Available Now at Northeast Music Center!
Two Celestion C90s. Two different cabinet environments. Open-back dimension on top and sealed, ported punch below. The MESA/Boogie Split Back Vertical 2x12 brings one of the great Boogie cabinet concepts of the ’80s back to life.
Some cabinet designs simply hold speakers. The MESA/Boogie Split Back 2x12 was engineered to do considerably more.
Originally associated with some of the massive guitar sounds of the 1980s, the Split Back concept combines the characteristics players love about open-back and closed-back cabinets within a single enclosure.
The upper chamber allows its proprietary Celestion C90 to breathe through an open back, producing the airy response, dimensionality, and broad projection associated with open-back cabinets.
The lower C90 operates in a sealed, ported chamber, contributing the tighter low-frequency response, punch, and girth normally associated with a serious closed-back design.
Available from Northeast Music Center, the returning Split Back 2x12 is an exceptional companion for today's Mark IIC+, Dual Rectifier, and other MESA amplifiers—and a compelling choice for players who don't want to choose between open-back air and closed-back authority.
This is the most important thing to explain to a shopper.
Both speakers are proprietary Celestion C90s, but MESA doesn't ask them to do exactly the same job.
The upper C90 operates in an open-back chamber.
That gives the upper portion of the cabinet the spaciousness and dimensional quality players love about open-back designs. Clean sounds breathe, chords feel expansive, and the cabinet projects into the room rather than directing everything forward.
Then the architecture changes.
The lower C90 operates inside a sealed, ported chamber.
That gives the bottom half of the cabinet greater low-frequency focus, punch, and authority. MESA specifically describes the ported lower chamber as adding punch and girth.
The result is not simply the sound of two C90 speakers.
It's the sound of two C90s interacting with two different enclosure designs simultaneously.
That's what made the original Split Back concept so clever.
Traditionally, guitarists choose between two broad cabinet personalities.
An open-back cabinet can sound airy, dimensional, and wonderfully expansive, particularly with clean and lower-gain tones.
A closed-back cabinet typically provides greater focus, tighter bass, and the percussive response many players prefer for aggressive rhythm and high-gain work.
The Split Back asks a simple question:
Why choose?
The upper open chamber supplies dimension while the sealed and ported lower section provides the foundation underneath it.
For a player using an amplifier capable of moving from beautiful cleans to serious high gain—particularly a Mark Series amplifier—that combination makes enormous sense.
With two 90-watt C90 speakers, the Split Back provides 180 watts of total power handling.
That gives the cabinet substantial headroom for powerful MESA amplifiers.
The C90 is an especially appropriate choice because its broad response and high power handling allow the character of the amplifier to remain front and center.
A great clean channel stays articulate.
Crunch tones retain body.
High-gain sounds remain substantial without losing the definition necessary for fast passages and complex chords.
At Northeast Music Center, we think that's why the speaker complement belongs near the very top of this listing. A customer buying a serious cabinet deserves to know exactly what's producing the sound.
MESA specifically identifies the returning Split Back cabinets as excellent companions for the Mark IIC+ and Dual Rectifier Solo Heads.
The Mark IIC+ pairing is particularly interesting.
The amplifier can produce exceptional cleans, articulate rhythm sounds, and one of the most famous high-gain Lead voices ever created. A cabinet capable of combining open-back dimension with tight low-frequency punch allows more of those personalities to shine without requiring two separate enclosures.
Put the Mark IIC+ HRG on top and you have an especially formidable Boogie rig.
But the Split Back isn't limited to vintage-inspired Mark tones.
Its 180-watt handling and hybrid enclosure architecture make it an excellent candidate for a wide range of MESA heads where the player wants both dimension and authority.
There's also a legitimate heritage story here.
MESA says the Split Back 2x12 and 4x12 cabinets helped produce some of the major guitar sounds of the 1980s, before disappearing from production for nearly three decades.
Now they're back.
That's worth explaining because this isn't a new cabinet with vintage-looking cosmetics.
It's the return of an actual MESA cabinet concept from an important period in Boogie history.
For longtime MESA enthusiasts who remember the original Split Back cabinets—or younger players who have encountered vintage examples and wondered why MESA stopped making them—the new production model provides access to that design without hunting for a decades-old cabinet.
The Split Back enclosure is constructed from void-free marine-grade Baltic birch plywood, continuing MESA's longstanding cabinet-building approach.
The exterior combines rugged Black Bronco covering with hand-formed leather corners and an expanded-metal grille, giving the cabinet a distinctly vintage Boogie personality while providing serious protection for the C90s underneath.
At 70 pounds, this is a substantial 2x12—but MESA includes Track-Loc removable casters to make transportation easier.
A fitted slipcover is also included.
That's ultimately what makes the Split Back different.
You aren't choosing an open-back cabinet and sacrificing some closed-back punch.
You aren't choosing a sealed cabinet and giving up all of the room-filling dimension of an open design.
You're getting both enclosure philosophies working together.
For players building a professional MESA rig, that's a genuinely useful difference—not simply another marketing feature.
At Northeast Music Center, we believe cabinets deserve the same attention as the amplifiers driving them. Speaker selection and enclosure architecture can completely change how a great amplifier responds beneath your hands.
That's why Northeast Music Center is proud to offer the returning MESA/Boogie Split Back 2x12.
For the longtime Boogie player, Mark IIC+ owner, Dual Rectifier player, studio guitarist, or anyone looking for something more versatile than a conventional 2x12, this cabinet deserves serious consideration.
Two proprietary Celestion C90s. 180 watts. 8 ohms. Open on top. Sealed and ported below.
One cabinet. Two classic cabinet personalities.
