Mesa Recto cabs, worth the £££?

C

chamelious

www.thesunexplodes.com
A mesa recto cab costs £1000. A Harley Benton 4x12 with V30's in costs £270. I've played a couple of recto cabs and they've always sounded awesome, but how on earth do they justify the extra £730? Where does all that cash go...
 
chamelious said:
A mesa recto cab costs £1000. A Harley Benton 4x12 with V30's in costs £270. I've played a couple of recto cabs and they've always sounded awesome, but how on earth do they justify the extra £730? Where does all that cash go...
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I feel bad for you guys in the UK - they're about $999 here, and you pay the same in dollars as pounds.

If I had to guess, a lot of the difference is due to VAT and shipping from California. I'm not really up on Harley Benton, but partly because of that and partly because of the price I'm guessing they're pretty low-end, right? If I were you, I'd try to find something UK-made that's a little more high end. I know a lot of guys swear by Orange cabs as a good Mesa alternative, and I'm not sure what they cost out there but I bet they're less than a Recto cab.
 
Yeah Harley Benton is a budget brand from a popular shop in europe called Thomann. There cabs are pretty good for what they are. There about as cheap as your gonna get and that's really down to labour and materials. The better cabs will have better woods and will be better put together, exactly the same with guitars.

My advice would be check out Matamp and phone them up for a quote as there very friendly and don't force you into buying or anything like that and there handmade in the UK and probably the best your gonna get (and you can choose your speakers as well as colours etc.)

As DrewPeterson7 said alot of the price increase will be down to taxes etc getting it over here and the price increase from cheaper cabs is really down to what I said before as well as the name. There's also other great brands at lower prices like Orange and even Marshall etc and you'll always hear the difference between budget and high end.
 
stevenr42 said:
There's also other great brands at lower prices like Orange and even Marshall etc and you'll always hear the difference between budget and high end.
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Orange & Marshall are local, right?

Yeah, the thing about cabs, even inside the US, is that the transport cost is so great that it's tough build a business that relies on shipping to other places unless you charge a lot (more than a local carpenter would probably charge to build one).

I've heard nothing but amazing things about Matamp. I'd love to get one someday, but I'm on the wrong side of the pond.
 
stevenr42 said:
Yeah Harley Benton is a budget brand from a popular shop in europe called Thomann. There cabs are pretty good for what they are. There about as cheap as your gonna get and that's really down to labour and materials. The better cabs will have better woods and will be better put together, exactly the same with guitars.
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Ahh, thanks for the confirmation, man!

Yeah. Mesa cabs rule, but aren't really that cost-effective in the UK - I'd look at something from a UK producer of a similar quality. Orange seems to be better regarded than Marshall with the metal guys I know - what do those run you in the UK?
 
Orange aren't as bad as Mesa, they're still £700 odd, but i heard the front grille is basically made of paper? It put me off
 
chamelious said:
Orange aren't as bad as Mesa, they're still £700 odd, but i heard the front grille is basically made of paper? It put me off
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Tough to say for sure, but it looks like a pretty standard weave to me.
 
antichef said:
Orange & Marshall are local, right?
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Yeah well there both UK brands but both do Asian and UK made. Very little's ever local now:D

DrewPeterson7 said:
Ahh, thanks for the confirmation, man!

Yeah. Mesa cabs rule, but aren't really that cost-effective in the UK - I'd look at something from a UK producer of a similar quality. Orange seems to be better regarded than Marshall with the metal guys I know - what do those run you in the UK?
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Marshall 4x12's go from £200 or so to around £500. Orange around £600 and yeah they are rated very highly over here. Both good cabs and there's alot of Marshall stuff to choose from over the years. Not sure on a Matamp 4x12 but I think there similar and back in the day they made all the early Orange stuff.
 
Cheers for the help guys, whatever 4x12 i go for i want to add a 2x12 of the same cab to add underneath/on top (whichever looks better).

I'm thinking probably the black orange cabs.
 
I dont know how much time you have spent with a recto cab.One thing about them that I noticed is a whooshing effect in the low end.I had mine for about 6-8 mos and tried many different heads with it(Splawn,Marshall,KJL,Soldano)and that sound was a constant if you had any low end dialed on the amp.
There are many cabs that sound far more focused for less $$$.ENGL cabs are available in the UK.IMO they sound better than the Orange cabs and are built like tanks.Check one out if you get a chance.
 
SHEPPARDB. said:
I dont know how much time you have spent with a recto cab.One thing about them that I noticed is a whooshing effect in the low end.I had mine for about 6-8 mos and tried many different heads with it(Splawn,Marshall,KJL,Soldano)and that sound was a constant if you had any low end dialed on the amp.
There are many cabs that sound far more focused for less $$$.ENGL cabs are available in the UK.IMO they sound better than the Orange cabs and are built like tanks.Check one out if you get a chance.
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Cheers dude, ENGL are another name on my list, they just dont seem to get raved about as much as mesa/orange.
 
chamelious said:
Cheers dude, ENGL are another name on my list, they just dont seem to get raved about as much as mesa/orange.
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Their HEADS are incredibly popular in the modern metal/djent scene. Cabs, eh, it's kind of a mix - you'll see them paired up with a Mesa or an Orange about as often as with an Engl. Which, I guess, suggests that they're probably pretty good. :)
 
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