Your Favorite Bass Cab?

[Baloney Balderdash]

Mine must be the SWR Triad I, 4 Ohm, 400W bass cab, equipped with 1x15" + 1x10" speaker units + high frequency tweeter horn.

The 15" speaker unit receiving the full range of the signal, and then a build in crossover making sure that the 10" unit mostly only receives the part of the signal that is between 100Hz and 5kHz, and that the high frequency tweeter horn then receives everything of the signal above 5kHz, with how much of this part of the signal is fed to the tweeter horn being adjustable via a build in tweeter attenuator.

Personally I have the attenuator set at noon, which according to the manual is the "normal setting", effectively meaning an about -4dB cut of the signal fed to the tweeter.

I use it for the musical project that has my main focus at the moment, a bass/vocals and drums duo, which music perhaps best can be categorized as a form of progressive psychedelic stoner rock, where I play a just 28,6" scale 4 string Ibanez GSRM20 Mikro bass, tuned G1 - C2 - F2 - A#2, as in G standard tuning, 3 half steps above regular 4 string E standard bass tuning, or 2 half steps bellow A standard baritone guitar tuning, and then beside other momentarily used effects (a heavy high gain distortion with a quite fuzz like quality, consisting of a Turbo Rat clone parallely mixed, via my Boss LS-2, with a Joyo Orange Juice overdrive stacked into a Boss MT-2 Metal Zone, having a big part to play), have the bass signal run through an always on TC Electronic Sub'N'Up Mini octaver, blending in an 1 octave above signal with the regular bass signal, using the default polyphonic octaver setting, but tweaking the EQ of the input signal of the octave engine as well as the EQ of the pitched signal via the Toneprint editor to make it sound more natural, giving an effect similar to that of playing an 8 string "octave" bass, with pairs of respectively bass and octave strings. 

Here, beside my Mikro Bass, is my Peavey Solo Special 112, 160W guitar combo amp, having it's build in 12" guitar speaker disconnected and instead hooked up to my SWR Triad I bass cab, only using the poweramp section of the Peavey, having an EHX Black Finger, tube driven optical compressor, acting as much as a fairly light compression effect as as a tube preamp stage, placed at the end of my effect pedals chain, then going into a Zoom MS-70 CDR, exclusively using that as a multi band fully parametric equalizer, utilizing 6 of the multi effect pedal's 2 band parametric bass equalizer models, then finally going into a Behringer MIC100 Tube Ultragain tube preamp, before going into the Peavey's Effects Return effects loop input :

The SWR Triad I was one of the first real commercial attempts at making a full range bass cab, it's nowhere anywhere near flat response, but to me that doesn't really matter as I think it got just the right frequency balance as it is, with control of the upper frequency representation by the build in attenuator, as I mentioned previously, setting how much of the signal above 5kHz is fed to the tweeter horn.

The low end of the cab is tight and articulated as far as I am concerned, and I guess the cab is fairly mid-rangy, which I suppose makes sense with the part of the signal the build in 10" unit is responsible for, that is everything between 100Hz to 5kHz, and having the 15" unit, as said receiving the full range of the signal, overlap a great deal of those same frequencies, which by the way suits me fine too, as I like a rich mid-range presence.

Also, even with the tweeter horn completely off (since the 10" unit will still reproduce frequencies up to 5kHz without much roll off), but especially with the attenuator set at noon, which equals to an attenuation of about -4dB of the signal fed to the tweeter (5kHz and upwards), the extended upper frequency range, compared to say a regular 15" or even a 10" bass cab, gives the tone of the bass a certain light sense of openess or space to it,  but seemingly without it causing any loss of sense of tightness, and without it ever sounding harsh in any way, even when using overdrive and distortion (mind though that the lack of perceived harshness may very well be due to me having sculpt the EQ so that it starts to roll off the top end from around 4kHz with a downward slope at about 9dB/Oct).

To me this cab reproduce the signal coming from my bass beautifully, couldn't imagine it any better, and even though I guess this type of cab is especially well suited for how I utilize it at the moment, I would not hesitate a moment using it in the context of a more traditional bass setup as well.

The´overall sensitivity of the Triad I cab is not really that impressive but still quite good with 98dB SPL @1W1M, and the frequency response spreads wide and deep with –6 db @ 37 Hz and 16 Khz.

Here's a link to the original manual: 

https://www.manualslib.com/manual/621035/Swr-Goliath-Iii.html?page=17#manual (don't mind the link names the Goliath III cab, page 17, as is where the link leads, is the Triad I manual page)

 

Only downside to this cab really is that it weights half a ton (80lbs, or slightly above 36kg, to be exact).

Man it's heavy, and it's a bit unusual shape (it's deeper and a bit more boxy than it appears on the photo) makes transporting it even more cumbersome. 

 

 

Edited September 29, 2020 by Baloney Balderdash

[Lozz196]

Fave cab I’ve ever had was my Marshall VBC412, though my Ashdown ABM410 EVO-IV wasn’t far behind.

[BreadBin]

My current Taurus 4x10 is a beast. Lightweight, efficient and punchy. Great build quality too.

Like this, but doesn't have the Bi-amp mode.

 

[pete.young]

The Tech Soundsystems NDS412, that I had for too brief a time.

[Cat Burrito]

Orange, hands down. Not lightweight but really well made & British at that. The 8x10 at Bannermans in Edinburgh is a joy to play but I love my 4x10. 

[itu]

My Glockenklang Duo (2 x 10") is very good, but weighs a ton. Usually I take my alusonic (2 x 12") to gigs just because it is lighter. I use the Glockenklang Soul amp.

[Dan Dare]

PJB 4B. I have 3 of them, which makes a pretty potent and still portable rig and I have the option to use 1 or 2 if I don't need to make that much noise.

[mr4stringz]

Had an Ashdown ABM 414T (4ohm 4x10) a good few years back now and man, that was absolutely exquisite.

Glass back means I can only do lightweight now, and I must say that my Barefaced Two10 is on a par as my favourite ever cab. Crazy power and superb articulation for such little weight.

[JottoSW1]

After a heads up courtesy of @la bam I got a Laney Nexus N410 now paired with an N115. Whilst I've indulged in some other Cab GAS these two sound brilliant, seem very well made and are uncannilly light/compact. Paired with a TE Ah500x it's fortunate that we have access to a big space. Have to be very moderate with the volume control.

[la bam]

25 minutes ago, JottoSW1 said:

After a heads up courtesy of @la bam I got a Laney Nexus N410 now paired with an N115. Whilst I've indulged in some other Cab GAS these two sound brilliant, seem very well made and are uncannilly light/compact. Paired with a TE Ah500x it's fortunate that we have access to a big space. Have to be very moderate with the volume control.

Fantastic cabs!

[stewblack]

Favourite cab to look at Trace Elliot 2x10.

Favourite cab to gig with Barefaced Compact. 

Favourite cab just because I love it paired with every head I ever owned and with every bass I play through it is the Barefaced Midget. 

Honourable mention for favourite cab in days gone by: my old Eden 8x10. An absolute workhorse which always sounded great and never let me down. 

[stewblack]

6 hours ago, JottoSW1 said:

After a heads up courtesy of @la bam I got a Laney Nexus N410 now paired with an N115. Whilst I've indulged in some other Cab GAS these two sound brilliant, seem very well made and are uncannilly light/compact. Paired with a TE Ah500x it's fortunate that we have access to a big space. Have to be very moderate with the volume control.

Ah that amp will give every cab just what it needs. 

Glad you found what you needed to sit beneath it. 

[JottoSW1]

7 hours ago, stewblack said:

Ah that amp will give every cab just what it needs. 

Glad you found what you needed to sit beneath it. 

Have removed some pink acrylic wig hairs from the fan ducting, would you like them back ??? 🤣🤣😃🤣

[Steve Browning]

Mesa Boogie Diesel 2x15. Handled the full range of the bass with equal aplomb and had both depth and definition.

[grandad]

I can't say that I've tried/owned that many cabs as I tended to use combo's to begin with. In my gigging days I used a Peavey Max head into an Ampeg B115E both of which now reside in the music club after 20+ years of usage still as good as ever.

Also tried & moved on - SWR, Peavey & Ashdown, various 10" & 15". Never been keen on tweeters. I liked the warmth of the Ampeg.

A combination of infamous Basschat reviews and my dotage  led me down the path towards Barefaced and I've ended up with a couple of One10s and a TC BH250 to complete the lightweight rig.

The One10's give me the warmth I associate with the Ampeg - dipping the mids a bit and with just a smidge of compression. I've never used pedals.

I'd like to try out a Barefaced 12" cab out of curiosity but I think I'm sorted for good.

 

Edited September 27, 2020 by grandad

[Steve_M]

Back in the day when my back could take it and band members were more helpful during load in I had a Mesa Boogie 2x10 Road Ready on top of a Mesa Boogie Road Ready 1x15. Played a Stingray through an Ampeg SVT3. Loved that sound/setup.

Then Markbass came along....

 

[Chienmortbb]

I had a rehearsal yesterday with my BC112 MK3 designed by @stevie  of this parish. It was designed to be a  single lightweight cab that could do most gigs. I turned it up louder than I ever have yesterday (amp was a Bugera, the MOSFET one) and it was magnificent. Now I have used many of the cabinets above and they are all good but at 14Kg this is an easy one hand lift and as a DIY project, very good value.

Cannot wait for the Mk IV .

 

Edited September 28, 2020 by Chienmortbb

[Baloney Balderdash]

On 25/09/2020 at 18:01, Baloney Balderdash said:

Mine must be the SWR Triad I, 4 Ohm, 400W bass cab, equipped with 1x15" + 1x10" speaker units + high frequency tweeter horn.

The 15" speaker unit receiving the full range of the signal, and then a build in crossover making sure that the 10" unit mostly only receives the part of the signal that is between 100Hz and 5kHz, and that the high frequency tweeter horn then receives everything of the signal above 5kHz, with how much of this part of the signal is fed to the tweeter horn being adjustable via a build in tweeter attenuator.

Personally I have the attenuator set at noon, which according to the manual is the "normal setting", effectively meaning an about -4dB cut of the signal fed to the tweeter.

I use it for the musical project that has my main focus at the moment, a bass/vocals and drums duo, which music perhaps best can be categorized as a form of progressive psychedelic stoner rock, where I play a just 28,6" scale 4 string Ibanez GSRM20 Mikro bass, tuned G1 - C2 - F2 - A#2, as in G standard tuning, 3 half steps above regular 4 string E standard bass tuning, or 2 half steps bellow A standard baritone guitar tuning, and then beside other momentarily used effects (a heavy high gain distortion with a quite fuzz like quality, consisting of a Turbo Rat clone parallely mixed, via my Boss LS-2, with a Joyo Orange Juice overdrive stacked into a Boss MT-2 Metal Zone, having a big part to play), have the bass signal run through an always on TC Electronic Sub'N'Up Mini octaver, blending in an 1 octave above signal with the regular bass signal, using the default polyphonic octaver setting, but tweaking the EQ of the input signal of the octave engine as well as the EQ of the pitched signal via the Toneprint editor to make it sound more natural, giving an effect similar to that of playing an 8 string "octave" bass, with pairs of respectively bass and octave strings. 

Here, beside my Mikro Bass, is my Peavey Solo Special 112, 160W guitar combo amp, having it's build in 12" guitar speaker disconnected and instead hooked up to my SWR Triad I bass cab, only using the poweramp section of the Peavey, having an EHX Black Finger, tube driven optical compressor, acting as much as a fairly light compression effect as as a tube preamp stage, placed at the end of my effect pedals chain, then going into a Zoom MS-70 CDR, exclusively using that as a multi band fully parametric equalizer, utilizing 6 of the multi effect pedal's 2 band parametric bass equalizer models, then finally going into a Behringer MIC100 Tube Ultragain tube preamp, before going into the Peavey's Effects Return effects loop input :

The SWR Triad I was one of the first real commercial attempts at making a full range bass cab, it's nowhere anywhere near flat response, but to me that doesn't really matter as I think it got just the right frequency balance as it is, with control of the upper frequency representation by the build in attenuator, as I mentioned previously, setting how much of the signal above 5kHz is fed to the tweeter horn.

The low end of the cab is tight and articulated as far as I am concerned, and I guess the cab is fairly mid-rangy, which I suppose makes sense with the part of the signal the build in 10" unit is responsible for, that is everything between 100Hz to 5kHz, and having the 15" unit, as said receiving the full range of the signal, overlap a great deal of those same frequencies, which by the way suits me fine too, as I like a rich mid-range presence.

Also, even with the tweeter horn completely off (since the 10" unit will still reproduce frequencies up to 5kHz without much roll off), but especially with the attenuator set at noon, which equals to an attenuation of about -4dB of the signal fed to the tweeter (5kHz and upwards), the extended upper frequency range, compared to say a regular 15" or even a 10" bass cab, gives the tone of the bass a certain light sense of openess or space to it,  but seemingly without it causing any loss of sense of tightness, and without it ever sounding harsh in any way, even when using overdrive and distortion (mind though that the lack of perceived harshness may very well be due to me having sculpt the EQ so that it starts to roll off the top end from around 4kHz with a downward slope at about 9dB/Oct).

To me this cab reproduce the signal coming from my bass beautifully, couldn't imagine it any better, and even though I guess this type of cab is especially well suited for how I utilize it at the moment, I would not hesitate a moment using it in the context of a more traditional bass setup as well.

The´overall sensitivity of the Triad I cab is not really that impressive but still quite good with 98dB SPL @1W1M, and the frequency response spreads wide and deep with –6 db @ 37 Hz and 16 Khz.

Here's a link to the original manual: 

https://www.manualslib.com/manual/621035/Swr-Goliath-Iii.html?page=17#manual (don't mind the link names the Goliath III cab, page 17, as is where the link leads, is the Triad I manual page)

 

Only downside to this cab really is that it weights half a ton (80lbs, or slightly above 36kg, to be exact).

Man it's heavy, and it's a bit unusual shape (it's deeper and a bit more boxy than it appears on the photo) makes transporting it even more cumbersome. 

 

 

 

Well, as it happens to be I swapped to now mainly using Thomann's The Box PA 502 passive 8 Ohm, 300W (96dB SPL @1W1M sensitivity), full range PA speaker with a 15" woofer and a 44mm (1.73") titanium tweeter horn (I think the crossover is somewhere around 2.3 or 2.5 kHz) for the project described in my previous post, quoted above.

The reason is that the low G (for you that would be the low E) string on my bass snapped (due to me being stupid and accidentally over tuning) from the D'Addario NYXL set described in my previous post, and when I went back to the regular XL strings I used previously I discovered that the less clear, less clean and less sort of pristine/hi-fi tone of the regular XL strings, in comparison to the NYXL ones, were better suited for this project, and with that change I discovered that the PA speaker mentioned above with these strings actually also was better suited than the SWR cab of my initial post (was exact the opposite case with the NYXL strings).

I'd still claim that objectively the D'Addario NYXL strings and the SWR Triad I cab sounds better, or at least more hi-fi, but as I discovered, in the context of how I use it currently, a less clean, less hi-fi, solution was the right thing.

So I guess the SWR Triad I cab probably remains my favorite bass cab, though I would definitely recommend the PA speaker (The Box PA 502, that can be bought at Thomann: https://www.thomann.de/gb/the_box_pa502_fullrangesystem.htm) in question to anyone looking for a great budget full frequency cab solution, really nice tonal balance and a remarkable low end representation for a non sub woofer PA speaker, in it's price class it's amazingly and surprisingly great.

 

Here's the manual to the The Box PA 502: https://images.static-thomann.de/pics/atg/atgdata/document/manual/c_160814_r2_en_online.pdf

Edited September 30, 2020 by Baloney Balderdash

[gjones]

On 25/09/2020 at 20:43, Cat Burrito said:

Orange, hands down. Not lightweight but really well made & British at that. The 8x10 at Bannermans in Edinburgh is a joy to play but I love my 4x10. 

They used to have a rubbish Peavey something or other, which I had the pleasure of destroying (it was on it's last legs, I just helped it along). 😀

[Cat Burrito]

8 hours ago, gjones said:

They used to have a rubbish Peavey something or other, which I had the pleasure of destroying (it was on it's last legs, I just helped it along). 😀

Sounds like you did the public a service!

[Matt P]

On 26/09/2020 at 23:19, stewblack said:

Favourite cab to look at Trace Elliot 2x10.

Favourite cab to gig with Barefaced Compact. 

Favourite cab just because I love it paired with every head I ever owned and with every bass I play through it is the Barefaced Midget. 

Honourable mention for favourite cab in days gone by: my old Eden 8x10. An absolute workhorse which always sounded great and never let me down. 

I bought a pair of gen 2 barefaced midgets just before the gen 3 cabs were released, I haven't looked at another cab since they arrived (except I did test out a compact before ordering the midgets and If I had the space I would definitely add one to my collection) 

Matt 

[stewblack]

3 hours ago, Matt P said:

I bought a pair of gen 2 barefaced midgets just before the gen 3 cabs were released, I haven't looked at another cab since they arrived (except I did test out a compact before ordering the midgets and If I had the space I would definitely add one to my collection) 

Matt 

The midget/compact combination is entirely unbeatable in my humble opinion. 

[casapete]

Another BF Compact fan here. Had my Gen 1 for maybe 10 years now, and still my fave cab for gigging. Use it with a GK MB800.

Honourable mentions must also go to my SVT 8x10 and SWR Henry the Eighth 8x8 which I would buy back in an instant ( if I had any gigs of course).

[chris_b]

On 27/09/2020 at 10:13, Steve_M said:

Back in the day when my back could take it and band members were more helpful during load in I had a Mesa Boogie 2x10 Road Ready on top of a Mesa Boogie Road Ready 1x15. Played a Stingray through an Ampeg SVT3. Loved that sound/setup.

My bass was an SR5 and the cabs were EV loaded, but I had the same rig as you!! It really was a great sound.

Sold the SR for a Lakland and was very happy for about 10 years, until those RR cabs (about 90lbs each) wrecked my back!!

[chris_b]

31 minutes ago, stewblack said:

The midget/compact combination is entirely unbeatable in my humble opinion. 

I spent 2015-18 with 2 SC's. Then 2019 with an SM and SC. In 2020 I was going to be using an SM and BB2. I guess that'll have to wait until next year. You are right, unbeatable sound.

Edited October 2, 2020 by chris_b