History lesson - Thunderfunk/SWR/Eden, etc.

[Brendan]

Damn. Now I wanna know about the Berg/Epifani thing.

I was not aware there was soap opera. You should PM me what's up with that.

Brendan-

 

[Crockettnj]

a bump on a great thread ...

( and hoping someone outlines the berg/epi issue! lookin for some soap opera dirt!!! SORRY!!!)

 

[Bassist30]

,

Deciding that he wanted to offer cabinets as well as amplifiers, Rabe commissioned David Nordschow of Eden Electronics to make speaker cabinets for SWR. Up to that point Eden had been making PA speakers. Depending upon who you listen to, the development of the original goliath 4x10 + tweeter cabinet has a couple of versions. Eden claims that SWR wanted a two way cabinet (presumably a 15+horn) and David sent SWR the 410T as an afterthought, wanting to know what they thought of it. The other story is that Steve Rabe and David Nordschow collaborated on the design. In any event, Eden made cabinets for SWR for a while until SWR opted to make its own, presumably due to quality control concerns. The split was not entirely peaceful, but wasn’t quite up to the soap opera status of the rift between Nick Epifani and Jim Bergantino. After many years, Steve Rabe left SWR to found Raven labs, and subsequently retired.

I know this is an older post but what i understand is, and I agree that the split was not as you said peaceful, That the reason they named there cabinets the David series is because......... David (Eden) Brought down Goliath (SWR).

 

[jokerjkny]

cool stuff, mike...

course, this whole background makes the bass manufacturing community suddenly seem awfully incestuous...

next thing you know it, you're gonna tell me that Mike Tobias had a hand in designing sadowsky PJ basses.

 

[Shiveringbass]

jeez, now i'm sorry i brought it up. i could tell ya what i know in another thread, but that's a thread that i bet would get ugly and end up being closed awful fast.
All's I'll say in this thread is that i think Epifani and Bergantino cabinets sound fantastic. Some of the best new cabinets I've heard.
How about we keep the comments to Acoustic, AMP, SWR, Eden, Gibson, Thunderfunk, Raven Labs, and how great amplifiers with semi parametric EQ's are?

Hey Yvan, great thread but you've told too much of it to stop now. History is not only keeping good memories, isn't it ?

Now I'm very curious about that Epi/berg story. I've heard that Berg designed the cross-over that Epi use in their cabs, that's maybe the point ?


Shiveringbass

 

[JimmyM]

I know this is an older post but what i understand is, and I agree that the split was not as you said peaceful, That the reason they named there cabinets the David series is because......... David (Eden) Brought down Goliath (SWR).

Huh? Wow, I always thought it was because the guy who founded Eden was named David. Crazy, but now I know the real reason.

Not sure I'd call SWR a goliath, though. SWR is more of a small-sized behemoth.

 

[Petebass]

How about we keep the comments to Acoustic, AMP, SWR, Eden, Gibson, Thunderfunk, Raven Labs, and how great amplifiers with semi parametric EQ's are? .

I did some gigs this month for a band who supplied me a bass rig which featured a Eden WT400. Is it just me or is the semi-parametric on that thing very, very, VERY, extremely, super-dooper touchy?

 

[JOME77]

,

I know this is an older post but what i understand is, and I agree that the split was not as you said peaceful, That the reason they named there cabinets the David series is because......... David (Eden) Brought down Goliath (SWR).

All that I know is that without these guys we'd still probably be using amps and cabinets made by companies that design bass equipment as an after thought. It is a shame that ultimately both were absorbed by larger deversifed companies but they were definitely pioneers in the movement to produce quality high end bass gear. I know that I'll always be able to look back and remember the smile on my face the first time I played through a SM-400 with a Goliath cabinet!

 

[12bass]

I did some gigs this month for a band who supplied me a bass rig which featured a Eden WT400. Is it just me or is the semi-parametric on that thing very, very, VERY, extremely, super-dooper touchy?

Yep, one notch on an original design Eden WT gives a rather large amount of EQ. With the semi-parametric, I seldom use more than one notch of EQ on any of the bands, usually less. I borrowed an SWR Grand Prix preamp a few years ago, and its EQ was much less responsive.

 

[hasbeen]

a very, very small footnote but maybe of interest: Rabe approached us at Genz Benz to make cabs before he struck a deal with David.

 

[Thunderfunk]

All that I know is that without these guys we'd still probably be using amps and cabinets made by companies that design bass equipment as an after thought.

The Amplifiied Peg company? How soon we forget the B-15 and the SVT.

 

[Mr_Dave]

Interesting thread. Thankyou

 

[Gene Leone]

That was great. Although I knew bits and pieces I didn't really know how they fit together until now.

We must know the Epi/Berg story.

How about putting it in a "secret" place where we can read it?

Or get an "emailing list" of interested readers and cc us all in.

 

[Fred Labbidie]

cool stuff, mike...

course, this whole background makes the bass manufacturing community suddenly seem awfully incestuous...

next thing you know it, you're gonna tell me that Mike Tobias had a hand in designing sadowsky PJ basses.

No, I think that honor belongs to Leo Fender.

 

[hasbeen]

No, I think that honor belongs to Leo Fender.

he did help with some Lakland design though.

 

[Fred Labbidie]

he did help with some Lakland design though.

I think you are missing my point. Mike Tobias did design the lakeland hollow-body bass, AFAIK. My point was that it's a little laughable to give Roger Sadowsky credit for the design of the Fender bass or the "PJ" configuration which people have been doing for years. He's a great luthier (IMHO) but his basses are not original designs.

 

[hasbeen]

I think you are missing my point. Mike Tobias did design the lakeland hollow-body bass, AFAIK. My point was that it's a little laughable to give Roger Sadowsky credit for the design of the Fender bass or the "PJ" configuration which people have been doing for years. He's a great luthier (IMHO) but his basses are not original designs.

I understand...I was commenting more on the incestous thing. I think I should have quoted the post above yours.

 

[hasbeen]

I understand...I was commenting more on the incestous thing. I think I should have quoted the post above yours.

and yes, you're correct, it was the hollow body. I didn't mention it because I couldn't remember the name/model number.

 

[Rock City]

a very, very small footnote but maybe of interest: Rabe approached us at Genz Benz to make cabs before he struck a deal with David.

Had that deal happened, maybe their cabs would have actually sounded good!
Uh oh......I hear someone firing up the flamethrower!!!!!
Corey

 

[hasbeen]

Had that deal happened, maybe their cabs would have actually sounded good!
Uh oh......I hear someone firing up the flamethrower!!!!!
Corey

uh ohh....don't pull me into that one!

Seriously though, I like Eden's cabs....very different from ours: that's why there's chocolate and vanilla as I always say. All of Eden's stuff has a signature tone which I appreciate for certain things. They go into this quite a bit on their site.....how they've designed cabs and amps to have a certain tone.

At Genz, we strive for more of a natural response. Not quite Hi-Fi but not too colored either.

We have actually been approached by a few "stalwart" amp companies to produce their cabs as I'm sure Eden has. Many amp companies don't make or design their own cabs. One thing that Eden, EA, Epifani and Genz has in common is that we all started out as cab builders.