The Love of Unloved Cabs

[Lardass5000]

I owned one of the very few Trace Elliot 2400s (AH1200SMX) heads ever made. I loved me some monster cabs back in the 80s and 90s. My regular rig was 2 8x10s.
Then I switched to 2 4x10s with EV 18s under each. Then after I blew out the EV18s, my production company decided I was becoming expensive.

 

[Lardass5000]

I continued making empty wooden boxes until I upgraded to BRX Neos then eventually downgraded to a different head.

 

[grubdumpling]

A few years ago I had a bad experience with a band and was ready to call it quits, so I sold everything except for one bass. A little while later, a friend asked me to play bass for his band, but I needed an amp in a hurry. I found a yorkville bloc250b head and matching 115 cab, I kept the cab for a while after upgrading the head, and got used to the sound and it's odd shape, I got so used to it, that even when I did "upgrade", I missed it and kept going back. It took years, but I eventially found a matching one, and also a pair of the original eminence drivers. I then reconditioned them, made new speakon jack plates and installed proper side handles, though I still mostly use the top handle. I love this set of cabs so much that I also modded my YBA1 reissue to match them...

 

[sacahill42]

OK, I'll play...Energy 115 (75 lbs) sitting on top of an Energy 118 (100 lbs), neither of which has been gigged for years. That 118 does make every part of our old house rattle though.

 

[definenredefine]

SWR was 'IT' for a minute and then all these other brands popped up and became the cabs of the year!! I think if any cabs were unloved it may have been Carvin and Peavey.

I have 2 old Peavey cabs (a 1x15 Scorpion and a 4x12 with...CTSs? Eminences? Not sure). They're both big and a bit heavy (the 4x12 comically so) and I love them dearly.

 

[57pbass]

1970’s ALEMBIC B15

 

[DJ Bebop]

Some of my pile-o-crap. I still have one of the two Peavey 1820's in after market cabinets, to reduce the weight, both Peavey International III's and the racks, the Carvin head is still around here somewhere. The Carvin Cyclops cabinet and the Kustom horns on top of the stacks are gone...

Not mine, never had one but these are still out there, the mighty Ampeg Isovent...

.

 

[Chickenwheels]

wow i love the retro vibe, but they’re also really sharp looking? i’d be proud to rock that!

I honestly miss them. My Bergantino 410 beat them out on all fronts though.

 

[Chickenwheels]

This cabinet certainly deserves little or no love. It's a Peavey SC 115 which is more of a PA cab but makes a fine little single 15" until you need to load it in or out of anything

And speaking of not loving to load in or out:
ever try to carefully load a tuck and roll 3x15" Naugahyde cabinet into a Camaro rear cargo hold without spinal or Naugahyde damage?

This is the shizzle.

 

[OldBlue61]

I did this with an Ampeg DD-15 cab a couple years ago. I already had a really good condition SVR-215 and decided I wanted to DD-15 too... I gig with barefaced BB3's and other light gear... But the "compact" 4x15 stack that the DD-15 + svr-215 makes just scratches the like of Ampeg oddities from the early 90's that actually sounded good. I had an isovent in the 90s, and bought another a couple years ago, but quickly sold it. Just didn't like the tone. The DD/SVR cabs just sound really good.

View attachment 5361535 View attachment 5361536 View attachment 5361537 View attachment 5361538 View attachment 5361539 View attachment 5361540

Love it! Great job on recovering them.

 

[Citizen Nara]

Any cab (DIY or Peavey) equipped with a Peavey BW 15 and a disabled tweeter sounded to me exactly the way I want my bass to sound

 

[Novarocker]

I'm definitely young in the scheme of things, being on the border of gen x and millennials. I have a love of the old cabs for sure. I used to have a Goliath 410, now using an "older" US made Ampeg 610 and rehoused my 1st gen Peavey max115 combo.

Always wanted a 360, SWR 610, Big Ben, Peavy 215, Fender 412, and countless others.

I've played through countless backlines of cabinets older than me and would love to own some.havent ever had the space till recently and plan to do the same. I don't know, may just be how I like older stuff, but there's something about the character or worn in feel that suits me.

Peavey 1516. Preferably two of them. I’ve got one of the “reissues” from the late aughts but nothing is more nostalgic to this old man than the ones with the silver stripes and lightning logo.

Never tried one of these or the 1820, and want to so bad.

 

[Old Blastard]

Dang. 12 years ago O bought a 50-pound Genz Benz combo because it was half the weight of my then head and 15" cab.

now I'm saving $ to get a head and cab that weigh half of that.

I am officially old.

 

[grubdumpling]

Any cab (DIY or Peavey) equipped with a Peavey BW 15 and a disabled tweeter sounded to me exactly the way I want my bass to sound

Oh yeah, one of my cabs (shown above), I "upgraded" to a peavey BW after burning down the original eminence. I'm back to the oem driver after I scored a set of donor cabs for parts, but I definitely enjoyed the BW while it was in there.

 

[MCS4]

I used to love playing through the old SWR stuff back when I was a kid and couldn't dream of affording it.

I do, however, still regularly use my old Carvin Redline series 2x10 cab, my first ever bass cab, which I believe I bought used on Craigslist circa maybe 2000 or so. It has long since been retired from active gigging but is enjoying a second life as my at-home practice and recording cab, given that my live rig is often in my band's storage/rehearsal space or otherwise in the process of being moved around somewhere.

 

[dbsfgyd1]

I should preface by saying that I play shows with modern and lightweight amps and cabs, and I completely understand and appreciate their advantages. However, as I've gotten older I've developed a certain love for old, obsolete, unpopular cabs. I'm curious if this resonates with anyone. There is an odd feeling that washes over me whenever I see someone trying to dump a gnarly old cab that's far past it's prime... it's a mix of nostalgia and ambition... I'm inexplicably compelled to restore it to it's former glory and give it a new life and continue it's story.

This is true for certain brands more than others... my favorite brand as a kid was SWR, and these amps and cabs were "it" for me. The Goliath Sr 6x10? My dream. The Henry 8x8? I was obsessed. At one point I ripped an SWR ad out of Bass Player and glued it to the front of my Trapper Keeper. I was a very weird young man lol but the end-all-be-all was the Big Ben 1x18. This was just about the coolest thing to ever exist.

Fast forward ~20 years, and now we live in an age where you can't give this stuff away... and my love for these iconic cabs has only grown. And every once in awhile I get the opportunity to fix up one of these old gems... for your consideration is the end-all-be-all, the original Big Ben from Sylmar, CA with the original speaker:

View attachment 5361057

I bought this on CL for $100. Note the emblem with the word subwoofer written as "SUB WOOFER". I love it! The previous owner's cat had used the rat fur on one side as a scratching post, so I stripped it and refinished with black Duratex. Other than that I did nothing, it's in perfect working condition, and once again it's pumping out the low end. I'm not playing shows with it... it just lives in the practice space where my shoegaze band rehearses, and it's right at home in that high volume situation.

Something I wasn't expecting was how much props I would get for using heavy old gear, mostly from bassists. I've gotten stopped a few times for players to inspect it and share stories, and one guy got really excited and said "I had TWO of those back in the day!" and it brings me a ton of joy to hear what an impact this particular cab had on people's musical journeys... and how much love it gets for being such an old and unloved cab!

 

[shoot-r]

I've had a soft spot in my heart (head???) for Acoustic's 360/370's since I drug one coast to coast, border to border through the 70's early 80's.

Always thought I'd like to have another 360 or just a 301 cabinet (to use with the class D heads I gig with nowadays.)

If one ever popped up locally in good condition and at a very fair price I'd probably pick it up as a stay at home, nostalgia novelty item.

Today, when it comes time to go play a job, I'll be taking my 5.5 lb. class D head and a 40 lb. 212 Neo driver loaded cabinet.

(My 19 year old self, Acoustic 360, Grand Old Opera road show with Pee Wee King, Red Steward, The Collin Sisters.
I'd like to have that 360 back, the bowties ya can keep!!!!!)

 

[dbsfgyd1]

I guess you can say I love unlovable older cabs but these are the only cabs I own. I have two of Eden D series 210 cabs. While not light and therefore heavy by today’s standards, they sound just as good as they did 15-20 years ago.

Frankly, they are still presentable, transportable, durable, and on the gig function very well. I’m too cheap to invest more money in gear when these cabs still have utility for the job. Further at age 71, there aren’t a lot of jobs regardless of how well you can play.

 

[dbsfgyd1]

Like many I did SWR for a minute or two during the heyday. Where I lived it wasn’t Ampeg but ACC Acoustic that was king, every bass player seemed to own a black Rickenbacker with a 360. Stll have some myself … buying them for next to nothing. This whole rig was $200.00 total.

View attachment 5361438

That is a lot of rig!!! I bought the “New and Improved” version, the 371 rig. Trust me, it was no improvement over what you got right there. Ended up with a used SVT with an Ampeg V4b 215 reflex cab. I’ve often wondered what my like had been like if I held out for the Acoutic 360 rig? LOL!!…..

 

[coy garcia]

This reminds me of my very first cab an 18" inverted speaker...oh and the joys of loading it into my dodge colt hatchback as I pushed the seats closer to the steering wheel Looked something like this and sounded terrible but I still miss it.