Bill Fitzmaurice

[quote name='Kevin Dean' timestamp='1413452470' post='2578313'] Some time I just cant hear any note definition on a tight stage but it sounds great about 8 ft away [/quote]That's due to the small midrange dispersion angle. While it's not as much an issue with bass as with guitar, it's still necessary for your ears to be within the cone shaped midrange dispersion pattern of your speakers. If you're standing close to your rig that means tilting it back, unless it's an 8x10 or a stacked arrangement that stands at least four feet high. OTOH, unless your cab is aimed at the drummer, how does he hear your mids? He doesn't. Monitors aren't just for vocals, they're for whatever needs to be heard.

[quote name='itsmedunc' timestamp='1413365722' post='2577464'] I have to stand as far right as possible to him as he is far too loud for me. [/quote]He wouldn't be if the cab was aimed at his head. But a surprising percentage of guitar players have serious issues with basic anatomy, as they seem to think that their ears are mounted on their calves.

[quote name='itsmedunc' timestamp='1413323937' post='2577259'] I'm surprised your guitarist needs to go through the PA never mind the monitors as well! [/quote]Guitar more than any other electric instrument needs to be in both the PA and monitors, as its high frequency dispersion pattern is abysmal. The problem with most guitar players is that they play so loud that the small percentage of the audience that is within the dispersion pattern of their speakers end up with bleeding ears, while the rest, including a bass player standing only ten feet from the guitar amp but off to one side, can't hear them at all. The smart guitar player knows enough to use no more than a 1x12 speaker, so he can crank it for tone without excessive volume, letting the PA spread his sound across the room and the monitors across the stage.

[quote name='icastle' timestamp='1413324408' post='2577265'] Electronic theory says this is OK, but in practice you can't just wallop any old speaker into a wooden box and expect it to work to it's optimum. [/quote]+1. And while the Delta 12 has a 350w rating, that's thermal, which only says what it will take before the voice coil burns out. What matters in terms of output capability is xmax. At only 2.4mm it will only take 50 watts in the critical 60Hz-150Hz range before serious distortion occurs. Don't buy the cab.

[quote name='Tuono' timestamp='1413228780' post='2576176'] I know nowt much about PA. Our guitarist/singer does (?) [/quote]Not as much as he thinks he does. [quote] I got a bit in the monitors as well and that was when he threw a wobbler and said about ten times that you NEVER put bass through the monitors.....is he right?[/quote]No, and yes. You should be in the monitors so that everyone else can hear you. So should all the instruments, save the drums (who has trouble hearing them?). But what should be in the monitors is your mids and highs, which travel from your cab in a straight line. Your lows radiate in a circular pattern, so they don't need any assist from the monitors, and in fact running the lows though the monitors can cause their low frequency output and that from your cab to cancel each other. A good soundman knows this, and he'll high-pass the bass in the monitors to keep the lows out of them.

[quote name='police squad' timestamp='1413122700' post='2575067'] can't work out how to take them apart. genuine neutrik though [/quote]http://www.neutrik.com/en/instructions

Turning the volume control down loads the pickups, causing a loss of high frequencies, which to some might sound better.

[quote name='LukeFRC' timestamp='1412836740' post='2572453'] I was in America last month, was mental, the FM radio on the hire car needed retuning every 5 miles. At one point We were driving through Shenandoah on the skyline drive and on the Richmond Side we got some rock station and the moment the road turned to the Shenandoah Valley side of the hill it was some christian praise station.... mental [/quote]That's because FM is a line of sight transmission medium. So is satellite for that matter, but whereas with FM line of sight could be as little as ten miles to a two hundred foot tall tower, with satellite it's to a point some 42,000km high in the sky. [quote]They are supposed to be very efficient, very loud per watt. You get a few extra db [/quote] Feld coil drivers have no higher sensitivity than PM drivers. Sensitivity is determined by T/S specs, not the magnet composition.

[quote name='Dad3353' timestamp='1412798455' post='2572249'] One needs long-wave AM to pick up the BBC here in France. Old technologies have their 'niche' advantages (sometimes...). Just sayin'. [/quote]I can get anything anywhere in North America with satellite radio. Just sayin'.

[quote name='Twincam' timestamp='1412795121' post='2572208'] As for the power source a smart move would be to have power from a custom amp head, which would add little to a head. [/quote]The power supply would have to be in the speaker, otherwise you couldn't use them with anything but a dedicated amp. They have their fans, but mainly they're cut from the same cloth as those who yearn for the halcyon days of AM radios and the Model T.

[quote name='Twincam' timestamp='1412770668' post='2571799'] Just a thought but wouldn't field coil speakers be lighter weight and cheap to make and just as powerful as permanent magnet speakers. [/quote]They're more expensive, and overall heavier, as they require a power source. That's why they were replaced by permanent magnets.

[quote name='Graham' timestamp='1412790238' post='2572121'] Unlikely, global neodymium prices have been going down the last couple of years. [/quote]+1. The Chinese, having a corner on the neo market, tried to take advantage of that by price gouging. All that they accomplished was to push the price up enough for other countries to resume mining it, including the US, where it was classified as a strategicly critical material, causing an easing of the restrictions on mining it here. In short, the Chinese shot themselves in the foot. BTW, there's no inherent difference in the sound of neo magnet versus ceramic drivers. Neo magnet drivers may sound different primarily because they are all recent designs, using the latest design techniques, as opposed to ceramic driver designs that may be as much as 40 years old. BTW part II, the major impetus for neo drivers wasn't light weight where finished drivers is concerned. It was for the light weight of the magnets, which are also primarily manufactured in China, be they ceramic or neo. It was the high price of shipping said ceramic magnets to driver manufacturers halfway around the world that first resulted in the popularity of neo. Very little neo by pecentage is used by the loudspeaker industry, most is used in hybrid electric car motors and electric generating windmills.

[quote name='tauzero' timestamp='1412434928' post='2568948'] Being experimentally minded and not having delved into the theory, if I want a note to sound deeper, I play it on a lower string further up the fretboard, and it works. Of course, there's not just the string length to consider, you're also moving the midpoint of the vibrating length of string closer to the pickups, and for that matter, if you don't change your right hand position, you're plucking closer to the midpoint of the vibrating length. [/quote]There's truly deeper, and there's perceived as deeper. The shorter string length will accentuate the harmonics, and as they occur where both speakers and ears work better it will seem deeper. To really appreciate what happens when you play as low as possible on the neck you need speakers that work really well down to 40Hz or so, and most don't. For instance, as a young lad I (and everyone else for that matter) avoided going below A like the plague, as my speakers couldn't handle it and it sounded bad when I ventured down low. When I abandoned store bought speakers for my own creations that were happy playing an open E full tilt I changed the way I play. For instance, playing a typical blues riff in 'C' I don't go up to the third and fifth, I go down, playing them off the F and G on my E string.

You'll see a shift in the fundamental to harmonic ratio as you go up the scale. A vibrating source works best where its dimension is 1/4 wavelength. With an open string 36 inches long 1/4 wavelength is 94Hz. The fundamental of the low B would be stronger if your B string was 1/4 wavelength long, but at 113 inches that would be somewhat impractical. This shift explains why the same notes played at the lower end of the fretboard and the upper end of the fretboard sound slightly different. The shorter string length will have less fundamental content. I avoid playing a note on a lower string fretted above the seventh fret in favor of the same note played on a higher string for this reason. For that matter I avoid going above the seventh fret at all unless I have to. I play bass, not guitar. [quote]I was expecting a succession of even harmonics and not much in the way of odd, but the odd harmonics are there in force.[/quote]That's normal. There is a difference in the ratio of even versus odd harmonics when different classes of amps are pushed to clipping. This in part explains why tube and SS sound different.

The Fly isn't a powerhouse, so it needs a high sensitivity cab. I don't have issues with mine, but only because my cab has very high sensitivity. Most 4x10s have higher sensitivity than most 1x15s, so that's probably the difference you heard.

http://billfitzmaurice.info/forum/viewtopic.php?f=14&t=4140 Suggest you read again the email that accompanied your plans.

[quote name='Jazzjames' timestamp='1411042348' post='2555833'] do speakers become tired and therefore don't respond in the same way as when they were new? [/quote]The driver suspension softens indefinitely with use, but if anything that only enhances the bass response.

[quote name='3below' timestamp='1410893983' post='2554471'] Mr Fitzmaurice's plans work well, the circular saw sled is a really useful bit of kit. You will need plenty of clamps, [/quote]Built as shown in the plans with simple plywood jigs you don't need any clamps. Use them if you have them, but don't worry about it if you don't.

[quote name='Magic Matt' timestamp='1410878581' post='2554208'] The jig would be brilliant if I had a circular saw... but I don't. Also, no power out in the shed, and no safe way to get power out there, hence any power tools I have need to be cordless. [/quote]This is what use, with a good Freud blade: http://www.lowes.com/pd_37452-70-PC18CSL_4294607774__?productId=3478871&Ns=p_product_qty_sales_dollar|1&pl=1&currentURL=%3FNs%3Dp_product_qty_sales_dollar%7C1&facetInfo= This is the way to buy it: http://www.lowes.com/pd_518739-34252-PCCK405N4_0__?productId=50078420&Ntt=power+tool+combo+kits&pl=1&currentURL=%3FNtt%3Dpower%2Btool%2Bcombo%2Bkits&facetInfo=

[quote name='6v6' timestamp='1410853555' post='2553767'] [size=4]I've made a jig like that before, and it does work well provided you happen to have perfectly square leftovers of the right dimensions around, I was just trying to point out that with the tools available to them, the OP is unlikely to do better than a trained operator on an industrial panel saw.[/size] [/quote]All you need is one piece of stock with the factory edge on one side, which becomes the upper piece guide edge. The saw itself cuts the sled base after the two pieces are assembled, giving a perfect zero clearance cutting line. The only other tools required are a screwdriver and drill, as the sled can be screwed to the piece to be cut, the holes filled later. IME most industrial panel saws are lucky to give 4mm dimensional accuracy, with only plus/minus 1 degree tolerance with respect to square. That can result in 1cm of drift on a 60cm cut. I would only trust a merchant to cut raw plywood to 1cm oversized blanks to allow them to be transported home.

[quote name='6v6' timestamp='1410812905' post='2553550'] OTOH if you go to a decent timber merchant they'll be able to cut *far* more accurately than you can with a hand saw [/quote]Not if you make one of these, which will give accuracy of 1mm over a 120cm cut: It doesn't even cost anything, you make it from leftovers from the build material. [quote]The OP only has a cordless jigsaw anyway, which will make getting decent straight cuts for the joints very hard indeed IME. [/quote]+1. A jigsaw is fine for its intended purpose, cutting round shapes. It's not worth squat for straight lines or long cuts.

[quote name='isteen' timestamp='1410640206' post='2551599'] 410 for the punch and power + 115 for the low end and deep bass tones.[/quote]That's the usual reason given, but it doesn't work that way. Fifteens don't go appreciably lower than tens, and even if they did you'd have to use them on a one to one ratio with the tens to equal what the tens are putting out. [quote] I was guessing both cabs would be louder that just the one alone[/quote]Somewhat, if they were both 8 ohm cabs and you could use them together. But they aren't, so you can't.

[quote name='Magic Matt' timestamp='1410621647' post='2551364'] I think there are acoustic issues with running that kind of setup without a cross-over. [/quote]Not really. You use a crossover when one speaker is for lows and one is for highs. Electric bass tens, twelves and fifteens all operate in the same bandwidth, so there's no point in a crossover. For that matter there's no point in using them together either. A fifteen crossed over to a six or eight inch midrange is logical. A 1x15 used with a 4x10 that goes just as low and has more driver cone displacement is illogical.

[quote name='Magic Matt' timestamp='1410522586' post='2550317'] Still tempted to put some small 12mm baton on the inside of the corners... because then I can trim the outer edges with 12mm quadrants and get a really nice look... [/quote]Follow the plans. Even when radiused at 3/8 inch, which is standard for protective corners, the edges of the cab don't require any reinforcement. If they did [i][b]it would be in the plans[/b].[/i]

[quote name='Dad3353' timestamp='1410457166' post='2549689'] Clipping [i]is [/i]DC, alternating between +ve and -ve at a certain frequency. For a period of time, the speaker sees a constant potential, which suddenly reverses polarity. Yes, it's alternating, but just as damaging as DC in the constant polarity sense. Speakers are happy when they're moving. They don't like being pinned up against one end of their travel or the other. [/quote]None of that is true. Read the QSC link that I posted. The author is not only an applications engineer at QSC but also a past Secretary of the AES. Whatever sources you got your information from are simply incorrect.