S15-B Bag End – Brian Murphy

In 1980 my band was just getting rolling and I needed a powerful, yet portable speaker cabinet to carry my sound as a bassist. I had a great amp, a great bass but the speakers I was using at the time were weak and lacked low end response. Or they were too large to easily transport to small and medium size gigs. My local music store in Barrington, IL, no longer in business, suggested I visit the Bag End factory. At the time their factory was also located in Barrington. Long story short, I walked out with an S15-B Bag End enclosure which featured their 15 inch driver. A simple yet powerful little box full of sound.

The enclosure has survived over 1000 gigs.  Additionally, my S15-B has always been stored in the trunk of my car in all types of weather conditions. It has never been ”babied”. Some would say it’s been mistreated. Yet this cabinet has never let me down, always sounding gutsy and delivering the full range of tones I send to it. Over the years I have purchased other high end speaker cabinets for larger gigs. Unquestionably, when I need a powerful sound in a small space it’s always the Bag End 15.

Yesterday I decided to bring my nearly 40 year old S15-B back home to the Bag End factory, now located in Algonquin, IL, for a checkup. Craig the lead tech at Bag End smiled when he saw it, like one of your kids coming home from college. Although it is slightly different from their current offering, it was nevertheless the same. Oiled birch plywood cabinet with Bag End designed 15 inch driver. The changes over the years have been small and incremental.

I had expected after all these years I might need to replace the driver for improved response and overall sound. After Craig ran his series of tests on the driver, A/B comparison to the new, current version, he told me it really wasn’t necessary. The nearly 40 year old speaker tested and sounded nearly as good as the day it left the factory in 1980. My S15-B cabinet has been driven with amplifier heads ranging from 100-300 watts over the years, and it has not been babied, it has been pushed hard.

In this day and age there are only a handful of products that stay true to their roots. When the original design is right it does not need to change year after year for the sake of change. My Bag End is very much like the time tested Volkswagen Beetle design which very slowly evolved over the decades in the US, never changing for the sake of change alone.

So the bottom line is, if you are looking for a speaker cabinet and driver that will stand the test of time and heavy use go with Bag End. As the years go by you will never be second guessing what new design from someone else might be better. Quite simply it will not be better, only newer, and in my book newer is a gamble. Bag End is not a gamble but a reliable old friend that projects your sound day after day, year after year. And the key here, it never gets old, just a few battle scars adding to it’s true character.

Thanks for making a product that never grows old and is as reliable as any you can buy. Simple and time tested craftsmanship that always delivers your sound.

Sincerely,

Brian Murphy