Poll for carbon fiber cabs owners

[JimChjones]

The issues were all focused on where screws mounted in the material. At these points of vulnerability, the fiberglass cracked and teared

That was indeed lousy execution. Mechanical fasteners into sandwich laminates need to be carefully thought about and planned, but its perfectly routine stuff. It just requires paying attention. Personally I prefer bonding to mechanical fastening, but its not hard. If you must use screws then the core locally must be replaced with something that will take a screw. A small bit of plywood is a common option, but my vote would always be for a high density foam. There are high density foams that will take screws just as well as wood does. Wht you can't do is shove self tapping screws through a small pilot hole as if it was aluminium or steel. That is guaranteed to end in tears.

 

[agedhorse]

That was indeed lousy execution. Mechanical fasteners into sandwich laminates need to be carefully thought about and planned, but its perfectly routine stuff. It just requires paying attention. Personally I prefer bonding to mechanical fastening, but its not hard. If you must use screws then the core locally must be replaced with something that will take a screw. A small bit of plywood is a common option, but my vote would always be for a high density foam. There are high density foams that will take screws just as well as wood does. Wht you can't do is shove self tapping screws through a small pilot hole as if it was aluminium or steel. That is guaranteed to end in tears.

What you aren’t comprehending is that for a high volume production environment, building cabinets using composites is slow, costly and environmentally unfriendly.

With the current and future EU Eco-directives, composites are incredibly eco-unfriendly at end of life. They are not biodegradable or recyclable, purely landfill fodder. This is one (of several) reasons why I can’t (or won’t) consider composites.

 

[Pep]

I'm shocked. They've got a new model, even uglier than the standard, I wouldn't have thought it would be possible

Please don't zoom on the image, it really hurts the eyes

How far can they go next?

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Edit: probably a smart way to make sure that nobody will ever steal your cab

No need to spend more money on that new look. If you have the previous model you can have that look for the price of a wide roll of blue masking tape.

 

[JimChjones]

What you aren’t comprehending is that for a high volume production environment, building cabinets using composites is slow, costly and environmentally unfriendly.

Well, maybe. The technology is advancing all the time, and I have an acquaintance in Rhode Island whose firm builds composite boats with what are to me quite astonishing levels of cleanliness, low waste and efficiency. And if there were really high volumes to justify really sophisticated tooling there might be things to be done. But I don't doubt that for Mesa in 2025 carbon composite cabinets aren't a viable proposition. I would be very interested to go over a GR Bass cab, even take one apart, and see what they've done.

But I do know something about the materials and have some experience with them, so I think its reasonable for me to point out the difference between an inherent limitation of the materials and something that is merely poor implementation and is soluble.

But overall it seems to me the challenge is how does one achieve adequate levels of roadworthiness while keeping cost and weight within bounds.

 

[agedhorse]

Building boats is entirely different than building transportable cabinets.

 

[Mike Caldwell]

I’ve seen their ceramic drivers with yellow cones, so I don’t think the is )or at least was) correct.


Ther were pretty heavy by comparison, and also very expensive. Is ACE still an operating company?

ACE was bought by QSC late 90's early 2000 and they continued to produce that series of cabinet for a while. I went to a QSC demo / training seminar in about 2003 and they had those cabinets there. Yes, a little too expensive for maybe the market they were going after.....they did sound good! ACE then kind of disappeared and QSC came with more or less what we know today.

I worked a major country music festival from the mid 90's to early 2000's and the Sound Image acts coming through with wedges were their carbon fiber models. At that level the price was not really so much a factor.

 

[pjb15]

I have had an AT 110 for a 1.5 years and done at least 100 gigs with it with no problem yet.

 

[Relsom]

I haven't slept in 2 weeks and am on a liquid diet, plus I'm miserable and insufferable at my best... all I'm allowed to do is read and write pretty much. Tomorrow I get to lift 15 lbs instead of 5 though so I can at least start practicing again.

Don't go by specs? It's all I can do. I don't have a signature tone or style or recorded body of work to match or anything, just weight restrictions and a realistically tiny (compared to internet heroes with more money than God) budget so I can't/won't buy multiple things to try.

In truth I don't think the GR cabs are really in my price range without paying interest, so I'm probably just daydreaming and going to end up with something smaller, cheaper, and worse. Ideally something I can get 0% financing on from GC/Sweetwater and spend the rest on medical bills.

If I had a blank check, though, I would order the GR NF210V at 17.86 lbs and never even try another cab - the natural fiber looks cool and it's light, that's good enough for me. I'm sure it sounds better than a Rumble 100. I don't need or want bone crushing volume, I play afro-jazz in one band and soft indie rock in another, aiming to get some jazz gigs next year if I can get my skills up to par.

I completely empathize with your situation. I would happily continue on with my Shuttles if my lungs weren't failing me at an accelerated rate. Who would ever guess that a 32 + 27 pound combined weight rig would even be too much to handle. Being able to shave off some of that load with the GR gear is helping keep my Ox sats at least somewhat happy and/or preventing me from falling out on a gig until I get on the list for a DLT. Others may think it's ridiculous to nit pick over a few pounds, but to me, it's essential to compare.
I wouldn't have been so quick to spring for them had I not lucked out in the used market. I complain about certain aspects of these GR cf things, but I'm rolling with it until I can't.

 

[Relsom]

I would be very interested to go over a GR Bass cab, even take one apart, and see what they've done.


But overall it seems to me the challenge is how does one achieve adequate levels of roadworthiness while keeping cost and weight within bounds.

I've explored the insides of mine, both built in 2025. You can see right much through the ports, but I went a little deeper with an endoscope too. The panels are joined with a type of black kind of rubbery adhesive/caulk/unknown material that isn't 100% rigid it seems. It is uniformly applied at all of the joints with no detected gaps. There are braces made from a sandwich of cf and high density foam. Although the fragile light duty corners are screwed directly into the cf, I was glad to see all of the real important stuff like the drivers, handles, and feet were backed by T-Nuts at every fastener.

Yes, the corners and trim is light duty and fragile, but like you said, to shave weight and made to be roadworthy would have been a real challenge. I have a stockpile of the small stackable corners that were used on the Shuttles....like 5 complete sets. Push comes to shove, I may find a way to adapt them to the GR gear if the stock corners prove totally unworthy. I only had to replace 1 so far, broken in shipping, and to GR Bass' credit, they sent me some spares, free of charge, from Italy. I have been impressed by their responsiveness to a lot of my nagging questions.

 

[gregbackstrom]

My GR 112 and 210 cabs have done a few gigs (powered by my TH500) and have been stellar. No dents, no failures and the easiest load-in outside of going purely FOH.

I’ve had a pair of AT-110’s for a year and a half, and an AT 112+ (not slim) for about a year. These cabs get weekly use, and I definitely baby them. They live in heavy Tuki covers with bottom Velcro flaps and are stored between gigs in a room-temp basement. I don’t stack anything heavy on them during or between gigs. Having said this, I treat all my gear this way, so I’m not really taking extraordinary measures to protect them.
My assessment for now: they sound great; they’re amazingly loud; they show no signs of wear.
For now, I’m pretty satisfied! I guess time will tell …

 

[roccobass]

Yeah, probably the "latin" culture . I don't like to generalize, but I find Italians to be often optimistic.

That said, I've lifted a MB58R cab in a music shop once, it felt really incredibly lightweight. I remember that it made me laugh.
Great for those who can tolerate that color.

You know, Markbass makes great equipment, but I’m one who can’t tolerate those yellow eyes either! However, I do own a Minimark 2x6 combo (discontinued) that I treasure. Love the suitcase construction and comes in about 19 lbs. Sounds great and no yellow eyes!

 

[Relsom]

You know, Markbass makes great equipment, but I’m one who can’t tolerate those yellow eyes either! However, I do own a Minimark 2x6 combo (discontinued) that I treasure. Love the suitcase construction and comes in about 19 lbs. Sounds great and no yellow eyes!

Yeah, I've avoided the Yellow all these years too, even though what I've heard sounded really good. I didn't care for the singular outlet, being GC. I had a Compressore a few years back. Decent pedal, but I wanted something simpler with a smaller footprint.

 

[Jeff Scott]

You know, Markbass makes great equipment, but I’m one who can’t tolerate those yellow eyes either! However, I do own a Minimark 2x6 combo (discontinued) that I treasure. Love the suitcase construction and comes in about 19 lbs. Sounds great and no yellow eyes!

Here's mine!

 

[roccobass]

Here's mine!

View attachment 7395208

Oops. I forgot my action shot too.

 

[Relsom]

Here's mine!

View attachment 7395208

I'll take the one on the right

 

[Jeff Scott]

Oops. I forgot my action shot too.

View attachment 7395212

Here's a tip (if you haven't already done this): set the amp stand you have there on the back-right of your photo in its upright position and set the Minimark into it so the speakers are angled up at you. Makes for a nice monitor.

 

[roccobass]

Here's a tip (if you haven't already done this): set the amp stand you have there on the back-right of your photo in its upright position and set the Minimark into it so the speakers are angled up at you. Makes for a nice monitor.

Lol! I did that earlier in the gig, but wasn’t getting enough reflection from the cement so I set it on the ground..

However, the angled technique works well with my Phil Jones Compact 4. Strange.