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Bass isolation cabs.

TheMute

TheMute

Commercial User
Apr 12, 2010
33
0
Disclosures
Sam Ash
#1
Im thinking heavily about making a bass and guitar iso cab in the next couple months and wanted some input
- Ive seen most of the bass iso cabs have a 10 in speaker but Im thinking about using mine for small practice, jams and kinda wanna use a 15 in. bad idea?
- Is a tweeter necessary for good tone in these?
- Any other tips about these would be greatly appreciated.
 
#2
I axed about this a while back. I desperately need a cab for guitar, but I think it's a non-starter for bass. Maybe not.

Anyway, what I was told here was simply to build a box with one cubic foot on either side of the speaker baffle, wire it and call it done. :hmm:
 
#5
I know EA amps made a speaker cab like this, called the Rumble Seat (it had a seat top so you could sit on it). I remember seeing the ad with Michael Rhodes sitting on it in several of the turn of the century era BP magazines. Maybe you could contact EA to get some info regarding them (after all, if they aren't making them, but still have done the R&D, no harm in asking, right?)...
 
#7
Well, guitar speakers tend to have a lower wattage, also sometimes they have a different magnetic material. Both of which are for tonal applications...the same thing applies with bass speakers as well. Also, frequency response is a huge consideration...recently I had to change out the speaker in my SWR workingman's 12, because one of my foster kids got a little happy with a pencil...I went with an Eminence because it had the closest freq response compared to the original speaker. Still made the amp sound completely different though, due to the different magnetic material, different wattage, etc...
 
#8
So bass typically higher watt then guitar?

so besides the obvious material used being different from on to another, the bass speaker will have a higher or lower freq response than guitar? Or neither?
 
#9
TheMute said:
So bass typically higher watt then guitar?

so besides the obvious material used being different from on to another, the bass speaker will have a higher or lower freq response than guitar? Or neither?
Click to expand...

Well, guitar amps generally speaking range from 20-100 watts, bass amps tend to start @ 10w, but go all the way into the 1000 watt range. As far as frequency response, it kind of varies. It depends upon the sound you are going for...if I was in a Motown cover band, I wouldn't really be rocking a 4x10 with a tweeter. I'd be playing a B-15 or at least something with a 15" speaker. Another thing is ohmage. I have a 4x10, a 2x10, a 15, a sub 15 - each of those are used for different circumstances also dependent on what amp I'm using...for an iso cab, you really only have 1 speaker, so I would try to go for a pretty flat-sounding speaker, so you get most of your sound from your preamp or amp.
 
#10
TheMute said:
So I guess my only real question at this point is what is the major difference between guitar and bass specific speakers?
Click to expand...
When you run enough power to exceed the excursion limit of a guitar speaker. In a live setting that's about twenty watts. But with a recording box there's no need to be putting more than ten watts into it.
 
#11
billfitzmaurice said:
When you run enough power to exceed the excursion limit of a guitar speaker. In a live setting that's about twenty watts. But with a recording box there's no need to be putting more than ten watts into it.
Click to expand...

So should i not be running an 100 watt tube head to this iso cab? or are you just saying not to put more than a 10 watt rated speaker?

Sorry im so clueless.
 
#14
fwiw here's my iso cab. I got it from vocalbooth.com made a few alterations . . .
l_9a04d8d446106400a378f50a8edd8dd8.png

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they had it designed so the walls either came apart or you lifted the amp into the top. now I'm no weight lifter and dont fancy lifting a 4x12 cab over a 4' wall so i added hinges and moved it to its side. there are a lot of cheapie ones for guitar w/ a 12" speaker etc

I've actually never tried this w/ bass. but I would imagine the issue is most bass amps are loud - and if its a tube amp you need to crank it to get the goods. this aint gonna work for that.

at best w/ my array of 5-25watt guitar amps it sounds like a very loud TV. doable, but I still dont record past 9p to be nice to the neighbors as I live in an apt.

the whole recording bass ang guitar through the same speaker . . . fwiw when I mic a bass amp its usually my epi valve jr through a guitar 112 (only if I'm really motivated do I carry my bass cab up 3 flights of stairs to my apt :D) done it quite a bit and the speaker is fine.

the 4x12 in the box is a jcm800 cab real vintage greenbacks - not gonna chance anything happening to them by putting a bass through it ... ;)
 
#15
So if what I'm hearing is right then i could record (and distort) bass through my orange tiny terror head and my 1 x 12 (Becoming the iso cab) right now and not bust/blow anything.???
 

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