Bass cabs

[Johnny Mac]

My mate was using these in rehearsal last week. They sound bloody amazing and weigh nothing.

http://barefacedbass.com/

[38thBeatle]

I like the idea of minimising weight. T'was a bass cab that caused me to have a hernia operation ( and I am not kidding).

[richardjmorgan]

Everyone on the basschat forums seems to be going absolutely mental for these at the moment.

It's interesting, I think, the way there seems to be a current trend with bass amps and cabs for going as small and as light as possible, but that this doesn't really seem to have transferred across to the world of guitar amps…

[38thBeatle]

Perhaps bass players who have had the heaviest gear for years are more mindful of portability.  For me that is a major consideration having spend years lugging heavy stuff around. Back in the day I had a huge 2 x 15 Selmer cab. I used to have to get it up and down stairs as my Mum wouldn't allow it anywhere but in my room ( evil witch!) and I used to have to lay it on the stairs and pull it upstairs- t/was a bar-steward after a gig and in those days I was doing 2 or 3 a week.
I don't play many bass gigs these days but even so, I am looking to replace my heavy Peavey combo with something a bit more civilised.

[nfe]

I like the idea of minimising weight. T'was a bass cab that caused me to have a hernia operation ( and I am not kidding).

SVT 8x10 did it for me!

[richardjmorgan]

Perhaps bass players who have had the heaviest gear for years are more mindful of portability. 

Hmm, you're probably right on that count, but it's not like an Orange 412 (for example) is exactly a doddle to cart about either, so I wonder if there's some other factor at play too?

[Lucifuge]

Maybe it's partly that bass players often look for different things from their gear than guitarists - they tend to value clean headroom over valve-like overdrive.

Solid state amps are quite well suited to this, and with Class D amps becoming more available and accepted, it is possible to put a lot of power into a very small space. Obviously if you're going for light weight and compactness in a head, you want the speaker cabs to be as light as possible to match - there's not much point getting a 5kg head if your cabinet weighs 100kgs, so there is the pressure for manufacturers to make their cabs as light as possible.

Of course this is not true for all bassists, there are some who still want the sound of a (very heavy) all valve head...