W/D/W home rig - 3 amps - what dry cab?

[Achilles]

Hi again,

So, i have 3 amps:
1) Mesa Boogie Mark V
2) Mesa Boogie Dual Recto Reborn
3) EVH EL34 100W (soon to be purchased)

I´ll build a W/D/W rig for home playing in order to retain the punch and clarity of each selected amp.
I`m thinking a relatively compact rig, because too much volume can become overwhelming for my ears.
I will select 1 amp at a time with a head switcher, then go to the Fryette PS-2 (or Boss WASA- haven´t decide yet) to attenuate the volume and finally to the center cabinet.

I am interested in one cab that can work well with all 3 amps.
i was thinking the EVH 4x12 5150 III cab, as i have read very good comments for that cab for overall sound and build quality. The speakers are low efficiency and they don´t need too much volume to push some air.
Was also thinking a Bogner 2x12 OS but that costs as much as the EVH and its almost as big as a 4x12. Also, the V30s don´t really help at low volumes, so i have heard.
Maybe a 2x12 semi open back?

Which cab would you suggest?

 

[Racerxrated]

Hi again,

So, i have 3 amps:
1) Mesa Boogie Mark V
2) Mesa Boogie Dual Recto Reborn
3) EVH EL34 100W (soon to be purchased)

I´ll build a W/D/W rig for home playing in order to retain the punch and clarity of each selected amp.
I`m thinking a relatively compact rig, because too much volume can become overwhelming for my ears.
I will select 1 amp at a time with a head switcher, then go to the Fryette PS-2 (or Boss WASA- haven´t decide yet) to attenuate the volume and finally to the center cabinet.

I am interested in one cab that can work well with all 3 amps.
i was thinking the EVH 4x12 5150 III cab, as i have read very good comments for that cab for overall sound and build quality. The speakers are low efficiency and they don´t need too much volume to push some air.
Was also thinking a Bogner 2x12 OS but that costs as much as the EVH and its almost as big as a 4x12. Also, the V30s don´t really help at low volumes, so i have heard.
Maybe a 2x12 semi open back?

Which cab would you suggest?

Of those 3 amps, I'd suggest the EVH cab as those greenbacks will sound great with all of those amps from my experience. The V30 cab will sound great with the Mesas but I didn't like it with the EVH when I had one. My Mark Coliseum is just amazing with any cab, but surprisingly almost the best sounding with my vintage greenback cabs. The last Triple Rec I had also loved my greenback cabs.

 

[Achilles]

Thank you Racerxrated! Thats good news.
Is there anyone else with experience on the subject?

 

[acev]

I use 5150 50 W with Engl G12-65 Cab (like a high power greenback) as the center cab and two 1x12 with V30 as the wet cabs. I think they blend quite nicely so your EVH should do nicely as a center cab. I also mix some dry in wet cabs.

I was testing some settings today, a quick riff for reference

 

[Achilles]

I use 5150 50 W with Engl G12-65 Cab (like a high power greenback) as the center cab and two 1x12 with V30 as the wet cabs. I think they blend quite nicely so your EVH should do nicely as a center cab. I also mix some dry in wet cabs.

I was testing some settings today, a quick riff for reference

Thanks for your input acev. So a V30 in each wet cab should be a nice blend with the greenback dry cab. Ill keep that in mind.
Im watching your videos on youtube for quite a while now.
Very nice sound and setup you got there

 

[acev]

I use 5150 50 W with Engl G12-65 Cab (like a high power greenback) as the center cab and two 1x12 with V30 as the wet cabs. I think they blend quite nicely so your EVH should do nicely as a center cab. I also mix some dry in wet cabs.

I was testing some settings today, a quick riff for reference

Thanks for your input acev. So a V30 in each wet cab should be a nice blend with the greenback dry cab. Ill keep that in mind.
Im watching your videos on youtube for quite a while now.
Very nice sound and setup you got there

thanks I find it a good combo !

 

[SpiderWars]

Do you run dry signal thru your wet cabs?

I do run the dry thru all the cabs. Ideally (for me), the dry cab can (or even should) be brighter or at least as bright as the wet cabs. That way you get the clarity from the dry and natural treble roll-off from the wet(s). If had my druthers, I druther have old greenbacks/creambacks in the dry and G12-65 in the wet.

Also there is the issue of slants vs straights. And you could mix it up, say a straight for dry and slants for wets. They sound different, slants sound more midrangey relative to straights which have more highs and lows.

Check this out (I love Johan's videos

 

[acev]

Do you run dry signal thru your wet cabs?

I do run the dry thru all the cabs. Ideally (for me), the dry cab can (or even should) be brighter or at least as bright as the wet cabs. That way you get the clarity from the dry and natural treble roll-off from the wet(s). If had my druthers, I druther have old greenbacks/creambacks in the dry and G12-65 in the wet.

Also there is the issue of slants vs straights. And you could mix it up, say a straight for dry and slants for wets. They sound different, slants sound more midrangey relative to straights which have more highs and lows.

Check this out (I love Johan's videos

Hi,

yes I run dry in the wet cabs. I use Musicomlab Parallelizer, mixer with 3 stereo loops and a dry control, so you can mix as much dry in as you want. It sounds better to me with dry mixed in wet cabs as opposed to 100% wet in the wet cabs.

thanks !

 

[Achilles]

I don't know if it's such a good idea to run dry in the wet cabs because:

1) when i won't use fx, i will hear the dry sound from all 3 cabs and that will be overwhelming for me volume wise and playing-wise.
2) phasing issues might appear.
3) misses the whole point of a wdw setup (the mix of the center dry and stereo wet is hapening in a physical way in the room) and i could easily build a stereo setup instead ( i.e. wet+dry from both cabs with the help of a stereo line mixer to controll the wet dry ratio). But then again, i might loose the clarity and punch that led me in the idea of building a wdw rig in the first place.
Idk..

 

[acev]

I don't know if it's such a good idea to run dry in the wet cabs because:

1) when i won't use fx, i will hear the dry sound from all 3 cabs and that will be overwhelming for me volume wise and playing-wise.
2) phasing issues might appear.
3) misses the whole point of a wdw setup (the mix of the center dry and stereo wet is hapening in a physical way in the room) and i could easily build a stereo setup instead ( i.e. wet+dry from both cabs with the help of a stereo line mixer to controll the wet dry ratio). But then again, i might loose the clarity and punch that led me in the idea of building a wdw rig in the first place.
Idk..

Via the mixer I can have both options with just pushing the button - 100% wet or I can mix any level of Dry in. I dont have any phasing or similar problems. For me it sounds overall better with some dry in outside cabs. Steve Stevens, EVH, Friedman and others also mixed dry AFAIK.

thanks,

 

[SpiderWars]

And to touch on your last comment Christos, you said;
" i might loose the clarity and punch that led me...". I think the point of WDW is the sense of space and hugeness, not so much punch and clarity.

Regarding dry in the wet cabs, I noticed a lot of people that do this end up doing it that way so that's the way I've done it. When I tried wet-only cabs, I thought it did sound huge/spacious but not as full or natural as having dry in the wets. It's like the effects were great either way but the base tone was better with dry in the wets. YMMV.

Definitely worth trying both ways.

 

[Achilles]

Thank you both for your input. Always helpful to learn from other people's experience.
From my experience (having a stereo rig in the past) and from what I have read from others, the whole point of having wet dry wet rig is to have both, the spaceness of stereo effects and the unaffected original dry signal as well, so it seems like the best of both worlds.

I think the logical step that lead one to build a wet dry wet goes something like this :
Firstly, you have one amp and one cabinet playing in mono. Then, you want to use your effects as well but adding your effects in your dry, you lose the punch and clarity of your dry signal, so you make a wet/dry rig.
But having a wet/dry rig, you miss the spaciousness and hugeness of your stereo effects capabilities, so you make a stereo rig and use a stereo line mixer to control your wet/dry ratio.
But then you lose the punch and clarity that only a pure and dry unaffected signal can give (like playing your amp in mono).
Thus building a wet dry wet rig (where you can combine the best of both worlds, i.e. the spaceness and hugeness of the stereo effects -as it should be- and your dry unaffected signal with all it's punch, clarity and definition).

 

[Achilles]

It's all good though.
There is no rule, whatever sounds best to everyone is what matters.
I am thinking that if I can have this clarity and definition of my dry signal mixed with my stereo effects I would prefer having a stereo rig. I don't need the hugeness of a wet dry wet.
I could only buy two 2x12 cabinets with a good combination of speakers that will work great with all my 3 amps (Mark V, Dual rectifier, Evh el34 100w) and be happy with it!

 

[SpiderWars]

I think I went WDW so I had an excuse to buy more stuff, not that I needed an excuse.

 

[Achilles]

I think I went WDW so I had an excuse to buy more stuff, not that I needed an excuse.

Don´t we all? ?