is there something i'm missing about this guitar cab?

George · Post by **George** » Mon May 20, 2013 10:54 am

thanks guys, that's really helpful. i think i'll go for the 1218s then. apparently it's more neutrally voiced with better bass, and tons more headroom which sounds like a perfect match for the mustang

louis · Post by **louis** » Mon May 20, 2013 12:16 pm

Welcome to the family!

George · Post by **George** » Tue May 21, 2013 10:07 am

illuminating lore from the ivory tower of fender regarding ohmage and cabs or lack of cabs

http://forums.fender.com/viewtopic.php? ... d&start=15

loren of fender wrote:Hey guys,

I apologize for the confusion. That passage in the manual isn't as clear as it could be. Basically, you can connect one cab, two cabs, or no cabs to the Mustang V. As long as the load is 8ohms or greater, you won't have a problem. Again, the load must be 8ohms or greater per side.

thanks for your keen analysis of the manual loren.

so, it appears i'm actually able to do whatever, and the stock speakers will be fine. so really the only problem is the slight gap in wattage of 15w a side.

honestly though, i'm happy to have splashed out on new speakers, but this should really be in the manual, or more openly available information.

i suppose i could return the eminence speakers if i like the v30s as is.

George · Post by **George** » Tue May 21, 2013 10:18 am

this may also be helpful information to long suffering but stoic cab carrier louis

you could now take just your head along to gigs and plug into virtually any stereo or mono cabinet, or even just leech off the pa by going di

Gabriel · Post by **Gabriel** » Tue May 21, 2013 12:00 pm

I remember reading somewhere that as long as the ohm rating of the speaker is correct you can use a speaker rated at 50% of the power of wattage of the amplifer without any trouble unless you are really pushing the amp, then the speakers will break up.

I used to run a Crate Powerblock 150 watts, through a 80 watt Eminence 1x12 cab and didn't have any issues, sometimes the speaker would break up a bit but that was only when I was playing too loud anyway.

George · Post by **George** » Tue May 21, 2013 12:05 pm

might just straight up return these eminences then if i like the v30s enough.

the eminences look better on paper though: cleaner, more bass/treble etc

johnnyseven · Post by **johnnyseven** » Tue May 21, 2013 12:59 pm

I'm a fan of Vintage 30's, i've been using them for a few years and not felt like i've needed to go elsewhere. I put one in a Hot Rod Deluxe and it made it sounds loads better.

George · Post by **George** » Wed May 22, 2013 8:48 am

magna cart arrived. today. it's amazing

George · Post by **George** » Wed May 22, 2013 5:16 pm

OKAY

got home and am playing it DI'd into my interface on the pc as there is a shipping issue with the cab.

its so much fun! love some of the gain settings. there seems to be a few more different amps and pedal to play with including a shitty tranny 60s garage amp which sounds sweet. its surprisingly light as well but can't help but feel they could have slimmed it down even more. it sounds great coming out of the monitors, loads of very usable presets.

George · Post by **George** » Fri May 24, 2013 8:50 am

cab arrived yesterday. unfortunately it ever so slightly stops the door from closing which is really annoying. i measured the space before arrival but guess i was out by about half an inch. this is going to mess the room arrangement up no end.

the cab is light and very easy to carry for short distances upstairs. getting it up my narrow staircase is no bother shuffling sideways. combined with the light head (12kg) this should be a doddle to take to practices and gigs.

first plugging into the V30s and i'm overwhelmed by a honking midrange and darkness. probably just not used to a 212 says I. however, there also appeared to be a farty upper midrange buzz brought out of the amp. this could be the dreaded "fizz" associated with mustangs that was apparently fixed in the new v2 mustang models - . also i'm aware speakers need a bit of oomph to get going so i turned it up - it sounded clear, more highs but still an ugly buzz and midrange. this could also be linked to the ohmage difference but i don' t know - fender have stated it shouldn't matter

i then swapped the speakers out to the eminence 1218s. as an aside the cab is front loaded behind the grill cloth - very easy. there's also a thick layer of padding on the back wall of the cab to stop resonance (good or bad thing i'm not sure), and the construction is solid.

the difference with the 1218s is dramatic. much clearer, better string separation, lots more sparkle and still plenty of midrange and punch. also, the honky upper midrange buzz disappeared or is at least buried somewhere in the eq of the speakers. at this point it was 9pm so i wasn't really able to turn it up but they are very promising so far. this could be because i'm now playing at the right ohmage but these speakers really seem to dick all over the v30s for cleans and mid-gains. there is a case to be said for the v30s needing to be broken in to sound good but this is inherently true of all new speakers, and the 1218s sound better now so lord knows how good they'll sound in future.

unfortunately one thing i'm still getting used to is how directional the cabinet is. to hear it properly i'm having to sit on the floor. no big deal. in a larger room on a chair playing at a good volume i'm sure it will spread around nicely.

Dave · Post by **Dave** » Fri May 24, 2013 9:55 am

Open backs mediate that problem a little bit (i.e open up the sound) in typical 'spare room' type affairs, but nothing really beats just angling the cab at your face/ears. I've recently discovered some of my complaints about my set up with an angled cab was due to me standing too close to the cab and not in a direct line of site with the speaker (I was standing too close and 'over' the speaker line of sight and it sounded dark mushy and shit).

George · Post by **George** » Fri May 24, 2013 10:13 am

yeah i've had that before even with open backs (though to a lesser extent). you still need to be somewhere near the line of fire but they seem to be less dependent (although i was able to tilt the open backs i had previously).

Post by **Doog** » Fri May 24, 2013 10:32 am

Closed-backs are GREAT for recording and live sound for that very reason, makes a big difference if you want a tight sound.

George · Post by **George** » Fri May 24, 2013 10:50 am

i'm certainly enjoying the punch at the moment. i need to go full bore with it to really try it out though. may elevate it too

George · Post by **George** » Sat May 25, 2013 2:39 pm

help me shortscale.

the left channel of my amp is quieter than the right and makes a farty sound when played through. i have to get up close to hear it but it's definitely there

i've swapped left and right between different speakers (in stereo) and it's definitely following the left channel of the amp, so basically whichever speaker it's coming through sounds bad

any ideas?

johnnyseven · Post by **johnnyseven** » Sun May 26, 2013 6:05 pm

George wrote:cab arrived yesterday. unfortunately it ever so slightly stops the door from closing which is really annoying. i measured the space before arrival but guess i was out by about half an inch. this is going to mess the room arrangement up no end.

Store it on it's side, I think my 2 x 12 sounds better that way round.

Re the channel problems, assuming you bought it new i'd contact the shop you got it from.

Post by **Doog** » Sun May 26, 2013 6:41 pm

George wrote:help me shortscale.

the left channel of my amp is quieter than the right and makes a farty sound when played through. i have to get up close to hear it but it's definitely there

i've swapped left and right between different speakers (in stereo) and it's definitely following the left channel of the amp, so basically whichever speaker it's coming through sounds bad

any ideas?

Did you check both speaker cables? Is it ok when using headphones?

johnnyseven · Post by **johnnyseven** » Sun May 26, 2013 7:54 pm

Also, are you using speaker cables or guitar cables?

George · Post by **George** » Mon May 27, 2013 9:47 am

sorry guys, forgot to drop in and say PROBLEM SOLVED

yesterday i read on the back of the head that both channels need to be isolated from each other. I also remember reading something about some cabs and heads not working together if the speakers share common ground (a problem often associated with metal jack plates), so i put two and two together and experimented.

taking a peek inside the cab confirmed this. if you look at the four solder points toward the back, going from left to right points 1 and 3 are the left and right grounds and are very much shared.

here is my current work around with some guitar jacks and tape to insulate the metal

and it now works perfectly, both speakers as loud as each other.

i won't be able to switch to mono but meh, if people need to borrow it each speaker is 150w at 8 ohms so they'd just have to make do with one

louis · Post by **louis** » Mon May 27, 2013 11:40 pm

George wrote:this may also be helpful information to long suffering but stoic cab carrier louis

you could now take just your head along to gigs and plug into virtually any stereo or mono cabinet, or even just leech off the pa by going di

To be honest I still don't really understand ohm-age and all that malarkey. So if the cab says more than 8ohm on each side I can plug in? I've already DI'd it into a desk at a solo show, didn't work so well with a stereo 3.5mm cable (delay came through much, much louder than normal signal), so had to jimmy up a guitar cable with an adaptor on the end.

I'm really paranoid when it comes to plugging it into anything that isn't mine, when I went to try it out at andertons the only V they had in was one that somebody had used guitar cables as speaker cables and it just made this weird farting/fuzzing sound so I had to demo on a mustang 4.

Also with the 'fizzing', UPDATE DAT FIRMWAREZ! I thought I had some fizzing, then updated, used the same settings and it was gone, a lot of people seemed to agree that the latest update fixed a lot of the issues.

The mustangs get a lot of stick (especially the bigger ones), but with a bit of tweeking you can get some ridiculous sounds out of them, plus you can more or less sound however the fuck you want with the amount of cab/amp/effect combinations there are, and the best part is that they are convincing.