Worst Bass Cab You Have Played Through?

[brianrost]

The first amp I bought, a Univox UB-250 (20 transistor watts!) had a pretty rancid 1-15 cab.

 

[Clark Westfield]

I had n Acoustic 115 that I couldn’t wait to sell.

My buddy gave me a good deal on it, as he knew it was a butt speaker.

 

[five7]

Hartke 210 was bad one. No lows and I was afraid I would blow it up.

 

[BEADist]

Definitely the Karlson speaker cabinet that I build myself .

 

[jeffb28451]

It depends. I’ve had issues with fEarFul cabs. Not because they’re bad, (I own 2) but they’re just so revealing that if I don’t bring my “A” game, I get a lot of mechanical noise from my basses, esp a “clanky” one like a Ric or MM. Through a Bergantino or DNA, ever so smooth, but those hi-res cabs will bite if you’re not careful.;

I have to stay sober and trim my fingernails just right…

 

[roccobass]

The very worn 810 Ampeg cab that I purchased in the early 80s. I think it was speaker fatigue. It just sounded flat and lifeless no matter what setting I used.

 

[rmayer]

Oh there's been a few.
Orange OBC115
Markbass 410, 210
Markbass CMD 151P
Ashdown 115, 210
Ampeg 410
Aguilar db410, db210
GK neo ii 410
Labsystems 210, 410
Behringer (Bell ringer) 210, 410,
Eden Nemisis 410, 115.
Trace Elliot 410.

Honestly, I spent years searching for the right cab for me.
Finally settled on Markbass CL152.
Labsystems 115.
Aguilar DB115.
Still have the GK212 ii which everyone but me, loves... I keep it simply because it's light and does the job.

One cab I really miss is the GenzBenz 610t xb2.

In defense of the Aguilar DB410, its rear ports make a difference in the sound with room placement. Place it right up against a wall and it will sound horrible (as per my experience). Same for the DB210. I noticed you liked the sound of the DB115 (front ported). One of the best (and loudest) bass sounds I had was with an Aguilar DB750 and a DB410.

 

[Bushrod Johnson]

1965 Silvertone (1-15)

 

[ghiggin1079]

I mean I guess it'd have to be my 1st bass combo which was some sort of Randall with a 15. And there wasn't really anything bad about it, I just had to name something. But on the backline side of things, there was that STUPid Ampeg mini micro 2x10 that the house bassist SWORE was the greatest thing ever. Couldn't hear over the drummer with brushes and it was MAXXED

 

[coryr1000]

Back in the 70's I purchased a Guild 2x15 cabinet to use with my Fender Bassman 10 combo. It never sounded good when I used it as the external speaker but if I used it as the main speaker and unplugged the 4 10's in the amp its sounded great. I took it apart one day and found that someone replaced one if the speakers with a JBL of some sort and the impedance was different than the stock speaker so who knows what kind of speaker mismatch I was having when I used them all together.

 

[ThinCrappyTone2]

I can remember getting some bad bass tones out of cabs over the years, but I'm going to just assume that I didn't know what I was doing, and it probably wasn't the manufacturer's fault.

 

[bucephylus]

Taking account of the fact that speaker cabs have limitations, based on their cost, drivers, and enclosure design, I have only had a single issue in all my years of gigging. Usually my problem has been the player more than the cab. Usually, you get what you pay for.

My problem cab was a Flite 4x8”, with a horn. The fellow who designed and sold it, Kurt IIRC, billed it as the all time amazing bass cab. The enclosure was built from lofted epoxy composite panels for weight reduction. The drivers were some kind of high end audio drivers from New England Audio Research. Said drivers used a magnetic suspension fluid in place of the more typical coil spider to supposedly give massive z displacement in the frame.

That 408MH, or whatever it was called, was an epic fail from day one. THE least efficient cab I’ve ever gigged, requiring massive power just to get anything at all out of it. And, even then, I doubt there were any frequencies below 200 Hz coming out of it. The ONLY thing it ever did well was provide an outstanding mid/high addition to my Acoustic 360; which sounded amazing, but looked pretty stupid.

The saving grace was that the designer / builder also custom built a 115 with a horn to match the 408. That cab, though the panels fell apart and had to be repeatedly glued up, sounded great, providing many years of gigging, and went on to provide excellent sales for that little company.

The lesson was that one has to be careful spending money on unproven novel concepts. Haven’t made that mistake since.

 

[coryr1000]

The first amp I bought, a Univox UB-250 (20 transistor watts!) had a pretty rancid 1-15 cab.

View attachment 5425909

I had that exact setup! It started smoking one day so I had to trash it.

 

[Rib 13]

2000s Carvin 4 x 10..........I still cringe thinking about it

 

[RGerhart]

Oh, this is a fun thread.

For me, probably these below. Not sure exactly on the models, as I tried to forget about them:

Acoustic 410
Hartke (anything, really)
Crate combo, I think it was a 1x12
Peavey TNT, 1X15 (horrid bass response)

 

[bassfran]

I had a Hartke 2-10 that I couldn’t sell fast enough. On top of the 4-10 it wasn’t noticebly bad but alone it seemed close to worthless for me.
All-time worst was the singer’s spare no-name wedge I had to use once. Sounded like a continuous soft fart coming from an AM radio in another room.

 

[Gervais Cote]

Acoustic B10 : no matter the bass you plug into it, the sound is always the same, no bass and lifeless.

It's a student practice amp though so if you get one for let’s say $25.00, then it’s okay……….……..in my book !

 

[LiptonJigglers]

2000s Carvin 4 x 10..........I still cringe thinking about it

That's one I forgot to put on my list. Cringe indeed.

 

[Altitude]

Some people may not like this but some Avatar 2X10 (blue drivers) with the horn tweeter are not so great. I am wondering if they even calculated the Thiele parameters. I've kept mine though and left it at one of the places I rehearse, specially when the drummer goes ape-poopie on the drums. However they are tough , even with a SWR 350 that's pushing some subsonic crap, Mine are 4 ohms and just won't die.

Funny, I had several Avatar cabinets along the way (210, 212, 112, 410) and I thought the 210 sounded the best.

 

[jthisdell]

1965 Silvertone (1-15)

I keep getting ads on FB for a Silvertone guitar amp emulator pedal. All I can say is Why?