AudioKinesis Cabs Part VI...

[srcTW]

Well at the very least these cabs are very safe to buy right now. Should you want to sell one later, they sell in minutes . Wish I could say the same about other gear I've listed.

 

[tombowlus]

If the Three Stooges were a band, Larry would be the bass player. He makes the other two, Moe and Curly, look good. Their shticks wouldn't work without him. If Larry doesn't show up, rehearsal is cancelled.

Actually, Curly is the bass player. Larry played violin.

 

[Passinwind]

So what you are seeing is a recessed up-firing baby-butt-cheeks horn that is identical to the front-firing one. The internal filtering is different, because the upfiring horn is voiced in anticipation of an amp sitting on top of the cab.

The cab comes with four un-installed feet that go on the top of the cab. You position and install them where they work best for your amp. You get multiple tries - those wooden "cheeks" are about 1.75" thick.

The idea is, to steal a page from the Hathor's playbook. I think there will be enough wrap-around energy for you to still hear your overtones with the amp in place.

On the back of the cab is a rotary volume control for the up-firing horn. Its maximum attenuation puts the horn at -7 dB relative to the front-firing horn, which is comparable to the level of the rear-firing tweeter in an "Acoustic Friendly" Thunderchild cab.

The cab will ship with a small closed-cell-foam football stuffed into the mouth of the upfiring horn, for protection. Remove it to enable the coin-slot feature.

This cab uses the same compression driver as in the Thunderchild 115, so power handling is a bit better in the upper registers. I think this will enable me to offer it to keyboard players. In particular, I've wanted to do a cab that would work well for electric piano, and this might be it.

On the downside, weight and cost go up.

Those who have a Thunderchild 112 on order, if it's an "Acoustic Friendly" version, your cost won't change if you want this new version instead. But let's wait until we hear back at the end of NAMM, just in case.

Charlie was there when I showed my very first Thunderchild prototype, at a GTG in Seattle, April 25, 2010. He inspired me to do the "Acoustic Friendly" version, and his cab is the very first Thunderchild 112 Acoustic Friendly. And he could EASILY be a professional bass cab designer if he wanted to. So I propose that we can trust his feedback, and I will make any changes he suggests (assuming they are possible). Be brutal, Charlie! Channel all the pent-up frustration of your inner Sergeant Schultz!

I now know something. This design works very well for a lot of things and I would happily gig with it just as is. The beer bong tweeter presented no problems at all, and it sounded really great for all the slapping that went on, which is a whole lot of the NAMM experience. But a seriously crowded 10' x 10' NAMM booth presents a bespoke set of challenges that we could probably do a little better with next time around, should we decide to accept that mission. FWIW, we had at least 21 basses and three guitars in that booth at times.

For starters, here's how the rig was placed:

I tried a few times to move the cab away from the back curtain, but that was just not a sustainable mode. And the placement otherwise did impact low bass quality in an undesirable way. I would have at least tried blocking some or all of the ports, but frankly, we needed as much low bass content as possible to keep up with the other rig sitting next to it, since two bassists at once was pretty much the default mode a good bit of the time. Note the iPad running into the Aux In on my amp, playing backup tracks for the endorser demo sets. The cab was stellar for that aspect. It sounded quite good for clean guitar too, by the way. The heavier duty compression driver seemed to help a lot in that regard.

So what would I do differently in retrospect? Bear in mind that this is just for a specialized case, not what passes for the real world:

1) Two tens, vertically stacked on front.
2) Same robust front tweeter, plus beer bong top firer.
3) Diffuser panel above beer bong, with some kind of trick radial spoke arrangement for pattern control. Now the amp size is removed as a variable.
4) Bottom firing port with blocker available for back and/or side openings.
5) Mega-bling dayglo acrylicized wood front panel, possibly with subtle (or not) LED backlighting. There was a guitar like this in the infamous nether reaches of Hall E. I took a card from the wood place in California exhibiting this stuff, I'll see if I can scare up a pic of what I have in mind.
6) Can of Raid for the bugeye.
7) Zircon encrusted logo plate.
8) Profit!

All the booth slaves and Marco Cortes want to thank you for providing such a cool cab, and of course that goes double for me Duke.

 

[DirtPoorRobins]

Ok I've got a question, recently I've noticed some weird tone changes with my rigs in different rooms, pretty drastic.

I was comparing my genzler rig with my hathor 1203 rig. Put both in a corner, 15 x 15ft room. The genzler had more low end within 3ft, but when I'm out about 10ft, the genzler lows completely disappeared, but the hathor was strong and low. Same thing happens on hollow stages, huge lows on stage, then completely disappear in the audience.

Brought the genzler down to a big rehearsal room, high ceilings, big strong lows, great tone no matter where I stood.

Could it have anything to do with port location in certain rooms, on the back of the hathor vs front of genzler? I was under the impression port location doesn't matter, but on paper and experience, the genzler goes deeper and has better lows, but in some rooms and placement, the hathor is way stronger in the lows by comparison.

 

[DirtPoorRobins]

Ok so today I went back to the small rehearsal room, turned the bottom genzler 180 degrees and pointed it into the corner, left the top cab facing out.....woah that did it, all the low end returned 10 ft out. Is it room reflections messing with the low end? Maybe the fact that the ports are on the rear of the hathor had the same effect, that's why there was a perceived fuller low end?

 

[nostatic]

Interesting gig tonight. We had a sax sub with Steely Jam NYE and she kills. I asked her if she wanted to do a nostatic gig, she said sure. Her boyfriend is a guitarist, they both were in NYC for many years playing so I asked him to come along as well even though I'd never heard him. We talked at the NYE gig and you can usually get a feel for whether or not someone can play. Then had two flute players, both Japanese women who have played with us before on tap, and another guitarist who I've enjoyed working with. My usual note to guitarists is, "color not comping." A lot of guys don't really get that, or they just can't control themselves. Jay otoh really gets it. Plus he's originally a country player who has migrated to jazz, so he has some interesting sensibilities.

Anywho one flautists couldn't make it due to sickness so we had a sextet with 2 guitars, sax and flute (and piccolo!). I decided to take the C1203T as I figured two guitars would be a bit loud. Turns out it wasn't, but man - the C1203T is hands-down the best cab I've ever played through. Period.

For those interested in the semi-self-indulgent outing:



Norwegian, Caravan, Duck, and Thomas are the Rob Allen Deep 4, the rest the YYD. Of course some gaffs - expected when you have a new ensemble, but it was flat-out fun. In no small part due to the cab sounding just perfect with both basses. Thanks Duke - you're the man

https://photos.app.goo.gl/l1EAdaUZ0KzxLH1R2

 

[allenhumble]

Sounds great brother

Interesting gig tonight. We had a sax sub with Steely Jam NYE and she kills. I asked her if she wanted to do a nostatic gig, she said sure. Her boyfriend is a guitarist, they both were in NYC for many years playing so I asked him to come along as well even though I'd never heard him. We talked at the NYE gig and you can usually get a feel for whether or not someone can play. Then had two flute players, both Japanese women who have played with us before on tap, and another guitarist who I've enjoyed working with. My usual note to guitarists is, "color not comping." A lot of guys don't really get that, or they just can't control themselves. Jay otoh really gets it. Plus he's originally a country player who has migrated to jazz, so he has some interesting sensibilities.

Anywho one flautists couldn't make it due to sickness so we had a sextet with 2 guitars, sax and flute (and piccolo!). I decided to take the C1203T as I figured two guitars would be a bit loud. Turns out it wasn't, but man - the C1203T is hands-down the best cab I've ever played through. Period.

For those interested in the semi-self-indulgent outing:



Norwegian, Caravan, Duck, and Thomas are the Rob Allen Deep 4, the rest the YYD. Of course some gaffs - expected when you have a new ensemble, but it was flat-out fun. In no small part due to the cab sounding just perfect with both basses. Thanks Duke - you're the man

https://photos.app.goo.gl/l1EAdaUZ0KzxLH1R2

 

[roccobass]

Actually, Curly is the bass player. Larry played violin.

View attachment 2896497

Is that the corner of an AK cab just peeking in the picture to the left of Curly?

 

[husky123]

Hey guys,

I'm close to pulling the trigger on a Hathor 1505. I've bugged Duke with a few emails so I wanted to ask here rather than bothering him and keeping him away from building. I'm curious to the words that the cab "zigs where others zag". I assume he's talking about guitar cabinets and the Hathor's ability to slot itself in the mix well.

My question is...is that a certain frequency range they push to do this? Also, for the 1203 and 1505 owners, what really appeals to me is the mid switch and the grind mode. How would you describe what that does? Thanks for any help.

Lee

 

[Type-55]

I've stated this before the mids on the 1505 are quite prominent. The switches help to adjust them but it's a mater of preferences.

 

[Guitarodeo]

Hey guys,

My question is...is that a certain frequency range they push to do this? Also, for the 1203 and 1505 owners, what really appeals to me is the mid switch and the grind mode. How would you describe what that does? Thanks for any help.

Lee

I have a 1203. What I hear with both switches up sits right above the kick, and below the electric guitars. That's my personal zig and zag, and I really like that sound and space.

 

[Triad]

A guy came to grab my Retroglide amp and I plugged it into the Audiokinesis Hathor 183333. He was with his guitar player friend. The guitarist said something like "Jesus, this cab sounds scary". And the guy was playing a 4 strings bass.
It's really a shame I don't gig anymore, it would be a good excuse to use the cab at the right volume

 

[bonin in the boneyard]

A guy came to grab my Retroglide amp and I plugged it into the Audiokinesis Hathor 183333. He was with his guitar player friend. The guitarist said something like "Jesus, this cab sounds scary". And the guy was playing a 4 strings bass.
It's really a shame I don't gig anymore, it would be a good excuse to use the cab at the right volume

Maybe you could get into demolition work with it?

 

[Triad]

Who knows... but it's like owning a Ferrari and only use it in the driveway.

 

[bonin in the boneyard]

Who knows... but it's like owning a Ferrari and only use it in the driveway.

Or only on the carpet:

 

[Triad]

Probably with the same effect on the crowd.

 

[bonin in the boneyard]

Probably with the same effect on the crowd.

Your guitars are seriously bad ass, by the way. Bravo.

 

[Triad]

Thank you! Luckily I didn't have any when the guy tried the amp...

 

[MarkA]

Lee, a little ways back I posted a quick clip, playing through the Hathor 1203 with its switches in their various positions. It's not terribly hi-fi, but not too bad for having been made with a phone. Perhaps you'll find it helpful:
AudioKinesis Cabs Part VI...

I want to say that the 1203 dips from ~2KHz to ~4 KHz and bumps around that. Duke has posted about it before and can correct me. It's voiced, but with some finesse. The 1505 is accounted to be more aggressive/grindy/bumped and less extended up top. I would guess that it would pitch its grind a bit lower than the 1203's, but haven't heard one, so can't say from experience.

 

[John D Harris]

A guy came to grab my Retroglide amp and I plugged it into the Audiokinesis Hathor 183333. He was with his guitar player friend. The guitarist said something like "Jesus, this cab sounds scary". And the guy was playing a 4 strings bass.
It's really a shame I don't gig anymore, it would be a good excuse to use the cab at the right volume

Do you have a one-off custom Hathor 18?
The 18" woofered cabs I'm aware of are the original ThunderChild 118, Hathor 1855, & the Hathor 1863.