Accugroove Bass Cabinets • Shoreline Music

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Accugroove has the kind of story you've gotta love. Mark Wright was a bassist frustrated by the amp choices available to bass players. Since no one else was building a cabinet that actually let him hear the true sound of his basses, Mark asked a friend, David Innis, to build him a hi-fi bass cabinet. If you've played most of the popular bass amps out there, you know, as I do, just what Mark was talking about. It seems like most bass amps I play are heavy on the lows and occasionally highs, but scoop the mids. That gives you lots of thump but not much definition or voice, and certainly doesn't reproduce the sound of your bass very faithfully. Well, Mark was inspired to take the rest of the audible spectrum a little more seriously, dividing up the drivers into sub-bass, mid-bass, true mids, and highs, and then to stick these all together in the same cabinet. The results were nothing short of remarkable: Myron Dove (Santana's bass player), played Mark's cabinet, and told him that he owed it to the bass community to bring it to market. Since Mark's personal cabinet was not for sale, he and David founded Accugroove to build more of them. It has since become a company noted as much for its integrity as for its superlative gear--a welcome rarity in the music business.

Fast forward to Winter NAMM 2004. I was at the Bee Basses booth, playing the guitar that I would eventually buy for myself. When I plugged it in, not only did I find the bass to be a killer instrument, but it was obvious that the speaker I was hearing it through was exceptional. After a little more listening at NAMM (and of course here in the shop), I realized a very simple truth: The Accugroove cabinets are the best bass cabinets I have ever heard. Anywhere. Flat, accurate tone, with clear highs and stunning low fundamentals, but more important, the accurate mids that are missing from so many other cabinets. A quick look around this website should make it clear that the kind of amps we favor are the ones that color your tone as little as possible. Accugroove has pulled this off so effectively that I fully expect many acoustic guitar players to be plugging into these, too. But they'll have to get in line behind the bass players. First come, first served, and all that.

Like much of the gear we sell, Accugroove stuff isn't cheap. But did I already mention that these are far and away the best bass cabinets I have ever heard? If you've been starving for good bass tone, you owe it to yourself to give these a listen.

Accugroove Amp Models:

El Whappo - Fans of The Three Amigos will remember El Guapo ("Would you say I have a plethora of pinatas?"). When first asked the name of his prototype, Mark jokingly called it "El Guapo" after the character in the movie ("El Guapo" means "the stud"). Well, the name stuck, but the spelling has been changed to aid in pronunciation. El Whappo is Accugroove's original design, and is still the heart of their cabinet lineup. It isn't light--it tips the scales at 93 lbs--but this is a true full-range cabinet, with 2 tweeters, a 6" mid, a 12" woofer and a 15" sub. With a power rating of 800 watts and a frequency response down to 35hz (29hz at -6db), you'll find that this can take anything you throw at it. You may find yourself putting your heavy old 4x10 cabinet on eBay after playing this, or, if you're like Kim Stone (the bassist for The Rippingtons), you may even give up two 4x10s. But even with all the impressive specs, El Whappo's single most impressive feature is, of course, the huge, flat, colorless, true tone. When you hit your 5th string, you'll be asking your Accugroove where it has been all your life. When you start climbing the fretboard on your A and D strings, you'll wonder why more amp makers don't pay as much attention to the mids as these guys do. And when you start listening to the upper harmonics, you'll be glad this thing has textile dome tweeters, which, at least to my ear, seem to do much more justice to the highs than most of the horn tweeters I run across. 32 x 24 x 18. 93 lbs.

Whappo Jr. - This little brother to El Whappo is the second half of Accugroove's Quad Series. It's smaller in dimension--20 lbs lighter and 5" shorter--but loses virtually nothing sonically. All the same design features are found on this cabinet, including the individually enclosed drivers (Accugroove's "cabinet within a cabinet" design), the same power rating, and nearly the same 4-way speaker configuration, with a 12" subwoofer instead of the 15" one found on El Whappo. 27 x 25 x 18. 74 lbs.

Tri 210L - The Tri Series cabinets are significantly smaller and lighter than the Quad Series, but are equally remarkable relative to similar configurations from other builders. This is because of their 3-way speaker design, which fills out the tone you hear from traditional bass speakers. For instance, the Tri 210L features two 10" woofers--a pretty common configuration--but it goes lower (and cleaner) than nearly every 4x10 cabinet I've ever heard. It also adds a mid driver and two tweeters for accurate mids and highs. The result is simply stunning: Paired with a Euphonic Audio 500 watt or 800 watt head, it makes for what is pretty much the ultimate portable stage rig, with clear, present, balanced tone across the audible spectrum, and plenty of guts to drive a big room with rumble, punch and definition. If I had as many bass gigs these days as I used to, this would be my ideal stage rig. Of course, Mike is one of the best bass players in the Four Corners--he is a regular fixture on stages in Durango and Telluride--and the Accugroove Tri 210L + EA iAmp 500 is indeed his stage rig (needless to say, I'm only a little bit jealous). I've heard his live shows, and I can say with certainty that the Tri 210L sounds even better onstage than it does here in the shop. 600 watts RMS at 8 ohms. 21 x 24 x 18. 57 lbs.

Tri 110L - This 1x10 cabinet features the same 3-way design as Accugroove's Tri 210L, with a single 10" woofer. This smaller cabinet loses very little in tone compared to the 2x10 cabinet, and it's over 20 lbs lighter. 300 watts RMS at 8 ohms. 15 x 21 x 17. 36 lbs.

Tri 112L - Accugroove's 1x12 cabinet is almost exactly the same size as the Tri 110L, but with a larger speaker, it has slightly better handling power and goes a bit lower. In fact, just like the larger 210L, it goes lower and cleaner than any 1x15 cabinet I've ever plugged into. 400 watts RMS at 8 ohms. 16 x 21 x 17. 38 lbs.

Accugroove Amp Models		Price*
El Whappo	Full-range 4-way cabinet. 15" sub, 12" woofer, 6" mid driver, 2 textile dome tweeters.	$1650.00
Whappo Jr	4-way cabinet with 12" sub, 12" woofer, 6" mid driver, 2 textile dome tweeters	$1375.00
Tri 210L	3-way cabinet with two 10" woofers, one 6" mid driver, 2 textile dome tweeters	$1075.00
Tri 110L	3-way cabinet with two 10" woofers, one 6" mid driver, 2 textile dome tweeters	$750.00
Tri 112L	3-way cabinet with one 12" woofer, one 6" mid driver, 2 textile dome tweeters	$825.00

*All Accugroove amp prices include free shipping anywhere in the US. CO residents add 7.4% sales tax. Please see our Shipping page for additional shipping information.