Re: [Harp-L] Open- or Closed-Back Cabs for Blues Harp?

["David Brown" <nonidesign@xxxxxxxxx>]

I played what some consider the antichrist of Bassman amps, a CBS era, early
1970s, closed back, Fender Bassman 10 and
 - GASP!-
loved it.
Then again it was loud enough by its very nature and, after all, it was a
"Bassman". I didn't notice a muffled sound until I performed a surgery on it
similar to the one you did by removing the solid back panel and replacing it
with two pieces of pine, leaving a 6" or so gap in the middle of the back. I
had the same results you did and wow was that thing louder. The only problem
was that it weighed a ton and carrying that it to a gig was a pain,
literally.
So what started my interior exploration in the first place? I header a
rattling in the cab and upon removal of the back panel discovered a box with
(2) EL84 tubes in it sitting in the bottom of the cab. It had come loose
after being stapled to the inside of the cab for god only knows how
long. What the heck those ELs were doing in the bottom of a Bassman  cab is
beyond me. The amp didn't take ELs. Shoulda been replacement 6L6s darnit, or
a couple of RCA 12AX7s woulda been nice ;-). At lteast they didn't mess up
the speakers.
On Mon, Oct 13, 2008 at 10:10 AM, Rick Davis <bluesharpamps@xxxxxxxxx>wrote:

> I have a propensity to test conventional ideas. When I decided I needed a
> speaker cab I went with a closed–back design, while almost all harp players
> seem to prefer an open-back cab when using separate cabs and heads.
>
> I liked the way some closed-back cabs sounded with guitar: Dark and THUMP!
> I
> wanted to try that with harp, so I ordered a 2x10 closed back cab from
> Avatar, thinking I could saw off part of the back panel to convert to a
> semi
> open-back configuration if it didn't work out.
>
> Which do you prefer?  My bet would be nearly all harp players who have
> tried
> both prefer a semi open-back configuration in a speaker cab.  I tried both
> open and closed back and blogged the results at the Blues Harp Amps blog:
> http://www.bluesharpamps.blogspot.com/
>
> -Rick Davis
> The Blues Harp Amps Blog
> http://www.bluesharpamps.blogspot.com/
> _______________________________________________
> Harp-L is sponsored by SPAH, http://www.spah.org
> Harp-L@xxxxxxxxxx
> http://harp-l.org/mailman/listinfo/harp-l
>