Anyone else use bass cabs?

Slimbert

Except bass players... ;-)

I do own and sometimes use a "normal" 4x12 but for the last 20 years (minus a few years off) I've been using various bass cabs. Mainly, two flared and ported 2x12 cabs loaded with Eminence Delta bass/PA drivers, but also currently an Ampeg SVT15E.

In fairness, I downtune a lot, use a lot of octave down effects, and have three heads going at it full pelt all the time but standard cabs have just never quite managed it no matter what speakers I use in them.

Anyone else prefer using bass cabs? Any particular reason?

ecc83

For  a long time we had a 6 cu ft reflex cab loaded with a 200W Fane 15 bass speakers and son would occasionally play his Dominator clone (later an HT-20) through that. Not 'dull' at a all! Well, small room so you HAD to be on axis! The speaker was barely being tickled with 15-20W and so it gave a very clean repro of the amp. Not a sound you ALWAYS wanted but good for jazz and such.

Other speaker were available via a crude patch system. V30, 2 V old Goodmans  Audiom 12" a Vitavox 12" ex cinema speaker (V sensitive but shrill) Rocket 50(!) and a Celestion 10 in a box that I don't recall the number of!

Donated the Fane cab to the local Labour club.

Dave.

ICBM

I used a 2x15" Marshall Integrated Bass System cab with Celestion Sidewinders and a 200W Marshall Major for guitar. It was not dull at all, the Sidewinder 15 has a lot of top end. It's also extremely efficient, so at normal volumes the amp was only just on... it sounded absolutely amazing, probably the best 'stadium gig tone at bedroom volume' I've ever had. Completely clean of course - I had a valve preamp I built based on a 2203 circuit which went in front, for overdrive.

Which probably wins the 'most overkill amp for playing at home' award, but it probably explains why I've never really understood this "too loud for the house" idea. It was certainly capable of incredible volume when it was turned up, but sounded great at a volume you could barely hear in the next room.

Unfortunately it also took up as much space as a very large chest of drawers, and in the end I just didn't really have room for it in the flat.

midlifecrisis

last year just for the hell of it there was a 4 by 10  bass cab in the rehearsal studio we used i plugged it into my laney cub 12 and it sounded really nice. dont know what make it was.

MartinB

I've got a pair of 1x12" ported cabs with Eminence Beta 12 speakers that I use for bass.  I've plugged guitar amps into them a few times, particularly when testing DIY amps as I have them at hand and they seem fairly robust.  They don't sound bad for guitar, and I'm sure I could gig them in a pinch, but they're just a wee bit boring in the high end somehow.  Also, they're smallish ported cabs that give a slight bump just above 100Hz, which is nice and punchy for bass, but odd for guitar (maybe good for some metal styles?). 

rico

I want to try this for some Kyuss era Josh Homme thickness. 

Slimbert

rico said:

I want to try this for some Kyuss era Josh Homme thickness. 

It would be perfect for that.

If want shimmering highs then maybe not, but for low down dirtyness then fill your boots!