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Small and awesome or big and mediocre (OR BOTH??)

Small and awesome or big and mediocre (OR BOTH??)

  • Small and awesome (Aguilar 1x12, for example)

    Votes: 36 90.0%

  • Big and mediocre (old and farty Peavey 4x10, for example)

    Votes: 1 2.5%

  • Keep them both!

    Votes: 3 7.5%
  • Total voters
    40
WhoSeyes

WhoSeyes

Aug 18, 2008
275
122
38
Barcelona.
methzina.bandcamp.com
#1
Hi everyone!

It's been a while since the last time I logged in the forum... and I'm really GASing around for new gear :-)

The fact is that I don't have a lot of money, and amps are quite expensive for my budget.

I own an Orange Bass Terror 500w which I would like to keep forever. My cabs, though, are not fancy at all...

My idea is to invest in a really good cab, but to keep it in my budget it would have to be small. I've seen, for example, an Aguilar 1x12, which could be affordable, but it's not a cab that you can bring to big gigs, can you?

On the other hand, I own some old, big and sluggish cabs like a Peavey 4x10 or a Gallien-Krueger 1x18 which don't produce a sound good enough for mic-ing in a live setting or to record in a studio...

Should I go for a small 1x12, stay with my big fart-cabs or maybe mix one of the big ones and the small Aguilar? In a live setting, the 1x18 would give me stage volume and then the 1x12 could me microphoned, I guess.



Thanks in advance for your responses!!
 
#2
I guess the question is how loud do you need it to be?
If you have PA support, the front of house will not be an issue as you can either use the DI from the Terror or use a microphone. Then you use the 1x12 on stage as your monitor. That works if you don't play bigger stages at high volume.
However, for the price of an Aguilar 1x12 you can buy a number of really nice 500+ watt 4x10 from GK, Eden, Hartke, TC Electronic and Ampeg to name just a few so you might find that you can go Big & Awesome:D
 
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#5
RoadRanger said:
Which Peavey 4x10 cab do you have? Some can be easily "fixed" :) .
Click to expand...

Never mind that the 4-10 TAX (while heavy) is one of the most under-rated cabs out there. I borrowed one to add volume to an SVT2 and Ampeg 4-10 one time and in both tone and volume the Peavey walked all over the Ampeg.

We used to sell a lot of them at the MI dealer I worked at. Again, heavy but they sound great.
 
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#6
Big and awesome - I love my Ampeg 212AV cabs ($699 new) and really like the GK 212 NEO cabs as well ($599 new), which is less than the Aggie 112 (at around $749 new). The 212s will easily cover a decent sized gig on their own - the Aggie won't (or at least wouldn't for me). And you wouldn't be compromising on tone at all, IMO. My 212AVs have to be my favorite cabs ever...
 
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#9
I voted small and awesome. I have 2 EA wizzy 1x12 cabs and they work for any size venue I would play. One cab for quiet duo type gigs. Two cabs for anything else. At the point that two cabs isn't enough, I will have PA support.

This works for a loud (many would say too loud) classic rock band.
 
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#14
I'm interpreting the question a little differently, basically taking "awesome" to mean "expensive" and mediocre to mean "inexpensive". Becaues Bass waves are so big, making a small bass cab that sounds good takes a fair amount of engineering, which means more money spent in R&D, and usually a more intracate and low-error tolerance manufacturing process-translation: expensive. The R&D on larger enclosers was paid off long ago, and the designs are a lot more straight-foward, so producing one requires a lot less money. Thus, inexpensive.

essentially, its much cheaper to get a good bass sound out of a big, heavy box (with a big heavy magnet in it) but big heavy boxes are a pain to haul around, so companies invest a bunch of money trying to engineer small, lightweight boxes and speakers sound like big heavy ones.

If you are willing to haul around the big guys, you can get a lot more (good) sound for your money (They also look way cooler when you play a rock show). I bet a $300 peavey 4x10 is comperable in sound quality to a $500 aggie 112-it is just 2x as big and heavy.
 
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#16
I am in the same quest of you...

Gk neo 212 seems a very good option, and also a b-stock markbass 410.

Looking at second hand market here in spain i hace reach a used ashdown abm 410 for a very good price...

But so far the most sexy is the gk cx 410. Less than 500€, ceramic but light as neo, not so big... What is the downside?
 
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#19
Thank your for all your responses.

I had not thought of getting a 2x12, that could be a possibility.

The 4x10 Peavey is too big and to old to make us of it. The twetter is blown, anyway. I'll try to sell it of possible.

I'm in love with the 1x18 G&K, but I agree that it's too specialized to be used in any context (recording, live mic'ing, and so on).

I also have a Harley Benton 2x10, but is not the best cab in the world, as you can imagine...
 
#20
I'm voting small and awesome but, with all due respect to Aguilar, I think using the Aggie 1x12 is not the best example.
I have an SL112 and it's a very nice cabinet, but awesome? No, not even close. It's very light and easy to lug around, which is great here in NYC, but there are other 1x12s out there that would eat it for lunch. Furthermore, 2x10s and many 1x15s are also much smaller than a 4x10 so you have a lot of options for "small and awesome" if you don't confine yourself to 1x12s.

Definitely go for small and awesome, but don't count on an Aggie 112 as a standalone.
 
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