Question: Cab for my 71 SF Bassman

[Pine Apple Slim]

finally found a good local tech to recap it and it's gonna be my go to amp for guitar and bass. Already have a decent 1-15 bass cab. I need to decide on a guitar cab. My instincts tell me to go w a 1-15. That way I only need 1 speaker, and won't be hard to find a cab wide enough for the head to sit on. I'm looking at Weber California series. I'd consider 2 12s or 2 10s but I'd really like a more vertical arrangement and it's hard to find cabs wide enough for the head.
I play mostly clean, usually w humbuckers. Anybody with old bassmans or showmans ?
What do you use?

 

[Chad]

I can't remember what cab I used to use with my Bassman, it has been forever since I had it. I do remember it was a 2x12 but I can't remember what it was or if it even sounded good.

 

[Pine Apple Slim]

I've about decided rather than buy or build a cab, to just find an old Crate or similar SS amp for dirt cheap and wide enough for the head and gut it and just use that for a cab. Cut for 1 or 2 12s, or even an old bass combo made for 1-15.
See old Crates all the time on CL for 50-100$ depending on if they work or not. If I can get one w issues to gut for $50, and spend 100-200 on a speaker , I'd come out ahead. All I need is something portable that fits the head.

 

[Chad]

ha, that is too funny. In my first band in college, I was playing bass and the only amp I had at that time was my bassman head, so I borrowed my buddies crate 2x12 combo and used my head to power the speakers.

 

[realtree71]

I dont have any experience with Weber. I did build a tweed cab for a project (not finished). I put a jensen alnico 15" in it and have been using it as a test cab. That thing is sick for 10-25 watts, amazing tone and growl. Not sue how it would do with a 45 watt Bassman. But it has giving me great options for lower watt heads and eventually my intended combo

 

[realtree71]

Here it is. Its pretty light weight too

 

[Prages]

I've got an Avatar 212 horizontal cab that I use vertically with my Bassman. The head is an inch or two wider than the cab, but it's not much, and it sounds great.

This is the only picture that I see of it, and the cab is horizontal in this pic. Trust me, though, the head is only very slightly wider than the cab when the cab is verticle.

 

[Prages]

Here's the cab that came with the head. It's a 215. I don't think it's ever left my house since I've had it. Too big and heavy. It also doesn't sound very good with a guitar. Sounds very nice with a bass, so long as you don't need tons of clean headroom.

 

[Pine Apple Slim]

After an exhaustive pawn shop and Craigslist search could not find a bargain amp wide enough for the head.
So I went to Lowes and bought lumber. Pine for the frame and birch ply for the baffle. It will be 22"x22 same width as the head and house a 15" ceramic 80w Weber California speaker.Gonna start w an open back but may close it up later.
The only tricky part is gonna be cutting out the speaker hole.

 

[Bob411]

After an exhaustive pawn shop and Craigslist search could not find a bargain amp wide enough for the head.
So I went to Lowes and bought lumber. Pine for the frame and birch ply for the baffle. It will be 22"x22 same width as the head and house a 15" ceramic 80w Weber California speaker.Gonna start w an open back but may close it up later.
The only tricky part is gonna be cutting out the speaker hole.

The part that pisses off my wife. Why are you taking plates, and all the lids to my pots out to the garage?

 

[Steverino]

I have 2 Bassmans, one is a '71 Bassman Ten combo. I have left it stock, speakers and all (think they're Oxfords) except for one thing: I punched a hole in the chassis and slipped a Mullard GZ34 in there. Looks factory. Probably the only tube-rectified Ten in the South.

The other is a '68 Bassman head. I built a 4x10 cab for it, using Baltic birch ply and a MDF baffle. It's got a 4/16Ω switch on the back.

Sorry for low-quality pics, cheap camera Speakers are Jensen C10Q ceramics.

I do have an amp with a Weber, it's a Vintage Series 12" alnico in a custom cab for a VibroChamp chassis. Had to wait a few weeks for delivery, but well worth it.

 

[Pine Apple Slim]

Cab is built. Gonna order the ceramic Cali 15 1st of the month when I get paid.

 

[Steverino]

Very nice, too nice to Tolex?

 

[Prages]

That does look nice. If it were me, I'd have done more round over on the edges. I think I've used 1/2" round over router bits on all the cabs I've built. You're not me, though.

 

[Pine Apple Slim]

Dont own a router so I just sanded the edges best I could. Heck I dont even own a table saw, so its crude but solid. I've found one of my wifes pans with the proper 13.75 diameter for the speaker cutout. Will do it carefully with a jigsaw. Thought about tolex but the wood looks nice so not gonna bother for now anyway. If it gets beat up looking I can always do that later. Tolex looks to be a PIA job anyway. Have some wood to build a frame for a grill cloth, gonna use some black cotton fabric and attach the frame with velcro.

 

[Chad]

Dont own a router so I just sanded the edges best I could. Heck I dont even own a table saw, so its crude but solid. I've found one of my wifes pans with the proper 13.75 diameter for the speaker cutout. Will do it carefully with a jigsaw. Thought about tolex but the wood looks nice so not gonna bother for now anyway. If it gets beat up looking I can always do that later. Tolex looks to be a PIA job anyway. Have some wood to build a frame for a grill cloth, gonna use some black cotton fabric and attach the frame with velcro.

I have recovered a few amps with new tolex over the years. It really isn't as bad as you would think. I got some kind of spay on adhesive and it was pretty easy. I really thought it was going to suck and look shitty but it wasn't bad at all and it looked pretty good.

I agree with the wood looking cool. I just bought an unfinished cabinet and decided to stain it and then put a little clear coat on it.

 

[Pine Apple Slim]

Been going back and forth over the aluminum dome or paper for the Weber Cali. I've decided to go aluminum for the vintage JBL look. This is gonna be a clean tones rig anyway. I have other amps that do the OD thing.

I had plenty of Minwax products lying around. I sanded to 220, pretreated for stain and stained a pine color, then 2-3 coats of wipe on poly. Should be fairly tough.

 

[Steverino]

Thought about tolex but the wood looks nice so not gonna bother for now anyway. If it gets beat up looking I can always do that later. Tolex looks to be a PIA job anyway.

It is, or it was for me, not to mention the fumes from the contact cement. The pic of the cab I posted w/the Weber is finger jointed pine. I just coated it with Mixwax polyurethane. Admittedly I don't haul it around much, but the finish has held up great, it's getting close to ten years now.

 

[Prages]

Here are some pics of a 212 cab I built. I used solid poplar for the sides, and Baltic birch for the baffle.

I originally stained it because it was such pretty wood, but I have since put tolex on it. The tolex is pretty easy, once you get the hang of the corners.

Stained:

After tolex:

And with the grill cloth.

The grill cloth looks pretty wavy in the pics, but you don't notice it in person.

 

[Prages]

BTW, the key on the tolex is to buy good tolex. If you skimp, it stretches and it's almost impossible to get the wrinkles out. the good stuff is stiff enough to go on without much hassle, and also cuts cleaner for the corners.