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Heaviest currently made Cabs ?

#43
Back in the late 60s I had a cab from Sears, made by Danelectro I think. Six Fifteens in it. Weighed a tone, hard to move anywhere, and you could almost hide behind it on stage. And it was really a piece of junk. But it could move some air. And in 1969 and 1970 that was cool.
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#44
Dilatant said:
Who's making the heaviest cabs right now? I 'just bought a bunch of the Aguilar DB line. I'm not a fan of the new light weight stuff. my gear sits in a studio anyway. the high end EDEN cabs seem impossible to find but, their website says its available, I think? I'm only interested in the current offerings. So sad that Mesa dropped the Power House line!
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If you want solid, heavy gear for a studio "house rig" that's going to stay in place get yourself a used Mesa Boogie Road Ready 1x15 or 2x15 cab. About as solid as the Rock of Gibraltar with that classic old school sound. As a bonus, they can be had for a song these days as lightweight NEO loaded cabs are currently all the rage.
 
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#45
Sooo.... OP, what ABOUT the new light stuff do you dislike?

Side by side with the old stuff you liked, what, sonically speaking, is the problem area in tone to you?

It's not the cabinet quality - they are every bit as rigid and lacking in resonances of the old cabs. Just using lighter material and not wasting thicker wood where there has proven to be no structural (IE: sonic) benefit.

It COULD be the neo speakers. Maybe you don't like neo speakers? Cuz if not, on the used market there are a TON of non-neo bass cabs, great ones from well known manufacturers.

Neo is just a magnet technology. It's far far more powerful (in magentism, to use a high level term) than other types of magnets. Neodymium magnets were originally researched in the 1970s (leading into the 1980s) by Sony for use in tiny headphones for walkmans that still packed a huge sonic punch. That went on to earbuds and is the sole reason why good earbuds sound amazing, while being light and tiny.

Now with speakers, where the magnet is often more than half the weight of the driver... many many pounds in fact, combined with the design of the basket that was always difficult to build so it would retain the heavy magnet reliably (you'd be surprised how many shifted magnets I've come across in my live with speakers)... and then neo came along and allowed new designs for the baskets and much much more efficient speakers that weighed far less.

But, particularly in electric guitar playing land, there are plenty of guitarists who love alnico magnet speakers, lots of variants of ceramic magnet speakers... and few who prefer or even accept neo magnet guitar speakers. This is largely because a lot of guitar tone comes from the speakers and how they break up, and neo speakers typically have much less of the tone guitarists want... flub, whatever you want to call it, and the frequency response will be different for every speaker out there, regardless of design.

So maybe you don't like the tone of some of the most popular neo speakers used in bass cabs.... emminence, celestion both are dominant in that area.

Of course.... if it isn't the tone of light cabs you dislike, then it could be assumptions that light isn't as good.

For that, sir, you'd have to see a therapist. :-)

Wouldn't be the first time a bassist had to seek therapy for side effects of bass playing LoL
 
#49
I have 2 great ideas that would help you achieve your goal. Either of these would waive your wait time for something custom:

Just get an Ampeg 810 and an Anvil type road case, hollow out all the foam padding and pour concrete for the liner. That would meet your criteria of just weighing a lot. I don't think the cabinet performance would be impacted. Between the case and the concrete you could make it up to 150 pounds heavier.

Another option that I think has been overlooked so far is to bolt your cabs to the floor. Then you wouldn't be able to lift them. Isn't that really the goal? Do you really care how much they weigh as long as you can't lift it? In engineering the goal is often to seek the most simple solution. This makes the most sense as both the easiest and most economical way to achieve your stated goal of making the cabs impossible to lift. And has the adde benefit of not risking the acoustic properties of the cabs. Although to be fair I don't think you're concerned with sound as much as inability to lift. This is my favorite option in this thread so far. There is an additional benefit in that you could maintain the resale value of the cabs.
 
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#53
+1 on the Janice cabs. They sound and look fantastic. Their website is down and the Facebook page is out of date so I'm not sure if they are still in business. They make a 4x12 with a crossed-over 6" that I would have bought had I not decided to build my own. It would make a killer studio cab because one section is sealed and the other is ported.
 
#54
MisterUbu said:
Wow nobody has mentioned this setup yet??

I'm sure if you at least copy the bass player's speaker configuration it could be exactly what you're looking for in a home studio :D.
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It was asked for CURRENTLY MADE.

If not I would have recommended The Barefaced Hernia.
Sadly it was only available for one day and no one bought them so they never went into production. Not even one floating around in the used market either. :(



 
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#55
Being a drummer and NOT a bassist, that has turned to recording...dare I say engineer? and somewhat of an audiophile and gear junky, I've gravitated to cabinets with more mass and less resonation, I prefer to hear the speaker for the most part. although I DO mic the actual cabinet at times. I wouldn't say I'm a tone chaser but rather... a purist for good phase and frequency management, when I'm tracking. I enjoy changing out speakers in cabs I've learned as well. That said, I prefer buying new as I believe in supporting current company's.

Additionally, I decouple all my cabs from the floor in an attempt to really isolate the cab from interacting with the floor, corners and adjacent walls.
 
#57
Agreed, but... I make reasonable efforts to isolate the sound source with go-bo's and I can hear the difference between the coupled and decoupled cabs. I spend a considerable amount of time on this. I can also see the waveforms on the DAW which gives insight to such esoteric efforts. its almost become a hobby now. which in turn is how I discovered the benefits of the heavier built cabinets and their tendency to help the speaker reveal it's true sound with minimal resonant interaction from other variables. Again my interests are in a recording environment only. I wish 18's hadn't gone out of fashion as well. so much beautiful tone from all that paper!
 
#58
Dilatant said:
Agreed, but... I make reasonable efforts to isolate the sound source with go-bo's and I can hear the difference between the coupled and decoupled cabs. I spend a considerable amount of time on this. I can also see the waveforms on the DAW which gives insight to such esoteric efforts. its almost become a hobby now. which in turn is how I discovered the benefits of the heavier built cabinets and their tendency to help the speaker reveal it's true sound with minimal resonant interaction from other variables. Again my interests are in a recording environment only. I wish 18's hadn't gone out of fashion as well. so much beautiful tone from all that paper!
Click to expand...

I just ordered a 55 pound Genzler 410-3 Array cabinet and I am waiting on its arrival. I was about to order the fridge but thought about the room in my house and in my car/stages that I will play in the future. I am truly trying to figure out if there is any actual merit to what you're talking about. I am not trying to start a talkbass argument, either. Just whether or not a cab being heavier warrants different tone.

@agedhorse I could use some of your voodoo tech speak.
 
#59
UrsaMinor said:
I just ordered a 55 pound Genzler 410-3 Array cabinet and I am waiting on its arrival. I was about to order the fridge but thought about the room in my house and in my car/stages that I will play in the future. I am truly trying to figure out if there is any actual merit to what you're talking about. I am not trying to start a talkbass argument, either. Just whether or not a cab being heavier warrants different tone.

@agedhorse I could use some of your voodoo tech speak.
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I think you will be very happy with that cabinet as is.

No voodoo or smoke/mirrors needed IMO.
 
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