EarCandy BassBomb 212 Cabinet

This is a RE-WRITE of a previous review I did back in 2008 on the BassBomb212. I recently had some major warranty work done, and I am now ready to give a different ending to my Bassbomb story.
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This Bassbomb212 was made this year, 2009, and delivered to me on July 3rd.

The speaker cab is exactly what I was looking for in price, features, color, design, size, weight, power-handling, and most important, tone.

I use this speaker cabinet with a Fender P-Bass Special (passive). The bass signal is routed first to a Tech21 Sansamp RBI, then to a Carvin DCM1000 power amp, then to the Bassbomb.

I suits my style nicely, but my style is varied. Anything from Motown, to Rock and Country.

So far, noise is no problem, but it makes a lot of Bass. It makes an AMPLE amount of nice, smooth, thick, chest thumping bass. Very even tone. It would be suitable in probably any style you would care to try it with.

So far, I have gigged with it once, and it performed well. I don't foresee any failures, unless I do something really stupid like feed it a clipped signal for a few hours. But I don't play like that, so it should be fine. I would absolutely trust it on a gig without a backup, no question.

Here is where this company SHINES!!!
My last review, the cab had problems. He fixed most of what I originally complained about (that was in 2007-2008). But it never did blow me away, like I expected it too, sound-wise.
So earlier this year, I had a speaker failure out of nowhere- very bizarre situation. The cone of one of the two Eminence speakers completely locked up. It was stuck inside the magnet. So I called Tim Paulsen, the owner, to report what was going on. He had not heard from me in several months. He said, "Hey I remember you. You are the one who had all those rattling problems and just aren't sold on the cabinet, right?" I said, "Yes that is me."

He replied with a plan to make me happy or die trying. He offered to make me a brand new cabinet, from the ground up, and to trash the old cabinet, that I was never totally happy with. I complied.

I shipped him the cabinet, and he sent me a new one about 3 1/2- 4 weeks later, the day before a big 4th of July outdoor gig I had. He got it to me on time, and exactly the way I ordered it. The only change with this cab, is that I switched from having 2 stereo 1/4" jacks and a single 1/4" mono jack (on the old cabinet) to having 2 parallel Speakon jacks. Everything was as I asked.

After the gig (a break-in workout in and of itself), I got the cabinet back home, in the quiet of my practice area, and it sounds a LOT better than the original cabinet.

Here is the rest of the story... and where Tim is such a good guy to work with-

Eminence was going to charge Tim for the speaker that was stuck. Their original reply to Tim, when he returned the speaker to Eminence on a warranty claim, was that they weren't going to cover it. Eminence claimed that I over-powered and destroyed the speaker from mis-use. (I knew this was not true). Tim believed me, and went to bat for me (and himself). He gave the warranty manager a HUGE piece of his mind and they agreed to cut open the speaker to inspect it internally. As it turned out, Eminence screwed up. They had inadvertently injected WAY too much glue on the voice coil form and contact area around the voice coil. It was destined to fail, and clog with excess glue. They called Tim back, and agreed to cover it under warranty.
And I have a cab that now makes me very happy.
I'd give him an 11 if I could, but a 10 it is.

I've been playing bass for over 30 years, and have had lots of different gear. This is the best quality piece of gear for bass I have ever purchased.
I'd get a new one, even after my long dissatisfaction experience at first. The reason is, I KNOW Tim will bend over backward to make the customer happy. I just could not trust another manufacturer to do that. With Tim, I know I can trust him that way, because he did for me.

I'd compare this cab to a high quality Mesa type bass cab. Built like a tank, and beautiful.
I bought it because I believed in the reviews I read (especially here), and that it was the exact SIZE cabinet I was looking for. I also bought it because of the level of customization that is available to you. And the price is excellent for what you get. Excellent value, overall.

The ONLY complaint I'd make is that the tolex-type covering is soft. Too soft, and delicate. My old one, had a few gouges, and scrapes on it from very minimal scrapes to the exterior.

Having read the previous reviews, I won't repeat everything everyone else has mentioned. I will say that these cabs are, indeed, the best sounding, all around bass cabs I've ever used/heard. The combination of the Eminence Kappa 12 and Delta 12LF allow them to give me the 30kHz-5.5kHz EarCandy promises. Between the speaker choice and the ultimate cabinet design, superior woods, tuning and porting, these little monsters project a perfect balance of frequencies to every corner of a venue, whether indoor or outdoor. I use two of them in most cases, but one alone can handle practices and small to medium size venues with surprising authority.

Again, I have played bass professionally for 35 years and was a 15" fanatic for most of them, moving to 10s and combinations of 10s and 15s. These 212 boxes are SO well balanced that I haven't looked back since I bought them a year ago. I'm a finger player into traditional (old school) bass sound that includes the thump of James Jamerson, Rocco Prestia and Duck Dunn, to the pack-pickup punch of Andy Fraser and Jaco Pastorius. I like to slap and still like Larry Graham's sound over some of the newer guys. My BassBombs give me all that and more! I keep a slight bit of free edge on my fingernails for when I want a pick-like attack (something I learned from Anthony Jackson) and MAN, do these cabs give me GROWL!!! They excel in low-mid punch and growl, silky sweet highs and LARGE, tight beefy lows. And NO nasty, harsh, zingy, screechy tweeters!

I waited a year to weigh in here, and so far these things have handled everything I've had to give them 3 nights a week in all kinds of weather conditions here in Florida. With each cab rated at 900W rms, I believe they will never let me down.

As everyone else has mentioned, Tim Paulsen (founder and co-owner) handles all of the CS himself and I've never been treated better by anyone in the business. Since I haven't had an issue with my BassBombs, this may sound like an uninformed opinion, but having dealt with him via email and phone throughout the whole build process, I know that if I had ANY issue with these cabs, he would be right on top of it. I've never met anyone more proud of his work than Tim!

I use Eden heads exclusively and, when matched with these boxes, I have the sound I have searched for for 35 years! There is virtually NOTHING I hate about my BassBombs. What's there not to LOVE!! I've been known to hump my rig after a killer set! Most of my musician friends who know how much I love my Eden amps couldn't believe that I returned a D410XLT. Everyone loves them, but they just weren't my sound....too harsh. Same with most modern 410 cabs. They tend to blare too much, while BassBombs give you warm bottom without unwanted boom, strong punch, clarity and definition without the annoying racket of horns and tweeters. I not only wouldn't hesitate to replace them with BassBombs if they were ever stolen, but I plan to probably buy two more anyway.....just because I can!!

This might be a glowing review, but it's not superficial. It comes a year after purchase, lots of use and the simple fact that, for me, they are as close to perfect as it gets!!

I received my bassbomb a couple of weeks ago. It came w/ two
eminence 12" speakers and circle grills. I whent w/ the navy
blue tolex for the sides, top, and bottom, and black tolex
for the face. The navy blue has a real unique quality to it,
in that its not a flat navy blue. It has different shades of
blue in it, and the texture goes from smooth in spots to a
kind of aged look. The cab truly is a beauty.

I play jazz basses (U.S. made of course) through a gk 700rb head.
I've wanted really good full range tone forever, but could never
get what I wanted w/out tweeking the eq for days on end. I was
astonished when I first plugged into my bassbomb, because I set the
eq to 12:00 before I started playing through it. Everything was
allready there, w/ no real need to mess w/ the eq. The sound was
very bouncy w/ plenty of low end. I'm not really sure how the last reviewer had trouble getting the low end out of his bassbomb, but
mine sounds like it was built by a wizard. I really need to make
sure my parts are down solid when I play, because if I blow it,
everyone will know. If I could comepare the sound of my cabs tone
to another sysytem, I would say it reminds a little bit of edens
xlt series in the low-mid dept. (big focused low-mids) and swr in
the hi-mids and highs dept. Forget the horn by the way, beacuse
it would be pointless to add to this cab. Just for fun I wanted
to see if I could get that Steve Harris treble punch tone that he
gets. I pulled out the old fender and turned the treble and presence just a hair past 12:00 and It sounded pretty much the
same as his. The treble you get out of these cabs is not the treble
you would get out of one w/ a horn. This cab will give you really
smooth, polite treble that won't make your ears bleed. All in all,
its the most musical cab I have owned, in over twenty years of playing.

I have only had it for a couple weeks but it comes w/ a lifetime
warranty I believe.

Tim was very helpful. He originally asked my what i wanted
in bass tone, and i know i sound like a lot of the other
reviewers on this site, but the man delivers the goods. He
gave me what I asked for and then some. It took a while to get
it after ordering, but Tim's shop was flooded twice during the
storm season which forced him to relocate. Tim was very patient
w/ me through all the flooding, moving, and taking care of other
impatient people he has to do. Tim's the man.

In the twenty years of searching for that elusive "perfect tone",
I can finally say that I am done searching. If my cab were stolen,
I would be inspired to hunt the thief down, and make him cry a bit.
But i would most certainly order another one if it was lost.
Its hard not to sound like so many of the other reviewers on this
site. when you read reviews, its easy to say that someone ist just
caught up in the moment, like a kid w/ new toy. But i truly mean
every thing ive said in this review. when I mentioned how it took a while to get, keep in mind that the owner of the company is the one
hand making your cab, with your tone as his focus. How many other cab company owners do that?

Purchased in Spring of 2007

2-12" speakers, 4 ports, metal corners, full metal grill, stereo combo input jacks (left, right, and parallel), bottom feet and side feet, deep dish handles, blue covering on back, top, bottom and sides. Brown/tan stain on front baffle. Black vinyl speaker cover with logo.

BTW, Tim mounts the deep-dish side handles upside-down. He argued that he had been building cabinets for 20 year and had always installed them that way.
That isn't a good reason to keep doing it. If you look at Marshall, GK, Mesa, Peavey, etc. etc. etc., they all mount them "upside down", in the opinion of Tim.
Not sure how he came to that conclusion, since a lot of those makers have logos and graphics that determines which end is up.
Anyway, he did mount them "my way" just to humor me.

This is where I am puzzled. I ordered this cab, based on the reviews here, the features, the size, the options, the customization, the price, the build-quality.
It just leaves me disappointed.
First, I had a few noisy problems with the cab itself on arrival. It buzzed noticeably on certain notes. I ended up sending it back and getting it fixed. Tim was great with communication and making sure I was informed of what was found wrong. It turned out to be one of the two Eminence Speakers that was defective. for some of the noise. The other noises were coming from the speaker jacks on the back of the cab. They were acting as additional ports. See, I ordered it with the stereo/combo jack. When using it as a mono cab, I had two unused jacks. They were "ports" to the inside of the cab. At medium to high volume, they would "spit" air, loudly at times.
He ended up covering speaker wire and the jacks, all the way to the mounting plate, with heat shrink tubing. This was all internal to the cabinet.
I finally got the cabinet back about 3 months after I originally ordered it.
Now I had what Tim called "a real bassbomb."
Well, it just isn't as it was advertised. See, I have this old dinosaur GK cabinet from the early 80's with a single Jensen 15". It has no tweeter, and a single slot/horn type port across the top. This old dinosaur cab, with thin, voided plywood, out-performs the Bassbomb in both volume, and depth.
I am running the two cabs in such a way as to be able to instantly compare the two.
I have a SansAmp RBI, into a Carvin stereo power amp. I plug the Bassbomb into one side of the amp, and the GK into the other. When I bring up the volume on just the Bassbomb, it is OK. But when I add in the GK, it's like I added a subwoofer. Bigger, fatter.
When I bring up the two cabs in the opposite order (GK first), I get the big bottom sound, but when I add in the Bassbomb, it just sort of rounds out the top/clarity a bit. The major bass response comes from the old GK.
Now one area where the GK can't compete with the Bassbomb is in the mid/highs. It takes the cake there. BUT, I read about people saying the Bassbomb is bigger, louder, more full than a 4-10 or even an 8-10. I say hogwash.

Here is an excerpt from the website:
"The BassBomb's lows are deep. 5 string players will love it! The bottom is fat and warm, yet tight and musically full and clear. The mids are right at your fingertips. They are very easy to dial in or out, up or down for a very fast, liquid Eq and GREAT tone. The top end, or highs, are full and present, rich and round.....not thin and hollow. They are very strong, defined and punchy with a warm, articulate bite.

Unbelievable fundamental solid walls of bass tones will be generously emitted even at lower wattage and volume levels. This Bass cab will come into any room and self adjust with minimal Eq time and will fill the room with chest thumping bass like you have never heard."

Bottom line: it's pretty, but not all that great. It sounds thin at times to my ear. It hasn't got the "unbelievable fundamental solid walls of bass tones" that the website says it does. Sorry.

So far. It hasn't failed. I could use my other cab without a dropoff. But it seems very dependable.

Very good. No complaints whatsoever. Tim is a professional in every sense of the word. I just wish his cab was all that is advertised.

Here is what I'd love Earcandy to do...get some real hard data on the frequency response/performance specs of their cabs, instead of all the adjectives on the website. Have them tested by an unbiased third party and publish the numbers.

I feel like I bought into the hype, and let my belief in what the website says to color my judgment. A year later, I can now give an honest opinion of what I bought.

If I did not have my other cabinet to rely on for the deep lows, I'd be pee-O'd, and in need of another cab to take care of that for me.

If it were stolen, I'd probably look for something else.

okay gang lets go . starting with the bass bomb 2x12 cabinet i owned this cab for a year . now i can say its the best ,why first its hand made by tim and his wife in the USA.,next i have two style of jacks speckon and underneth jack . next construction, of this cab nothing compares to it on the market . price it just blew me away ive paid twice as much still couldnt get the low end and or the sound out of any box . i had ive had them all at one time or anouther . not like lifting 6 10 cab in the snow on tour ,let me tell you or worse going up a flight of stairs with 86 pounds of speaker in a box when you cant find your rodie to lift hahah .we have all been there . this cab is easy to life custom made to you down to the wood and color asked anyone at marshell or fender-or peavy if i can get surf green get the point . so i place a orange headmk3 it was simply amazing .now i play for string basses , dear friend came over with a six- string its just sang . i was so taking back . so if your looking for pure low end easy to move around kick the .,.,./,. of any cab out there call tim at earcandy .

now ive spoke with tim . i explained what style of music i play ,also explained ive been very upset about the sound i could not receive from the cabs i once owned . tim said i understand and took off, building the cab.tim emailed to kept me updated. who does that anymore. get the picture .

now if the cab ever got stolen ,yes i would call tim up and order anouther one right then and there .ive been playing since the 70s i run this cab 2-3 hours a day play in outdoor weather ,and halls their is nothing can bet or come close to the cannon i call it bass bombcab is a understatement .

This is the absolute best speaker cabinet I have ever owned/played. I have been playing for about 10 years, and have owned Eden, Bag End, Ampeg, GK, Orange, and Aguilar. I have toured mainly with an Ampeg SVT and 810 cab. The Ear Candy Bass Bomb has way more in terms of customization and features than all the above-listed brands combined. Tim Paulsen, the owner of Ear Candy cabs, can make cabs with any feature(s) you could ever want. The cab can come in just about any color of the highest-quality tolex and/or laquered wood you can think of. My cab is in a black tolex (way tougher and better-looking than any I've ever seen--by far). Tim did a custom blue/green transparent finish on the front and back of my cab (it is exactly what I asked him for. My grill is a turquoise/silver cloth reminisant of the old Fender and Ampeg grills. I could have had any kind of steel grill, circular grill that covers only the drivers, but I thought the particular cloth grill was too cool to pass up. The Bass Bomb comes with two different Eminence 12" drivers. One is a traditional bass guitar speaker, and the other is more like a sub woofer speaker. Tim claims that this combination of speaks is the best and most versitile--I agree. Perhaps the most important and unique feature of the cab is that it is hand-built, using a combination of different woods. I believe that the woods used are: pine for the front, sides, and top; mohogany for the back; and maple or birch for the bottom (I'm not 100% sure about the birch--forgot to ask). The reason I give a 10 in this category is because Tim's cabs are more customizable and higher-quality than any I've ever seen/played/owned.

I use the cab with an Orange AD200 Bass Mk3 and a Musicman Stingray 4 with an Aguilar on-board preamp and a Seymour Duncan ceramic pickup. Before I ordered the cab, I was using a particular rear-ported 410 cab. Unfortunately, the 410 was not nearly loud enough. I was afraid that the Orange head was the reason that the rig wasn't loud enough. Every time I turned the Orange up loud enough to sit in the mix with my bandmates, I got a sound that was too distorted. I loved the sound of the Orange head at moderate volumes, but couldn't get the sound I liked at higher volumes. I was about to get rid of the head, but decided to investigate super-efficient cabs in an attempt to remedy the problem. That's when I found Tim's company. I decided to order one. Well, the cab fixed my problem beyond my wildest expectations. The distortion I had while using the 410 was actually from the cab itself--an interesting lesson I learned. It is absolutely amazing how much difference a cab can make. It is also amazing how much louder a properly-crafted 212 cab can be than an average 410. Sound quality wise, the cab is in a league of its own. I think it gets the "spongy" sound of an Ampeg 810 without the "muddy" low end (and yes...believe it or not...it is just as loud as my old Ampeg 810...I am not exaggerating), but it also gets the growl of my old Eden 410xlt, along with the "burpy" sound of an Aguilar GS112 that I love. The sound is incredible! Along with my comparative descriptions, the Bass Bomb also has its own unique sonic attribute...kind of a 3-D thing--it's totally awesome. You can really tell how the porting and the combnation of different woods in the right places make for an incredible sound at any volume level. The cab gets no noise that I can hear. The reason I'm giving another 10 is because the cab truly deserves it. The tone and versatility of the cab is just mind-blowing. I think this cab will put an end to the era of the Ampeg 810.

The cab is built tough. Everything on it seems like it will last forever. You have to be really careful not to scratch the transparent finish on the back though--I think. I'm too affraid to test it though. I've have to cab about a month now, so I won't give an opinion on reliability yet. However, I'm willing to bet that there will never be a reliability issue with it.

Along with getting a top-notch hand-built cab that is loud as hell and sounds awesome, I got the wonderful experience of getting to communicate with the actual guy, via email, who built my cab as he was building it. It was awesome getting emails about the progress of my cab. Tim even sent pictures (when he had time) throughout the progress of building the cab. Tim Paulsen is an extremely nice guy with a great sense of humor, and he really made me feel like I was his only client. I know for a fact that Tim would fix or replace anything on the cab if it were defective, and he's really good about responding to emails. I feel that Ear Candy Cabs is ran like a old-fashioned business--where you get to know the owner, where the owner knows you, and the owner will do whatever it takes to satisfy his client. This is why I give yet another 10.

If my cab were lost (well..it would never be lost), or someone took it, I would NEVER stop looking for it because: 1. It is an awesome, awesome cab. 2. It was hand-built just for me and the color is one-of-a-kind. 3. It has sentimental value because of the friendship I formed with Tim Paulsen as he built it. This cab is the absolute coolest piece of gear I've ever bought--even cooler that my heads and/or basses. If I had to get rid of all my gear except one piece and then start over, I'd keep the Bassbomb. How many people can say that about a cab??? The one concern that potential Ear Candy Bass Bomb customers might have is that it takes a while to get the cab. The average time is 4-6 weeks (I think), but mine took almost 3 months. However, the wait is because the cabs are hand-built just for the client. I would rather wait a year for something of the highest quality than get instant "gratification" from some assembly-like-made junk. It is for this reason that I give the Bass Bomb another 10 in this category.

My cab was made in early 2006. It is a 2x12 cab with Eminience Delta and Kappa speakers. It has orange covering, a white steel grille, and black hardware. I bought it mainly to replace a 1x15 and 4x10 stack that I was tired of lugging around. It is wired in mono with one 1/4 inch locking input and one Speakon output should I want to connect an extension cab. I was told this amp could handle about 900 watts although I couldn't imagine why you would want to run that much juice through it. I don't think anyone would survive. I feel that this amp could be very versatile although I use it mainly for heavy rock. It doesn't boast much as it's just a cab, but it has everything I need.

Amazing. I use a Geddy Lee Jazz bass with this cab and don't run any effects, just a Boss tuner. I'm not trying to cop Geddy's tone in any way shape or form, just think it's a great bass. It rules the roost sound wise. When I first got the cab I was running an SWR Workingman's 4004 head through it with a SansAmp RBI out front to warm it up and quite honestly boost the really weak SWR head output. Honestly, running this configuration through the cab, I thought it sounded really good, but I wasn't blown away like so many others. I was ready to say , "OK it's about the same as my old stack but just not as heavy." So I got rid of the SWR and picked up an Eden Nemesis NA-650 head. That's when this cab really showed me what it had and it just opened up and blew me away. I'm not even running the SansAmp anymore. Don't need it. Everything I need tonewise is there. The Geddy Lee is a pretty bright bass so my highs are there. I always turn off the tweeter on a cab if I have the option to anyway. The mids are just right for me since I scoop them a little anyway. And the bottom is just insane. It'll rattle yer bowels. And that's with the bass setting on my head at noon. This thing is really loud too. Deceptively and concussively loud. When you're playing it you won't really notice how loud it is but when you're done you'll be like, "Ouch!" It MOVES air like crazy. I can sit about 6 feet back from it and feel the air hitting me in the shins. I just can't believe such a huge sound is coming out of this relatively small box. It feels like I could never fart this cab out. Great sustain and clarity. No mud here. If you mess up it'll make sure everyone knows about it. So you need to really concentrate on your technique. Even sounds good at low volumes. I finally got that, deep, tight tone I was looking for.

Only used it for one band practice and one gig at a mid sized club. Unfortunately, right after I got it my band decided to take a "hiatus". So I've mainly just been jamming at home with it. It worked just fine at the gig, but that was with my old head and I was running through the front of house anyway so I just needed the stage volume. I would't hesitate to take it to any small to mid size club for a gig. It is built like a tank and I haven't had any problems with it so far. The steel grill is like construction grade steel mesh. It could probably stop a hammer blow with no sweat. Everything feels really solid.

Unreal. Tim, the owner, was top notch the entire time. He answered every e-mail I ever sent him very quickly. Even if I had questions about amps in general. This is old fashioned customer service like you don't get anymore. He stands behind his products 110%. Tim even floated me a free locking input jack and to my surprise and elation he even put in a Speakon output jack that I didn't ask for. Sweet. I've read stories from other customers where Tim has just bent over backwards to make folks happy. I'm sure if I needed anything he would be right there.

I've been playing for about 5 years and have managed to somehow work my way through a bunch of different amps and cabs. Everything from Ampeg, Hartke, Behringer, SWR, etc. This is by far the happiest I've been with my rig and most importantly my tone. I'm basically down to one bass, one head, and one cab and I think I'll be alright for a good long while. If this were lost or stolen I'd be really upset and someone would pay dearly. I waited a good 3 months for this cab and I don't think I could wait that long again.

I bought two 2x12 cabinets and considering how highly customized they are, I can't possibly give them any less than a 10. If you browse through the EarCandy website, you will find a vast selection of customizations that you can choose from. I had some ideas of what speakers and woods I wanted in the cabinet but after speaking with Tim (the owner and really cool guy), I went with his typical speaker choices and an almost typical wood configuration. I was not disappointed. There are also lots of less critical options that you can choose from. I got mine with speakon jacks (no 1/4" jacks) and covered in white naugahyde with white grills. Here is a picture:
http://www.earcandycabs.com/sbbf.JPG
Basically, these cabinets can have as many or as little features you want and be as ordinary or as unique as you want. Mine are very unique.

My favorite style of music to play is prog rock (especially Rush and Gentle Giant) but I also play (older) metal and other styles as well. My configuration is:
Wal Pro II bass -> GK 2001 RBP preamp -> Stewart World 2.1 power amp -> 2x custom EarCandy cabinets
These cabinets have an awesome sound. Although it is slightly colored, it is in a good way that would certainly not inhibit the cabinets from working with any style of music that I am aware of. I perceive a very slight midrange cut but I am the type of bass player who can never have enough midrange so it's probably just me (I hate that scooped sound that so many modern bass players go for - not that these cabinets have it). The bass is certainly very clear and very present in the sound. Tim told me that he has never had a customer complain about a lack of bass in the sound coming from his cabinets and I believe him. The highs are there as well but they are very natural sounding as the cabinets lack tweeters (in my opinion, a very good thing). Overall, the sound is very clear and very balanced and I am extremely pleased with it. Also, the cabinets are very loud - especially considering my bass/amp configuration and the fact that I have two of them. Given the balance, clarity, and volume of these cabinets, they would be the perfect type of cabinets for one who is trying to be heard in the mix when there are guitarists trying to hog up the frequency spectrum.

I have had these cabinets for six months and have not had any problems with them at all. Although I haven't really pushed these cabinets much, I have no doubt that they can handle anything I throw at them. I had my preamp volume up about 40% (the absolute limit of volume that my ears could take - I don't have any audio quality ear plugs) for awhile and not only did the cabinets/speakers not distort at all but they sounded every bit as good as at lower and medium volums. In fact, they seemed to enjoy the little bit of abuse that I gave them. There is absolutely nothing cheap or flimsy about either of these two cabinets. I can't imagine them being any more well made. The naugahyde covering does scratch rather easily but I am very careful with mine. If this is a concern, you may want to consider a thick cloth covering.

Buying these cabinets began and ended with customer support. To begin with, Tim (the owner) and I went back and forth for a couple months getting the specs nailed down. After this, the construction process (which took over two months) and Tim emailed me a few times during this period. We also communicated a few times after I received them. I don't think that you will find better customer support anywhere unless you actually know the person doing the work.

I have been playing for 13.5 years (although I am not as good as I should be). During this time, I have never heard cabinets that I liked as much as these - certainly not for the price. If they were lost or stolen, I would thank God that my Wal wasn't lost or stolen, (if they were stolen) hope that the person who stole them hurt himself carrying them (not that they are that heavy), and then place an order for new ones immediately.

For years I have wanted a compact 2 x 12" bass cabinet. Like a lot of bass players, I have used modern 1 x 15" and 4 x 10" cabs both separately and combined and recognized that my ears hungered for something in a sweet spot between the two.

I also have a small Carvin 2 x 10" that when stood vertically makes a very nice fundamental with no mud and a lot of audible pitch info, but the sound is too small for many gigs. My ears told me that a 2 x 12" of similar layout with good enough speakers might just be the perfect bass box.

But I couldn't find one to fill the bill. I bugged a few manufacturers about upsizing their side-by-side slot-ported 2 x 10" boxes to a 2 x 12", but they declined, knowing that the road from "yes" to a good-sounding finished design could be a long one.

Then I finally stumbled onto EarCandy Cabs in a lonely late night Google search, probably looking for "2 x 12 bass" or "2 x 12 bass cabinet".

At EarCandy, the personable Tim Paulsen hand-builds 1 x 12" and 2 x 12" cabinets for guitar and bass players in his shop in Indiana. He is a "botique" builder in that he custom builds his own basic designs with woods, speakers, covering and hardware specified by the customer.

What Tim offers you when you contact him about buying a cabinet is an unknown combination of rocket science, street experience and snake-oil patter by which he groks the tone you are after and then recommends wood combinations and speaker choices that will achieve that tone.

Tim is an Eminence speaker dealer, and he knows the line in detail, including the jillions of different guitar speakers being made nowadays for their different tones.

He contracts for his own plywood in numerous wood types, and has it laminated with hide glue rather than the gummy plastic stuff used in commercial plywood. He says this yields a more resonant, hard and solid board. Further, he has defined the tonal properties of different woods when used in speaker cabs, and he counsels you about which wood or combination of woods will get your sound and why.

You have to order a cabinet to find out if all this stuff is true or if you are being sold an exciting bill of goods, but hey, finally here was a guy making a side-by-side compact 2 x 12" for a price that was not cheap but not as expensive as the big-name manufacturers, so I ordered up.

Tim heard my idea of bass tone for this box: a Jamerson/Dunn tone, a rich fundamental but with clear pitch focus all the way down, thick and meaty but without a bunch of modern 30hz subwoofer wind clouding the sound. I told him I wanted to play melodic lines down low and have the notes come through, not the boom.

He recommended a birch box with a pine front and back, and an Eminence Kappa 12 paired with a Gamma 12.

You can specify a variety of wild-colored naugahyde coverings and speaker cloths and grilles, but I ordered a simple black naugahyde and a black expanded steel grill.

The Bass Bomb arrived in 2 1/2 weeks, was a thing of beauty and it smelled great.

I put the box right to work in my 5 or 6-nights-a-week gig with a Dallas blues band, including regular blues jams where I could hear others play the rig. (The head is a 300W Behringer BX3000T taking the signal from a Line 6 Bass Pod.)

The Eminence 12s take 30 hours to break in. At first, the cabinet, while LOUD, was tight in the bottom end. Adding bass to the signal created a bump at 200 hz, but not much below that, and to get technical, a lot of the traditional R&B/blues sound I want is at 100hz.

But as the nights passed, the sound opened up nicely. A week later the box had its 30 hours and the bottom had warmed and gotten louder in the balance. The mids were plentiful, warm and papery sounding without harshness.

I began to chuckle thinking about the tone I had described to Tim Paulsen and what his ideas had led to. Really, I had a very close result to what I had asked for. How much the different woods affected the sound of these boxes I did not know. I only knew that the birch and pine Tim used did indeed create that clear audible note that I had requested.

With four two-inch round ports, the box projected the fundamental and low mids very well even in a large room. The porting created back pressure on the speakers that made the cabinet quite resistant to distortion or speaker flapping, even at high volumes. But it still didn't go quite low enough for me.

So, after a few weeks I wrote Tim and confessed I loved my box but still had the desire to tinker with the low end, and he agreed I might try replacing the Gamma with a Delta12LF, which is a high X-max speaker for woofer and subwoofer applications (some mfgrs. use the 12LF with a tweeter.)

I ordered and installed one, and immediately the lower register deepened and the cabinet sounded wonderful, authentic and correct for the blues and R&B I am playing. No muddiness came with the extended bass response. I think the Bass Bomb, sized and ported like it is, will not readily make the super-windy pants-flapping mud super lows, which to me is a great feature, because you can push the bottom without losing definition and firmness. But for my purposes it benefits from having a true woofer like the Delta 12LF to fill the very bottom of the cabinet's range.

The result is loud, amazingly loud if you want it, it is warm, full, musical, resonant, versatile... just all around impressive. It is like having a good studio sound wherever you play. It's a well-defined, somewhat aggressive sound, not afraid of loud guitars and drums, but with the Delta12LF it will go pretty deep and buttery.

With my original Kappa and Gamma 12, you might get a great howling rock sound, reminiscent of classic Tim Bogert, or Ron Wood, playing his Telecaster bass through a Marshall stack with the early Jeff Beck Group. Of course, that was EIGHT 12s Ron had on his Marshall Super Bass stack. Knowing what I know now about the Bass Bomb, if I saw four of them (with eight twelves) on a stage, I would give away my front row tickets, move to the back of the room and put in my ear plugs. Knowing what one can do, the idea of four Bass Bombs will make you shudder.

If you order one of these cabs, you have some decisions to make...

EarCandy Cabs cannot seem to generate a bad customer review, and it sure isn't going to get one from me. These bass cabinets are fantastic. This is an American small business that is succeeding by earnest effort and by caring about customer satisfaction on every order. It's the way we always used to do things in the good old days, and it still works.

Made in the USA in '05. They are all custom made to your specs but my particular Bomb featured two 12 inch speakers with a handling of 950 watts. The speakers I chose, with Tim's help, were the Eminence Delta 12LF, (500Watts)alone, and the Kappa Pro, (450Watts itself). LOUD. Yes loud is a feature of this cabinet. Locking quarter inch imput.
As many features as you want, can't go wrong with that...

I use a USA Lakland Deluxe with this cab with an Ampeg Pro4. I play heavy pop rock, ala Hoobastank.
If you like the sound of a cab without a horn then this IS your cabinet. Don't get me wrong the Eminence Kappa has loads of warm highs so it definitely is not muddy.
I've put off doing this review cause I wanted to get to know her a bit so as to give it a true review. Now that I've gigged with her and practiced in the studio I can truely say that she will put out what is put in. At first I had some trouble finding my sound but that was all on my end. My Lakland sounded a bit thin and I've gone through an Acme 410 and this thinking that the cabs didn't have the punch I was looking for. I've recently fixed this problem and the cabinet trully is smiling at me for it.
The sound is very tight and handle a ton. I went from two Ampeg 810's to this by itself. Sure the 2 810's were louder but for my needs the cab is HUGE.
It has huge hard hitting bass, no crackley highs, just smooth warm well rounded bass with lots of projection and punch.
Again the lack of a horn is not for everyone but if you really want huge bottom end and the highs buy one from Tim and put a good Horn in yourself. ; )

Tim covers the cabs in what ever you want. I went with the standard black nessie cover. My steel grate in front looks like it could withstand a shot gun blast. Construction was top notch! I will NOT need a back up.
You've heard it before and I'll say it again, these things are built like tanks. Absoluty no Farting out or cab rumble, EVER...
Earcandy cabs are made by hand by skilled craftsmen with REAL woods. Not pressboard. If you think you like the way your cheap piece of cardboard sounds you've never played through a real cab.
Do yourself a favor and at least try to find one on E-bay, if you can... instead of playing the cheap stuff.

I think there is a lifetime warranty, not that you'll need it. No better than that can you do.
Tim is absolute BEST when it comes to P.R. You can go wrong with him. His good people skills are what actually attracted me to his cabs. I asked him about his product and he stood behind it so much that I had to order one.

I've been playing for about 12 years now. Playing clubs and recording. I've had custom built 810's that sounded great but broke my back, and I've had the cheap stuff like HARTKE(NO life to them).
This is my cab. Its light and it sounds HUGE.
You will not go wrong with Earcandy. I know it's hard to believe so much good praise but it's warranted in this case.