alexclaber

[quote name='Musicman20' post='505625' date='Jun 4 2009, 05:40 PM']The Orange Stack and/or Ampeg sound great. I just wanted something smaller and more efficient, preferable neo so I can save my back![/quote] Well in that case as the Big One can keep up with either of those rigs individually given enough power then it's worth trying. As a bass player you do need to stand your ground about how big your rig needs to be - if anything it should be your guitarists doing the downsizing! By the way, smaller always equals less efficient from a bass sensitivity standpoint - though I presume you were referring to how much effort it is to move. Alex

Sinking under the sheer weight of bass cabs here... Everyone that's waiting for a Compact, they'll be going out on Monday, just been too short of time to get them finished and tested! Still waiting on shipping cartons for the Big Ones, so once they're here I'll start final assembly on them, hopefully shipping towards the end of next week. Vintages slowly moving, maybe the week after? I was hoping I might be left with some stock but as it stands there's just one Compact and one Vintage unclaimed. Alex

[quote name='Musicman20' post='504903' date='Jun 3 2009, 06:10 PM']Thanks for the input. I know where you are coming from, but when its against 2 x guitar half stacks, and they play loud with loads of distortion, I think even a Schroe 1212L will struggle [/quote] How does your big rig do? And what does your big rig consist of? I see you have quite a few cabs but I doubt you use them all at once! Alex

[quote name='stevie' post='505371' date='Jun 4 2009, 11:52 AM']That's fair enough if you're talking about a lightweight cab with a neo driver, but a 30kg cab is not a comfortable one-handed lift for most people - certainly not for me![/quote] That's true. Tall and narrower and deeper is better for a two hand lift. I think 30kg would be too much for a one hand lift for me too; <25kg is fine but not if your back is at all dodgy! I don't think any traditional 1x15"s are a sensible shape - all too squat. Height is such a good thing in a bass cab. Alex

[quote name='stevie' post='505365' date='Jun 4 2009, 11:40 AM']A cab that is only 10 or 11 inches deep is going to be more awkward to move around.[/quote] In my experience the shallower the cab, the easier it is to move! I'd much rather have a tall, wide-ish, shallow cab than an equal volume cube. Stick a handle on the side of the cab and you can carry it like a suitcase. Alex

[quote name='stevie' post='504906' date='Jun 3 2009, 06:12 PM']We don’t really know what the problem is here, do we? All Sam says is that he can’t get the right tone in a practice situation with his band. I’m not really sure what that means but you assume that his cabinet isn't powerful enough – even you don’t even know what kind of a band he’s playing in. What if the cabinet is mistuned? You just advised him to build another mistuned cabinet and patted yourself on the back for doing so.[/quote] Good point, I had foolishly assumed that he'd built a correctly tuned ported cab for the Fane. If he has then my advice stands, it's a decent speaker for the money and two of them should hang in most bands. It doesn't have much happening past 2kHz but nor do most bass rigs off-axis. If he's getting a decent tone at home then I don't see why it shouldn't work in the band unless he's scooping out all his midrange. But we have to go on what information we have and if we give everyone the third degree they'll just give up posting! So to Mr F Google, what plans did you use to build your current 1x15"? Alex

[quote name='stevie' post='504788' date='Jun 3 2009, 04:05 PM']The advice being dished out in this section of the forum has always been a bit iffy, but is now becoming increasingly pointless because nobody bothers to read the questions properly. You need to understand what the problem is before you can give sensible advice.[/quote] If I may say so I thought my advice was rather good! Alex

The gear doesn't really matter, as long as it can go loud enough and produce enough bottom at that SPL to fit your groove. All the other twiddly tone words are pretty irrelevant. So the sound is essential but how you get it isn't. If Bilbo was playing Jaco-esque 16th note funk and samba grooves then I bet his little MB112 cab would let him groove. But if he's walking then it won't be able to produce that round fatness at higher SPL. But if he was playing in a quiet trio then it could bring enough bottom to swing nicely. Has anyone else had that thing where you step in at a jam and because the amp is really weirdly EQ'd you can only groove a certain way? Years ago I found myself playing with a rig that had the bottom maxxed out and no mid or treble, so I ended up coming at it from a messed up reggae angle (was a big dual 4x10" stack so it could do the bottom well). Another time I was playing fretless through a Burman 2x12" guitar combo which had no bottom but did an amazing job of burpy growly somewhat overdriven 16th note anger. The joy of having the right rig is that it lets you play whatever you want because it's tonal breadth at the SPL you need is greater than your stylistic envelope. Alex

[quote name='bilbo230763' post='504776' date='Jun 3 2009, 03:57 PM']In my opinion, that's where the groove comes from; the sound not the notes. Compromise the sound and you compromise the groove. I want that on a t-shirt[/quote] I totally agree! If you can make that snappier maybe I can do a Bilbo signature Barefaced T-Shirt, to go with the planned "Louder than Lemmy" and "feed your inner afro" versions. Alex

[quote name='fatgoogle' post='503385' date='Jun 1 2009, 10:48 PM']Ive been looking for a cab for around 300 euro to play with my ashdown mag 600R, because i made my own 1x15 with a Fane 15-425 and although when it was first made i was all excited and thought it was the chiz-diggle or whatever, but ive been struggling to get a useabl;e tone at band practise with, it, its grand at home.[/quote] If I were you I'd build another matching 1x15" and use the pair, stacked. If it sounds good at home then it isn't the tone that's a problem, it's the max SPL (which is predominantly dictated by the excursion limited power handling - how much air the speaker can move before the distortion level rapidly increases). Use a matched pair of cabs and you'll get another 6dB of output, which in the lows will sound more like 10dB of output (due to the Fletcher-Munson curve), and 10dB increase in SPL is twice as loud. BIG difference. Doubling your wattage rarely makes much difference but doubling your 'speakerage' often does get you twice as much output. More to carry but with a restricted budget it's the sensible route. Alex

I just bought my first issue of BGM in a while and I was pleased to note that the interviews with musicians were much better - fewer inane questions though still the odd tendancy to ask them about their view on string count (such a waste of space). Likewise the bass reviews were pretty decent but I was not at all impressed with the TC review. For starters there was no name on there and a distinct lack of real world anecdotal evidence, which led me to wonder if anyone had actually tried it. I simply don't believe that the sound remains uncoloured however loud you crank it, it's simply not possible with any amp, they all run out of steam at some point. And regardng the cabs there is hardly anything regarding tone and output. I much appreciate having my gear featured in the news section but there's not much point sending in a cab for a review in the future if the reviewer just parrots whatever's on the website or in the manual and then says it's loud and sounds balanced. It doesn't really tell anyone anything. You don't need to write about what it looks like because there are photos for that! What is needed (short of scientific testing which opens a huge can of worms anyway) is comprehensive anecdotal evidence talking about what other gear it's been used with and what musical contexts it's been tried in. And take the gear right to its limits! I know my Compact will utterly blow away any similar weight/price cab on the market in sheer fat loudness but if you don't try it on a proper loud gig then you'll never know that. It's dead easy to make an amp/cab that sounds good at home but that means nothing if the tone falls apart at gig level, or even worse it proves to be inaudible over a drummer or guitarist. Sadly I'm no longer impartial so I can't offer my services as a technical editor but surely there is someone out there that could help ensure the info in the inevitably technical amp/cab reviews remains accurate and informative? And if there isn't then the current testers just need to be fearless and demanding with the gear - push it properly hard and find out how it really performs under stress. The TC review is akin to testing a downhill mountain bike by cycling to the corner shop for a packet of fags. Also, I'd get rid of the star ratings system. If you're at the mercy of the advertisers' revenue I can't see any use in a system which could lose you business if you give something less than 5/5. Alex

I have to say that all 2x12"s do not sound the same. Assuming cabs of similar configuration sound similar isn't a good move - nominal diameter tells you essentially nothing about tone, so testing an Aguilar 2x12" to determine if you'll like a Schroeder 2x12" isn't very informative. However if you do want big bottom the only way to get that at high SPL with the Markbass amp you're getting is with a large enclosure, whatever speakers it contains. There is no substitute for a large cabinet, hence all the recommendations for the Big One! Alex

[quote name='Musicman20' post='503325' date='Jun 1 2009, 09:33 PM']Ive no doubt the 15s sound great....and I know ill get told im wrong, but I love the force of 4 10s at once...or 8 hahah.[/quote] Four 10"s at once have nowhere near the force of the one 15" in the Big One at once, though you'll probably have to hear it to believe it if you're not into all the techy numbers! The main problem I have with 4x10"s is the off-axis response is so poor unless you make it as a vertical column which is too inconvenient in size and shape. You can get round this by only using the woofers for lows and then having a separate midrange driver, but if you're doing that then four 10"s will sound the same as one 15" and the area x excursion will be what determines max output (and the 15" in the Big One has more area x excursion that the best four neo 10"s all working in unison, plus it weighs less). It is quite a big mental shift to go from the conventional 4x10" approach that's been dominant for the last 25 years but before that everyone was into much bigger cabs, often with bigger woofers and I believe bass players are forward thinking enough to again take the risk of trying something that challenges convention! Alex

In a typical 2x10" the speakers can move about 3mm without distortion whilst damage is likely if they move about 10mm. The movement is what produces the lows (to get the same output at 100Hz as at 200Hz the speaker has to move FOUR times as far). The ability of a speaker to move without distortion is what determines the excursion limited power handling, which for a typical cab is less than half (and often as low as a third or quarter) of the thermally limited power handling (the number quoted by the manufacturers). You will hear increased distortion from the speakers as they move beyond their clean excursion limit and small amounts of this can add punch and growl but larger amounts will sound like farting and if you push harder the speaker will die. Alex

[quote name='Crazykiwi' post='500858' date='May 29 2009, 01:06 PM']cabs can't compensate for poor stage acoustics or noisy bandmates either. [/quote] Actually, they can. The more even the power response (sum of on and off-axis response in all directions) is, the more consistent the sound will be when the acoustics are poor. Good power response means that even if you're standing in exactly the wrong place you'll still hear a decent sound, even if a huge portion of that sound is reverberant (i.e. reflected from walls, floor, ceiling, furniture, etc) rather than direct. You can't defeat the lower frequency standing waves issues but sort out the midrange power response and humps and troughs in the lows become far less significant. Alex

[quote name='Crazykiwi' post='500557' date='May 29 2009, 07:29 AM']Sometimes people don't have the flexibility to move cabs around if they're on a crowded or small stage, Alex. Parametric eq is also used by every competent sound engineer with access to a mixing desk at a gig.[/quote] Good points! But I do think that if you use cabs with more true bottom and less reliance on mid-bass boom whilst exhibiting less distortion in the lows, plus good off-axis midrange then you'll never need a parametric EQ. Not a lot of cabs like that though! Alex

[quote name='foal30' post='500553' date='May 29 2009, 07:15 AM']must be a lot of poor cabinet design with smaller than 15" speakers in them then. Commonly would it not be accurate to state that cabinets with 15" or larger drivers handle a low B string better? It may be plop but I'd wager most players wanting the Low B would also consider using 15" speaker as par for the course.[/quote] And here are the first cabs which were truly designed with 5-string bass and the low B fundamental in mind: [url="http://www.acmebass.com/"]http://www.acmebass.com/[/url] Note the dearth of fifteens... Poor cabinet design is an issue though - too many cabs have too much woofer area crammed into too small a box size, which raises the resonance of the system causing a lack of deep lows and an excess of boomy mid-bass. Alex

[quote name='sk8' post='500044' date='May 28 2009, 05:04 PM']Just found out that the Terror bass has a switch on the side to allow 500 watts output at either 4 and 8 ohms.[/quote] I wonder how they're doing that - lower rail voltage and higher current limiting for 4 ohms? GB and Mesa do something similar for 4/2 ohms on some of their heads so it's certainly possible but require a bespoke power stage. Alex

It's all go here at Barefaced! Working on the new website and also getting the various 12" models sorted - expect the Midget, Double Midget (2x12" almost exactly the same size as the Compact) and Big Baby to be appearing shortly. And there's a brief news item about us in the latest issue of Bass Guitar Magazine. Also in the melting pot are various PA speaker designs and some unique hi-fi speakers. Alex

You know what would be rather cool - a 2x12" or 2x15" with the speakers wired to separate input jacks so you can run separate amps to each woofer. Alex

[quote name='Finbar' post='495446' date='May 22 2009, 06:11 PM']Huge, then? ;P[/quote] 'tis a man-sized cab! I need to hit the Big One with some serious effects, I think it could be a crushing beast with all those weird textures blasting loud and clear through the midrange driver. My Acmes liked effects but at silly SPL it sometimes got a bit too much for the midrange system to handle, hence my hunt for something even more potent. Alex

Absolutely, no problem at all. The same is true for any solidstate amp bar the Hellborg power amp (because it has output transformers like a valve amp). Alex

[quote name='EssentialTension' post='499157' date='May 27 2009, 06:49 PM']Maybe they weren't serious musicians and didn't know their own shortcomings.[/quote] I think that's exactly it. I have never seen a band manage to keep a dance floor quite so empty despite copious quantities of alcohol and decent song choices. A few years later the same singers were back without the arhythm section and the difference was incredible! Surely I'm not the only person that come across players (particularly drummists) that despite years of experience have never clicked with the concepts of 'groove' or 'pocket' etc and instead sound like a pale imitation of a poorly programmed drum machine? I love good live music and I get SO angry when I find myself thinking "a DJ would be much better to dance to than this band!" Fortunately it doesn't happen that often. Have been hearing lots of good bass playing and drumming recently though, which is nice. Alex P.S. Why did no-one tell me about this Southwick beer festival? I like good beer!

[quote name='EBS_freak' post='498911' date='May 27 2009, 03:46 PM']Wasn't there a phase of putting damping underneath the ashtray?[/quote] The original Fender bridge covers had mutes built in to make the P sound more like an upright. Badass is such a good name for a bridge. And if your bass body is lacking stiffness or has too much self-damping (e.g. excess moisture content) then the increased mass will isolate the string better from the body and thus increase sustain and bottom. But if your body has just the right balance of stiffness and resonance then adding a Badass could take away from the midrange character without gaining you much in return. Does anyone remember the 2-Tek bridge? Made a Badass seem not very. Alex

[quote name='AM1' post='498687' date='May 27 2009, 12:52 PM']Let those who are without sin, cast the first stone.[/quote] When it comes to matters of groove I'm happy to push boulders off cliffs, Wile E. style. On walking and soloing I'm willing to accept more than a substantial hail of gravel in return. Alex