Author Topic: Karlson bass cabinet? (Read 474 times)

bassman10096 · « **on:** May 07, 2004, 08:20:45 AM »

Does anyone know anything about Karlson-designed bass cabinets? There's one on Ebay loaded with a JBL 15: http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=3722650987&sspagename=STRK%3AMEWA%3AIT&rd=1

I bought one out of curiosity about a year ago and put a JBL E140 in - Wow! Very punchy and clean. I didn't know anything about the cab or what it was called (the guy who sold me mine didn't either - I only paid $40 sans speaker). If I'm not mistaken, I think Stanley used a couple of these very distinctive cabs in his rig at one point.

Any info you have would be appreciated. Thanks

Bill

811952 · « **Reply #1 on:** May 07, 2004, 08:34:00 AM »

Fender made a cabinet of this type back in the late '80s, and it was pretty impressive. It really made the low B speak..
John

keavin · « **Reply #2 on:** May 07, 2004, 08:40:26 AM »

ACOUSTIC also made those once in the 80's and i think stan did use them for a minute,they sound very good, ive seen em with 18's alot, big bottom! the effect you get from them is the foldedcab(boom) combined with the front loaded speaker sound.there great!

bassman10096 · « **Reply #3 on:** May 07, 2004, 09:21:11 AM »

Very throaty sound (which I like), but clear with good harmonic production (slightly exagerated high overtones, but cool - Gives your filters a workout!). Thanks for the info guys.

David Houck · « **Reply #4 on:** May 07, 2004, 09:31:11 AM »

Here's a website about Karlson.
http://home.planet.nl/~ulfman/

adriaan · « **Reply #5 on:** May 07, 2004, 10:30:58 AM »

What I remember is they don't sound as bad as folded horns or W-bins. Can't say that I remember hearing them and going wow all of a sudden. But maybe I'm not a big fan of vintage amps for bass ...

bassman10096 · « **Reply #6 on:** May 07, 2004, 11:19:11 AM »

They definitely are not/were not definitely not a revolution. Further, vintage designs most often don't get forgotten if they offered something of unique value. 24 hours ago, I didn't know what they were called!! The appeal my Karlson has to me is: (1) I find it has a unique and pleasant tone and (2) The design is visually interesting (my wife says lascivious - Think about it.) and it's a different way to accomplish at least one of the things horn cabs do.

Dave: Thanks for the website. Cool pictures, box plans, design explanations. There are some VERY devoted Karlson fans posting to the chatboard there.

Bill

palembic · « **Reply #7 on:** May 07, 2004, 11:31:59 AM »

Brother Bill ....
***sigh***
what means the word lascivious???
Has it to do with breast-feeding?

Paul the bad one

bracheen · « **Reply #8 on:** May 07, 2004, 11:49:25 AM »

I've never heard a piece of equipment called lascivious before. I need to look at that picture again.
No Paul breast feeding doesn't figure into it. For most people that is.
This is from my thesaurus amative, amorous, concupiscent, erotic, lecherous, lewd, libidinous, lustful, lusty, passionate, prurient, sexy

Sam

811952 · « **Reply #9 on:** May 07, 2004, 12:26:56 PM »

For me, the allure of older cabinet designs is that most of them are very efficient. Back in the day I was really something with an Acoustic 370 (200 or so watts rms) and a 301 cabinet - still a loud setup. Power amps are much cheaper now (and lighter), so manufacturers aren't nearly so enamored with designing things for efficiency anymore (not neccessarily a bad thing). Remember the Altec-Lansing A-7 Voice of the Theater? That's one sweet cabinet, which puts out tons of clean, smooth and deeeeeep bass with a 40-watt rating. It was probably a pain to design and a pain to manufacture, but (to me) well worth it musically. The reason we don't see updated versions of it lies largely with the fact that it's not a square box design and therefore considerably more expensive to build. I think the reason we don't see any new Karlson designs is that it is very similar in bass performance to a slot-loaded design that uses only straight cuts and is easier to build.

John

bassman10096 · « **Reply #10 on:** May 07, 2004, 12:59:25 PM »

John: I think you are exactly right. The Karlson is definitely a great deal less efficient from a manufacturing perspective, while offering performance no better than other good box cabs produced today. It is very efficient, though. This cabinet ran perfectly well and loudly with an ancient (120w?) CTS I had in it. With a JBL E-140, it's like a stack of 115s.

Paul: I think Sam covered lascivious very well.

Sam: I didn't see what my wife was talking about at first and certainly never expected to hear a word like that used toward musical gear. Now, we may call something sexy, but that's not what we mean...

Bill

dadabass2001 · « **Reply #11 on:** May 07, 2004, 02:49:04 PM »

John,
You just rekindled strong memories! My guitarist Andy in the early 70s built a set of PA speaker from Altec Lansing VOT plans and put JBL components in them, (plus early piezo tweeter boxes on top of the compression horn). We used them for the life of the band (3 or 4 years) with a 200 watt Peavey PA head, and after shows they went to the band house where we hooked them up to a 15 +15 watt Marantz stereo amp. They shook the house!
I miss that sound, but not that weight. (The same band had a Hammond B-3 with a 147 Leslie cab, I played through an Ampeg SBT). I can't do that stuff anymore

Mike

hollis · « **Reply #12 on:** May 07, 2004, 03:30:39 PM »

Hey Mike,

I saw a tee shirt at the last Grateful Dead concert in Seattle it said: The older I get, the better I was. I don't know if that's an old saying or not, but it made me smile.....

It still does, now that I think of it.

The band I was in back in those days played through Sunn Coliseums with JBL speakers in Altec Lansing cabs....

The old days were a while ago, but they sure were fun.

My ears are still ringing!

bkbass · « **Reply #13 on:** May 08, 2004, 07:41:22 AM »

Gauss loudspeakers had manufactured their own brand of speaker cabinets at one time which included a 2x10 and a single 18Karlson bin in brown carpet(circa 1980's?).Acoustic(amps) Control Corporation also had used this design in their combo line.It actually works quite well and gets pretty loud while still holding the sounds detail.As a point in my blurred past I vagely remember the English,as a useful sound measurement,blowing out candles at one meter from an enclosure by introducing wattage at various quantities or something like that,and the Karlson design could blow out a candle at one watt at one meter.Can anyone help my poor recollections?

bassman10096 · « **Reply #14 on:** May 08, 2004, 11:59:30 AM »

For those of you who've read the earlier discussion in this thread - the lacivious bass cabinet: