so I'm in the Eau Claire WI area for a wedding this weekend, so I got in touch with Adam from Vader cabs and met up with him for a couple of hours this morning at one of his shops.
I wasn't able to bring any of my own gear, but Adam had an old Peav XXX and a BCrich neck-thru warlock with a stock pup, so I used that.
Tried out the 4x12 and the new 2x15 cabs.
First off, the power handling on these cabs is crazy. with the master and channel volumes both at about 9/10 on the XXX we finally started getting some speaker breakup with the 4x12, but even with everything dimed the 2x15 was clear as a bell. 480watts rating for the 4x12, I think he said the 2x15 was rated at 600watts!
sound-wise, the 4x12 pretty much destroyed my Mesa 4x12s, which have vin30s and c90s in them respectively. now, I don't really like the vin30s, just haven't got around to replacing them, but I do like the c90 sound in my other mesa cab. the Eminence drivers gave me what I like about the c90 sound, but just gave me more of it. headroom and clarity galore! the low end is huge, perfect for detuned metal, but the midrange remains prominent and the highs were not harsh. I was worried that the highs would end up being screechy to cut through all the low end and lower mids, but it wasn't the case. the guitar was a single bridge hum, so I won't comment on clean sounds.
the 2x15 sounds just massive. really has a scooped sound. I was worried that the highs would get lost, but the cab really has smooth high end that was able to cut through. this cab was able to handle the amp wide open with the bass on 10, no farting at all, and no bass player required
. I like a heavy-mid guitar tone, so I preferred the 4x12. we unfortunately did not have a second speaker cable to plug both cabs in at the same time
.
construction on these cabs is top-end. casters on everything bigger than the 2x12, metal grills, and a spray-on like exterior coating (like a truck bed-liner). Adam said that the original demo cabs with the spray-on exteriors went on tours with some national metal acts, and came through with flying colors, far exceeding expectations, showing almost zero road-rash, and decimating the cabs with tolex coverings. these cabs look completely metal, no doubt
the cabs were wired for a single mono input, with a parallel out for daisy-chaining, but Adam said anybody interested in the cabs just needs to ask, and they can pretty much be wired up however the customer needs.
I'm pretty impressed by these cabs, I may pick one up soon. Adam was very friendly and easy to talk to, answered all my questions, and was more than willing to just bullshit for a while, which was really cool. Seems like a real easy guy to deal with. He did mention that there will be a new Vader website in the coming weeks. We talked a little bit about some of the endorsees that he's got on board, and he mentioned that he got a call recently from James Murphy, who signed up
. That's some cool shit right there.
All in all, a great way to spend a couple of hours, and some seriously impressive cabs. I'm gonna go change clothes for the wedding I've got to go to, and I should probably leave a little early so I can stop and pick up some GAS-X.
I wasn't able to bring any of my own gear, but Adam had an old Peav XXX and a BCrich neck-thru warlock with a stock pup, so I used that.
Tried out the 4x12 and the new 2x15 cabs.
First off, the power handling on these cabs is crazy. with the master and channel volumes both at about 9/10 on the XXX we finally started getting some speaker breakup with the 4x12, but even with everything dimed the 2x15 was clear as a bell. 480watts rating for the 4x12, I think he said the 2x15 was rated at 600watts!
sound-wise, the 4x12 pretty much destroyed my Mesa 4x12s, which have vin30s and c90s in them respectively. now, I don't really like the vin30s, just haven't got around to replacing them, but I do like the c90 sound in my other mesa cab. the Eminence drivers gave me what I like about the c90 sound, but just gave me more of it. headroom and clarity galore! the low end is huge, perfect for detuned metal, but the midrange remains prominent and the highs were not harsh. I was worried that the highs would end up being screechy to cut through all the low end and lower mids, but it wasn't the case. the guitar was a single bridge hum, so I won't comment on clean sounds.
the 2x15 sounds just massive. really has a scooped sound. I was worried that the highs would get lost, but the cab really has smooth high end that was able to cut through. this cab was able to handle the amp wide open with the bass on 10, no farting at all, and no bass player required
. I like a heavy-mid guitar tone, so I preferred the 4x12. we unfortunately did not have a second speaker cable to plug both cabs in at the same time . construction on these cabs is top-end. casters on everything bigger than the 2x12, metal grills, and a spray-on like exterior coating (like a truck bed-liner). Adam said that the original demo cabs with the spray-on exteriors went on tours with some national metal acts, and came through with flying colors, far exceeding expectations, showing almost zero road-rash, and decimating the cabs with tolex coverings. these cabs look completely metal, no doubt
the cabs were wired for a single mono input, with a parallel out for daisy-chaining, but Adam said anybody interested in the cabs just needs to ask, and they can pretty much be wired up however the customer needs.
I'm pretty impressed by these cabs, I may pick one up soon. Adam was very friendly and easy to talk to, answered all my questions, and was more than willing to just bullshit for a while, which was really cool. Seems like a real easy guy to deal with. He did mention that there will be a new Vader website in the coming weeks. We talked a little bit about some of the endorsees that he's got on board, and he mentioned that he got a call recently from James Murphy, who signed up
. That's some cool shit right there.All in all, a great way to spend a couple of hours, and some seriously impressive cabs. I'm gonna go change clothes for the wedding I've got to go to, and I should probably leave a little early so I can stop and pick up some GAS-X.
