Experiment in the works. What do you think?

[Will Kelly]

I have this pair of old EV Tapco PA speakers, Model 100s, laying around. These are very light polymer ported cabs with a 12" speaker and a 1" cloth dome tweeter that were made on the mid-80's.

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The cabs themselves are awesomely light. They have nice handles, a decent crossover, and fiberglass batting inside.

I have had these for years and they have literally done thousands of gigs. The 12" speakers are done for, both creased and one has some water damage or something. In any case, at high volume, they are toast.

They other night, just for giggles, I plugged my GK MB200 into one of them and low and behold, it sounded pretty damn good, bad speaker and all.

So....

I ordered a pair of Eminence Basslite s2012's to go in these.

I'm hoping that they will sound good (I think they will) and be a nice alternative for me for low volume jazz gigs where space is a concern. They will also weigh less than 15 pounds each when done. Hopefully, they can also pull duty still as PA speakers (only vocal and maybe piano or guitar through them).

Comments? Suggestions?

[T-Bird]

Hi.

Originally Posted by Will Kelly

Comments? Suggestions?

Only that modeling the speaker before the purchase usually yields the best results.

They will most likely sound better than they do now though, so that's an improvement?

Regards
Sam

[BassmanPaul]

I would have thought that EVs would be fairly easy to have re-coned.

[greenboy]

But that is an old model that by today's standard for molded club PA, is pretty weak. So I say it's fair game for odd improvements, though the crossover picture is guaranteed to be "odd" as well ; }

EDIT: So funny to see such tiny ports. That's where modeling really comes into play - both for tuning and for chuff factor.

[Will Kelly]

Lol! Yes, this is some pretty outdated technology for sure!

Really, my only real goal was to give me a secondary bass speaker (or two) that would sound as good or better than the GK 112MBX cab. I think this will do it.

I really don't have a way to model these, never done that and wouldn't know where to begin. The dimensions are 61X38x22 mm.

[dhomer]

Wouldn't hurt to get some internal dimensions, measure the ports and play w/the ol' ISD for awhile. My eyeball evaluation kinda tells me these cabs were meant for vocal range and above. They look pretty shallow, so there might not be a lot of volume to deal with. In any case I'll practically guarantee port area is insufficient..

[greenboy]

And after all that, the crossover is likely to be a real sticky wicket, ol' chaps ; } - because most likely it is a full crossover designed for the specific drivers and horn geometry, not done like the typical cheapcrap highpass-only bass cab approach. EV were not generally pikers.

[Will Kelly]

Boy, yall are making me feel better about this all the time! I guess we'll just have to wait and see.

[seamonkey]

I didn't know EV made Tapco?

Swapping in your own drivers is not actually any worse than what most bass amp manufacturers do anyhow.
They may start off with some engineered design, but through the years change out the drivers for a better priced one. Heck different drivers between batches.

You may luck out and it sound great. You can always add some bracing if needed, or make the ports bigger. I've even heard of people stacking drinking straws in small ports to keep the chuffing down. Measure the cabs and see what Winisd says.
Eminence even says you can put the Basslite s2012 in a sealed cabinet, so you can try plugging the ports
http://www.eminence.com/pdf/Basslite_S2012_cab.pdf

At worst you'll have 2 new Basslite s2012 you can build another cab with.

Hopefully you got them before Neo skyrockets.

Give it a try, post some measurements.

[Will Kelly]

OKay, what is port chuffing? Never heard of it.

I suppose I can fill or block the ports if need be.

Tapco only made the enclosures for EV. My other experiences with Tapco products have all been in the firearms industry (polymer magazines and gunstocks).

The basslites have already shipped, should be here in 3 days.

[Will Kelly]

HOLY SH&%!

I cannot believe how awesome these little boxes sound! As good as any 12 I have owned (Berg & Ag), and they weigh 16 pounds each.

I highly recommend this setup if you can find these PA shells!!!!

One is going to its first gig in about four hours (jazz trio with no drums), so I will post a follow up.

[Calaverasgrande]

Originally Posted by Will Kelly

OKay, what is port chuffing? Never heard of it.

I suppose I can fill or block the ports if need be.

Tapco only made the enclosures for EV. My other experiences with Tapco products have all been in the firearms industry (polymer magazines and gunstocks).

The basslites have already shipped, should be here in 3 days.

Tapco was a company that Greg Mackie (of Mackie mixers fame) started back in the 70's or so. They were bought by EV in like 79 or 80, oh wait I have google;
TAPCO - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
SO I doubt that pair of speaks hs anything to do with the firearms accessories company.

[Jim C]

Originally Posted by Will Kelly

HOLY SH&%!
I cannot believe how awesome these little boxes sound! As good as any 12 I have owned (Berg & Ag), and they weigh 16 pounds each.
.

Wow, that's pretty strong for kind of an accidental cabinet design / application.

[Will Kelly]

Well, home from the gig and I am extremely pleased.

One cab by itself sounded great. It reminds me very much of my Berg HT112. I have no doubt both together would cover most of the gigs I do, maybe even some of the ones I use two Acme Low B2's for.

The place I was playing is located in an area where there are lots of other musicians playing gigs and we all kind of pop in on each other during our breaks. Two other bass players commented on how good the box sounded.

I feel that as far as single 12 boxes go, I got lucky and made something very light and portable that kills.

Tomorrow I will put one through its paces at a four hour gig with my upright.