I bought an Orange PPC112 Cabinet for Christmas this year. I already have an open back one 12 cab from Ibanez, but I wanted a closed-back speaker with a single Celestion Vintage 30 speaker in it. The Orange PPC112 is exactly that.
My Ibanez cab has a Celestion Seventy 80 speaker, which is the stock Celestion that goes into a whole lot of amps and cabs. It’s sort of THE generic stock speaker. It’s a decent sounding speaker and I was fairly happy with it, but I knew from previous experience that the Vintage 30 sounded better. And in a side by side comparison in my studio, it does. Compared to the Seventy 80, the Vintage 30 has a more pleasing response. There aren’t any frequencies that sort of jump out and ruin things. It sounds warmer and fuller, and is particularly good at dirty guitar sounds.
The cabinet is, well, orange. I like Orange amps, but I don’t prefer them. Truth be told, I’m not crazy about the color, but it wasn’t a deal breaker. The cab is built to stand on, and can certainly handle the rigors of gigging, even though my gigging days are mostly behind me.
What more can I say? It’s a great speaker. If you have something like a Seventy 80 and are wondering if a Vintage 30 would be an upgrade, I’m here to tell you that yes, it will be. It isn’t just for hard rock – it’s a great sounding speaker for anything. And contrary to the name, it’s not a 30 watt speaker – it handles 60 watts.
Am I biased? Of course I am. I wouldn’t have bought it if I didn’t like it. And I like it a whole lot.
