Faital or JBL for Acoustic 406?

[Low End Curse]

Why not have the original drivers rebuilt?

Far too wimpy.

 

[bassbrad]

Far too wimpy.

IIRC those had Gauss, Altec or JBL drivers from then were far from wimpy, and even Eminence or Jensen OEM drivers had fair power handling.

 

[Low End Curse]

IIRC those had Gauss, Altec or JBL drivers from then were far from wimpy, and even Eminence or Jensen OEM drivers had fair power handling.

These are Eminence. They lasted one practice with me.

 

[agedhorse]

The original stock drivers were good for the amps of that time, but amps have gotten much more powerful.

 

[Low End Curse]

The original stock drivers were good for the amps of that time, but amps have gotten much more powerful.

It blew while running it with an Acoustic 320 head, eq’d pretty flat, volume around 5, and a big muff.

 

[Doug Parent]

The Faital voicing is quite different, IMO a better all around driver for bass guitar.

Ignore this mans advice at your peril.

 

[Omega Monkey]

The 2226 is not really designed for a full range (one way) cab. The faitals will work much better for that. If you use a lot of fuzz, you will not like the JBLs by themselves because they are likely to be muddy and harsh in that application (I think they drop off around 1.5-2k, which means you get all that upper mid harshness, but no definition). Ok for dub reggae stuff or thumpy flatwounds maybe. Get the faitals and wire them in series for 8 ohms. Bob's your uncle.

You could try flipping the JBLs, but you might not have any easier time of it than the current guy, so it could be a gamble if you don't have a backup plan for using them somehow (ie PA sub cabs or insane 2 or 3 way bass/keyboard/PA cabs).

 

[agedhorse]

It blew while running it with an Acoustic 320 head, eq’d pretty flat, volume around 5, and a big muff.

Ok, not a big surprise as those cabinets didn't have as much power handling (and sensitivity) as today's premium cabinets.

If you will be running it with the Acoustic 320, the 4 ohm Faitals wired in parallel makes sense because you will get 300 watts into the 2 drivers. Same thing for the Sunn 300T, set the impedance switch to 2 ohms.

That said, be sure you label the cabinet clearly as it's easy to forget and them plug it into a bigger amp and end up with 800-1200 watts into 2 ohms.

8 ohms makes sense with the Sunn but not with the Acoustic, as you will get only ~175 watts with the Acoustic at 4 ohms.

 

[Low End Curse]

Just an update, ended up going with the Faitals and I’m extremely happy with my choice. Thanks for all the input from everyone!