Are there any differences feel/tonewise between front loaded 4x12's and rear loaded 4x12's?

[harddriver]

A friend is looking for a decent 4x12 cabinet and I have suggested Marshall, Bogner, EVH, Mesa Boogie(all Baltic birch) as ones that I like.

He found an Avatar 4x12 but it is front loaded. I have played an old Carvin 4x12 front loaded cabinet and compared to the Marshall rear loaded cabinet it just felt different and I didn't really like the front loaded for whatever reason I can't articulate but I didn't care for it.......

So what have you guys found between front or rear loaded 4x12 cabinets.

 

[MadAsAHatter]

I haven't played a front load 412 in over a decade so take this wit a grain of salt. I'm speaking in general terms. From what I remember the low end response was different; not as much perceived bass with a front load and it's not as beamy.

 

[dave74]

I'd go RL all 8 days of the week. I like them better in every way.

 

[Ventura]

Massive generalization but...
RL - fills the room
FL - hits yer face

 

[thegame]

Massive generalization but...
RL - fills the room
FL - hits yer face

This isn’t the place to discuss bukakee videos.

 

[MetalHeadMike]

I don't notice the highly emphasized differences most seem to experience on forums. Are they a tad different, sure, but not a whole lot to me. I have had both and now only have two RL 412s, just as happy as I was with the FL 412 I had next to these. Very subtle differences to me. Just my experience.

I had a Deliverance 412 and a brand new FB 412 side by side for the last few years and honestly felt they both did exactly the same thing. Just had different tone because of different speakers.

 

[itsme]

I'd go RL all 8 days of the week. I like them better in every way.

Agree

 

[SBlue]

Every rear loaded cabinet will sound a lot different from each other. So are all front loaded cabinet. Unless if you front mount speaker and then rear load them, right after, in the same cabinet, for comparison, you'll most likely be telling the difference between cabinets, 90% than if the speaker is front or rear mounted.
Traditional Marshall style 4x12, rear mounted speakers, are my favorite cabs for a long time. However, I've had an old Ampeg 4x12 that sounded phenomenal after loading some Greenbacks in it. Pretty much just like my old Marshall cabs. I also loved a Harry Joyce 4x12 I used to have. This one also front loaded. Insanely huge sounding cabinet. Miss it a lot. Now I only have a Fender Tonemaster 4x12 from the 90s, front loaded with two V30 and 2 Redbacks. Tighter and punchier than any other Marshall cab I have.
Cabinet design, material and building quality makes a world of difference in tone.
Never done an A/B with the speaker rear and front mounted in the same cab to be able to tell the difference.

 

[NowYou'rePlayingWithPower]

Per Celestion in what I assume is the same cab(Red=FL, Blue= RL) :

It seems like most of the range of guitar frequencies are boosted with the same output on RL, but maybe FL have a bit more presence?

 

[stephen sawall]

I have three front loaded cabs. Not sure if they sound much different. But much easier to switch speakers.

 

[boltzthrower]

Of the cabs you listed, if it’s a front loaded Bogner you could easily convert it to rear loaded for an apples to apples comparison. Get some longer screws from the hardware store and nuts for the screws in order to make the T nuts work from the opposite side.

Front loaded is punchy, focused, direct, beamy.

Real loaded sounds big, much less directional so will sound more similar as you move around in the room. Kind of difficult to describe but the sound has this sort of swirling around in a cave thing going on, an effect that’s somewhat similar to oversized cabs, that I personally do not like.

The downside of front loaded, for me, is they’re way more beamy/directional but I still very much prefer front loaded because it sounds direct and in your face while rear loaded sounds washed out to me. If I played more big slow chords, music with lots of space, maybe I’d consider rear loaded but I play down tuned high gain with a lot of fast notes so front loaded keeps it more audible & articulate. FL feels more immediate and revealing which I love but I could see some players finding it too sterile.

The front loaded Avatar is probably the Traditional cab. Great cabs, I have the 4x12 straight and slant. I love the resonance from those cabs, they are far from stiff. They fill the room better than a less resonant FL cab (like a Fatbottom, for instance) but are more directional than any RL cab. There’s one on GC used for $300 + shipping ($42).

 

[MadAsAHatter]

I'm a little confused here with some saying front load is more beamy. I have the opposite experience. Case in point; I have 2 exact same Eminence 212 cabs. Loaded them both up with G12T75's. Only difference is I set one as FL and the other as RL. Using my amp/cab switcher I compared them back to back. My experience was the FL one stayed more the same around the room. The sound of the RL would change as soon as I started moving off axis.

Maybe it's different for a 412

 

[stephen sawall]

I'm a little confused here with some saying front load is more beamy. I have the opposite experience. Case in point; I have 2 exact same Eminence 212 cabs. Loaded them both up with G12T75's. Only difference is I set one as FL and the other as RL. Using my amp/cab switcher I compared them back to back. My experience was the FL one stayed more the same around the room. The sound of the RL would change as soon as I started moving off axis.

Maybe it's different for a 412

Same

 

[boltzthrower]

Man, that's interesting you guys having the opposite experience with FL vs RL beaminess. I've had 5 RL 4x12's and 6 FL 4x12's and now that I think about it, all of the RL's were straight cabs and 5 of the 6 FL's were slant or at least upwarded angled flat baffle.

I have a straight RL 4x12 cab I'm going to convert to FL, just need to cut the speaker holes larger, so that'll be apples to apples. Also curious to try 2 speakers FL and 2 RL at the same time in one cab- but might that cause a phase issue?

 

[Bash_Man]

My ears hear this between my RL Splawn 412 and FL Soldano 412.

RL: deeper sound, more pronounced low end. Spreads a bit more around the room, BUT the sound changes between the front and and side of cab

FL: Sound not as deep, but not lacking on the low end. low end is tighter than RL, however, it has more pronounced high end or you could say more high-end sparkle. I actually had to turn down the bass control on my amp with the FL, but that may also be cause the Soldano 412 is a bit of a smaller size box overall.

Again, that's what my ears hear.

Cheers

 

[harddriver]

Great insights so far.......................Thanks for posting them! It's definitely interesting how just moving a speaker 3/4" or so ahead or behind the front baffle boards could make such a difference to the sound and the feel.

This chart say everything should be pretty much negligible but to some ears it isn't including mine....Maybe I was biased from the getgo with that Carvin Cabinet but I just felt something was different...........according to Celestion's chart I should not have felt any difference.

But looking hard at this graph the Rear Loaded (Blue line) does emphasize more lows and lower mids starting at 200Hz -1200hz but lows like 60HZ should be identical and the Front loaded does emphasize at around 5K HZ which is upper mids and getting into highs.

Interesting Graph Chart Thanks for posting that!

Per Celestion in what I assume is the same cab(Red=FL, Blue= RL) :

 

[stratjacket]

Good info here. I have a Bogner UberKab RL and. Diezel FL cab. It’s been a while since I’ve played through them, but from memory the FL cab was just a tighter bottom end where the RL had a little more boom.
FL combined with a big bottom Diezel was a great match.

I think you’ll notice more difference in speaker selection than the FL/RL.

 

[Ventura]

Good info here. I have a Bogner UberKab RL and. Diezel FL cab. It’s been a while since I’ve played through them, but from memory the FL cab was just a tighter bottom end where the RL had a little more boom.
FL combined with a big bottom Diezel was a great match.

I think you’ll notice more difference in speaker selection than the FL/RL.

Concur. RL tend to have more boom in the room, the FL is more immediate and tight - fucking rips for palm mutes and heavies IME.

 

[harddriver]

Concur. RL tend to have more boom in the room, the FL is more immediate and tight - fucking rips for palm mutes and heavies IME.

Well then........ he might like that..................as he likes the HEAVIES...............................

 

[stephen sawall]

I don't think you can really compare different types of cabs. I don't even think you compare identical cabs. Every individual cab and speaker has it's individual personality.

To get accurate information on the topic it would need to be the same cab FL and RL to see the real difference.