1×15 (late 1960s) Bass cab

I acquired this cab in June 2016 and the initial pictures show the cab as it was when I acquired it. Pictures further down the page show the cab as it is now, refurbished.

It is a horizontal cab (same design and size as a Pick-a-Bass) although the grill cloth is the same as the later vertical cabs. This dates the cab to the late 1960s and is very similar to a Dual 12 – 2×12 cab that I have in my collection..

The good news was that it has it’s original casing, silver piping, grill cloth and Goodmans 15″ driver.

The bad news was that a previous owner had painted it with black paint, completely obliterating the original black rexine cover.

1x15 early-2 1x15 early-1

 

1x15 early-4 1x15 early-3

1x15 early-5 1x15 early-6

 

Since taking the above pictures, I have refurbished the cab. This involved –

  • Recovering the cab in basket-weave tolex (unfortunately the original thin black rexine is no longer available)
  • Taking out the driver and then removing the front baffle followed by removing the silver piping, patterned grill cloth, and black under-layer grill cloth. This was done as the under-layer grill cloth was badly torn – as is often the case.
  • I replaced the under-layer grill cloth, cleaned all the black paint off the silver piping and then refitted everything. I could have sent the patterned grill cloth away to be repaired as it had several small holes and tears but I didn’t think they were bad enough to justify the cost of getting it repaired. I may replace the patterned grill cloth completely in the future if I can locate a supply of the cloth.
  • I fitted new casters. The cab would have had casters originally but all that was left was the holes where they would have been pushed in.
  • I cleaned off the metal WEM logo. You will notice that this is unpainted – which is how it was originally on the earlier cabs. The bright red paint didn’t come into use until the 1970s.
  • I refitted the original Goodmans drivers which was, and still is, in good working condition although I did replace the wiring as this didn’t look original and was not a good quality.
  • Everything then went back together and the cab was tested. I did use replacement screws to fit the baffles and the back panel. I know that some collectors prefer to use the original screws but I’m not one of them. The original screws were worn and rusty and so they got replaced, just as you would probably replace a worn and rusty screw on a vintage car.

The following pics show the cab as it is now –

1x15 early-7 1x15 early-14

1x15 early-13 1x15 early-11 1x15 early-10 1x15 early-9