215BH vs 215B or S

[sturoc]

Decades ago I ran a Sunn Concert Bass Head with a 215S
I recall . Silver face grill .
I see what looks like a later Beta model # 215B that look like the identical design of the 215S.
Now my 215S was one of the best cabs I've ever owned and yes I did sell it for some reason i can no longer remember -Maybe that's a good thing.

I have the op to buy a 215BH but the cab is bigger than my old S and a slightly different design:
speakers are mounted on a slight angle towards the port
Possibly made for laying horizontal, Port up ?

Seeking opinions on the sound difference between:
the 215S old style vs. 215BH and or the 215B ???

Am playing 4 string Jazz basses with small amount of processing.

[craig.p]

I've played through all three, but like you, it was decades ago, so the details concerning what I have to say have been rounded off a bit. Nevertheless, the first two cabs you mention sounded very close. Typical seat-of-the-pants reflex designs, in the traditional vein. The BH, though -- that was a different animal altogether. It was by far my favorite Sunn cab, despite its crushing weight. The porting was so aggressive on that cab that a good portion of the sound consisted of a woody hollowness; you could actually hear the inside of the cab. People either loved it or hated it. Personally I loved it for its uniqueness, even though I suspect it violated a half dozen design principles we take for granted today. The problem is, because the porting arrangement is the bastard child of a short, torrid affair between Folded Horn and Bass Reflex, you can forget about modeling a cab like that. They came stock with those crap square-magnet CTS jobs (I think they were CTS). Always wanted to shove Altec 421s into mine but never got around to it. Upgradeus Interruptus. Went to a folded horn because we signed with a big agent and the rooms were getting bigger. Almost no one was putting bass through the mains back then, at least not on the regional club circuit. Anyway, the folded horn was louder but I lost that great BH tone. I still miss it.

Hope this helps.

[nysbob]

I had a BH that I loaded JBL K145s in. It was a bone crusher - in all aspects.

[sturoc]

My buddy has the BH for $250
The size of a refrigerator, I can't justify taking up that much space and not being able to cart off to the occasional gigs where space could be a premium!
Why I liked my old 215S (which seems to me exactly like the 215B) is it was of a nice size to haul to gigs and not take up so much space.

Been reading here and in Sunn forum threads about the tuning of bass cabs using various speakers and how they raise or lower the res Q of the cab.
Pretty intense stuff and looks like one has to be careful what drivers are put into them.

[Muziekschuur]

Any links to those threads? Can't find them.

[craig.p]

Do a search on this forum only for replacement driver. Make sure underneath that field you select search titles only. You'll come up with lots of threads where people ask what drivers to use in a particular cab, and the replies will educate you how to begin. Similar search strings will come up with similar threads.

[sturoc]

Well I caved sort of... it's been a couple of months since I first saw the ad so on a whim emailed the guy and yes he still had the 215BH - helps when the seller lives in the boonies not too many Sunn fans up there, not too much of anything there now that I've been there !
Sooo I bought that 215BH, actually two of them !
One has blown drivers and is in rough tolex shape, construction still solid though. The good one, well....
...there was a catch: the guy's guitarist friend blew the drivers in the good one, He didn't offer as to why or how and I didn't wanna know... damn kids these days.
he asked $ 175 for the two, I countered with $150. for both, his reply : "SOLD"

They now reside in my woodshop. Gettin em cleaned up and I started pulling the bad tolex off with a small amount of wood shivers coming off with it.
I reached inside to see how far the baffle wraps around and I couldn't reach any opening behind the speaker. Is it really narrow ?
So some Questions,
How best to re tolex a cab ?
What drivers would be great replacements for these ?

thanks in advance and YES they really are big monster cabinets

[nysbob]

Looking at those certainly takes me back - I played through one of those boxes for 7 years.

Everyone's going to tell you to put eminence drivers in there, but if you do that, pick one that has a little sizzle to it. It's a dark cab. If I had one again I'd either put JBL K140s in it or these or http://profesional.beyma.com/ingles/pdf/15P80Fe.pdf

Everyone's got different tastes in drivers and they'll spec you to death...I don't care about weight, and I know these all sound good for bass without tweets or horns or mid drivers.

[sturoc]

Darkness is ok I like a more full sound rather than the slap, plink some people use. If it is too much I got an old Biamp crossover I can throw in and run a second cab ala 4x12 et al. !
These two cabs could burn a lot of bucks on super hi end drivers but my bank acct says otherwise.
I used my old 215S vertically . But like the photo the guy I bought em from ran them horizontally, as do lot of players I've noticed. I'm not trying to be like John Entwistle though, Wondering if there is a sonic difference when they are standing up on end?