My guitarist has an old Marshall 1965A 4x10 lead cab. He is wanting to part with it. Even though it is kinda thin and closed back, I was wondering if I could drop some used 10 inch bass drivers in it, and port it for bass. Anyone ever mess around with guitar rigs much?
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Is it possible to modify a guitar cab for bass?
- Thread starter TUEP
- Start date
I think it would cost you more to do this with sketchy results, than it would to buy a used and proven bass cabinet
Jack Bruce, Andy Fraser (Free), Tom Peterson (Cheap Trick) and a number of other bass players have successfully used Marshall guitar cabinets for bass.
Gale
Gale
me too! Just dont try and run them off the same head as a high power bass cab. guitar speakers sound fine for bass they just wont take as much abuse as a speaker designed for bass. so you will need more of them to get the volume you want. if you are thinking of converting a guitar cab to bass drivers, do your homework before buying. you need to find a set of drivers designed for that size cab and within your budget. if you can pull it off Id say go for it small bass cabs are a nice thing to have when they work.
If I didn't already have Ampeg bass cabs I'd look at the Marshall cabs.....check out this link if you havn't already looked at it:
http://bass-guitars.musiciansfriend...04010&src=3WFRWXX&ZYXSEM=0&CAWELAID=163416356
http://bass-guitars.musiciansfriend...04010&src=3WFRWXX&ZYXSEM=0&CAWELAID=163416356
I went to a Jefferson Airplane/Starship concert way back when I had hair and saw Jack Casady playing through what looked like Dual Showman cabs with JBLs and two big strips cut out of the baffle board at opposite ends. No grille cloth. Can't remember how many cabs but it was at least two. I was standing on stage but off to the side. The sound was great.
I have a 1x12 guitar cab I never use - I always wanted to stick a bass speaker in it and use it in the studio . . .
Rick Auricchio
Registered Bass Offender
That was back in the day when they designed cabs by trial-and-error. Since the late 70s, speaker design and technology changed dramatically.
You were also hearing the back of the PA cabs, floor monitors, and the stage side-fills, not his cabs on their own.
Yes and NO
Any closed back or small ported cabinet can be used for bass. How well they do is all relative to the box.
WARNING: Do not used open back amp combos or cabinets (like a fender twin) for bass. The open back allows the cones to move around a bunch more than a guitar does to it and will 'explode' after abusive bass use. Well maybe not explode but they won't last long.
Any closed back or small ported cabinet can be used for bass. How well they do is all relative to the box.
WARNING: Do not used open back amp combos or cabinets (like a fender twin) for bass. The open back allows the cones to move around a bunch more than a guitar does to it and will 'explode' after abusive bass use. Well maybe not explode but they won't last long.
billfitzmaurice
Commercial User
- Sep 15, 2004
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- Owner, Bill Fitzmaurice Loudspeaker Design
The average ten inch driver needs at least one cubic foot of net interior cabinet volume to function well, that's exclusive of the space taken up by ports and the driver itself. You can do the math from there.
I have an old-school Randall RBA-500 that came with a Randall 212S cab. I'm pretty sure it's a guitar cab, but I can't find *any* literature about it online. Anyway, what's relevant to this thread is that the previous owner ran it for years, specifically when he 'needed a lot of volume' and I've been cranking it pretty loud myself with no noticeable detrimental effect to the speaker cab.
I know of several artists I can think of off the top of my head who used guitar rigs back in the day, and got some amazing tones out of 'em. Geezer Butler, John Entwhistle, and Lemmy all spring to mind. This has always lead me to wonder; why is it that older/vintage guitar gear seems to handle bass better than their modern equivalents?
I know of several artists I can think of off the top of my head who used guitar rigs back in the day, and got some amazing tones out of 'em. Geezer Butler, John Entwhistle, and Lemmy all spring to mind. This has always lead me to wonder; why is it that older/vintage guitar gear seems to handle bass better than their modern equivalents?
don't ruin it like that! those are great little guitar cabs, and if it has the g10-35 speakers, you can't get those anymore.
it would likely sound good in the studio with a 50-watt bassman on it for low-volume bass, but don't butcher it trying to make it something it's just not.
Just high-pass it at 80hz or so, that's a standard guitar's lowest frequency. You shouldn't run into any problems doing this.
Get somebody sober to verify that ^
Get somebody sober to verify that ^
billfitzmaurice
Commercial User
- Sep 15, 2004
- 16,860
- 278
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- Disclosures
- Owner, Bill Fitzmaurice Loudspeaker Design
You need to take it up another octave, 160Hz. Bass cabs are already acoustically high passed in the vicinity of 80Hz.
For the most part there was no differentiation between guitar and bass drivers in the 60s, there were just musical instrument drivers. Just a most modern bass drivers have higher excursion to allow higher output without distortion many guitar drivers have less excursion than 60s counterparts, for higher distortion at lower output levels.
