NCD: Thunderchild 118(!!!!)

[christw]

The cab that almost never was arrived today! This is the big brother of the Thunderchild line. It's based on the monster Faital18 FH500. (Look it up!) I'm not sure I recall what the compression driver in use is but the crossover was some sort of voodoo concocted by Duke, including a variable top end switch - 3.5k or 18k.

For the size, it feels super light. Mike said 52(?) lbs or so. The box it came in was gigantic! It can be seen to the right in the last photo.

More pics and impressions will be posted as time allows. I hear this'll give a fEarful/fEarless a run for it's money.


Updated photos! Dubsters to doom, this cabinet will make you rejoice! (My dog sure knows how to make taking pics hard though!)

With the 300 Pro

Here's the original low quality teaser. The "Marsha" 410 there is approximately equivalent in size to an SVT 410HE.

 

[3rdcurve]

Very cool sir!

 

[DukeLeJeune]

Thank you Chris for making this cab happen! I designed it over a year ago and then chickened out on bringing it to market because I did a few searches here and it looked to me like there was a lot of prejudice against 18s, and only a small handful of people who liked 'em, and I wasn't looking for an uphill battle.

Actually, the way this 18 behaves is more like an uber-uber 15 rather than a traditional 18. North of 1 kHz, it is smoother and more extended than the quintessential uber 15, the Kappalite 3015LF. And yes it has the x-max to move more air than the 3015LF, which has been giving traditional 18's wedgies and taking their lunch money for the past few years.

The switch you mentioned is actually a top-end rolloff switch, rather than a midrange switch. "Up" is wide open up to 18 kHz ballpark, and "down" is a gentle rolloff north of 3.5 kHz or so.

 

[christw]

All credit to Duke LeJeune and Mike Arnopol for their work.

So, I just noticed the weirdest thing... where my power wire meets the house buzzes quite loudly. It seems to be inducing a current in the TC cab or something. It's buzzing at the same frequency! I'm going to see if my Big E buzz too!

Oops my bad! I'll correct it! Duke, when you told me the speaker was that good, I knew it was only a matter of time until I ditched that Kustom cab and went for this TC.

 

[godblender]

That thing is a monster. I want two stacked on top of each other!

Sweet pooch, btw.

 

[5StringPocket]

Does this cab have a Faital M5N8-80 for the upper mids & highs?

 

[zon6c-f]

NOW WE'RE TALKIN...

I love 18's...recently jousted against a double team of 'fFuls ' posts earlier thuis week..LOL..regarding Acoustic folded horns and my beloved Sunn 118-vh. [My fellow 18 lovers watche dform the side lines all that day...came to the rescue after the war party had left..LOL..]

Funny..some years ago, I PMd a 'significant designer'..who will not be named, regarding 18's and a request to him regardin a possible reissue of a design I liked.

Response was a lecture on how my fave design was obsolete..15s are better... and so on.. I did research on said designer...Of course..he designs a folded horn..Naturally it is 'correct'..also radically unaffordable..LOL..

However, Duke has always reponded without flames....so I have only great respect for him.

As for the others..I like y'all too..its fun rufflin feathers...I learned it from Jimmy M.. After getting all of my skin removed from DB threads and a few fFul-ers... I am now fully flame resistant.

Whats my point again??..OH YES... To compliment Duke on designing a light weight 18.

Only thing better than 1x18 is 2...preferably in folded horn format..my opinion..

Great job, Duke... Finally a light weight cab I MAY ACTUALLY CONSIDER...

 

[DukeLeJeune]

Does this cab have a Faital M5N8-80 for the upper mids & highs?

The mid/high section is a compression driver on a serious PA-style horn. This particular compression driver has been used in custom studio main monitors, so it's a pretty good one. Neo magnet, polymer diaphragm.

Only thing better than 1x18 is 2...preferably in folded horn format..my opinion..

...Finally a light weight cab I MAY ACTUALLY CONSIDER...

If you consider fifty-something pounds to be lightweight, you're a better man than me!!

Unfortunately I have zero expertise in the dark art of folded horn design.

 

[Mark Sacchetti]

Tone profile of the 118 please.

 

[JimmyM]

Very cool! Duke does great work.

 

[BurningSkies]

Please vacuum.

 

[christw]

Hey guys, no updates... life's been crazy. I'll be test driving it at a gig tonight. Will report back tomorrow.

That thing is a monster. I want two stacked on top of each other!

Sweet pooch, btw.

Me too! I sure don't need two though! And thanks!

Tone profile of the 118 please.

With what little time I've had to assess (10-15 minutes), it's ridiculously clean and deep with the 300 Pro. It responds incredibly well to EQ changes allowing a huge variety of voices with the switchable EQ, OD, and comp. With the SVT, I tweak the low mids a bit and set the high switch to 3.5k. It's thunderous and awesome. The baked in SVT voice has a lot less deep low end and it's surprisingly pronounced on this cab.

Oh yeah, if anyone tells you a Rickenbacker sounds thin, they've never heard this cab!

Please vacuum.

My dog Ben brings sticks in and subsequently chews them to nothingness every few days. It's hard to keep it clean around here!

__________________________

Better pic! This particular cab was sized to fit exactly with my MTI SVT. The 300 Pro, not so much.

 

[DukeLeJeune]

My dog Ben brings sticks in and subsequently chews them to nothingness every few days. It's hard to keep it clean around here!

When I'm breaking in woofers, if I forget to clamp a protective grille in place, my fifteen pound cat likes to stand on the dustcap with his front legs. I have a growing collection of woofers that need to be reconed.

So... trade ya!!

* * * *

Thanks for posting the new and improved pic. Mike did a really nice job. Yup, that's my PA-cab-lookalike format, but not many PA tops will move that kind of air. Unfortunately that horn doesn't have very good vertical dispersion, so you might need a bit of tilt-back when on a tight stage. I had to use a bigger (deeper) horn because I'm asking the compression driver to go lower, and it needs to do so at high power levels to keep up with that big woofer.

The box is big enough that you might run into fartout at high levels in sealed box mode, just so you know, so save that for quieter gigs and/or check it out in practice first.

 

[christw]

More pics!

When I'm breaking in woofers, if I forget to clamp a protective grille in place, my fifteen pound cat likes to stand on the dustcap with his front legs. I have a growing collection of woofers that need to be reconed.

So... trade ya!!

Ouch! The worst he's done is pee in my dresser so far. That was not a fun realization this morning!

Unfortunately that horn doesn't have very good vertical dispersion, so you might need a bit of tilt-back when on a tight stage.

I'll experiment with dispersion tonight. We have a good 1 1/2 hours tonight for sound check and setup. Sounds like a great time to walk around with my wireless and experiment!

PS this will no doubt have better dispersion than my 410 that blasts my knees at every other show.

 

[Vince Klortho]

When I'm breaking in woofers, if I forget to clamp a protective grille in place, my fifteen pound cat likes to stand on the dustcap with his front legs. I have a growing collection of woofers that need to be reconed.

You can use a nozzle on a vacuum hose to suck the dustcap back out to its proper shape. At least, this sometimes works. Best of luck.

 

[DukeLeJeune]

Ouch! The worst he's done is pee in my dresser so far. That was not a fun realization this morning!

Not fun at all! I withdraw my offer for a trade!

You can use a nozzle on a vacuum hose to suck the dustcap back out to its proper shape. At least, this sometimes works. Best of luck.

Thanks, I tried that! Didn't work... and unfortunately the dustcaps are creased, and therefore not something I could put in someone's pricey new boo-teek cab (at least not with a straight face).

 

[christw]

Thanks, I tried that! Didn't work... and unfortunately the dustcaps are creased, and therefore not something I could put in someone's pricey new boo-teek cab (at least not with a straight face).

Booteek B stock?

 

[svtb15]

Now if it were a bass.. that would be a RELIC job. You have to pay more for those ONE OF A KIND pieces! Sadowsky and Fender CS Upcharge $500-600 for a relic ..

Thanks, I tried that! Didn't work... and unfortunately the dustcaps are creased,

 

[christw]

Short post show feedback: It's so clean and accurate that I need to improve my technique. It reminds me blatantly that I use overdrive to compensate for sloppiness. Also my Phat Phuk isn't quite so phat when you run things clean. I pulled all the port plugs. My B string was HUGE. It's an amazing cab, I just wasn't used to that! I ended up with what I'd call radical EQ on the SVT to keep it sounding vintage and phat (3.5k on cab) while using my JWB 6 string. I got some really nice, warm sounds out of it by the end. (Highs 2/10, mids @ 220 Hz 7.5/10, bass 7/10)

Ps I know photos and video were taken by the crowd + photographers and audio was recorded off the board and by a separate recorder.

Pps using a 300w tube amp with mismatched impedance (4 ohm out, 8 ohm cab) is still f'in ridiculous as far as maximum SPL's go. I never maxed the 'peg, including noodling while setting my tone with this combination for the first time at sound check. I told my singer Paige I'd bring the low end. She was genuinely surprised.

3rd edit! Much like the MAS cabs, you can get very significant differences in tone as you play in different positions and with different techniques. They aren't the same but they both are very transparent to changes that many of us would glaze by with traditional cabs. It really emphasizes the subtlety and nuance in your playing. That's why I like these guys stuff. Plus they both honestly give a crap what you or I think about the gear they make! How cool is that?

Anyone local wanna slam this with your amp? I'd be happy to offer it up.

 

[christw]

double post!

We'll have audio (board + recorder) and video (2 cameras) from the show available sometime soon.

One nice thing about the fans is that they take a lot of video and photos for us.

Size perspective. I'm 5'10"ish and that's an SVT.