Bass Cabinet for bass guitar... what kind of box?

[tyler_fitz 10+ year member]

I recently purchased a bass guitar amp that allows the use of an extension cabinet. The amp itself powers two tens with 350 watts. The extension cabinet would see 150 watts at 4 ohms. I'd like to get the most output from that 150 watts as i can, while retaining as much sound quality as possible. I already plan on using an 18" woofer, but what kind of box should i use?

All i'm familiar with are regular slot ported enclosures, but would some kind of bandpass, t-line, or folded horn work better? please enlighten me!

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[dman4486 5,000+ posts]

I recently purchased a bass guitar amp that allows the use of an extension cabinet. The amp itself powers two tens with 350 watts. The extension cabinet would see 150 watts at 4 ohms. I'd like to get the most output from that 150 watts as i can, while retaining as much sound quality as possible. I already plan on using an 18" woofer, but what kind of box should i use?
All i'm familiar with are regular slot ported enclosures, but would some kind of bandpass, t-line, or folded horn work better? please enlighten me!

if you don't plan on being in a concert with this, then don't run an 18"

there are outstanding bass amps that run 8" drivers in ported enclosures.

 

[tyler_fitz 10+ year member]

yes, the extension cabinet will be used for concerts

 

[dman4486 5,000+ posts]

http://www.geocities.com/SunsetStrip/Bistro/3491/speaker.html

and

http://www.duncanamps.com/technical/speaker_cab.html

 

[tyler_fitz 10+ year member]

so would a regular ported box be the way to go? or would a more elaborate enclosure provide any advantage?

 

[dman4486 5,000+ posts]

so would a regular ported box be the way to go? or would a more elaborate enclosure provide any advantage?

they are usually a mid to upper 30's ported enclosure....rounding corners and making it as clean as possible may gain you a little, but probably not too much audibly.

another option I have seen is an open back enclosure, but I don't know much about those.

 

[ContourSPL 10+ year member]

I think a high Qts driver in an open back would sound lovely. It wouldn't have a lot of output by any means but it would sound nice //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/biggrin.gif.d71a5d36fcbab170f2364c9f2e3946cb.gif