Inside the cabinets

[~BURNY~]

Too much time on my hands


+


A brand new dremel-like screwdriver (best invention since the wheel)


+


The idea of -maybe - switching the worst speaker in my mesa with the best speaker from my harley benton.

+

A crappy camera



=


Harley benton:

Mesa:

I was expecting to see some mesa branded v30 here... *shrug*

The bad news is everything is soldered in the mesa. So I'm unsure I'm going to make the switch...



Oh and... Fuck yeah...

 

[Norris-wf]

Ya I had a look in my my marshall too, and the cordless screwdrivers are fucking WIN. Nice to see the wires are twisted in the Mesa! You could try doing that in the HB too

 

[MarcusGHedwig]

Don't you have a soldering iron?

 

[~BURNY~]

Don't you have a soldering iron?

You bet I have one!

mmm... Didn't expect that kind of shit from Mesa Boogie...:Smug: No biggie but still...

Only difference I could find to tell the speakers apart:

And a clip... Guess which is what... (tried to match the mic position as much as possible this time)

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/2973685/china vs england.wav

 

[~BURNY~]

Cats being lazy cats:

 

[MarcusGHedwig]

I wanna say I prefer the first, but since IMO the tone is pretty low on the gain (and quite muffled), with more distortion/brightness dialed in I might prefer the second. And yeah, I've still never seen any direct evidence that Mesa V30's are different from the rest (except for the country of origin, which of course only started a few years ago), as all of mine have just been labeled as standard V30s, but hey, it's the sound that counts in the end! (even if it's just from the different cab construction) And I wouldn't worry too much about the cracking around the screws, looks like it's just in the top couple of layers of the plywood, which I imagine is pretty hard to avoid!

 

[~BURNY~]

I wanna say I prefer the first, but since IMO the tone is pretty low on the gain (and quite muffled), with more distortion/brightness dialed in I might prefer the second.

Yup, you might be right on that. At least I have more tonal options now...

But you know what pisses me off?
The blatant inability of celestion to provide consistency in tone.
I had a cabinet with eminence speakers before and I could hardly hear any difference between them. Granted they sounded equally shitty but the difference was negligible.
With celestion speakers, it's a bit like playing the russian roulette.

 

[MarcusGHedwig]

Yeah, I've kinda accepted it, but it is pretty ridiculous - what was the power rating on each of the Eminence speakers, though? I kinda thought that maybe the differences in the sound of Celestion speakers was due to the fact that they were designed to break up early, and that when distorting small differences between the drivers get majorly magnified...or maybe it's just shoddy manufacturing/quality control

Oh, and cute kitties

 

[MetalJonesy]

just to add, here is an oldish pic of the inside of my 1960A, now has 3 V30s in it

 

[~BURNY~]

Yay, let's make this thread a "post pictures of the guts of your cab" thread.

@Marcus, can't remember the power rating but, in my experience, you need to push the volume really really hard to hear a guitar speaker starting to break up... Especially with ceramic magnets.

 

[JonWormwood]

I've got front mounted speakers

 

[Soundlurker]

As far as I know the moved production to china around 2003, so if anyone's wondering:

CHASSIS DATE CODES
Since 1956, all Celestion chassis drivers have been stamped with a date code (2 numbers and 2 letters), denoting the exact date of manufacture. The codes are added on the production line and are placed on the speaker's housing leg or the magnet edge. The following lists provide an accurate record of the date codes used.

1992 -
YEAR
CODE

MONTH
CODE
1992 B January A
1993 C February B
1994 D March C
1995 E April D
1996 F May E
1997 G June F
1998 H July G
1999 J August H
2000 K September J
2001 L October K
2002 M November L
2003 N December M
2004 P
2005 Q

The date codes from 1992 are written in the form: Day, Month, Year. For example: 29EJ = 29th May 1999

 

[Nebulous]

Does the Mesa cab have any treatment (foam, etc) on the inside of the rear removable pannel?

 

[MarcusGHedwig]

Nope

 

[SimonSez]

Anyone seen the Basson cabinets? I just heard about them not long ago and supposedly they are made of 1-inch thick plywood and all of the inside joints are sealed with silicone.

Also, my friend was telling me that on the Mesa cabs the front grill is held in by velcro and a friction fit. He says there's a way to take the grill off by prying it with a flathead screwdriver. I haven't tried it and I'm actually a bit afraid to do so cause it could damage the grill. Has anyone removed the grill from a mesa cab?