Review of Avatar G212H Special Guitar Cabinet

Many guitarists, when seeking out a speaker cabinet to pair with their amp head, will simply purchase a cabinet of the same brand as the amp. It is true that this is probably not an unwise decision but often such name brand cabinets can be quite expensive. Besides these there are companies that produce quality speaker cabinets for guitarists in a variety of styles and configurations which can provide as good (if not higher) quality as some mainstream brands. One such company is Avatar.

Avatar custom builds guitar and bass speaker cabinets in several styles and can fit any cabinet with the Celestion or Hellatone speaker of choice. I recently purchased Avatar's most popular model, the G212H Special 2x12 cab consisting of one Celestion Vintage 30 speaker and one Celestion G12H30. The cab I purchased was in an 8 Ohm wiring configuration and features a partially open back (closed back is also available at no additional cost).

In addition to some quality 2x12 speaker cabinets, Avatar also offers a line of 1x12 and 4x12 guitar cabs as well as lines of 2x12, 4x10, 2x12 and 1x12 bass cabs. For every taste in aesthetics and tone, there is an Avatar cabinet for everyone.

Why I Chose This One

I chose the G212H Special with those particular speakers and specs because I wanted something smaller than my old 4x12 Marshall cabinet but I also wanted a vintage look and tone. To achieve the vintage look I ordered my cab in black tolex with a wheat-colored grill front. For the vintage tone I chose the two Celestion speakers mentioned above. These two speakers working in conjunction are able to deliver smooth highs and punchy lows thus giving my tone a fuller range. Of course if I had gotten my G212 in the closed back form factor then the lows would be even more pronounced.

First Impression

The cab was very well packaged when it arrived. It was double-boxed with plenty of packaging around it to protect the grill and the corners. Delivery took about one week from Avatar's warehouse in Idaho to my home in central Georgia.

The quality of the structure of the Avatar was apparent upon inspection. All the joints were tight and overall the box was very solid. The wiring job on the speakers was very professional and everything about it was in proper order. So I plugged in my 50W Marshall and took it for a test drive.

Having been used to a closed back 4x12 Marshall cab I had to adjust my EQ on the front panel of my JCM 900 amp. I set my Bass, Mid, and Treble knobs to the noon position to begin with and adjusted from there. I found that the highs really came through loud and clear on this cab and so I actually had to adjust the Treble and Mid down and boost the Bass. After about an hour of tweaking I found the tone I was looking for. It was smooth, not too harsh, with just enough distortion to start getting dirty upon aggressive string attack.

I could not be happier with my choice to purchase an Avatar 2x12 cab. The structure quality of the cabinet is on par with the best in the industry, in my opinion, and the sound of the vintage Celestion speakers gives me all of the classic tone I could possibly need from my Marshall amp and Gibson Les Paul.

Avatar cabinets can be purchased through the Avatar website (www.avatarspeakers.com) or through their eBay store via Buy It Now (search for seller name daveavatarspeakers).

One final note: the Celestion speaker website suggests "breaking in" new speakers once you purchase a new cabinet. There is a tutorial on the Celestion website on how to accomplish this.