Since the 12/6 is 8 ohms and has the 3012LF, I'm guessing that it wouldn't be a great one-cab solution for a Mesa Walkabout head. If that is the case, what is the minimum wattage acceptable for this cab?
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Low Down Sound Club: V2
- Thread starter Chef
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Thanks very much, Ken, for finding this out. I'm sure having the rough figures out there will save LDS from having to constantly respond to emails of guys like me who are just at the "curious" stage.
I'm about to buy a new bass head, and will be figuring out what to do about cabs next. After I've had a chance to try a few things out, I may come back and start a thread with all my questions about this and other less commonly available boxes.
I got my Carvin B2000 tonight for use with my LDS 15/6/1 (tall form factor that's VERY close to the fEarful design. Eminence Kappalite 3015LF, 18Sound 6ND410, selenium tweeter, Ralf's 800hz crossover). Here are my initial thoughts based on living room testing with a Warmoth G4 with a Status carbon fiber neck and Darkstar pickups.
First-off, the amp is very well made. All of the components seem quite high quality and the build is very nice. The knobs/pots all turn with a very even, positive resistance. The subdued blue of the huge power, mute, active input and effects loop LED's is absolutely sexy. It can't all be good though. The amp isn't silent from a noise perspective. I can hear a fair amount of hiss coming from the midrange/tweeter. About the same amount as with my Markbass LMTube. The fan is incredibly loud. I used to own an Aguilar DB750, which most consider to have a very loud fan. The fan in the B2000 is at least as loud, possibly louder. There are some interesting EQ issues while I'll explain in greater detail later. The amp makes a "clunk" noise after you hit the power switch to the off position. It happens about a second after the switch is thrown. You can also hear the fan "whining" as it slows down. Sounds high pitched, not unlike a large turbo diesel engine as you step on the gas. The tube bypass doesn't do a whole lot. With the tube engaged (a single 12AX7) the amp is a little more mid-present and slightly hotter. Not a night and day difference. More noticeable than the tube blend on the Markbass LMTube, but something I think they could have easily done without and potentially used to bring the cost down a bit. Although it is already priced stupid low at $700.
On to the heart of the matter. How does the B2000 pair with the 15/6/1? The amp has PLENTY of power for this cab. I was able to drive the cab to the point of absolutely painful volume. Way louder than would be usable on any stage with PA support. If this didn't cover your volume needs... Well... Frankly I can't even imagine a realistic situation where it wouldn't.
The tone was quite balanced.... Once I made use of some creative EQ'ing. At least with this cab and my bass, the flat tone (all EQ controls at noon and the tube bypass disengaged) was very midrange heavy, bottom shy and generally awful sounding. Very thin, very ganky upper mids. Bleh... No good at all. Time to start tweaking some knobs. The amp does take to EQ'ing quite well, but there were some unexpected things about it. Keep in mind that 0 is off, 5 is noon and 10 is fill on the EQ controls. I bumped the sub-bass and bass controls up to 6. Took the Lo Mid down to 4. The Mid and the Hi Mid down to 3. The Treble stayed at 5. That's way more EQ than I'm used to adjusting when using my Markbass LMTube and this cab. That EQ got me roughly to what I'm used to with the LMTube, but with a noticeably wider frequency response from top to bottom. The tone was absolutely delicious through the 15/6/1. Bright and present without being abrasive, while at the same time being warm and thick down low. Everything was nice and balanced. The amount of EQ required to get there is troubling though. In a tough room, this amp might have problems EQ'ing itself out of a bad spot. My living room is pretty forgiving tone-wise, but I could see where the amp's "noon" setting might make it challenging in other rooms. One thing to note: The treble control of this amp is either centered fairly low (couldn't find the center on the Carvin website) or it has a VERY wide Q (I suspect the latter... Read on). Despite having a dedicated Hi Mid control, the treble control brings a lot to the table in both the upper mid areas and the upper treble areas. It simultaneously adds gank and sparkle. Honk and glass. This was my least favorite part of the EQ. I really wish the Hi Mid control would have done more of the heavy lifting in that area and let the Treble control do more of the Epifani/Tecamp thing and just add sparkle up top.
All in all I would give this combination a big thumbs up. When you consider that you could buy one of these and a 15/6/1 from LDS and have an absolutely world-class rig capable of handling practically any stage and still come in at about $1,300... Well... That's just awesome! I haven't decided if I'm going to keep this amp or send it back to Carvin as I have a Tecamp Puma1000 on the way. Tough decision. Hopefully someone found that helpful.
First-off, the amp is very well made. All of the components seem quite high quality and the build is very nice. The knobs/pots all turn with a very even, positive resistance. The subdued blue of the huge power, mute, active input and effects loop LED's is absolutely sexy. It can't all be good though. The amp isn't silent from a noise perspective. I can hear a fair amount of hiss coming from the midrange/tweeter. About the same amount as with my Markbass LMTube. The fan is incredibly loud. I used to own an Aguilar DB750, which most consider to have a very loud fan. The fan in the B2000 is at least as loud, possibly louder. There are some interesting EQ issues while I'll explain in greater detail later. The amp makes a "clunk" noise after you hit the power switch to the off position. It happens about a second after the switch is thrown. You can also hear the fan "whining" as it slows down. Sounds high pitched, not unlike a large turbo diesel engine as you step on the gas. The tube bypass doesn't do a whole lot. With the tube engaged (a single 12AX7) the amp is a little more mid-present and slightly hotter. Not a night and day difference. More noticeable than the tube blend on the Markbass LMTube, but something I think they could have easily done without and potentially used to bring the cost down a bit. Although it is already priced stupid low at $700.
On to the heart of the matter. How does the B2000 pair with the 15/6/1? The amp has PLENTY of power for this cab. I was able to drive the cab to the point of absolutely painful volume. Way louder than would be usable on any stage with PA support. If this didn't cover your volume needs... Well... Frankly I can't even imagine a realistic situation where it wouldn't.
The tone was quite balanced.... Once I made use of some creative EQ'ing. At least with this cab and my bass, the flat tone (all EQ controls at noon and the tube bypass disengaged) was very midrange heavy, bottom shy and generally awful sounding. Very thin, very ganky upper mids. Bleh... No good at all. Time to start tweaking some knobs. The amp does take to EQ'ing quite well, but there were some unexpected things about it. Keep in mind that 0 is off, 5 is noon and 10 is fill on the EQ controls. I bumped the sub-bass and bass controls up to 6. Took the Lo Mid down to 4. The Mid and the Hi Mid down to 3. The Treble stayed at 5. That's way more EQ than I'm used to adjusting when using my Markbass LMTube and this cab. That EQ got me roughly to what I'm used to with the LMTube, but with a noticeably wider frequency response from top to bottom. The tone was absolutely delicious through the 15/6/1. Bright and present without being abrasive, while at the same time being warm and thick down low. Everything was nice and balanced. The amount of EQ required to get there is troubling though. In a tough room, this amp might have problems EQ'ing itself out of a bad spot. My living room is pretty forgiving tone-wise, but I could see where the amp's "noon" setting might make it challenging in other rooms. One thing to note: The treble control of this amp is either centered fairly low (couldn't find the center on the Carvin website) or it has a VERY wide Q (I suspect the latter... Read on). Despite having a dedicated Hi Mid control, the treble control brings a lot to the table in both the upper mid areas and the upper treble areas. It simultaneously adds gank and sparkle. Honk and glass. This was my least favorite part of the EQ. I really wish the Hi Mid control would have done more of the heavy lifting in that area and let the Treble control do more of the Epifani/Tecamp thing and just add sparkle up top.
All in all I would give this combination a big thumbs up. When you consider that you could buy one of these and a 15/6/1 from LDS and have an absolutely world-class rig capable of handling practically any stage and still come in at about $1,300... Well... That's just awesome! I haven't decided if I'm going to keep this amp or send it back to Carvin as I have a Tecamp Puma1000 on the way. Tough decision. Hopefully someone found that helpful.
Interesting review. I have the bx1500. Yes, the fan is certainly audible, but not seemingly as loud as what you are saying. I had a carvER poweramp which had a fan so loud that it was annoying (still wouldnt hear it in a rock band setting of course) and this fan is not nearly as loud. I also have my bx1500 racked so I suspect that helps. The on/off switch does do the same 'clunk' and I do find that a tad bit annoying, but I can live with it. As to the tone, well I have a suspicion many would like the FLAT tone of the bx1500 as compared to what you describe as the flat tone of the b2000, but for my personal tastes I do quite a bit of tweaking to get the tone I like out of the bx1500. I dont like much in the way of high-mids or treble so I cut those significantly. I also employ the 9 band graphic to help me deal with unruly rooms. The EQ-ability of the bx1500 is pretty dang good and I get a nice full warm tone out of her that still cuts thru nicely.
Having said, if you can afford to keep an amp like the Puma 1000, I'm pretty sure you'll be sending the b2000 back.
Personally, I'll be using my bx1500 and 15/6 on its first loud gig this weekend and I'm looking forward to see what this combo will do.
Having said, if you can afford to keep an amp like the Puma 1000, I'm pretty sure you'll be sending the b2000 back.
Personally, I'll be using my bx1500 and 15/6 on its first loud gig this weekend and I'm looking forward to see what this combo will do.
The fan might be different on the BX series versus the B series. The fan noise certainly wouldn't be audible at loud gig volume. That said, if you were playing a coffee shop gig behind an acoustic guitar player it would be audible. It would also make this head a bad choice if you were in a studio setting where you had to have the amp in the same room as the mic'd cab. For loud gigging it would not be a problem. Unlike your amp, mine is not yet in a rack case, so that could be a contributing factor as you pointed out.
I can afford to keep the Puma. Frankly I could afford to keep both, but I imagine one of them (suspicions point to the Carvin) would end up sitting around unused and that's just not my style
I should point out that my review is not based on a live session with a band and should be taken as "initial at best." My feelings might change once I hear the amp in a live context.
I can afford to keep the Puma. Frankly I could afford to keep both, but I imagine one of them (suspicions point to the Carvin) would end up sitting around unused and that's just not my style
I should point out that my review is not based on a live session with a band and should be taken as "initial at best." My feelings might change once I hear the amp in a live context.
The fan might be different on the BX series versus the B series. The fan noise certainly wouldn't be audible at loud gig volume. That said, if you were playing a coffee shop gig behind an acoustic guitar player it would be audible. It would also make this head a bad choice if you were in a studio setting where you had to have the amp in the same room as the mic'd cab. For loud gigging it would not be a problem. Unlike your amp, mine is not yet in a rack case, so that could be a contributing factor as you pointed out.
I can afford to keep the Puma. Frankly I could afford to keep both, but I imagine one of them (suspicions point to the Carvin) would end up sitting around unused and that's just not my style
I should point out that my review is not based on a live session with a band and should be taken as "initial at best." My feelings might change once I hear the amp in a live context.
Nice review. Lot's of comments on the loud fan on these. Strange, since you would think the class D amp would run reasonably cool and not need that much oomph with the cooling.
Your comments about the top end remind me of my review and experience a couple/few years ago when I had a B1500 for the trial period... glorious power, nice EQ, good, strong punchy tone, but something not quite right to me ear way up top.. a little bit harsh in the lower/upper treble to my ears. Amps like Markbass and TecAmp kind of spoil you up there! Otherwise, it was a great amp, and a fantastic amp for the money.
Given your EQ settings, I have a feeling you will LOVE the Puma voicing, which is deep, smooth and crystal clear all the way up set relatively flat. The most EQ that I use on mine (depending on the cab) is either a slight cut in the upper mids to eliminate the 'gank' that some cabs have in that 1K region, or bump up the low mids on cabs that are more wide and big versus punchy and tight (rarely moving those controls more than through the 11 o'clock to 1 o'clock range).
With the 15/6's I've tried it with, just a very minor cut in the upper mids made me very happy! I think the Puma1000 is voiced just a touch differently than the Puma (I think a bit more low mid response if I remember correctly), but that would be a good think IMO.
I had the same thought as well. I tcould be that Carvin is simply building these to handle the most extreme gigging situations. I don't recall, but I seem to remember that this amp is stable down to 2 ohms. The massive cooling might be for those situations where someone is running a 2 ohm load on an outdoor stage in the middle of summer in Phoenix Arizona. A variable speed fan might be a better choice for Carvin in the long run. It really was shocking when the fan got up to speed when I initially turned the amp on. Again, on a loud rock gig it's a non-issue. In a non-isolated studio environment or on a quiet coffee shop gig it's loud enough that I would consider it a problem.
Agreed. The more I play it, the more I think the center of the treble control is set sufficiently high, but the Q must be extremely wide with a very gentle slope back towards the upper midrange. There's a lot of gank, honk, quack, nasal, etc. tone on that knob which I think is a real downside. All of that type of tonality should be isolated to the upper mid control. By comparison, the upper mid control on this amp feels very narrow and behaves more like a notch filter. I do like it for that, but that treble control needs to be revised.
Keep in mind that those EQ settings are nothing like I've ever used before. On my LMTube it's flat with the VLE dialed in to about 9 o'clock. When I used to be a GK guy, it was flat on the bass and treble, a slight low mid bump and a slight hi mid cut. My Aguilar DB750 was flat except for a slight midrange cut. I'm not one to use crazy amounts of EQ to get my tone. I'm hoping the Puma1000 is closer to my liking with all the knobs at noon. It allows for so much more control when you're in troublesome rooms that have to be EQ'd hard to sound good. If your starting point is all over the map you don't really have anywhere to go in certain cases.
Consider me BEYOND excited for mine to show up. Big thanks to ::::BASSIST:::: for pointing out the one for sale in the classifieds. I wouldn't have seen it otherwise.
I agree on the point about volume/loudness, but having compared running my 15/6 and 12/6 at 375 watts w/ShuttleMAX12, and at 725 watts using the max as a pre, I prefer the sound resulting with more power. I can't articulate the physics, but I can hear the difference.
BX1500 & LDS 15/6
I drove my BX1500 hard for 4 hours last night with not one single problem. This is the biggest place we play. Its hard for me to say where my volume settings were at because I was using my VT Bass to help shape the tone. I "think" the BX1500 was at about 4 on the master and 5 on the drive. The VT was 1:00 on the level, 10:00 on the drive and 11:00 on the mid and character. 1:00 on the VT bass eq knob. The cab I used was the LDS 15/6. I was getting lots of volume with those settings, but I had a lot more volume on tap. The sound was big, girthy, and full. Gotta say this cab is simply astounding considering the big, full sound I was getting with the volume I had it at, combined with the portability factor. Wow.
I have the same gig tonite and I'm going to try the first set with my LMII and see how that goes.
I drove my BX1500 hard for 4 hours last night with not one single problem. This is the biggest place we play. Its hard for me to say where my volume settings were at because I was using my VT Bass to help shape the tone. I "think" the BX1500 was at about 4 on the master and 5 on the drive. The VT was 1:00 on the level, 10:00 on the drive and 11:00 on the mid and character. 1:00 on the VT bass eq knob. The cab I used was the LDS 15/6. I was getting lots of volume with those settings, but I had a lot more volume on tap. The sound was big, girthy, and full. Gotta say this cab is simply astounding considering the big, full sound I was getting with the volume I had it at, combined with the portability factor. Wow.
I have the same gig tonite and I'm going to try the first set with my LMII and see how that goes.
Agreed. The fan would likely be audible and an acoustic / coffee shop type gig. The fan is definitely on the loud side.The fan might be different on the BX series versus the B series. The fan noise certainly wouldn't be audible at loud gig volume. That said, if you were playing a coffee shop gig behind an acoustic guitar player it would be audible. It would also make this head a bad choice if you were in a studio setting where you had to have the amp in the same room as the mic'd cab. For loud gigging it would not be a problem. Unlike your amp, mine is not yet in a rack case, so that could be a contributing factor as you pointed out.
I can afford to keep the Puma. Frankly I could afford to keep both, but I imagine one of them (suspicions point to the Carvin) would end up sitting around unused and that's just not my style
I should point out that my review is not based on a live session with a band and should be taken as "initial at best." My feelings might change once I hear the amp in a live context.
Here's an update of the Carvin B2000 into my LDS 15/6/1 (crosspost from the B2000 thread):
Update on the B2000 through a 15/6/1:
Had an all day rehearsal with this amp in the toughest room I play. A large garage with 15-foot ceilings, concrete floors, no PA support for bass and a fairly loud band. Not ridiculously loud, but ear plugs are a great idea.
Reliability: The B2000 did pretty well. Never had any thermal shutdown issues which has apparently been an issue in the past with certain Carvin amps. I don't think it will be an issue with the B2000. The amp did not have any tonal changes as the day went by. From a reliability standpoint this amp appears to be very solid.
Power: Power is simply not an issue with this amp. Gobs and gobs of power, even into the 8 ohm load of my 15/6/1. I had plenty of power to drive the cab to it's full excursion. REALLY pushing it I could get the cab to start farting out, but at that point the volume was frankly unusable, so I backed it off to normal levels which were considerably lower. If you're worried about not having enough juice with this amp... Don't. Tons of power on tap. The amp was cool to the touch after being on for 6 hours.
Tone: The tone was pretty good, but not perfect. The treble control issues that I mentioned previously were still noticeable in a mix. To reiterate; The treble control seems to be centered fairly high, but has such a wide Q that if you boost it you end up boosting a lot of upper mids and your tone gets very ganky. If you cut it your tone becomes very lifeless and dull. Leaving it at noon gave the best results, but I would like the ability to add some sparkle up top and it just wasn't possible with this amp unless you really like ganky upper mids as well as sparkle. Also as I mentioned previously, the other EQ's take a fair amount of adjustment to sound balanced. In the mix I found myself boosting the sub-bass and bass controls, leaving the lo mid flat and cutting the mid and hi mid controls down to about 3-3.5. Looking at the knobs made me cringe, but this netted the closest thing to a flat tone I could get out of the amp (using an LMTube with all EQ's set to noon and both filters turned off as my benchmark for a flat tone). I like how the amp sounds, but the inherent voicing of the amp combined with that strange treble control concern me greatly. The treble control is one of the reasons that this amp is going back to Carvin on Monday.
Drive: The drive control has come up a few times in this thread. I experimented with it a bit today and have come to the conclusion that it is VERY subtle. You can get a little bit of dirt if you have the thing nearly maxed out, but even then I'd hesitate in calling it an overdrive circuit of any kind. It acts more like the character knob on the Tech 21 Character series pedals, but again, in a much more subtle manner. It felt like it was adding upper midrange content. Unfortunately adding upper midrange, no matter how subtle the addition was, is the last thing this amp needs to sound balanced. I found myself setting it around 4 and just living with it.
Misc: The random stuff like the fan being crazy loud and the clunking noise during shut down still persisted today. The fan is a subjective problem, but a potential problem none the less. The clunking noise seems to be commonplace among some of Carvin amps. I suppose it's not a problem, but it still concerns me.
Summary: Despite this review sounding a bit negative, I do actually like this amp. I will give a caveat and say that I like this amp given its price point. If this amp cost $1,000 I would not consider it given how it has performed. $800 would be the max I would pay. At $700 it's quite a bargain and worth every penny. The EQ is strange in general with the treble control being the strangest of the bunch. The weird mechanical stuff (fan and clunking mentioned earlier) is bothersome. The performance feels exceptional, the amp seems to be reliable and the build is quite robust. I like the dark blue aesthetic of the lights. The components feel sturdy and yield positive feedback to things like hitting switches or turning pots. A great value if you're looking for lots of power in a light package and have an equally light wallet. Alternatives that can be had on the used market for similar, or potentially lower prices are the Gallien-Krueger 1001RB and the Eden WT-800. Obviously there's no warranty when buying used, so that's something to consider.
Rating: 6.5, maybe 7 out of 10.
Hope that helps anyone considering this amp. Cheers!
Update on the B2000 through a 15/6/1:
Had an all day rehearsal with this amp in the toughest room I play. A large garage with 15-foot ceilings, concrete floors, no PA support for bass and a fairly loud band. Not ridiculously loud, but ear plugs are a great idea.
Reliability: The B2000 did pretty well. Never had any thermal shutdown issues which has apparently been an issue in the past with certain Carvin amps. I don't think it will be an issue with the B2000. The amp did not have any tonal changes as the day went by. From a reliability standpoint this amp appears to be very solid.
Power: Power is simply not an issue with this amp. Gobs and gobs of power, even into the 8 ohm load of my 15/6/1. I had plenty of power to drive the cab to it's full excursion. REALLY pushing it I could get the cab to start farting out, but at that point the volume was frankly unusable, so I backed it off to normal levels which were considerably lower. If you're worried about not having enough juice with this amp... Don't. Tons of power on tap. The amp was cool to the touch after being on for 6 hours.
Tone: The tone was pretty good, but not perfect. The treble control issues that I mentioned previously were still noticeable in a mix. To reiterate; The treble control seems to be centered fairly high, but has such a wide Q that if you boost it you end up boosting a lot of upper mids and your tone gets very ganky. If you cut it your tone becomes very lifeless and dull. Leaving it at noon gave the best results, but I would like the ability to add some sparkle up top and it just wasn't possible with this amp unless you really like ganky upper mids as well as sparkle. Also as I mentioned previously, the other EQ's take a fair amount of adjustment to sound balanced. In the mix I found myself boosting the sub-bass and bass controls, leaving the lo mid flat and cutting the mid and hi mid controls down to about 3-3.5. Looking at the knobs made me cringe, but this netted the closest thing to a flat tone I could get out of the amp (using an LMTube with all EQ's set to noon and both filters turned off as my benchmark for a flat tone). I like how the amp sounds, but the inherent voicing of the amp combined with that strange treble control concern me greatly. The treble control is one of the reasons that this amp is going back to Carvin on Monday.
Drive: The drive control has come up a few times in this thread. I experimented with it a bit today and have come to the conclusion that it is VERY subtle. You can get a little bit of dirt if you have the thing nearly maxed out, but even then I'd hesitate in calling it an overdrive circuit of any kind. It acts more like the character knob on the Tech 21 Character series pedals, but again, in a much more subtle manner. It felt like it was adding upper midrange content. Unfortunately adding upper midrange, no matter how subtle the addition was, is the last thing this amp needs to sound balanced. I found myself setting it around 4 and just living with it.
Misc: The random stuff like the fan being crazy loud and the clunking noise during shut down still persisted today. The fan is a subjective problem, but a potential problem none the less. The clunking noise seems to be commonplace among some of Carvin amps. I suppose it's not a problem, but it still concerns me.
Summary: Despite this review sounding a bit negative, I do actually like this amp. I will give a caveat and say that I like this amp given its price point. If this amp cost $1,000 I would not consider it given how it has performed. $800 would be the max I would pay. At $700 it's quite a bargain and worth every penny. The EQ is strange in general with the treble control being the strangest of the bunch. The weird mechanical stuff (fan and clunking mentioned earlier) is bothersome. The performance feels exceptional, the amp seems to be reliable and the build is quite robust. I like the dark blue aesthetic of the lights. The components feel sturdy and yield positive feedback to things like hitting switches or turning pots. A great value if you're looking for lots of power in a light package and have an equally light wallet. Alternatives that can be had on the used market for similar, or potentially lower prices are the Gallien-Krueger 1001RB and the Eden WT-800. Obviously there's no warranty when buying used, so that's something to consider.
Rating: 6.5, maybe 7 out of 10.
Hope that helps anyone considering this amp. Cheers!
I was just so, so impressed with this cab that I switched my order from the 115HO (which I also love) to this spec. I really like the 115HO a lot, but more as a 'totally different from my typical tone' sort of thing (warm, older school, grindy). While most of the two way 15/6's and 12/6's are just a bit too smooth and polite for my needs, and that 18sound mid driver does not personally speak to me, this particular 3 way spec, with the smoother Faital mid driver and the 'less in your face' Eminence tweeter is just about as close to the old cliche of 'studio monitor sound' as I've heard. (This cab is basically the wonderful cab that Don made for TBer 'Deb', with a tweeter added).
So, I switched my order to the identical spec, but with Surf Green tolex
I've been in the cue for a while, so I'm hoping in about 6 weeks!
Played my 15/6 out for the 1st time Saturday. Big hotel ballroom with 300 people. M9 gain at 1 o'clock with master at 11 o'clock and the LDS box up on a stand elevated about 2 feet. Even in a room that large, when out in the room the mix was best with me pretty low in the PA (we have 18" subs) but crankin' off the stage. Me was a smilin' broadly
It's been a long time since I've had nary a whiff of amp GAS and it suits me fine! No need for a matching 12 for me. The 15/6 is light and portable enough for the smallest venues we'll play, and if I get lazy it'll be the M9 that sits home and the Shuttle 9 that makes the trip. Thanks again Don.
It's been a long time since I've had nary a whiff of amp GAS and it suits me fine! No need for a matching 12 for me. The 15/6 is light and portable enough for the smallest venues we'll play, and if I get lazy it'll be the M9 that sits home and the Shuttle 9 that makes the trip. Thanks again Don.
@Ken - is that picture a 12/6 or a 15/6? I just sent Don a email, I am going to get in line, so to speak, but still up in the air on spec. I will go with a 15/6 for sure, but that's all I know right now!
It is a 12/6/1..... 3012LF, 6" Faital mid, and an Eminence tweeter. Crossover 800hz and 4K or so. Really sweet sounding cab!
I have my large cab needs perfectly met with my 410's, and don't have the power to really make a 15/6 work for me for a stand alone large cab rig (given my love for the little 500 watt micro amps that really need 4ohms to get wumpin'). However, I'm always on the lookout for a really good small gig cab, and this particular one really speaks to me. It is just a beautiful match to my Puma500, and that head powers it nicely to moderate volumes... great for the small group jazz and pop work I do on occasion.
Edit: Don's 15/6 builds are beautiful looking and sounding. He is pretty much set on the 3015LF/18sound spec for the 15/6, and the 3012LF/Faital spec for the 12/6. He will do the crossover at either 800hz or 1.2K, depending on what the user wants (he and Ralph like the 1.2K spec a touch better... a little more open and airy sounding, especially with the very forward and high SPL 18sound mid driver). The 800hz crossover spec is more even, which to some can sound a bit too upper mid forward, versus the slight dip and more open tone of the 1.2K crossover, which allows more upper mids to come out of the driver. They both sound very good to me.
Yes, I am pretty set on a fEarful 15/6 with the 3015LF / 18 Sound. Based on your earlier recommendation, I think I will go with the variable L pad for the mid. I am thinking the 800hz crossover will work. I am a little concerned a with this, since I really don't like the mid "gank" or "clack' that seems to be a factor in some cabs. I want to make sure I can eq it out or adjust the level of the 18 Sound. Thanks for your help!
I think you will dig it. Even though Don pads down the 18sound, it is still very forward sounding, and I too prefer the LPad to adjust it to taste. As long as you have an upper mid control on your amp set somewhere in that 800hz to 1K region, you should be absolutely fine regarding the gank! A very slight cut around that area sounds very good to me with that spec.
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