• TalkBass has been independent since 1998. Add your voice.
    Create a free account to reply to discussions, view embedded media, and browse with fewer display ads.
    Join freeLog in
    Want zero display ads or expanded classifieds tools? Compare plans.

Help pls: 4 days 'till payday, two cabs to choose from

Which one should I buy with my hard-earned moneys?


  • Total voters
    20
Sep 25, 2019
189
500
Hey guys,

I have pestered this board with stupid questions about cabs for like a month now, buit that is about to come to an end. On a Polish amp renovation site I have found two cabs that are within my budget and look like they could carry the watts of my monstrous 1000w Warwick Tubepath.

In three days I will get my hard earned money from my dear corporate overlords and it is getting spent on one of those babies. So here I am, asking you G.A.S.pros to help me decide which of those am I going to buy.

First is this baby, Deutschland-made maker-pair for my Tubepath 10.1, the Warwick WCA PRO 411:
Invalid Link Removed
This one has two cons though - 1. It is pricier, 2. There is no switch to regulate the horn.

Second is a British-made Ashdown ABM 410T:
[Invalid or Expired Link Removed]
One con for this one: Still unsure about Ashdowns, even though the British ones were great I was told.


upload_2019-11-25_22-48-51.jpeg

Pls help me pick I am poor and cannot gamble on this, thanks! I promise I will not pester this board with this stuff anymore, unless you carriers infect me with G.A.S. again
 
Last edited:
I have experience with an ABM 410T made in the UK.

I used it with an Ashdown ABM head that was made in China.

I still have the head, sold the cab.

The ABM410T was one of the most disappointing cabs I've tried. It actually sounded pretty good and was rated at 600 watts but as soon as I played in several bands and it just didn't work no matter how I eq'd the head. I could kind of hear certain notes here and there but nobody in the room could feel or hear anything consistently. I had the input and output cranked at one point and still couldn't hear much. I changed the cab out for a Marshall 410 while keeping everything else the same and BOOM my master on the head was at no more than 10 o clock and it was almost too loud!

I have played made in China Ashdown cabs that sounded pretty good but I don't think I'll touch their UK stuff again after that experience.

I'm not shutting down Ashdown, I love their ABM heads but this was just my experience with their cabs.

I'd go for the warwick.
 
I have played made in China Ashdown cabs that sounded pretty good but I don't think I'll touch their UK stuff again after that experience.

That is strange. Most other brands went down with quality after moving production to China. Well except one maybe. Behringer.

When I wondered how is that possible that Chinese-made Behringers are better than German-made ones, the response was: "Because Germans only know how to make high-quality, solid products. But ask them to make something Behringer-grade and they will mess it up, because they simply do not know how to make cheap junk. But the Chinese are experts at making cheap junk."

Okay anyways, one point for the Wick.
 
That is strange. Most other brands went down with quality after moving production to China. Well except one maybe. Behringer.

When I wondered how is that possible that Chinese-made Behringers are better than German-made ones, the response was: "Because Germans only know how to make high-quality, solid products. But ask them to make something Behringer-grade and they will mess it up, because they simply do not know how to make cheap junk. But the Chinese are experts at making cheap junk."

Okay anyways, one point for the Wick.

It's actually been quite common in my bass playing experience. The best bass I've ever played was a Made in Indonesia Squier pbass and the worst bass was an MIA 2011 American Standard Pbass. Both were taken to the same very qualified tech and set up appropriately. Not really getting along with my current MIA Hwy1 pbass at the moment either.
 
The Warwick sounds like it'll be ok.
But, with either cab, Id still be very careful with the volume and/ or bass eq level from the amp.
Sit the cab up on a crate or something, to get it up closer to yr ears, and if you need crushing volume, get another identical cab, if the impedance is safe.

I hear ya.

The guy who sold me the amp had it hooked to a single Orange OBC 212 Isobaric, 600w at 8 ohm. When we were testing it, we had volume at 11 o'clock and yet it was so loud we neraly blew the door to the practice room open. Guy told me he never even went past 1 o'clock with the volume, for concerts. With 4x10 being louder than an iso 2x12, I doubt I will ever crack the volume up so much it would be hazardous for the speakers, because I am pretty sure that such volume will be hazardous for me already lol
 
  • Like
Reactions: rodl2005
Why are those the two cabs that make the top of your list?
These are the only two I found that I can afford and have at least 600W/8ohm power, which is needed to carry the load of my Warwick Tubepath 1000W/4ohm

I actually wanted Orange OBC212 but they are pricey and there are none on the used market anyways
 
Last edited:
I voted the Warwick. I had a WCA 611 several years ago. I used it with a Heritage SVT, as well as a GK 400RB-IV, and in both cases it was HUGE sounding. Only sold it cause it was just a bit too much, and I went to a neo 2x12 for quite a while.
 
I would continue to work hard and wait another 60 days to save a bit from two or even a couple more paychecks and get something that WILL DO what you want instead of HOPING one of these will work.

Though you are spending more money at once, it will be cheaper than going from cheap cab to cheap cab until you get what works.

I though of this many times before and I am still thinking of this. I thougt of saving up for another cab on that site - a black [Invalid or Expired Link Removed]

But all the good gear I ever found was always older and used, or very pricey (and still made in China) and good used gear has a nasty habit of being bought before I can save up the money and I am fairly certain that is going to be the case with the linked one too.

Also I would finally like to be able use my glorious Tubepath, the combo I use for rehersals currently is horrible.
 
upload_2019-11-26_21-37-48.png

Somebody just posted an ad on a different site asking if anybody has that Warwick cab for sale

Where is that paycheck dammit, I cannot let someone else buy the gear I have interest in, not again!!
 
Last edited:
That is strange. Most other brands went down with quality after moving production to China. Well except one maybe. Behringer.

When I wondered how is that possible that Chinese-made Behringers are better than German-made ones, the response was: "Because Germans only know how to make high-quality, solid products. But ask them to make something Behringer-grade and they will mess it up, because they simply do not know how to make cheap junk. But the Chinese are experts at making cheap junk."

Okay anyways, one point for the Wick.
I've got to pop in here in the down-grading of made in China products. I worked for a fly-fishing manufacturer for a number of years who owned a British fly-reel factory in England. When they bought it they poured in about a million dollars of new machinery including CNC machinery which that factory never had before. Quality improved significantly.

A number of years later, reportedly due to a new labor-related regulation, it became impossible to continue producing reels at that factory without pricing them out of the market. So they sold and moved the entire company (not the building but all machinery and CNC programming) to a Chinese manufacturer who was the best in the world with aluminum anodizing. They then had the reels made there. The quality of the reels went up, the anodizing was superior to that done at the factory in England, and the prices dropped by almost 25%.

I ran into a somewhat similar situation with amps. In 2008 I bought an Eden Nemesis RS400. The entire Nemesis line was made in one factory in China. I was amazed at not only the sound but also the build quality of the amp. It was/is (still keep it as a back-up) built like a little tank. I never had a problem with it. A few years later, I became a moderator on the Eden forum, which has since been closed by Marshall.

After David Nordschow, the founder of Eden, sold the company and left, the new owners, USM, decided to move it to Mundelein, IL. Some of the techs who had been building Eden amps transferred there, but not a lot. When they first moved, there was no problem with quality at all.

Not sure if they were selling off the inventory from MN and ran out or what or if their Quality Control went on vacation, but the next thing you know there's a bunch of Eden gear showing up defective in the marketplace. Eden amps and cabs had a well deserved reputation for top quality and reliability and that reputation was suddenly plummeting.

Eden replaced a LOT of amps back then. Finally, Eden shifted manufacturing to China at the same factory that had been making their Eden Nemesis amps for the last 10-years or so. As soon as the "made in China" amps hit the market, quality and reliability was again top-notch. If someone saw an Eden Made in Mundelein, IL amp next to an Eden Made in China amp, the made in China amp was the best bet. Eden amps are still made in China although the design has shifted from the USA to the UK.

My point is there is a bunch of crap that comes out of China but there are also some very top quality items that are made there. The factory that makes them is the key and how well the home company keeps tabs on them. When the home office visits the factory on a regular basis to verify designs are being followed using the correct parts and quality is up to snuff, they are capable of producing "best in the world" products.
 
Last edited: