Half- vs Full-Stack

  • Thread starter Thread starter Simon Dorn
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Nick still rocks a Mesa full stack. miT has a couple of 4x12's side by side.

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I told you before - fucking jump and bounce on that castle in time to the music you cunts. I’ve only got 15 watts here for fuck’s sake,

Now, you all know this one, from our last tour. (Swigs Jack Daniels/Spinning kicks balloons)

The wheels on the bus go rou… FOR FUCK’S SAKE CUNTS! IN FUCKING TIME! Or I’m gonna have to come over there and fuck your mother.
 
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My made up rule is that the guitar rig has to be roughly at least as wide as it is tall.

Half Stack: cool
Two 4x12's side by side: even cooler
***Lone Full Stack***: awkward and tryhard
Two Full Stacks: back to being cool
Three full Stacks: sup John Petrucci
Four+ Full Stacks: still cool but alright calm the fuck down Yngwie

The exception would be if the rest of the band has enough backline that the single stack doesn't stand out against it. Then it's back to being cool.
 
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While I'm a fan of having a good full power amp on stage, full stacks are largely an artifact of running 100w heads with 20-25w speakers. With modern speakers a half-stack is just fine.
 
Yeah man. Really fucking beautiful ‘n outa sight man. That was Wheels on the Bus man.
Hey, can I get some beers up here man. My boys are thirsty, you know what I mean?
Listen, I know it’s only your 4th birthday party man, but you understand plain fucking English don’t you cunt?
Now fucking jump in time, or we’re saying goodnight. Hey, no cameras bitch.
Now I’ll count this fucker in cunts, and it’s your last chance or we’re walking motherfuckers.

One, two, three, four - Row, row, row your boa…. That’s it fuckers. Party’s over. Get off that fucking castle and fuck off.
 
It is possible that a 1x12 or 2x12 is fine for rock..and definitely should be fine for micing. But if you are playing metal and want the punch, i think 4x12 is king.

I have run full stacks before and it was fine, but i prefer a half stack or two side by side. And i play standing up.

The argument that the cabinet is not at ear level is flawed in one way. The cab at your knees gives more bass than the one at ear level. We generally have to run the treble high for recording...higher than what you want to hear, so the bass heavy perception kind of gives you a great in the room sound
 
Floor-sitting cabinets turn the floor into a sympathetic bass-radiator. They will sound boomier for sure, but the physics of efficient wave propagation is out the window.
Lifting the cab 12” will sound less boomy, and bottom-end clarity all the way up to the important lo-mids will be improved. You might have to stand 15ft away to really hear that bass, but it’s definitely there.
However, I’ll concede that you can close-mic, and ceiling mic, a floor-standing 4x12 all day, and get great results in a studio.

Yes, we recorded on 4-track portastudios with more treble, when bouncing tracks. But with modern consumer mics and 24-bit/96Khz interfaces for $200 - there’s no longer really a need.
Although, having said that - we all might need to adjust stuff when hearing ourselves through monitors for the first time.
 
Full stack is insane in the most beautiful way. Only played one once decades ago, Marshall DSL into a 1960A and 1960B cab. Pure loud but great fun. I could only imagine the faces of people, rocking up to a small pub gig with a full stack lol 🤣 😆
 
BeZo said:
My experience has been the exact opposite. The days of running full stacks to fill a stadium are long gone. Big venues have big sound systems. You can get away with silent stage easily on a big stage and nobody would know. A 1x12 combo is fine for a festival show. It's the tiny bars where having the stacks makes a difference. All of the venues where I have to fill the room with guitars thar aren't in the PA are tiny dive bars with tiny PA setups. Sure, you still have to turn down and suit the mix, but it helps having more coverage in those situations. Especially when there are no monitors.

It's the smaller venues that need the big rigs, not the big stages. Big stages have the PA and monitors to handle any rig. Small venues benefit from bigger rigs.
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Once I played a Micro Cube through a PA...... Everyone thought it was my Princeton Reverb with a 12.


Now not a 412 but yeah..... PA systems are fantastic and no need for full stacks nowadays aside from t subtle tonal aspects.
 
Solarflares said:
That’s the internet for you.
Fuckwits with a voice.
In my day, fat and ugly people, along with thick cunts - they stayed home at night.
Now they live online, and attract other fat, ugly, thick cunts - until the internet is a stinking seething mass of putrid, shit-encrusted, puss-ridden spew.
True artistry dies through sheer weight of mongoloid numbers.
It’s particularly galling when the cunts now own Friedmans, Soldano, Diesels, and the like - and they’re gathering dust in their playrooms/bedrooms/showrooms, as they tell pioneering professionals like me that I have no idea.

Not one good, honest callous between the lot of them.
TGP is even worse. “Oh yes my Timmy Tonex Rat Muff gigging rig has a spare slot on the board. What overdrive do I get?” Fucking get your wife to drive over your fucking head you cunt.
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Absolutely
 
I’ll run a full stack split on ground but not on top of each other . Top cabs sound like shit . I’ve noticed cabs touching the ground give me the reisimbsve I need . Once that cab is up in air def a difference . Plus when the cab is at level of cymbals there’s a fight between you’re tone and the cymbals that’s the guitars will lose . Even loud the frequencies blend to take away mids and make highs soind messy . I truly hate cabs stacked . Even with my fav cab on top it changes too much
 
thegame said:
In what universe? The only way a half stack could sound bigger than a full is if the two cabs in the full stack were out of phase.
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There's more speaker clipping with fewer speakers. In some settings speaker distortion can be musical, and since it's harmonic distortion even "big/loud" sounding.
 
My preference will always be two 4x12’s, side by side or spaced apart, but never stacked.

I can absolutely get everything I need out of one cab, but two is more betterer, especially for stereo effects.
 
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