Continuing with my response to dmrogers, started above:
What would you guess the final weight on such a cab be (5 pounds more?)? Could you retain the same basic concepts of the Hathor 1203 with the added dimensions?
Roughly doubling the cab's internal volume would put the weight in the 33-to-35 pound ballpark I would guess, based on experience building cabs of that size that used Kappalite-class woofers.
The same basic concept could absolutely be retained; the 1203's basic concepts are pretty much dominating my thinking as far as cabs for electric bass, I'm just going to scale it up a bit and maybe offer a little more of what it does well if/when I can.
My strong personal bias is for a cabinet that is as shallow as possible. I'd prefer any dimension increase to be in height, with width being less desirable and depth kept to a minimum. This is entirely based on logistic issues as I'm often on very tight stage situations so every inch counts. I have mostly unlimited space going up, less going sideways, and rarely going back (often shoved against a wall).
I hate it when someone's post makes a really good case for something that a) I should have thought of and b) means I have to change my drawings and go to my woodworker and tell him that I changed my mind on this cab (for the third time) so he has to redo everything that he was going to send to the CNC machine because c) that makes me look like an idiot. And I hate looking like an idiot, whether said idiocy is known only to me and my woodworker, or to everyone with enough time on their hands to read my posts.
And I hate it even more when a bunch of my paying customers "like" that post!
So anyway I changed my drawings and went to my woodworker and his belief that I'm an idiot who can't make up is mind is confirmed.
Thank you nostatic and those who liked his post... I guess.
Seriously, it's a change that needed to be made and I wouldn't have done it without you, nostatic. Thank you sir, and you who liked his post as well. You guys won me over. The idea of keeping the footprint as small as practical for tight stage situations is totally consistent with what I'm trying to do with the Hathor series, and I should have thought of it.
I recall Duke mentioning that on the 1203's, the mids barely keep up with the woofs, and adding the open mid ports on the top and sides helped a bit, but any cab size increase that benefits just the woofer may then make the woofer start to overpower the mids perhaps? His goal with the 1203, and TC 112 was to get them as small and light as possible as other makers have 12" cabs that are a larger, like Greenboy, Barefaced, & Baer,
A larger box would increase the cab's efficiency significantly south of 80 Hz; decrease its efficiency slightly from 80-200 Hz; and have no effect north of 200 Hz. So we could still get away with that one little dinky 3" mid, for a 3012LF cab. Anything more efficient than the 3012LF and we'd either need a louder midrange section or we'd have to move the goal posts.
What you mention about the 3" driver keeping up with the 12" makes sense, however at least in my experience, the 1203 has a ton of mids. I'm sure it has a lot more to do the total cab package and Duke's design expertise than just solely on the 3" driver. So much so, that it seems to be the exact opposite of the GS112's I have. But the great thing about the 1203 is that, with the switches, it is super easy to control the mids. Sometimes it was a challenge to EQ the GS cabs to make up for the lack of mids.
Thank you! What I do is overlap the woofer and mid in the woofer's top end, and then roll off the mid hard and fast starting at about 1.2 kHz. That aggressive rolloff is needed to protect it, because on paper its thermal power handling is pretty low. But we if take into account the power distribution of a bass guitar's overtones, along with allowance for distortion effects, then it fits. The open-format mid chamber helps with cooling too, as opposed to having the motor heating up a small sealed chamber. So at first glance it looks like a long shot, and it would be for keyboards or PA, but it works for bass guitar.
The switch engages/bypasses two notch filters that, together, pretty much smooth out that overlap region.
Duke, thanks for addressing my question. I'm just interest in what you do and it is a fun read. I just got back from rehearsal and every time I play, I'm amazed at the full tonal range I get out of the 1203. At rehearsals, I use one 1203 with a TH500.[emphasis Duke's]
Thank you sir!
I recently got in trouble for posting unsolicited product announcements here, and rightly so. I plead guilty. So, from now on I need to refrain from talking about new projects or products until someone else brings it up, which is what I should have been doing all along. I really don't want to get booted off of TalkBass for being
that guy.
Plus I like the mids of the cab too. It's so easy to get a good tone and balance in the band mix.
I was lucky enough to make a mistake that I learned from, and that lesson went into the midrange voicing of your cabs.
What a cromulent supposition!
How noble of you to notice!
