removable casters and a less-penetrable grille. If you own any of the Mesa Mark series heads, I strongly recommend this cabinet.

Angled 4x12 guitar speaker cabinet, with two "Black Shadow" Celestion Custom 90's on top and two "Black Shadow" 12L's (I think) on the bottom. Can be played closed back (my personal preference for the fullest sound), open top, or open bottom. It has casters (though they seem kind of unstable). 8 ohms mono, 4 ohms mono, or 4 ohms stereo.

Sounds incredible. I'm running a Mesa Boogie Mark III 100 watt head through this cabinet, and it sounds great. I think this model of cabinet was originally designed to be the match for the Mark heads. This cabinet has completely opened up the sounds of the Mark III. Very, very loud. I guess the sound is just a bit treble-y, but tweaking the presence controls on the amp solved this problem. Very full, Mesa sound.

I think this cabinet will be around for many years to come. It weighs somewhere around 90 lbs. and is a total pain in the ass to move. The metal grille on the front seems firmly in place, although, as another reviewer mentioned, small children can easily poke their fingers and various other objects through and damage the speakers, so I recommend getting a slip cover if you have kids. Overall, very reliable. I would play out without my spare Kustom 4x12 cabinet, primarily because it sucks.

Okay, anybody who has ever had to contact Mesa for whatever reason knows that they do stand behind their products and they will always help you out if you have any questions about your equipment.

Overall, I love this cabinet. I had originally planned on purchasing a Recto 4x12, but found this one used at a local guitar dealer and it completely blew me away, plus it was $200 cheaper than a new Recto cabinet. The only things I wish it had are the new Track-Loc removable casters and a less-penetrable grille. If you own any of the Mesa Mark series heads, I strongly recommend this cabinet.

Angled 4x12 guitar speaker cabinet, with two "Black Shadow" Celestion Custom 90's on top and two "Black Shadow" 12L's (I think) on the bottom. Can be played closed back (my personal preference for the fullest sound), open top, or open bottom. It has casters (though they seem kind of unstable). 8 ohms mono, 4 ohms mono, or 4 ohms stereo.

Sounds incredible. I'm running a Mesa Boogie Mark III 100 watt head through this cabinet, and it sounds great. I think this model of cabinet was originally designed to be the match for the Mark heads. This cabinet has completely opened up the sounds of the Mark III. Very, very loud. I guess the sound is just a bit treble-y, but tweaking the presence controls on the amp solved this problem. Very full, Mesa sound.

I think this cabinet will be around for many years to come. It weighs somewhere around 90 lbs. and is a total pain in the ass to move. The metal grille on the front seems firmly in place, although, as another reviewer mentioned, small children can easily poke their fingers and various other objects through and damage the speakers, so I recommend getting a slip cover if you have kids. Overall, very reliable. I would play out without my spare Kustom 4x12 cabinet, primarily because it sucks.

Okay, anybody who has ever had to contact Mesa for whatever reason knows that they do stand behind their products and they will always help you out if you have any questions about your equipment.

Overall, I love this cabinet. I had originally planned on purchasing a Recto 4x12, but found this one used at a local guitar dealer and it completely blew me away, plus it was $200 cheaper than a new Recto cabinet. The only things I wish it had are the new Track-Loc removable casters and a less-penetrable grille. If you own any of the Mesa Mark series heads, I strongly recommend this cabinet.

2 seperate sections (top and bottom)that can be left sealed or opened with back panels. 4 black shadow speakers, 2 stereo and 1 mono input jacks (I think it's 4ohm mono and 8ohm on a side stereo?) recessed heavy-duty side handles, big heavy duty slide-loc castors (they slide out quite easily if you need them to)
As far as speaker cabs go, it's pretty versatile, especially b/c of the half-back configuration - only lacking an impedance switch (like newer marshall and mesa cabs)

Using this with a mesa formula preamp into a rocktron multivalve dsp into a mesa 20/20 power amp. Used with a variety of guitars, but due to the sounds of the pre-power amp, used with vintage-type axes. This speaker cab is very bright. I think the speakers have a lot to do with this. I have done extensive a/b-ing with a mesa recto 2x12 (closed, celestion vintage 30's)and my vht 2x12 (open back, celestion 75's). The mesa half back comes from the mid 80's and sounds like it! Lot's of high-end presence and that infamous mesa low-mid sizzle, shall we say? Basically, it sounds amazing for clean sounds - especially with stereo efects. I have noticed that when I use the top section opened, it sounds extremely bright at playing hight b/c this is an angled top cab. If you sit down and listen only to the bottom sealed chamber, it's nice and deep and tight. It has a really big sound, but not a very deep sound overall. I do enjoy it though. I tried to rear-mount the speakers to loosen thing up a bit, but the cab doesn't have enough room inside for this. Perhaps vintage 30's would help out a bit...

Mesa stuff is rock-solid. This cab weighs about 90lbs. It would hurt you before you could hurt it.

N/A, but Mesa is very good in this regard.

I really enjoy this cab for big clean and tight sounds. I also like vintage, loose cab sounds, but that's not this cab's forte by a long shot. For what I paid, this cab blows away everything else. It weighs a ton, but it is smaller than your typical 4x12 - a marshall head is a bit wider than this cab - I think it is designed for short-chassis mesa heads like the mkiii and iv.

two ninty watt celestion black shadows on the top, and two fifty watt vintage black shadows on the bottom.

Ok, I have been playing Boogie heads for the past ten years. I like their heads, but their cabinet speakers suck. I realized this when I ran one of my Boogie heads through a guys Marshall cabinet, and through another guys Crate cabinet. Their cabinets sounded great with my head. But my Boogie cabinet has a fuzzy muffled sound. I went and played some more cabinets like mine, to make sure mine wasn't broke, and they all sound that way. I know people that love the sound of Boogie cabinets, but I hate them. Good heads, bad speakers.

Just for the record i thought I'd update this thing; I called Boogie & found out that these are Eminence loudspeakers, & the model # is MS-12. They used them in the early '80's as their proprietary Black Shadow. As far as I know they use Electro-Voice (EV) speakers now, except in their Mk iv combos, which still use EV. Also thanks to the 2 dudes who emailed me & gave me some feedback ( no pun there ) on this thing & what they run through it.

Well, I called them & they were genuinely interested in what my problem was. Probably pretty hard when you have to deal with anal retentive techno weanies (who have nothing better to do than harass manufacturers so they can fill out these stupid surveys in their spare time) all day long. I couldn't do it.

I bought this thing used, so I'm not sure when it was built, but I'm guessing late seventies, maybe early eighties. It has the silver metal grill across the front to keep out big, predatory animals but not little kids' prying, inquisitive fingers. I'm thinking of sticking some cloth underneath it so my nephews can't poke holes in the speakers, which are otherwise unprotected. It's got two isolated compartments inside the cabinet (which is a little shorter & narrower than a Marshall, but way deeper), each with its own removable back panel. So you can run the top open/bottom closed, both closed, both open, etc. by screwing on/off each panel. Both panels fit REALLY snug, so there's negligable, if any, air leakage
Top speakers are 2x12" Mesa Black Shadow 8 ohm 150 watt APEICE. I don't think Boogie actually make their own speakers; I'm still trying to figure out if they're EV/EVA/EVM or not. I don't think they're celestion, because they have a different style chassis: I don't know a whole lot about speakers, so if someone knows please email me. They DO have this dude on a horse in armor with a lance on the back sticker-otherwise no number codes, just sequential serial numbers.
The bottom has 2x12" celestions which are unoriginal because the guy did a really shitty soldering job and the speakers are both different. One is a G12m70 and the other is a G65 8 ohm. The sticker is torn on the G12m70 so I'm assuming/hoping it's an 8 ohm too. The speakers are all wired in together with 2 seperate jacks on the back, which I haven't figured out yet. They both sound the same, they're both hooked up to all 4 speakers, and they're mounted one above the other. Anyone have any idea how/why these are wired like this? I don't think either one is stereo.
It also has angled top speakers, even thogh it's a bottom cab, which is a great idea. Goddam, this is turning into an essay. I'd give it a 10 for versatility

I play a G&L strat/Legacy through a silverface 100w twin with a blackface conversion, a 4203 Marshall 30 watt artist combo, and a 1966 super PA Marshall aluminum chassis plexi 100w head which isn't quite running right yet. So I did the taste test. My twin has a great big warm sound through it's 2x12 utah speakers, so I treid it through the boogie cabinet for reference, mismatched speakers and all.(8ohm cabinet vs. 4ohm fender reccomendation- Hey, does it really fucking matter if I do this? what about playing the 8ohm cab AS WELL as the stock 4ohm speakers in the twin? ANYONE? I'd love to know before I destroy something) well, it sounded even bigger, and a little smoother maybe. Definitely more bottom end, but not overbearing, and still a great clean sound. Lots of volume, too, although I tried to be conservative so I wouldn't blow my twin up. My little 30watt combo still kept it's weird thin tone sound that all new Marshalls seem stuck with, but it definitely sounded better through this. It has a gain channel which I tried briefly, but not enough to really comment on. sorry. And then my old Marshall- well, hey; these things do sound pretty good. I'm running 6550 tubes in it for now, and haven't got full power for some reason (we're working on it) but it's got a nice, full deep sound w/lots of bottom. Actually sounds really close to my twin until the volume gets cranked up a bit, when it gets a nice aggressive bite to it. more on that later-I also didn't want to really crank it up either, just in case. It's still unfixed. But the cabinet (which is what I'm really talking about here) sounds pretty amazing through them both, and I can still hear the distinct sound of each amp, which is good. I even swapped the 6l6's into my Marshall, and got more of the fendery tone through it. But still different. I couldn't play any heavy stuff because my Dpedal isn't around right now. Maybe I'll update this thing later. After I finish this book I'm writing. Jesus.

Well, this thing weighs a ton, It's got thick solid construction, and from what I've heard about boogies, I should be okay as long as it doesn't fall on me. But I haven't owned it long enough yet.

No idea, but I like the company. Everybody is full of sh*#?!- I mean propaganda, but at least these guys still make good stuff instead of just talking about it.

I bought this because I needed a cab for my Marshall head, and liked the sound of the recto cab vs. the Marshall cab in the store. But I can't afford to drop that kind of coin right now so I was looking for an old, cheap, maybe beatup Marshall 4x12 angled top when I stumbled across this.