Open Back Vs. Closed Back Cabinets: Which One is for You?

When purchasing a new speaker cabinet, guitarists are often faced with the choice of open back or closed back cabinets. An often overlooked factor, this seemingly simple choice is responsible for a large part of your tone. While no cabinet style is necessarily better, they are different, and it’s just a matter of finding which one works better for your situation.

All other factors aside, closed back cabinets generally have a more focused, crisp sound. Since the back is sealed, the sound is projected straight forward. This may make the guitar a little hard to hear when you’re standing to the sides of the amp, but this could be a good thing in a cluttered, busy mix.

In contrast, open back cabinets allow the tone of your guitar to project through both the front and back of the cabinet, creating a wider, more organic sound that is less compressed and less focused. This is particularly useful when the monitoring situation onstage is less than ideal, but at the same time this may cause the guitar sound to wash over all the other instruments.

But it doesn’t always have to be one or the other. Carvin Audio’s innovative VX212 cabinet allows you to quickly and easily change your tone on the fly. It has removable back ports so you can switch up your sound between sealed, one port, or two port tuning. Leave both ports intact and you’ll get a classic tone with crisp mid-range and tight bass. For extended bass response, remove one port. Take two ports off and you’ll change the frequency center of the bass boost and make it more noticeable. This cabinet opens up a whole new world of tonal possibilities and lets you find the sweet spot in your guitar sound.

Featuring Carvin’s roadworthy Baltic Birch construction and weighing in at only 60 lbs, the VX212 is a complete solution for your tone. It even has two ¼” phone jacks and a stereo/mono switch in instances where you want to split your signal between two amps. Find your best tone today with the Carvin Audio VX212.

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