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i have an old (probably late 80's) Ampeg 4X10" cab. it's one of the ubiquitous kind. you've seen them a million times. it's a basic closed back cab, no ports, or horns, or anything. the speakers in it don't sound great for guitar, and i think at least one is wonky...so i'm wondering if turning it into a guitar cab would be worthwhile.

my (possibly crazy) idea was to get 4 of the Weber Thames 10" speakers (that are modeled after old Fanes), load them in this cab, and have kind of a mini-Hiwatt cab. Also, i play in a two-guitar/no bass band, so if the cab had a bit more thump than a standard guitar cab, i'd be all for it.

awesome idea? misguided? tell me!

Do it! I did essentially the same thing, putting an Eminence Big Ben in an Ampeg 15" B-series cab, and that's my main cab these days.

I wouldn't assume you'd get more thump, the older cabs didn't have the benefit of modelling and design and were pretty primitive affairs - go with the speaker you want, if it's in your budget, and it works for you.

I'd assume it'd sound like any other 4x10 cab to be honest with those speakers.

do it - i can't imagine that there is that much difference between that and your average guitar cab. as long as it's solid, it should be fine, although like rfurtkamp, i doubt you'll get more thump or anything.

Cabs are supposed to be cool.

Do You think its cool to do that stuff? Do it. I once bought a Marshall cab that turned out to be little more than the cab and grill. I took the old grill cloth out, recovered it in in flanel and have it now as an ugly 1x15,2x12 cab. Its ugly, but its cool.

So yeah, A mini-hiwatt would be awesome! though if it were me personally, I'd stay away from just 10s, maybee one 12 and two 10s if you can fit it.

can 2x10 + 1x15 fit? i think that might be pretty sick.

If I thought it'd fit, I've always wanted to try one 15, one 12, one 10. I know it could would in a standard 4x12 cab, but I already have the one bastard cab.

the other guitarist in my band has a bastardized 12+15 cab. I'd probably use the 4x10 in addition to the 2x12 I'm currently using. I'm wondering if it will actually add much, though.

well, that kind of is a problem. If your playing for yourself and/or guitarists, yes. If you're playing for the audience, they probably won't notice or care if its just a 4x10 or if there's also a 2x12.

well it's a 4x10 so it'll add 40 to your score.

the audience knows, they just don't know they know. I've had a signifigant difference in audince response when my high end cab was out of action. It got the jack smashed against a wall so I as left with just the bass cab I use for guitar. We stil got lots of praise, but it wasn't as enthusiastic and didn't tend to go on about tone as much.
Running two very differently tuned cabs can be huge if you get the right combination. Ultimately, who cares what the audince hears. if it sounds good to you and you are happy, they are more likely to dig it anyways.

The_Active_Conundrum wrote:well, that kind of is a problem. If your playing for yourself and/or guitarists, yes. If you're playing for the audience, they probably won't notice or care if its just a 4x10 or if there's also a 2x12.

it would be an attempt to fill out my sound, to hopefully create a better live mix, so if it was actually successful (big "if") the audience would at least be hearing an improved band balance (although they might not realize it). i've had several people comment that they wish i was louder at recent shows, so i figured i'd try to push some more air (we rarely play places with full PA's).

totally unnecessary update:
i ended up putting two speakers in the 4X10 & leaving the bottom two empty. i got good deals on used Copperhead & Ramrod speakers. i guess it's now a "detuned" cab, or whatever...it sounds cool!

that's actually a pretty cool idea, reading through the thread I kinda thought it would be cool if you did an open back design on the 4x10 but having two giant ports in the bottom probably does something similar.

You got band links?

Two guitar no bass player thumpy music seems like a great idea in my head