Warwick cabinets

[luve2fli]

Euro Outposters ...... talk to me - I know very little. I'm looking at the new Celestian-loaded WCA115LWCE - Neo 15", 500W or the WCA112LWCE - Neo 12", 400W. Specs look good, can't find a single review. Local music store is willing to bring one in on spec for a test-drive and seem to be blowing them out at about 1/2 price. Anyone have any experience?

[Highlander]

Used one at a recent gig... loud and variable... like many rigs, all down to personal taste...

[Chris P.]

I think Warwick is very underrated as an amp/cab builder. The discontinued Hellborg stuff is too expensive but great and the very affordable LWA1000 and LWA500 are really very very very good. I use an LWA all the time and bass players come up to me and ask about it, want to try it, etc.

Cab wise they make more than decent stuff. The lightweight cabs are just good and I think the Celestion loaded ones are very good sounding, but also more expensive. I think they're worth it.

You are asking about cabs, but I need to say this.
All Warwick amp stuff is designed by the mad genius Jonas Hellborg. The LWA is so good.. I can never work with compressor pedals, but on this amp it's always full on. The eq is great too. Hellborg often gets inspired by stuff like old Neve consoles.

[luve2fli]

Chris P - than much for the feedback. The 1x15 cab arrived today at my local music store so I'm swinging round this weekend with my EBS Fafner and Jazz to put it  through its paces. Like I mentioned, they're blowing them out so if all goes well, I can get two of these cabs for about $800 CDN ($575 USD/$525 Euro) which I think is more than fair for Neo cabs with the specs I'm seeing. Full report in a few days ....

[luve2fli]

Gigged with the cab this past weekend. Impressions:

Pros

-lightweight, you can lift it with 2 fingers
-tight and focussed, the NEO speaker isn't "floppy" at all. Overall, a nice sounding cabinet.
-handles low-end with ease, doesn't break up, doesn't distort

Cons

-Chinese-made and the QC is evident (sloppily mounted rear control plate, sloppy tolex application)
-Notched vs. fully adjustable attenuator for the horn. I think it's a cost-cutting measure but .... whateva
-1" horn vs the 4" that I'm used to seeing in Eden's, SWR's, etc.

Two things that struck me as odd - this cab is deep .... at least 6" deeper than most other cabs I've owned. I'm not a real audiophile nor do I know anything about cabinet specs so I take it at face value. It sounds good. Period. Also, the use of an actual 1" speaker for the horn leads me to believe that the NEO 15" has a much broader range than its standard counterpart. The cabinet is rated at 50hz to 20khz ...... using a 1" speaker makes me think that the crossover is probably set at around 8khz - 10khz and the 1" only receives a few watts to do its thing. Still, it's an odd looking feature - but it works fine.

All in all - for the price - still a helluva bargain. Solidly built just a little sloppy around the edges.