jonnythenotes

Hey chaps..... I really do appreciate your comments and shared experiences...... Nice one Centurions..... I am playing at a decent sized venue tonight....Woodies Bar in Hednesford... This has got a proper solid stage of great proportions, and it's about 3 feet off the dance floor, which means if you are NOT going through a PA, you need to be pretty loud on stage to fill both the stage, and the room.. Again tonight, I will place one cab on the dance floor, with the second cab on top of this, but facing back at me. The theory, as mentioned in my first post, is to reduce stage volume, avoid going in to the PA, feed what I believe to be a good sound direct to the audience, and allow more clarity on stage, avoiding the musical 'bun fight' that more often than not happens when people can't hear themselves, turn up, and you know the rest... Thanks again guys...

Hey Charic....I was very much aware of the mics picking up sound being fired at them on stage, but my misguided logic thought that 50% less of my bass sound hitting the back of the nearest mics was better than all of my sound hitting the front of the mics, as the only cab facing the stage now is pointing towards the XLR end of the mic, and not the mouthpiece... Would I be correct in assuming this?

Hi Andrenochrome.... The PA we use is a real bargain basement set up, with a total value of abour £400, with the bass bins being the weakest link of the whole thing. They are ok for giving the bass drum a bit of thump, but not much else, so to DI my gear through this may reduce on stage volume, but the out front sound is then really substandard. Also, the guitar player has to do the sound with his self confessed limited ability as an engineer, and making on stage adjustments to an out front sound while you are playing is impossible... We are a four piece pub band, and as such have to make do with what we have got, and run the band on limited resources.

Cheers Monkey..... One thing I did forget to add, was as you are feeding 50% of your volume into the audience, it removes the need for PA support..(upto a point of course, as at some stage this idea would prove unworkable due to venue size.) Also, it's only viable with a two cab set up, or combo and extension cab.. My main worry is having two speakers facing in opposite directions, does it affect the sound waves, oscillations DB's, and all that stuff that is way beyond my mental grasp...

I have never been a big fan of going through a PA, unless the room size dictates I have to, or it's a pretty good PA, with a chap who knows what he is doing,( particularly with the low end frequencies.) Recently I have tried placing one speaker at the edge of the performance area....(sort of where the PA speaker stands are,) facing into the audience, and then a second cab on top of this.... if the space allows, but facing back onto the stage area, so in effect, I have a two speaker stack, but each speaker 180 degrees opposed to each other. This has the effect of taking all of the volume you are creating as a bass player from behind you, putting 50% of it straight into the audience, and the other 50% back at you, but coming at you head on, which makes it much easier to hear yourself, instead of the muffled rumble normally present when the whole rig is immediately behind you. Also, as the whole of your sound has not got to travel past you and across the stage area before the audience hear it, e.g, a distance of 10 feet, there is far more clarity on stage, as you as the bass player can now hear yourself with your 'monitor' positioned cab. The rest of the band also benefit as a large amount of the volume has now been transferred from the performance area, straight to the audience, so the cycle of turning up as no one can hear themselves vanishes. Does this have any adverse effects that any of you much wiser chaps are aware of, as I feel that if it's a reasonable thing to do, so why am I unaware of it being done by other players. In my opinion it seems ok, but I have zero knowledge of the 'tech' side of bass world, so I will eagerly await a few responses.... As ever, cheers guys...

Hey Mikel... I can't figure out have you managed to get gear snobbery into this thread... I own both the Ashdowns and the Barefaced mentioned above, and have made an observation that at lower volume levels, the smaller cabs sound better than the bigger one in certain situations.. Forget what badge is on the front of the cab, just wondered if some people had found the same if they had a small and larger set up.

The comparison was made at an unplugged rehearsal in the drummers lounge, a small rehearsal room, and a gig at a smallish pub with about 50 or so people in the audience. The Barefaced 2x12 and the Ashdowns being swapped when time allowed between songs... Just a speakon cable from one cab to the other...

I have discovered that at low volume 2 Ashdown Mibass 1x10 cabs sound better than my Barefaced Super 12t. I bought the two 10" cabs recently as they seemed to be at a good price, and were in exceptional condition. Also I was using my BF for rehearsal and smaller gigs, and was becoming increasingly worried about damage, particularly as it has the cloth front. My intention was to buy just one of these little Ashdown cabs...@250 watts, but they looked so good together, I couldn't resist the two of 'em. (So now I am up to 500 watts.) Anyway, I presume these two little cabs sound better than the BF at low volume, as the BF has to be pushed a bit to get the best out of it, whereas the little Ashdowns are being worked harder, and being smaller speakers create more 'perceived' volume than the BF does when only just ticking over. In no way am I suggesting that the Ashdowns are a better cab, or sound better than the BF, as in my opinion, nothing sounds better than the BF when it is is being pushed a bit, it's just that in a rehearsal room, playing in a small venue, or unplugged, the power and tone of the BF does not have a chance to manifest itself, whereas the Ashdown cabs do... A bit like using a Sledgehammer to crack a walnut. Would I be correct in assuming this is the case, and have any of you guys found something similar...🎸

Check out Micro Thumpinator, in particular the video of the cab before and after plugging in to it. Brilliant bits of kit. I bought one a few months ago, and it was money well spent. It won't fix the problem for you, but it removes a lot of the bass turbulence that's part of the problem..

Hi Matt.... To be honest, now that I have found the first cab so easy to do, I might do what you have suggested, and do the same with the second cab.... Good idea...🤔

Mission complete... I bought a soldering iron, and with Jacks help and advice, I have installed the new twin speakon, and it works a treat. A real bonus was there were no fires, explosions scorched eyebrows, and not even a visit to A&E.... As a rule DIY means Destroy It Yourself, but this time... a roaring success😁

Brilliant !!!! That's what I thought it should be after your initial explanation, and you have now confirmed it for me.... Thanks again Jack... so good of you....🎸🎵😎♠️

Hey Jack, and thanks for the reply. So if you could just let me talk through what needs to be done, it might save me destroying my amp and cabs. The wiring coming from the speaker to the jack socket on the 1x10 comprises of a red (+) and a clear (-) I presume that I remove these wires from the now defunct jack, and solder the red to the positive pin + on one of the two speakon sockets, and the negative to the - pin. I then solder the two wires that were already on one of the speakon across to the + and - on the second speakon. So what I now have are positive and negative wires coming from the speaker to the first speakon, then two short positive and negative wires from speakon one, to the corresponding positive and negative tags on speakon two. Is that it ??

Mods... Just realised this should probably have gone into the tech section... If I have got it wrong, could you move it across for me...Thanks...

Hi fellas, and yet again I am in need of a bit of help. I have just bought 2 Ashdown Mibass 1x10 cabs for the sole purpose of rehearsing, where one of these cabs will be used, and then for smaller gigs, I would use the two of them. I got them to reduce wear and tear on my Barefaced Super 12t, (and they were at a really good price..) All good so far... They are both rated at 8ohm, which again works fine with either my Puma 900, or my Ashdown Retroglide... The problem I have is that both amps only have a single speakon output socket, and both cabs only have a single jack input socket, which means I can only run one of these cabs off either amp. However, what did come with the two cabs was a plate, cut to the same shape and size as the plate on the back of the cab. This plate is installed with two speakon sockets, and wiring solderered on to the + and - tabs on the back of one of the speakon connectors. I want to replace the single jack plate on one of the cabs with the twin speakon plate, which ... (I hope) ... will allow me to run both cabs off the amp by speakon to speakon into the first cab, and then speakon to jack from the first cab into the unaltered second cab... Will this be ok, and is it a pretty straight forward thing to do... Thanks fellas...

Thanks so much for that Ikay.... You are a fountain of knowledge.... I do appreciate you taking the time to unearth that info...🎸

Bingo!!!!! That's the exact model... Thanks for that Sherlock.... Appreciate the interest you have both shown... Would you say it is the last run as the hardware is a little different to the earlier models??

I bought an American Precision De Luxe off one of Bass chats finest a few weeks ago, and I couldn't be more pleased with it... It's a 2008 model, and I believe it is one of the later ones built using a Humbucker at the Bridge position. It's finished in black, with a very fine gold metal flake in the paint, with a serial number of DZ8177204. As I have tried to find more info on this model, I have realised mine is different in a couple of ways, and I presume it's possibly a transition model to the later P Deluxe model, without the humbucker fitted. Firstly, it has the 5 screw neck plate with the curve in it, which I can't find on others after googling other Deluxe models on various sites. Also it has silver Hipshot tuners, again which seem unusual on this model.... (There are models using Hipshots out there, but seem to have black gearing covers.) Finally, the bridge itself seems a little different...a more modern looking thing. Am I right in assuming this is one of the later ones, and they used some of the hardware from what would become a later model.... Thanks chaps

My pet squirmer is the use of accept and except.....

If your in a corner, or have space behind your cab, get all the soft cases you can...cab covers, drum bags etc and fill the corner out... It stops the corner or wall behind you acting as a resonator.... It's free and very effective....

Well then....I tried the Micro Thumpinator last night at a rehearsal, and am chuffed to the max with it. I was using my Tecamp Puma 900 head with everything set pretty much flat...( little extra bass...1 o'clock position,) with this running through a Barefaced compact 15" gen1. The bass is nothing special, a Yamaha BB1024x, again set pretty much straight down the middle, both pickups engaged, and the tone set halfway between treble and bass. The thing it's really excelled at was the clarity it gave each note. Even as volume crept up a bit throughout the rehearsal, the MT just sat on the floor and did what it is supposed to. It's a three piece band, where every thing you do is in the headlights, and to have my new little friend cleaning up some of the unwanted turbulence that occurs when you don't want it to was great. Also, I noticed that my amp could take more input into the pre amp before clipping. Looking forward to a gig environment, and trying it with a couple of other guitars... Bit of a ten outa ten so far..