Lightweight cabs - what do I need to know?

hessodreamy

Having picked up a couple of decent heads (https://thefretboard.co.uk/discussion/215083/new-amp-day-x-2-dr-z-goodsell-content) I now need to get a decent cab that's lighter than the Dr z 2x10 (41lb) for lugging about. I'm not very clued up on cabs in general, let alone the lightweight models. What do I need to know? What brands should I look out for? My first thought was zilla but their cabs all seem as heavy as the Z. 

I might even get a couple of cabs for larger gigs.

About all I know is I prefer open back. 

jellybelly

I remember holding a Purple Chilli cab and being astounded by how light it was. If you can get past the badging on it...

In terms of neo speakers, they all seem to get average reviews with the exception of the Celestion Creamback Neo. Might be a contender in any decent compact 1x12 cab you can get hold of. 

fretmeister

Barefaced Audio.

/thread.

John_A

fretmeister said:

Barefaced Audio.

/thread.

Almost  /thread  The matrix ones are great, I prefer the 112 to the 212. 

Have a Barefaced 110 bass cab which is amazing never tried the guitar cabs

chrishill901

I have the Orange PPC212V and it's really quite good. It is open back so has a slightly different character to what I was used to, and that stupidly thick Orange grille cloth takes quite a bit of high end out, but boy the Celestion Neo Creambacks are good. Very very good. Zilla will do you a cab with Neo Creambacks in. Or the Barefaced Audio cabs are supposed to be the absolute best you can get.

EricTheWeary

jellybelly said:

I remember holding a Purple Chilli cab and being astounded by how light it was. If you can get past the badging on it...

In terms of neo speakers, they all seem to get average reviews with the exception of the Celestion Creamback Neo. Might be a contender in any decent compact 1x12 cab you can get hold of. 

I knew someone who used Purple Chilli bass cabs and they were exceptionally light. IIRC the business started out selling through Basschat so they are often well recognised by bassists if not guitarists. Although it looks like they stopped taking orders in 2016 ( or desperately need to update their website) so it'll be a search for used now. 

thermionic

I had a pine 1974X style combo cabinet built and it seem quite light to me. I reckon pine rather than ply, coupled with neodymium magnet speakers is the way to go.

brooom

thermionic said:

I had a pine 1974X style combo cabinet built and it seem quite light to me. I reckon pine rather than ply, coupled with neodymium magnet speakers is the way to go.

@Modulus_Amps built me a cabinet sized like a 1x12" Jim Kelley cab, using pine and floating ply baffle with a celestion creamback NEO. I still use it with my Jim Kelley reverb and several other amps I have. Great sound and super lightweight.

AntonHunter

I've never found one to try in person, but these are definitely lightweight! https://www.toob.fi/

BGG

John_A said:

fretmeister said:

Barefaced Audio.

/thread.

Almost  /thread  The matrix ones are great, I prefer the 112 to the 212. 

Have a Barefaced 110 bass cab which is amazing never tried the guitar cabs

I have a Matrix NL112 which is great, in fact I have two but can only connect to one. My powered Kemper rack only has one output, so was thinking of trying to find a 2x12 ?
why do you prefer the 1x12?

digitalscream

Another vote for the Matrix NL212 here - mine has sounded brilliant with everything I've put through it...Jet City JCA50H, Victory Kraken, ADA MP-2/rack rig, Helix + Powerstage 170...it doesn't care, it just does the job.

My current setup is a board based around the HX Stomp and a PS170 on a tiny Metro 16 board, going to the NL212. With a guitar, that's still a single trip back from the car with a hand free because the cab is light enough that it can be one-handed with no strain.

I can't speak for the Barefaced 2x12" cabs, but...the 1x12" just didn't have the same depth and in-the-room presence that the NL212 has.

hessodreamy

Matrix fans @digitalscream @BGG @John_A do you know if it’s possible to swap speakers? The design looks like it might not be forgiving of different dimensions and I’d need to put a 8ohm in there (and maybe a different model while I’m swapping). 

digitalscream

hessodreamy said:

Matrix fans @digitalscream @BGG @John_A do you know if it’s possible to swap speakers? The design looks like it might not be forgiving of different dimensions and I’d need to put a 8ohm in there (and maybe a different model while I’m swapping). 

Yes, you can - at least, that's what I was told when I bought it. I've never felt the need to.

John_A

Never even crossed my mind when I had min, a 112 and a 212 whatever came in them sounded great, although I preferred the 112.  

Modulus_Amps

If you wanted a cab to match the Dr Z but lighter I would get one made in pine, with light weight speakers it would sound good and still look the part

steamabacus

BGG said:

I have a Matrix NL112 which is great, in fact I have two but can only connect to one. My powered Kemper rack only has one output, so was thinking of trying to find a 2x12 ?

It's really quite simple to split a single speaker output to two cabs. It just involves connecting in parallel. If you're handy with a drill and a soldering iron, a small metal enclosure with three jacks (connect the three 'tip' connections together and the three 'screen' connections together) is the most robust solution. Something like this (I'm sure Bright Onion could build an equivalent).

Or for the low power levels of those Matrix cabs (60W each if I've got the right ones) something like this would be fine. (Ideally you'd want speaker cable rather than screened audio cable)

Or get one of the custom speaker cable manufacturers to make you a bespoke y-cable using speaker cable.

Just make sure the combined impedence of the two cabs is greater than the minimum output load of the amp. Those two Matrix cabs seem to be 16 ohms - two in parallel will result in an impedence of HALF that, so 8 ohms. So long as the minimum output load on the Kemper is 8 ohms or lower you'll be fine (I suspect it's probably 4 ohms - it should be stated next to the speaker output.

I'm surprised those Matrix cabs don't have two parallel input sockets to enable linking cabs together - it's common to have just that for this very situation.

hessodreamy

BGG said:

I have a Matrix NL112 which is great, in fact I have two but can only connect to one. My powered Kemper rack only has one output, so was thinking of trying to find a 2x12 ?

Palmer and radial (to name 2) do products allowing you to combine speaker connections in either parallel (for 8 ohms) or serials (for 32). 

BGG

Cheers @steamabacus and @hessodreamy  both sound like cool solutions.
My bass player who is also and audio/guitars repairs etc specialist is going to build me a junction box similar to the Palmer/Radial.
Saying that I've just spotted a Matrix NL212 for sale .... Hmmmmmmmm ???

Beexter

I'm really pleased with my pair of Bluguitar Nanocabs. I'm not aware of anything smaller and to my cloth ears they sound great and give me the flexibility of stacking on top of each other or placing side by side. There's a good YouTube video of Thomas Blug demoing a pair and showing the bass difference you can achieve with different placement. 

Fuengi

Modulus_Amps said:

If you wanted a cab to match the Dr Z but lighter I would get one made in pine, with light weight speakers it would sound good and still look the part

Where can you get something like this made? 

John_A

Fuengi said:

Modulus_Amps said:

If you wanted a cab to match the Dr Z but lighter I would get one made in pine, with light weight speakers it would sound good and still look the part

Where can you get something like this made? 

Modulus amps make excellent cabs.