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18" cabinets

#5
The SWR Big Ben is an 18" that's about as un-18" as they get. It's and 18, but closer in sound to a really quick 15. Almost a 12, really. As a standalone cab, not so much, but as the low end in a full stack, it's pretty dangerous.

I ended up selling the one I owned because I needed the money. If not for that, I still wouldn't mind owning one.
 
#8
I have the SWR Big Ben + EBS NEO 1x12, each run from a separate channel on my power amp. I use the power amps volume knobs as my "bass & treble" controls. I don't even use the eq on my preamp.

Big Ben gives you the 'missing' bottom octave that you often have to EQ into the 10's + 12's. :hiding:
 
#9
Many, MANY moons ago I used to use an 18" with a 2x10, bi-amped. And then I started working with PA support, and having an 18" on stage for the bass rig will just tick off the sound engineer. Almost useless for near-monitoring situations, they throw low end far out into the room without being very loud when standing right in front of the cab.
 
#11
A good 18" has a lot of slow(ish) reacting bass, and starts to drop off pretty rapidly once you get into the high mids. That can be a good thing or a bad thing, depends on the music. I tend to prefer 15"s for my big drivers, but I've been using a friend's big ben and I must admit that its got a ton of booty. Sounds great with my 4x10.
 
#15
bass555 said:
I have an old Peavey 1820 cab (2 10sx 1 18) and had it refit with EAW speakers and I'm very pleased with its performance...in particular, its delivery of the B-string notes from D# to B
Click to expand...

I have this cab, too, and after blowing something like three of the 18" Black Widows, I decided to try a 1,000watt RMS Madison Excecutioner. Holy Handgrenades, Batman!!! :eek: The improvement was stunning! This is the most seismic-sounding cab I have tried so far. Too bad it's a behemoth...

But, getting hooked on that deep low end response, I have just located, secured, but have not yet received, my new (to me!) Accugroove Gordo 1x18!!! :hyper: I thinking of powering it with my CA9 and using this in conjunction with my Whappo, Jr. being driven by my DB 728 - to give me the best of both SS and tube worlds! :D
 
#16
I realize my age will be showing from this post, but I have to say it...I used to have a rig in the late 70's and early 80's that kicked major butt. Please don't laugh, but I had a Peavey CS200, Peavey pre-amp and a Peavey bass bottom that had a folded horn with an 18" Black Widow in it. This bottom was only about 3' tall and had tilt back casters on it. I know it sounds silly, but that was a great sounding set up. Of course now I'm playing through a Aguilar DB659, Stewart 1.6 and two Aguilar GS212's, so I guess I can't complain. I guess my point is (if I have one), with the right 18" bottom, it can make a difference.
 

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