El Whappo a good choice in 2020?

Here's what I know. Accugroove was extremely well received and well reviewed as a company. Unfortunately they had a feature called the Accuswitch which claimed to be able to change the impedance of their dual woofer cabs from 4 to 8 ohms. This claim was bogus, but I don't think the owner of the company really understood what was going on with the switch, as he is not an engineer AFAIK, and did not design the cabs.

The owner adamantly argued that the switch was legit and it was proven to be bogus. The perceived intentional deception did a lot of damage to the companies reputation. In an attempt to recover, the products were updated to remove the Accuswitch, but the company continued to struggle for several years. I believe since then, the company has reorganized. I don't know how much business they do, but there web presence has definitely improved over the last couple of years.

There also seems to be evidence that some of their specs are a bit optimistic, I.E. inaccurate and perhaps misleading. But overall a lot of people thought the cabs sounded great until all the drama ensued.

If you like the sound of the El Whappo and it is in good condition, it's probably a steal for $500. Not sure it's the best choice for a relatively low powered tube amp. It might work great, but I would expect this type of cab to be used with a fairly powerful solid state output section instead of an all tube amp. If you can try the cab with your amp before you buy, that would be a good idea.

Regarding the Accuswitch. I could be wrong, but I believe it essentially da large capacitance in series with one of the woofers. By doing this, an ohmmeter will only read the DC resistance of one woofer because capacitors block DC. The will cause you to get a reading that suggest the impedance has shifted to 8 ohms. However when AC is applied the impedance remains 4 ohms. If your interested this page of posts should satisfy your curiosity or totally confound you: Acmeswitch?

Some people claim the Accuswitch did nothing. I would say this is not technically correct if you want to be pedantic. I believe it had some minor impact on impedance, but it did not do what it claimed to do. See the impedance curves in this post: Acmeswitch? I am not certain if the graph was from an Accugroove cab or merely meant to model the way the Accuswitch was assumed to function.

 

Do what I do and bring it up in the elevator.

 

I've played through an El Whappo several times (unfortunately I don't own it). If I could pick one up for $500 I'd do it in a heartbeat.

 

without digging into all thats been said, the cab is exceptional sounding. Very deep, very clear, and very loud. And thats a crazy good deal, especially if its a newer lightweight model.

 

That’s an older one. Based on the 1/4” and the switch. What’s the weight?

 

Still a great deal for 500 bucks

 

And don’t worry about the switch, although others may. Set it to 4 ohms, Treat it like a 4 ohm cab.

 

My experience is that the Whappo liked high powered amps, and opened up more with higher wattage. That said I also ran it with a 60w tube head and had a great tome with it.

I'd definitely go for this over a pair of PV 410's or a Henry 8x8, but thats just me.