so this thing?
View attachment 7159761
essentially just a giant sealed marshall guitar cab. i suppose if you put bass speakers designed for sealed cabs in there it could sound pretty cool for old-school bass, especially with a big tube head on it
never seen an SVT "style" amp, but my first thought is that real SVTs want 4Ω, so probably best to load the cab that way (assuming you can find 4Ω or 16Ω bass drivers meant for sealed cabs)
Yeah, that's the one I'm talking about. Except I'm not necessarily looking to put speakers specifically designed for bass in it. I'm thinking more of an "all purpose" type speaker; hence the Celestion Sidewinder 15 or Weber Werewolf. They're supposed to be more like general purpose built on a bass speaker frame/voice coil.
SVT style would be my makeshift SVT. I use my Crate Blue Voodoo 300 (which has the SVT power section) and run my SVP-CL and SVP-Pro preamps into the loop. It has the DNA and tone of an SVT without actually being one.
There’s a good reason nobody ever copied that cabinet commercially. It’s the same reason that when you see these cabinets on the used market, they are very cheap to free.
Think this through, it was a pretty dreadful low mid splatter-box that was not terribly commercially successful. Even Marshall moved on from that pretty quickly.
I'd say no one copied the 1979 cab because it sat in a weird space size-wise (for guitar) and the original speakers used. The original 1979A & B cabs G15M or G15C 15" Greenbacks. These were general purpose speakers, but worked better for guitar. They didn't go as low and 50 watt power handling made them kind of weak for bass.
Later versions of this cab; though I forget the model numbers, used different speakers that were better suited for bass. There was one that used Celestion G15-100 100 watt bass speakers, the Lemmy cab which used Eminence, the 4x15 that had 15" Sidewinders, all of which has the same or very similar dimensions. From clips I heard they didn't necessarily sound bad with bass, you just didn't get the same amount of low end as with a ported bass cab. For bass they were better suited for growly overdrive/distortion where you'd want to reduce the low end so it didn't fart out. This is what I'm going for.
I'll make a follow up post that has a video of this and similar cabs which illustrate what I'm wanting and expecting out of what I plan to build.
Q; Is this a worthwhile project to tackle, or am I possibly setting myself up for massive failure?
A; I'm going the latter.
All that effort, all that money, all that weight and for only 600 watts?
I admire the enthusiasm but feel the use value of such a project will be very short lived.
If you need a 4×anything, just get the GK 412 neo cab and be done with it. The hard work's already done, 1/4 the price,
1/3 the weight, 2× the wattage and it'll send bass signals to Pluto if you really want it to and still sound great.
I wouldn't be spending that much money on this cab. I already have most all the proper materials I would need for the build left over from other projects. The only things I'd need to buy are side carry handles and the speakers.
As far as wattage goes the highest rated amp I'd typically run through it would be 150 watts. I want to pair it with vintage style tubes amps that I mentioned in the OP. So 600 watts power handling would be more than enough.
I already have a GK 412 Neo. Also have an Ashdown RM610T. SO I'm covered for higher wattage amps as well.
And also I thought if your 415 cab didn't work out it might be hard to sell/unload and get rid of it due to its size and unusual configuration.But 215 cabs can be used for pa and or bass guitar use.Something to consider.
I wouldn't worry about trying to sell it. If it didn't work for bass in the way I'd want to use it I'd put some 15" guitar speakers in it; like a quad of Celestion Fullbacks. Johan Segeborn has a video of the cab I'm looking at copying loaded with then and it sounds huge for guitar. Worst case scenario I'd tear it down and make it into something else.
I used to blast 2 Greenboy Dually 2x15 cabs with everything from a Sunn Beta Bass, Traynor YBA-1, to a preamp through a 2kW stereo class D power amp, and briefly a stupidly loud clean custom 300W tube head. So you can definitely do it, as long as the speakers/wiring/impedance are appropriate, and you can build in options for that stuff too with some planning. If you're worried about specific speakers holding up or playing nice with specific amps, maybe try using a HPF just to filter out signal below 35-50Hz. I used to use an fdeck HPF-Pre Series 3 and it worked great (also used it for running distorted synth through my bass rig). There was a time when I was designing a 4x15 myself and looking at all the speaker specs, cab design calculators and such. People are already giving the right kind of advice for that stuff, there's A LOT of speaker design info out there (and here).
It might be best to find out what speakers you can get on your budget and work around that. When I'm doing a craft project with my kids I often tell them "it's easier to find something and make a project around it, than look for something super specific to perfectly match the idea in your head", but it's still ok to do that, if you're patient and want to wait for a deal or a lucky find or just to save up.
As far as whether a 415 is "practical" or "necessary", it's fun. Playing loud impractically big rigs just for the heck of it, is good clean fun. If you can afford it and you have the motivation to do it, I say go nuts and be extra.
Thanks for the tip on using a HPF to filter out some low end. For the most part I don't think I would need it for the amps I plan to pair with it. Fender Bassman, Marshall Super Bass, and other "vintage style general purpose" amps don't have a crap ton of low end to begin with; at least not so much that rolling the bass knob back couldn't cut out. A HPF does sound like a good option to keep in my back pocket in case I do need to cut out more low end.
Speakers are pretty much chosen. Even though I'd mostly copy a 1979 cab, I'd still tweak dimensions as necessary to work best with those speakers. Top options for speakers is either Celestion Sideinder 15's or Weber Werewolf 15's. There's already a cab that uses Sidewinders with my planned dimensions. In clips I've heard it has a similar sound to what I'd be expecting and going for. The Webers, while not the exact same are in the same vein as the Sidewinders. I think they should be fine without having to tweak the cab dimensions much. Also, the cab will be closed back and un-ported so I wouldn't have to worry about tuning it per-se.
Pretty much spot on what you said about being impractical. If you can play though giant rigs and it sounds good then why the hell not go nuts with it LOL.
