Help me identify this Peavey bass cab

[Bidley]

My bass player was wondering exactly what Peavey cab he has, as we can't find anything about it on good ol' Google. It's fairly old and it's 2x10" and 1x15 in the same cab. Any idea?

[DarrellSBaggett]

I don't know much about what Peavey's been doing since the late 80s, so take this with a grain of salt... But back then they offered cheaper speakers called "Scorpions" as the standard drivers, and the Black Widows were an upgrade at additional cost. So they'd put the "BW Equipped" logo on the cab to show that it had the "premium" BW drivers".

[ICBM]

I could be wrong but I think this model has a 15" Black Widow and 10" Scorpions. I remember them quite well, they were small and powerful-sounding (for the day), although very heavy - but I have no idea what it was actually called or a model number... I assume the label on the back must be missing or so rubbed it's illegible?

As far as I remember you can biamp the cab (8 ohms per input) or run it full-range (parallel, no crossover) at 4 ohms, but again I could be wrong! I'm also not certain about the total power rating, but about 400W sounds likely if it runs full-range, probably limited by the 10s which are probably no more than 100W each. The BW 15 is 300W, although early ones may have only been 200.

[Bidley]

Cheers for the replies, bassist actually had a look on the back and it's 2x8" and 1x15" and it's labeled "Megabox", so I'm guessing that's what it's called. Pretty sure the 15" is a BW too.

[ICBM]

Ah yes, my mistake - the 15" one is 2x8" at the top. It's the 18" one which is 2x10"... and is a monster cab in every way! The BW 18" goes down to stupidly low frequencies, last time I had one to check I put a 5-string through it with a 400W H&K amp, and detuned the bottom string down to G - it still handled it no problem... although everything else in the shop was complaining!

[flanging_fred]

I had a Megabox Cab to go with my matching Mega Bass head. Sounded really good but SO. DAMN. HEAVY! It didn't even come with castors on it, I ended up putting some on it myself but I still have nightmares about trying to push it through the snow to a gig. Ended up flogging it for far less than I should have done but I needed the room in my shed!

[Mark_readman]

The 15 black widows do develop a fart, you can strip them off and clean out the coil channels and reseat them and they are as good as new.

[ICBM]

The 15 black widows do develop a fart, you can strip them off and clean out the coil channels and reseat them and they are as good as new.

It's always frustrated me why other speaker makers don't use this simple construction method. Even if the speaker is actually blown, on a Black Widow you just unbolt the magnet (which is actually the most expensive part of a speaker, even though it doesn't look as impressive as the basket assembly) and replace the basket, for less than half the cost of a new speaker and much more convenient than a re-cone.

[Mark_readman]

Indeed, the most frustrating thing is when your favourite driver develops a groan or fart, it is just dust, dirt or something in the gap where the coil sits. with the BW 15, you can unbolt the magnet, lift the basket and clean the coil and then run a post it note in the gap and clean it out, put them back together and it is as good as new.
Any other speaker and you need a stanley knife and a recone kit.