Rickresource Rickenbacker Forum

uh-oh ! someones coming to pay me a visit...and it's not santa clause ! paul boyer drove from the mid west and is near me visiting family and is gonna come over and make sure my house is properly adorned with rickys ! i'll let him dust my basement with ricks and svt's and my taurus pedals...that should drive the wife crazy !

Say hi to Paul for me; I will be having lunch with him and Dorothy this coming Tuesday as he drives back home. Make sure gets pics of you so we can see what you look like these days.

BTW, nice collection of toys! I remember those EV cabinets with the VMR drivers.

those cabs with the vmr's i custom made. i had two of the ev 2x15/vmr cabs i bought in '81. i had played so loud that the cabs shook apart at the seams and destroyed the cross-over electronics from excessive vibration...they were not designed for use by BAD RONBO ! just before touring with maiden in '88 i decided to make the smallest cab possible armored with the edging , aluminum siding, metal grill, dual xlr jacks for connecting the other cab, recessed handles and a cover that pops onto the front with the wheels attached to it. tip it down and roll it away ! i reconed the 15's from 8 to 16 ohms , so when i plugged both into the svt, it would see 4 ohms instead of 2. (the original ev cabs were 4 ohms) i re-built the crossover for the vmr speaker but removed the 4 position cross-over attenuator so the vrm would run full out. (something like you boyz do shorting out that 4001 cap on the rear pickup !) it's a paper cone 6" speaker so it's not harsh sounding.

not many amps like to see 2 ohms at high output so that's why i did this. now i can use both of them with most amps and not fear destroying the amp. so by themselves they are 8 ohm cabs.

the 4x10 cabs are peavey's given to me as an endorsement in toronto. they had eminence speakers in them which surprised me as i previously had the same in my '78 ampeg 8x10 cabs. these 4x10's had a bullet horn in the center of the cab , which i removed as it was harsh sounding like glass and you could not turn them off externally. i made a series/parallel box to plug those in so the total ohms were 4 so i could use all of them with one amp. in my garage, i've got roadcases that two cabs pop into with the same lid system so the whole setup looked similar. they are designed for the roadies . they loved me for it.

I agree about what you said regarding 2Ω loads on amps. Many amp makers have amps that can do 2Ω but I wonder just how long they will last! I am a firm believer in not going below 4Ω total.

Are you saying that the VMR is run full range getting all the low frequencies the 15s are getting? If so, I am surprised they can handle it unless they are padded down.

nope ! the vmr has the cross-over but without the 4 position selector it had on the original cabs. now it's dummy proof without a lot of un-needed frills...i.e. nothing external to get busted or sheared off by roadies !

btw...the svt will run at 2 ohms, it was designed for two 4 ohm cabs. thats getting darn close to a dead short ! i like to keep it at 4.

my fender 400ps takes three 4 ohm cabs, but each has a separate output transformer and you need 3 cabs to get the full 435 watts. cool for using 3 different cabs for various frequencies. sort of bi-amping.

Yep the 400 P.S. got my attention quickly--not a common sight.I really like mine,except come time to move it.
I've never really had the need to use all 3 outputs, just 2-the W cab and a Westminster cab for nearfield.

(Nowadays I usually haul out a 300 wt ss combo, lighter and takes up less space.)

what sucks about the 400ps is that the head cabinet is wider than most speaker cabs if you put it on top like it's playing "king of the hill" ! it's even wider than the cab it was designed for. ampeg and marshall had the proportions right though even after marshall cut their 8x12 cabs in half, ampeg could have cut the 8x10 in half but never did until high powered 4x10 cabs were all the rage in the late '80's. when the DWaRfS played hollywood in the late '80's at the palace, i rented an old svt and two 4x10 and two 1x15 hartke aluminum speaker cabs (my gear was in a recording studio and could not be disturbed) holy smokes that was a great combination. i'm not easily impressed, but i was that night ! even the band looked over at me with their jaws on the floor. was considering buying cabs like that to accent my EV cabs, but then i got the 4x10's from peavey which approximated the same onslaught.

now...i see jps bought a slim cab similar to my custom EV cabs, but had to find an amp smaller than the cab to fit on top !
just joking jeff ! if i didn't have gear like mine, i would either buy four of those or eight 2x10 cabs and angle them in different degrees for dispersion .

btw...i sold the '73 hiwatt 400 to a bloke in england a few years ago for $ 3500.00 usd. bought that in toronto in '95 for $ 500.00 can. it was one of 100 made. the current new ones are $ 5000.00. special order. it sounded great with my taurus pedals.

gotta go...mr. boyer should be here soon !

BAD RONBO, KiLLeR DWaRfS wrote:gotta go...mr. boyer should be here soon !

well, we rapped and exchanged pics, he looked at my schtuff and sipped brews, then left me like the wind ! i got a pic of him in my DWaRf coat ! cool dude ! now he's off to jeff's for lunch on the way back ! you better not skip on the bill, jeff !

BAD RONBO, KiLLeR DWaRfS wrote:you better not skip on the bill, jeff !

Thanks for the idea!

Did Dorothy come along?

BAD RONBO, KiLLeR DWaRfS wrote:now...i see jps bought a slim cab similar to my custom EV cabs, but had to find an amp smaller than the cab to fit on top !
just joking jeff ! if i didn't have gear like mine, i would either buy four of those or eight 2x10 cabs and angle them in different degrees for dispersion .

It's really amazing the advances in bass amp technology these days; as we all get older, some of us, at least , are not into dragging big amps around anymore.

no dorothy...he didn't want me to bite her ! the only solid state amp i owned was a fender 300w rack mount in '81-'82 along with my '78 svt. it couldn't take the RONBO punch so i let it go. i can't use a precise dialing amp, my tone is agressive and punchy and wide open and solid state amps don't like that. especially with compress this and limit that...with tube amps the tones naturally change with how you play and i run full out, use a cord and no effects. my personal taste is that solid state amps sound too perfect where i like it more loose. my opinion , of course. 100 pound tube amps aren't for everyone, but that's the sacrifice i've chosen for myself. i could operate with a pile of powerful 2x10 cabs , no prob as long as they were the size of an 8x10 cab cut in 4 pieces.

BAD RONBO, KiLLeR DWaRfS wrote: i rented an old svt and two 4x10 and two 1x15 hartke aluminum speaker cabs (my gear was in a recording studio and could not be disturbed) holy smokes that was a great combination. i'm not easily impressed, but i was that night ! even the band looked over at me with their jaws on the floor.

This is too cool. I was thinking the VERY SAME thing, but on a slightly smaller scale. I have an early 90's Made in USA Hartke 4 x 10 and a 15 bottom that is my stay at home rig, the 115 Bass Module, not the Travel junk one...and was THINKING how my 15 Hartke would sound with my 4 x 10 Ampeg HLF...I guess I'll give it a try now.