Ported Cabs?

[Entropy]

Does anyone have any experience with trying out some ported guitar cabs for extra low-end thump?

I see B-52, Genz-Benz and now PortCity makes a ported cab.

With loudspeakers in my home theater setup, ported speakers tend to go lower in frequency when "tuned" properly for the enclosure size and driver size. A sealed design, with similar driver sizes, tend not to go as low. Of course, there are exceptions to these rules.....but I'm speaking in generalities.

With that in mind, I would think that a ported cab would get more bottom end and move more air along with it. Maybe they're a little "looser" than a sealed cab but I think it would be an interesting comparison.

I currently have a Soldano 2x12 cab with V30s installed being pushed with a VHT PITTBULL 50 head. I really like the sound but always seem to want more thump, especially with the Universe through it. A ported cab run in conjunction with the 2x12 sealed might generate a broader sound spectrum.

Do you know of any other manufacturer porting their cabs?

[j.arledge]

i played the g-flex 2x12 genz benz cab 2 days ago and damn that thing had some bass to it . Very deep , very thick . it wasn't turned up very far either .

i am going to take my mesa mark 3 to the shop and plug it into the g-flex cab and compare it to how my carvin legacy 4x12 sounds .

[mfergel]

Well, I have a Rocktron combo with a ported cabinet. It does have more woof, but that isn't always a good thing. Remember, while it may sound great to have this massive low end, you are then fighting with the bass and kick drum down there.

[Gex]

Originally Posted by j.arledge

i am going to take my mesa mark 3 to the shop and plug it into the g-flex cab and compare it to how my carvin legacy 4x12 sounds .

Let us know how that goes.

[Ibanut]

I have a port city 2x12 and it definetly has the extra bottom end and more. You should invest in one ASAP

[ibanezcollector]

ported is good at making low end more apparent

but the down fall is also the freq curve it generates, it will fall off in the low mid to upper mid area making it not so good.. You also will have to watch out that you never hit a freq below the ported hz. This will make the speaker become extremely unstable(think flopping fish) causing the speaker to bottom out(over extend its Xmax) which can cause the coils to extend out of the motor.

If anything you want a little more bass, seal up your cabinet.

[j.arledge]

so i took my mesa today to check it out with the g-flex 2x12 genz benz cab . I was disapointed . The cab was overly bassy and made the head sound mushy compared to the vintage 30s in my legacy. The speakers in the g-flex remind me of a celestion g12t-75 , which are hot sort of mid scooped naturally and have a lot of presence and top end sizzle , the g-flex didn't have pericing highs or anything but it had a ton of natrual presence wich made the mids and highs sort of harsh. I would really like to see what the cab would do with some v-30s in it .

Overall i fairly dissapointed in the el diablo head before as well but i think it may have had more to do with that cab then the actaul head.