A new Avatar 212 is in the house
When I got home last night, what should be waiting on my back steps but a cardboard box large enough to be a child’s play house. Inside was a new Avatar premier Vintage 2x12 custom cabinet. This is the same cabinet I ordered last Friday so it arrived from Idaho to New York over the weekend. Damn, that’s fast shipping!
The cabinet looks great, even better than on Avatar’s website. This cab sports Marshall-style “salt & pepper” grill, which looks more like a weave of gray and cream, rather than gray and white. Very sharp. The construction is also top notch, with 18mm Baltic Birch plywood for the top, bottom, sides and front baffle. The corners are all box jointed. (Dave at Avatar was adamant that they were box joint corners, not finger jointed, but I’d be hard pressed to tell the difference between the two techniques.) I ordered the cab loaded with a Celestion V30 and G12H30, figuring that these would be close to the original Matchless configuration. I also have the Tone Tubby alnico and ceramic H1E speakers waiting in the wings, so I’ll try both and kep the ones I like best.
The only problem is that it’s big. Yeah, I knew the physical dimensions when I placed the order and I’ve seen similar, oversized 2x12 cabs in stores, but seeing the thing live and in person had me wondering if I made the right decision. Space is at a premium in my house, and this cabinet is now taking up some valuable real estate in my dining room. Seems like the house is now overflowing with stuff from our growing family. It might spontaneously explode, spilling the contents into neighboring yards for all to see. Well, I can take comfort in that they’ll see a really nice 2x12 cabinet in with the other flotsam and jetsam of our modern lives.