In the 80's Peavey had a few lines of unique cabs involving 18's. They had these:
Peavey 1820:
View attachment 1061377
For larger shows, they had the Peavey 3620:
View attachment 1061378
I had the fortune of using both these cabinets on some larger venues in the 80's. The bottom end was just fine for me-- I didn't notice any sluggishness. What made these beasts very nice was the crossover to the 2 x 10's. When I played through two of the 3620's and a Peavey Mark X-something head, the look of the system was intimidating and the sound very full.
I remember a great short deep cab from the early 70's the Cerwin Vega 18" folded horn. It was not meant so much to project definition but more to project a thunderous low end you could feel in your feet in the club. I saw a band in Seattle and the bass player had one of these and an Ampeg amp and it completely ENVELOPED the club in low end loveliness.
View attachment 1061379
So, while the industry has been dominated by 15's, 10's and now the 12's, the 18's have played a a unique niche role for a small group of thunder gods!
I used to own the earlier 1810 version, which is actually likely what the cab on the right in the top pic is. The 1810 and 1820 were very similar, if not practically the same, the 1810 just being the earlier version. I had a 1516 (15+2x8) before that, but the 1810 blew it out of the water and I sold the 1516 before gigging it. My head was the swr bass350 red face, the year was 1998.
Caveat, my 1810 was purchased from Bart Broadnax, an incredible bass player and musical director, and he needed it for one more gig, so I went to the gig (hotel lounge 7pc band with horns) and bought his cab at the end. It had been re-18d with an 8ohm EV but I did not open it up and get the specs, I was told it was a 200w speaker, and that it was "warmer" than the original black widow. I don't remember it being overly muddy, and it really had a big bottom.
The way I ran it was to bypass the crossover, which sucked power and didn't utilize the bottom end of the 10s or the top end of the 18. So I plugged full range into the bi amp inputs, effectively the amp saw it as a 4 ohm 210 and 8 ohm 118 (the amp was 2ohm stable). This rig did sound incredible, but the cab was stupid heavy, and since it was a peavey and a stop gap, I sold it to a friend when I bought my Goliath III and son of bertha. I had considered big Ben, but the size and sound of the 115 convinced me. I still have the Goliath, but the bass350 and bertha were stolen.
+1 to the big Ben, but in reality, it really needs some smaller speakers to go with it.
When using an 18, mixing drivers is a good thing. Peavey 1810/1820 cabinets fill the whole room with low end, but the side by side 10s don't perform as well off axis for mid/high, but they were great on axis.
Putting it on its side would probably have been beneficial. That sideways stack of 3620s with that vertical 410 array probably performed very well, but back then we didnt know why. 2 1810/20 cabs stacked that way would be nice too, less overkill factor, nobody needs 4x18!
Adam Yauch (rip) used 3620 and other peavey cabs.
