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My unusual cab quest (Verellen Content)

skullservant

Guest
Aug 15, 2011
117
1
Some background on me:

I play both guitar and bass, focusing mostly on black metal/drone/sludge/noise.

My issue:

I just moved back from college to my parents place for a while until I can find a job in my field. Current space issues at my parents place left me needing to sacrifice gear in order for all of it to fit. I had been using an Ampeg B115E and an Acoustic B200h for bass. It was okay, but I got rid of it because there was no way both my guitar's 4x12 and the 1x15 could fit.

My guitar rig is a Peavey Rockmaster 120w head. Its only got a 4ohm output, but you can hook up a 4ohm extension cab and drop it down to 2ohms. 1.5 channels (.5 is a footswitchable cascading 12ax7 for crunch). What really makes it a neat head is the push/pull pots it features.

Standard bright/normal on the pregain knob, a 'smoothing' feature on the post gain knob, as well as a 'thick' setting which boosts mids and lows. It's almost like this head was built for bass.

I've got a 4x12 like I stated before, but it is taking up way too much space, and I also don't want to shred it with my bass since it is a guitar cab.

My solution: find a cab that I could use for both guitar and bass with the Rockmaster head.

Here are the cabs that I looked into:

Avatar SB112. 250w neo speaker, 4 ohms. Pros: light, small, built well in the US. Cons: tweeter that could be shredded with dirt.

Avatar 115. 400w neo speaker, 4 ohms. Pros: light, built well in the US. Cons: 15" might sound a little too dark with guitar (even though I'd played through a 1x15 bass cab on guitar before), not much smaller than my 4x12.

Gallien Krueger's 212MBE. 600w, 2 neo 12's. 4 ohms. Pros: light, powerful, cheap. Cons: I have heard bad things about the internal bracing. Not too keen on the aesthetics.

Emperor 1x12 bass cab. 500w Celestian 12LFC. 4 ohms. Pros: customizable, well built, sturdy, powerful, small, ported Cons: heavier, more expensive.

Verellen 1x12 bass cab. I ended up initially asking Ben a lot of questions with my initial email. He answered all of them with great care, and really won me over.

He was really intrigued about my situation and plan, and he seemed really excited to accept the challenge.

We exchanged emails for a solid day before we came up with a plan. We decided on a sealed 1x12" bass cab, and initially were going to go with an Eminence Delta Pro 12", which has a 56-5khz range. Unfortunately, they do not come in 4 ohms. So we decided to then go with the Celestian 12LFC.

The cab itself is going to be oversized for a 1x12", 22x22x16deep, which is still considerably smaller than my 4x12 cab. (And could even fit a 15" in there if I decided I didn't like the 12"!) The Rockmaster head will fit perfectly on top (measuring in at 21.5" wide)

The cab itself is going to be stained dark ebony, with a black basket grill. It's going to have two leather straps on one side as opposed to the standard metal ports that most cabs feature. Dovetailed, and will feature the back pannel being screwed in all around the bracing for extra strength. The cab itself was a little more expensive than the Emperor quote, but I got total control of the design, Ben's craftsmanship is top notch, his aesthetic great, and it's got a Lifetime Warranty.

All in all Ben was amazing to work with, answering all of my questions (and the dozens that I had)

I will be sure to post pictures of the cab when it comes. I still have yet to decide on the badge (standard Verellen stamp, or a "V").

I figured I would put it up here for reference for you guys!
 
4ohm is not a great plan for a single driver. best with 8 or 16. Drivers specced to go low, like bass drivers, won't have the mid peak, breakup and top end that makes guitar drivers sound right. Mostly they'll come across as muddy. That might no matter so much if you are playing alone, but in a band context it will disappear you quite well.
 
Yeah, I really wish this head had more than just a 4 ohm output. I probably more than likely will not be playing with anyone in a band type setting though, so I guess it will be alright. The only person I will be duoing with is my fiance, who will be doing noise over top!
 
I suggest building a cab twice as tall as the cab you're building now. Won't take up any more floor space. Put in a 4ohm bass 15 and a 4ohm guitar 12 in separate internal cabs. Have a switch built in so you can choose the 15 or 12 to play through. Or maybe two separate jacks so you can plug the head into whatever speaker you want.
 
Both of those sound like neat ideas.

I'm not violently opposed to running my guitar through a bass driver, however. I used to have a 1x15 bass cab that I would play guitar through regularly with amazing results!

I'll be sure to post pictures up here when the Verellen is done
 
So we decided to then go with the Celestian 12LFC.

I've never heard of that speaker.

Here's a 12" Celestion 4-ohm bass speaker:

Invalid Link Removed

And, here's a 4-ohm Eminence model designated "LFC":

[Invalid or Expired Link Removed]

Is it either one of these?
 
Finally, I got the cab! It pushes some serious air for being a 1x12! Currently using the Peavey Rock Master head which has a great amount of headroom compared to the Sceptre, seeing that the Peavey has 60 more watts on tap. Really pleased with it!

7659106172_0e995719d3_z.jpg