Chienmortbb

Richard, the efficiency of a driver is usually quoted at 1Khz. It is of little use in bass cabs. The art of bass cab design is squeezing every last ounce out of a driver in the bass area (down low) and a big Xmas is a great help. It is not the only thing though. I once described designing a bass cab as like squeezing a balloon. Push it in one area and it bulges in another. The Beyma used in my cab is exceptional in its price performance ratio and still has a higher Xmax than the Faital Pro drivers you mention. It is also lighter than a number of 12” neos on the market. The Faital Pro 320 is close in spec to the Beyma SM212 and is lighter but it will be a compromise. My cab also uses a Celestion Compression driver that, like the Beyma SM212 uses a Ceramic magnet, Stevie is investigation how much difference there is using the 320, a Neo 12” and a Neo compression driver. The aim is to maintain the performance but reduce the weight by a couple of Kg. He is currently still squeezing the balloon.

In my experience, Duke is one of the good guys. He responds to messages and answers stupid questions without condescension. A bit like Stevie and passinwind.

I have not read the whole thread but there is both a lot of good and bad info on this thread so I will put in my 2p. For the record I am an Electronics Engineer and advised on the design of the HPF on passinwind's HPF design. However that was all his work and I take no credit for it. So what is an HPF? High Pass Filter or less commonly called a Low Cut Filter. So why do we need one? Bass guitars and DBs and the whole system between them, and the Loudspeaker, produce very low frequencies that do not add to our sound. These VLFs work the speaker hard and rob us of headroom. How do I know if this is happening to my system? If you can see the speaker moving, that is caused by VLFs. Take you grille off and watch the cones while playing. Your eyes will not see a cone vibrating at 25Hz* so if you can see it move, it is below 25 Hz and well below Low B at 31Hz. Watch the video of the Micro Thumpinator in action on the SFX site to see the effect.Microthumpinator web page My amp has an HPF do I need an external one? It depends, some built in ones are too shallow. 12 dB per octave is too shallow, 24dB is the minimum in my opinion. That rules out the Broughton. It would be better than nothing but imho not much. What if I just turn down the bass? Most bass controls will affect frequencies in the low mids and higher and have a big impact on your tone. Do I need a variable or adjustable HPF? If it works it does not matter. The Thumpinator works well and also the various FDeck versions from the USA, are good. Variable Filters have a bump at the f3 point. No a good design will be flat to all intents and purposes. If a fixed HPF works well, what benefit would a variable HPF bring. Mainly to help tame room resonances/boominess in conjunction with the normal EQ. It can also allow you to experiment for yourself, a variable HPF can start the cut-off higher for a 4 string than a 5 string. Alternatively it allows you to tune the response so as to just remove the unwanted VLF stuff leaving more of you tone intact.

Stevie and I got ours cut at Timbmet. They offer an on-site cutting service (although not while you wait) but they are accurate unlike BnQ. They will also do a full CNC service for quantity. I looking at redrawing to make assembly easier if (as Stevie says) their is enough interest.

My local store, Sbsolute Music has a fantastic range of products but only two Bass ranges, Rumble and Markbass. For various reasons I would but neither. They are big Blackstar dealers so I asked if they would stock the Blackstar Bass amps. No they would continue with the two ranges. Of course they could offer choice without growing their supplier bass by stocking Eden, Blackstar and Orange giving us bassist some choice but... If the start morning that local people don’t support the shop then the reply is easy.

The Mustang 3 amps have been universally panned as useless for gigging by respected guitarists. They are said to be great for the bedroom but no use at stage volumes. If they cannot get it right for guitar, there is not much hope for bass....

To quote a certain member of this parish, some of the BC 1x12 cabs are as good or better than most commercial and boutique offerings. How about a blind shootout.?

I think the truth is that Phil, Stevie and myself are all looking for the ideal cabinet and it does not exist. So it is a lifetimes work. One thing I will say about the MK2 with the huge single port is that if you like trouser flapping bass, in front of that port is this place to stand. I let a young bassist use mine the other day and he was effusive about it. It really does work. As for using powered PA cabs as FRFR, I am not a fan. Those moulder plastic cases do not pass Stevie’s finger test with the cab vibrating as some frequencies.

Lozz is correct. Another identical cab will make a great difference: You will lift the drivers so you will hear yourself better. Your amp is a little low powered. 150W into 8 ohms. Add the second cab and you get the full 250 Watts. However more than that, there is an effect that you get by stacking two cabs that gives you a free “boost” of between 3-6db* So you will get between 5 and 8dB boost, or more headroom. That is more than doubling your acoustic output. So an extra cabinet will have more effect than a new amp. *Experts disagree about the exact boost you get. The boost is called Mutual Coupling.

Going for a single 4 ohm Cab is a bit limiting. Go for two 8 ohm cabs in parallel.

I tried a PRS SE Kingfisher yesterday and although I cannot afford it at the moment, fell in love with it. However I had not even known PRS made basses. Anyone else tried them? This is the exact bass https://www.absolutemusic.co.uk/prs-se-kingfisher-bass-guitar-scarlet-red-with-gigbag-pre-owned.html Damn just seen their finance deal!

Paddy I was a novice last year and was warmly welcomed. Don't tell Scrumpymike e but it's worth more that £10.

2mm is a bit low allow as I understand it Celestion are conservative with there XMax rating will some like Faital Orcin tend to be optimistic. Stevie if this parish has more knowledge of Celestion than I do so hopefully can comment.

I imported a Fender Japan Aerodyne Jazz from Ishibashi in 2003. Superb service. Cost me about £500 all in bit a few months later I saw it in a music shop for £995. I knew Ishibashi as I visited their Osaka branch a few times. I worked for Panasonic and the HQ is in Osaka. They never had the Black Aerodyne in stock when I was there. Japanese colleagues could not match the cost of shipping and insurance that Ishibashi offered. I still have the bass and it is the one bass I would never get rid of. It is shown below with my Samick Greg Bennett bass. Apologies for the duplicated photos but fir some reason I cannot delete either.

If I can get the circuit diagram from TC, I will have a look at it for you. I live in Poole.

Just two capacitors, if you can use a soldering iron, I will send you a pair.

These are all class D Amps with switching power supplies and although very efficient, the still produce heat. Usually the total combination is about 80% efficient so at 200 watts, total power is 200 X 100/80or 250 watts. So you still have to dissipate 50 watts of heat. If you can touch it but it is very hot it is likely around 60C, at 70C you cannot keep your finger on it. Many Amps have their over temperature settings between 60-70 degrees. Make sure the space around the amp is clear to aid airflow but in general if the Amp is not cutting out, I would not worry.

I should add that a decent transformer is a lot more expensive than most Passive DIs

'Q' is a measure of the bandwidth of a filter. The higher the Q the more selective the filter. Rough Guide: Lower Q values = broader filter curve and tend to sound more natural. High Q values for targetting (cutting) particular 'problem' frequencies / resonances. I just saw others had answered along the same lines as I didn't see the second page. Q is short for quality where a notch or peak is narrow it is deemed to be high quality as in feedback destroyers. From memory lower “Q” value is higher quality but It is 49 odd years since I studied active filters as my College project so I could be wrong,

Me too, have you done the cap changes for bass?

And higher numbers in cable means smaller. As I said earlier but clearly no one read it. Many 1/4” or 6.35 jack sockets and plugs are rated at 0.5 Amps so not enough for even small powers. In the old days there are few Jack manufacturers such as Switchcraft, Neutrik and Cliff. All those brands have high current products but the manufacturer can only specify the amplifier connector. We can use any old far eastern crap and if you plug the cable into the amp first and then short the tip to the sleeve by accident you could fry your amp. Neutrik have a budget range Rean that do high power plugs that will take big cables and they do get around the capacity problem and the current/power problem but not the accidental shorting.

I have just ordered the Orchid Classic DI and hope to use it this weekend. I will report back then.

The Bass DI from Beringhet is a silver bronze colour so yours is the acoustic DI and voiced accordingly. The BDI-21 sounds good in front of my amp.