I've done some research and prototyping and tried several promising-looking drivers, and found what I think is a very nice (if somewhat unorthodox) combination that works well for a two-way bass guitar cabinet (woofer + midrange). Not surprisingly my driver cost is on the high side, so I'll be competing in the same arena as some of the higher-priced "boutique" bass cabinet manufacturers.
I also took a look at some of the specialty bass guitars on the market, in particular those designed for low-B or lower tunings. The Quake from Knuckle Guitar Works is an interesting and rather extreme example, as it's designed for tunings lower than low-B, such as low-A, low-F#, and even the ultralow-E below normal low-E.
Now, a note about bass guitar cab tunings: As a general rule, it is not necessary to reproduce the fundamental. In fact, most bass cabs are -8 dB or more at 41 Hz, the fundamental of low-E. Most of the energy of the note is carried by the first few harmonics, and the ear reconstructs the missing fundamental from the harmonic sequence. But obviously if we want to reproduce the ultralow-E below low-E, then we need to have strong output down to 41 Hz. I think that only a handful of manufacturers offer anything in this category. Fortunately most bass players don't need that much extension, and so paying the price in cabinet size and weight to get such capability makes no sense most of the time.
So anyway, back to the bass cabs I'm working on. Why would the world need yet another bass cab? Well, I think there's room for improvement in radiation pattern uniformity over what's currently being offered. Specifically, I think that reasonably uniform coverage over a fairly wide frontal arc is desirable, and I don't think any off-the-shelf bass cabs are offering what I can in this regard. And if I can offer something competitive to the ultra-low-tuning end of the market while I'm at it, so much the better.
My plan is to offer three different-sized cabs, all with the same nice driver complement and desirable radiation characteristics mentioned above.
The smallest cab will be very good for a normal 4-string (low-E tuning), and good but not ideal with a normal 5-string (low-B tuning). Weight will be ballpark 45-50 pounds.
The middle-sized cab will be very good all the way down to low-A tuning, and good but not ideal with low-F tuning. Weight will be ballpark 60-65 pounds.
The biggest cab will be very good all the way down to ultralow-E below low-E tuning. Weight will be ballpark 75-80 pounds.
At this point I'm not sure what the prices will be, because I don't yet know what my total cabinet cost is going to be. But I would expect them to end up scattered between $1100 and $1500 apiece.
Another niche market that I might make a run on is the amplified acoustic double-bass player. For that application, very high quality definitely takes precedence over high output, and powerful bottom-end response is actually undesirable; what is prized is tight, fast bass. Well, it just so happens that if we plug the port on the smallest cab, we end up with a quite decent sealed box. At this point I don't yet have any feedback from double-bass players, but when I get the chance I'll have a DB player see what he thinks of the smallest cab in sealed box mode.
Obviously I've left out quite a bit of information and specs that bass players would be interested in knowing; all of that will be coming along in due time. This is just the teaser.
Anyway, thanks for taking a look.
Duke
