How to Choose the Right Type of Speaker Cab

Choosing the right type of speaker cab can have a huge impact on your guitar tone both live and in the studio. In this article we’re going to look at the three main types of speaker cab and talk about the pros and cons of using each one for difference scenarios.

Each type and size of speaker cab has it’s uses and a lot of the decision about choosing the right type of speaker cab comes down to the style of music you play and what you need from your cab tonally.

1×12 Speaker Cabs

1×12 speaker cabs contain a single 12 inch speaker. These are very portable cabs and are great for sparkly clean tones and any guitar parts you really want to cut through in a mix.

Smaller cabinets have less bass response so have a very clear and brighter tone overall. This makes the 1×12 a great cabinet for recording clean tones that you need to have some snap to them, or any overdriven tones you want to cut through.

1×12 cabinets can handle higher gain, but the lack the low end response to deliver a highly convincing heavy metal tone compared to larger cabinets. 1×12 cabinets are better suited to cleans or playing blues/rock.

2×12 Speaker Cabs

The 2×12 cab is the best of both worlds, it’s still small enough to be portable, but large enough to have some additional low end thump. The 2×12 has the best overall balanced sound, it’s got the midrange and sparkle of a smaller cab, but with some extra depth to the bass.

These cabinet types record really well and are also great on stage cabinets, especially if you’re playing smaller venues and cranking your amps a little more.

Having 2 speakers also makes the cabinet more efficient, meaning the sound is distributed between the speakers so they aren’t working as hard as a single speaker will. This gives you more headroom before speaker distortion kicks in, but also allows you to push the amp a little harder.

4×12 Speaker Cabs

The biggest of the three types is the 4×12 cab. These are a staple on stadium stages around the world. The iconic image of any rock star is them throwing a pose infront of a wall of 4×12 speakers. For many guitar players who aren’t touring at a high level, these cabinets are somewhat impractical, but they do have their tonal benefits.

With the bigger cab size, you get the most low end of the three cab types. This makes these great for big rock tones and fat metal tones. When using a bigger cab like this you can go a little lighter on the amps bass control, because the cabinet resonance will take care of a lot of that for you.

From a gigging perspective, a 4×12 will output more perceived volume as the hard work is now spread between 4 speakers, meaning they are working more efficiently.

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About the Author

This article on how to choose the right type of speaker cab was written by Leigh Fuge. Leigh is a professional guitarist and content creator and also works alongside musicteacher.com to create guitar focused, educational and entertainment content.

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