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Worst Bass Cab You Have Played Through?

#101
My Schoreder 112PL's were pretty horrible with the tweeters on. They made a ear piercing metallic shreik that was 10x worse than fingernails on a chalkboard. I yanked the tweeters out, plugged the holes, and wired the drivers straight to the jack. Now they sound awesome.

Also an Ashdown MAG. No highs, no mids, just boom.
 
#102
Can't remember the models, but in my younger days played through a Laney and also a Carlsbro. No character. Bland. In 1989 I bought a great UK made Trace Elliot 4x10 combo with 12 band EQ. That was cool. A Hartke transporter cab served me well. Peavey TNT? No comment. Best I have had are Mesa Subways (1x15 and 2x 10) and my current 2x Orange OBC-112's. In fact, the latter are my favorite of all so far...
 
#103
AGCurry said:
Back in 1969 ... a Silvertone bass cabinet (!) with six 10" Jensens. The baffle was made of masonite, and the cabinet had an open back.
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It's funny all the posts on TB about "a bass cab must be properly designed around the speakers with proper volume, porting, etc.", etc. but back in the day I briefly had a stack with two open back 2-12's that sounded great (but don't stand behind it because it will feed back). And if you blew a speaker you would just go to the local shop and they would sell you whatever they had on hand and that would work. Don't get me wrong, I LOVE a modern, well designed cab but 50+ years ago there was no such thing.
 
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#104
Ashdown MAG would be the worst I've used. Ashdown definitely make some better stuff these days but back then, those MAG series cabs you'd find everywhere were dire. They produced nothing but a load of low end boom. It's not even like it was tight or punchy low end either, just a mushy flop that was entirely useless. I was so put off by the experience of using MAG cabs and heads that I took some convincing that Ashdown could actually make a decent amp, however they definitely can when they want to.
 
#107
60bass said:
I'm sure many will disagree with this but the worst cab I've ever played through was the 810 Fridge. Beamed too much and never put out the low end I liked. I was just never able to connect with one. I Don't hate it but don't love it either. To me it's always been a highly overrated cabinet.
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I get this. I've been through the wringer enough to have played a fair amount of ampeg 8x10s and they definitely vary. Some were sooooo good, and some were just gross sounding.

Honestly- the best sounding cab I've ever played (and that's totally not the question in this thread, but here goes anyhow) was an old Ampeg 8x8 cab! So focused, so responsive, so full. My. God. Just the best live bass sound I've ever gotten.
 
#108
_One//Man//Mutiny_ said:
Hartke Hydrive 1x12, probably would have been better with a second one, it blew up before I bought the second one being run hilariously easy, only piece of equipment I straight up just threw out in the trash. It was when they first came out and the aluminum/paper cone was interesting. I believe they also had that impedance switch as well. Most vanilla sounding speaker I've ever played, I now know doubling up a 12 really gives it some definition and heft, but in hindsight I'm fairly sure it would have just became French Vanilla
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I came in here to mention this cab. I *did* have two.

With one cab - pushing it a bit hard but not past where it should have been okay, I could smell melting glue from the speaker (at least that's what someone told me that smell was).
With two cabs - I could get a pretty good sound. The problem is that there was a very narrow sweet spot - too quiet and it was over-scooped and muffled. Volume too high and it was wet farts.
 
#109
dune said:
Trace Elliot BLX-80. They should have called it the mud box. It's a combo amp rather than just a speaker, but OMG it was awful. If it has to be only a speaker, then it would be the Peavey 1810.
trace-elliot-blx-80-combo-184892.jpg
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I don't doubt you Dune. BUT, I found that this BLX 80 paired perfectly with a Hofner 500/1 bass for Folk/Rock in small to mid-sized venues. I loved mine, it was beautifully made and wired, but it was very heavy for its size. To each his own. Different basses like different amps and cabinets.
 
#111
Pimpernel Smith said:
I don't doubt you Dune. BUT, I found that this BLX 80 paired perfectly with a Hofner 500/1 bass for Folk/Rock in small to mid-sized venues. I loved mine, it was beautifully made and wired, but it was very heavy for its size. To each his own. Different basses like different amps and cabinets.
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It was a well-made little mud box, I'll give you that. I can see where it might work well with a Hofner in that application. I needed it for a Top-40 cover gig on cruise ships. Since one look at the enclosure reveals that it's going to be "scoop city" it was barely passable for slap but yielded no definition whatsoever for fingerstyle. I hated it in the store, but it was literally the only amp in town small enough for me to fly from Vegas to NYC with. I had Bass Northwest (man I miss those guys) ship a SWR Redhead to me within the year. Imagine my chagrin, when a couple years later, moving to the "orchestra" in the main theater on another ship and finding that their stage amp was, yep - another BLX-80. What are the odds??? Even the artists we were playing behind complained about the sound. Fortunately, I was told of another amp in storage on the ship (Peavey TNT I think) that while not great by any means, was infinitely better than the BLX for that application.
 
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#116
Citizen Lyfe said:
TE combo that looked like a voting box with a 12" speaker somewhere inside. I am still shocked it got made at all. Sounded very nasal, muddy and underwater, but for some reason many people (including rehearsal rental rooms, backline rental companies) in the town I lived in had it.
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The pussy combo! It makes sense for what it is (small, low in power, very loud for its power).
 

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