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Stupid Question

L

Lycanomics

Feb 14, 2011
2
0
#1
Ok...I'm not a bass player, but the bassist in my band needs a cab. Problem is he doesn't have much money to spend on it, so I had this idea about gutting an old 4x12 guitar slant cab and installing some new 12" Carvin bass speakers. So the question is would this be worth doing? It would save him alot of money but I'm unsure if the result would be decent enough. Thanks for any info. :)

Apologies if I put this thread in the wrong place.
 
#2
Unfortunately, the speakers are only half the equation -- the design of the cabinet being the rest. In my view it would be worth spending less on the speakers and building a cabinet to an established bass cabinet design (e.g. Bill Fitzmaurice or fEarful), or simply buying a second hand bass cabinet from Ebay or Craigslist or something -- cheaper, and ultimately better. He's likely to blow any speakers housed in a guitar cabinet. A 2 x 12 or 4 x 10 may well be plenty (depending on his competition -- i.e. what you and the drummer do to him!)
 
#3
Growlerbox hit it - the slant 412 guitar cab is most likely too small to make an effective bass cab, and it will be cheaper and better sounding to just find an decent affordable used bass cab.
Check your local craigslist. Or better yet, have your bassist do it...
 
#6
Hi.

Welcome to TalkBass Lycanomics.

The reasons not to do it the other posters give are perfectly valid, but I'd assume that You've already hunted high and low for an affordable cab?

If the "guitar" cab is free, and You can get the speakers used for a few $, the result will probably be better than the PA speakers (whatever they may be) he uses ATM. The result will be less than ideal, but it'll get You by for a while.

If Your bassplayer uses a SS amp, using only 3 (or 2) speakers, and sealing off the other cut-out(s) will better match the internal volume of the cab to the speakers.

Downloading WinISD, and experimenting with the software will take a lot of quesswork out of the equation.
You won't probably find T/S specs for the Carvin speakers though, but then again I might be wrong.

Regards
Sam
 
#8
You spent Valentine's Day joining talkbass????????


No, don't cram carvin speakers in your guitar cab, waste of money, you be way better off buying a used real bass cab.
Some old Peavey, Carvin or even an old Cratepeg would be better than that, and probably cheaper or at least the same.
 
#10
Yah finding a used cab on craiglist like a 2x15 or 4x10 might get you up to band levels cheaper and easier.

But as far as using dirt cheap speakers the only way to go is 4 or more, which will bring up power handling and somewhat lower excursion. Sensitivity goes up as well...so a single speaker rated at 94 to 96 dB is low and would need more than 200+ watts to keep up with a guitard and drummer....use 4 of them and you might get close to 100dB. and then 100 to 150watts will get you louder than you thought.

A full size slant cabinet is around 29"w x 29"h x 15" deep so thats about 7 cubic feet....if its a smaller more compact 4x12 it will be less.

The average 4x10 is around 5 to 7 cubic feet as well, but most are ported and much deeper. If your really going to try and make that guitar cabinet work you will have to add extra bracing to the front baffle to keep it from being a rattle bucket...and mandatory for sure have to add damping material, such as insulation or poly stuff. Plus your going to have to port the cabinet and a front port would be none ideal with such a weak front baffle, which is split with a seam for a slant cab, so you going to add some rear ports...(i can hear the screams now) plus your going to want tune the ports to whatever speaker your using...if you dont know how to do that, i would go for a generic 48 to 52hz for 12" speakers....so don't hold me to it, going off the top of my head, if you added 4 ports that are 4" in diameter they need to be around 4.5" long to get you around 50hz.

Like i said... save yourself the pain and be a craigslist bandit
dont buy into any single 15....get a 2x15 or 4x10
 
#11
WAY back in the day, the "original" 4x12 Marshall cabinet was intended (but not really "designed") for bass... Guitards just happened to like 'em too! All of my fave bass cabs are sealed, and my #1 fave is the Vox T-100 that *everyone* claims doesn't work for bass because there's not enough room in the cabinet... Listen to The Beatles at the Hollywood Bowl, and it sounds just fine. So, specs aren't always the way to go.

Sealed cabs work well for bass, and I just happened to like the sound of the Carvin 4x12 cabs for bass (rock n roll, and maybe some blues). It's probably the best of the 4x12s anyway. If the back of your cabinet is removable, it likely won't do much more than rattle and sound awful. But with the right speakers, even a "wrong" cab can sound good!

If you like the sound of the bass through this cab, then why not use it?

Just my 2 cents...
 

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