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Anyone had experience of playing with Bose L1 or L2's


walbassuk
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I have been looking into the Bose Personal Amplification system and have had a demo of the kit in my local soundcontrol with a cd and a live mic, but I was wondering if there's anybody who has actually used the thing in anger. As it does away with backline, monitors and pa it is a radical departure from the set-ups I 've been playing all my bass playing life.
It does seem a very interesting idea, but I would really like to hear from people who have actually gigged with this stuff

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Have a butchers at this thread over on finnbass. The word is pretty conclusive. If Bill Fitzmaurice thinks they're crap - they're crap!

[url="http://www.finnbass.com/showthread.php?p=13303#post13303"]finnbass discussion re. BOSE[/url]

Edited by Oxblood
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As is with any Pa system.... It works for a specific task..... I wouldn't say they are crap but then again if you expect to get the same sort of volume and sound quality as you do from 15" drivers..... think again..... Ideally these are suited to those more acoustic type acts....

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Even if the line array part works well - which it should do despite being hideously overpriced - the bass modules are not good. They're a simple bandpass design with low power handling and sensitivity and the usual problems of bandpass subs - best kept for in-car SPL competitions IMO!

As ever with Bose, the marketing is brilliant, the engineering less so...

Alex

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I like you saw this kit at sound control and was interested as you are... I too thought "that sounds nice" when they a played CD thru' it and even when they played a bit of keyboard.....

So I said, "Ummm I like that, can I try playing that Highway One P bass thru it please?"

They said " Aaahhh no, I'm afraid its not set up for basses "

I said " Oh thats OK then, I'll stick with my Mesa "

I just got glum, "oh bugger" looks from the bemused staff.....

As much as I like Bose hi-fi stuff, the fact they wouldn't let me try it kinda speaks volumes to me......

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We had the bose rep bring a couple of L1's plus subs to Coopers Jazz Club in Guiseley.
I was keen to try the system with my double bass, I liked the idea of having a speaker at ear level for intonation reasons.
He set one pole behind me, and one at the the front of the stage to one side.
After a lot of tweaking I got a reasonable sound.
Then he mixed in the piano and vocals and I was deafened, I was too close, but the pianist was too far away and he wanted more volume.
We had to re-position the one from behind me to other side of the stage, and I plugged into my SWR Baby Blue combo.
I wasn't keen on the sound either, very harsh, compared to the EV Eliminators we use.

Dissappointing, after reading about Ron Carter using them, but then I guess he doesn't put the whole band through his.

The system was tested at another jazz club in Boston Spa, they had similar problems.
Ideally each band member should have their own tower.
I've not heard the new model.

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[quote name='Mr Bassman' post='33875' date='Jul 18 2007, 09:20 PM'].
Ideally each band member should have their own tower.
.[/quote]



Says it ALL really!!!!! Why bother!!! just get/keep yr bass amp & cab! Sheesh! Bose always gotta try re-invent the wheel!! & usually do with VERY clear MIDRANGE!!!!! :)

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[quote name='Mr Bassman' post='33875' date='Jul 18 2007, 10:20 PM']We had the bose rep bring a couple of L1's plus subs to Coopers Jazz Club in Guiseley.
I was keen to try the system with my double bass, I liked the idea of having a speaker at ear level for intonation reasons.
He set one pole behind me, and one at the the front of the stage to one side.
After a lot of tweaking I got a reasonable sound.
Then he mixed in the piano and vocals and I was deafened, I was too close, but the pianist was too far away and he wanted more volume.
We had to re-position the one from behind me to other side of the stage, and I plugged into my SWR Baby Blue combo.
I wasn't keen on the sound either, very harsh, compared to the EV Eliminators we use.

Dissappointing, after reading about Ron Carter using them, but then I guess he doesn't put the whole band through his.

The system was tested at another jazz club in Boston Spa, they had similar problems.
Ideally each band member should have their own tower.
I've not heard the new model.[/quote]
This is just the sort of information I needed thanks, yes I can see that they would want everybody in the band with their own but even three units and the tonematch mixers, which are really required for the L1 Mk II system makes each unit over £2k. On the plus side for a singer songwriter or say a standup vocal pa they would work pretty well and there is no feedback even when the mic was 2" from the collum. I'm happy with my backline for the bass, it's just the old vocals getting lost/monitoring thing.

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I looked into these last year and even went along to my local 'friendly' SC where I know a couple of the guys from many moons ago (some of the staff have been there longer than SC itself). I got chatting and pointed out that I'd come to check out the Bose system and he quite nicely informed me not to bother! Great for quite Jazz combos and cafe bars but useless for bass in a pub/covers/rock style band.

I thanked him and left.

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[quote name='walbassuk' post='34242' date='Jul 19 2007, 05:50 PM']...it's just the old vocals getting lost/monitoring thing.[/quote]

Ah, that perennial challenge. I've been looking into more feedback resistant mics and have decided to get an Audix OM-5. It's supercardioid so very directional and high gain before feedback. Will report back once I've gigged it.

Alex

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My understanding was that in order to get a good bass sound you would need an amp simulator (like a Bass POD or similar) to give you the amp sound that you want, which would then be amplified by the Bose system without much colouration from the Bose speakers. Just the same as playing bass through any other PA speakers, really.

But I also got the strong impression that the system was designed to be setup with a separate Bose system for each player. Very expensive, although if it worked and you were starting from scratch with no PA and no backline (which is pretty unlikely) then the cost wouldn't be quite so bad. And if it worked the convenience would be terrific.

I'd need to hear it in practice, though, and I suspect there might be some issues on very small stages (i.e. the average pub/club gig) where you can't all physically get far enough from the speakers to hear them properly on stage.

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