New Cab day: Stephenson FV 1X12

[LK155]

Been suffering from cab gas for a while.  Searched a long time for a decent Port City 2x12 but they're pretty scarce.  Hen's teeth made of unobtainium are far more abundant.  

So I investigated other boutique builders and came across Stephenson Amps out of Parksville, British Columbia (Canada).  Mr. Stephenson builds only one model of cab, the FV 1X12 (FV for Front Vent).  Here's what he has to say about it:

"This cabinet is extremely efficient and has a natural-sounding full bottom. It has that familiar tone and feel of a 4x12 cab. This cabinet design uses a series of unique internal chambers that capture and magnify the low-frequency energy from the rear of the speaker. The extended lows combine with the front of the speaker by exiting the cabinet through two front vents. The result is 4x12 body and feel in a lightweight, compact design using a single 12-inch driver."

Well, his "series of unique internal chambers" looks an awful lot like a transmission line cab to me, one of the most effective ways to enhance low frequency response from a single driver.

Anyone familiar with IMF speakers from the 70's will appreciate how good TL cabinets can be.

By pure coincidence, the day I discovered this cab, one came up for sale on the Guitars Canada site (oops, I'm not supposed to reference other sites.  Sorry.)  Took a (long) drive today, and came back with this in my trunk.  This particular one's loaded with a Greenback. 

Here's an innards shot............perhaps you can visualize how the sound waves from the rear of the speaker cone end up at the back of the cab (always moving left to right in the pic), go over the first divider, then get routed to the front and under the white divider, then to the back again, over the third divider, and finally, to the front vents.  

 

Compared to my Vox 2X12 (Celestion G12H 70th Anniversary speakers), the Stephenson has more bottom end and low-mids (as I expected with a TL) and the Vox has more pronounced mids and highs. 

 

 

When run together with my Trinity Tramp head, it's a pretty good combination.  Hell, it's a great combination.  Teacups have been rattled today, and the sound, even with the enhanced bottom end, is bright and clear at pretty well any volume.  I have yet to connect both cabs to the Quilter.  Maybe I'll wait until Marg goes out for groceries before trying that. 

 

[Steiner]

That beast appears to be able to warm the shackles off any red blooded American.  Happy NCD!

[Kuz]

20 hours ago, Steiner said:

That beast appears to be able to warm the shackles off any red blooded American.  Happy NCD!

or Canadian...

[Steiner]

North, South and Central America.  All Americans

[LK155]

Two things really sold me on this cab:

> I have actually been to Parksville, a fairly small town on Vancouver Island where the abundant blacktail deer wander around freely.  They (the citizens, not the deer) put on a stupendous sand-castle structure building exhibition and fireworks display the summer we were there.

>  Somehow, mention of the familiar tone and feel of a natural full bottom appealed to me.

OK, three things.  It sounded pretty good too.

 

[LK155]

Well, I stand corrected.

I have learned from the builder that this cab is considered a folded horn, not a transmission line.  

So there.