alexclaber

If you're set upon using a sealed cab then you need to use woofers with a high Qts. You should be looking at speakers where the EBP (Efficiency Bandwidth Product) is at the most 100 and ideally under 50. To calculate EBP find out Fs and divide it by Qts. I wouldn't recommend using woofers with an Fs much above 60Hz or below 40Hz for a sealed bass cab so you should be aiming at a Qts of between 0.4 and 0.6. If you can't find out the Qts then just try to avoid drivers with big magnets because magnet strength tends to be inversely proportional to Qts. Alex

As long as you don't expect them to do too loud quite a lot of the smaller practice combos sound pretty damn good - those little 8" speakers tend to do a much better job of the midrange than the cheap larger speakers found in their larger cousins. I doubt you can do wrong with a small Peavey combo, especially if you can pick one up secondhand. Alex

[quote name='thedontcarebear' post='387621' date='Jan 21 2009, 03:34 PM']I just like new things basically...[/quote] I think that's why I'm fairly GAS-free nowadays, I'm just not that keen on new things. I get rather irritable when I have to replace anything that has many years of good service behind it. Alex

Ah yes, meant to reply to that - Brighton Institute of Moronic Music. A few of them can play fairly well. Fewer still have any more than a basic grasp of songwriting and none appear to be able to write lyrics which wouldn't be torn to shreds by any self-respecting critic. Unfortunately because they're quite good at bringing along their fellow students they tend to be a popular booking but this lowering of quality means you kill off the real gigging scene and replace with with transient wannabes and hangers-on. And since when did you need to attend an academy to learn to play rock and roll? (Good business concept though if you're a failed rock star and fancy making a living out of the clueless youth). Alex

[quote name='playbass' post='386481' date='Jan 20 2009, 05:54 PM']I'm sure the cabs are 8 Ohmns; they're a pair of EA CXL-112.[/quote] Check with EA about the real world impedance of these - I have a feeling that in the regions of high power demand it's lower than you'd expect for a typical nominal 8 ohm cab. I believe I read something about this ages ago and certainly the transmission line design would tie in with lower impedance in the bass register. This could cause overcurrent problems at higher volumes, which does tend to be a problem with ultra-lightweight amps due to the power supply being as small as is possible whilst still achieving the power specs with typical loads. Alex

Ironically I've never really been a great one for buying and selling gear, I played my first bass for three years, then my '87 Warwick for the next nine, and I expect my RIM Custom 5 to last me to the end of my days. With the amp side of things once I got my Acme rig back in 1999 the only changes after that were the quest for more loudness and less weight without a loss of tone but as there wasn't anything I could buy that could achieve this I ended up trying to design such a cab. But I think the ability that leads me to be able to successfully design cabs is very closely tied to my ability to always get the best (tonally) out of whatever bass or amp I have to use, I think my brain is wired rather oddly like that. I've been quite lucky with gear though - the old Warwick was a miraculous purchase, the Acmes were a leap of faith but turned out to be amazing and my custom bass turned out even better than I could have expected - and thus it's a long time since I've been stuck using that kind of gear that really forces you into a corner and doesn't have a broad range of tones or a natural musical responsiveness to it. I like gear that feels alive, basses that have tons of character yet totally change their voice depending on how you touch them. I like amps and cabs that really let you hear every detail of what you're playing for better or for worse. Some gear just feels like it's stuck in one gear or has a pile of blankets over it - I couldn't live with that but if I have to use it for a gig or rehearsal I'll just make it work as well as possible and usually enjoy it for whatever its foibles are. The thing is, if you're thinking about your gear when you're playing music then you should really be playing better music! Alex

Looks like the new Eminence 12"s are worth using - will be making a mini version of The Big One which will be the same size as The Compact and also a larger version of The Big One for those that want even more output and a 4 ohm load. The other 12" doesn't have as much bottom as I'd like but will still be a really nice high sensitivity cab for those that want something smaller than The Compact or something even louder (as a 2x12" version) and thanks to its high excursion it will be able to move a lot of bottom, you'll just need to EQ it in that much more. Alex

[quote name='51m0n' post='384907' date='Jan 19 2009, 01:01 PM']Now he's really on the look out for a cab to run with it - so Alex when can we have a listen to your compact 15 then mate!!![/quote] You can borrow the one I'm currently building once it's done - give me a few weeks! Alex

I'd have thought that if you want to get the hang of feeling the 1/4 notes you'd be best off listening to and playing lots of four on the floor music - almost any disco is like this. Also P-funk is generally very good for hitting those 1/4s and really hitting the one hard. And for getting into the backbeat (the big accents on 2 and 4) stuff like AC/DC and ZZ-Top and other archetypal rock must be the way. Alex

One interesting thing about this amp is that the preamp is actually a digital modelling unit. Alex

[quote name='acidbass' post='382691' date='Jan 16 2009, 05:49 PM']Should we be expecting an announcement from barefacedBass any time soon, Alex? [/quote] Nope! Too much good stuff already out there - to be better and still good value would require serious investment and some very cunning plans. The speakers only require the latter and I have way more expertise with them and electromechanical and mechanical systems are much more intuitive for me - I'm a mechanical engineer at heart and by training, not an electrical sort. But someday far in the future, then probably. Alex

[quote name='51m0n' post='380667' date='Jan 14 2009, 08:40 PM']Always called it tapped harmonics myself, one of those techniques that really comes to life with a nice bit of compression and plenty of bridge pickup with sparkly new strings Alex - surprised you'd ever noticed it Alex [/quote] 36" scale, wenge neck/board, stainless steel frets, Q-Tuners... Don't need sparkly new strings to get harmonics when there's already all that stuff going on! Alex

The thing about GAK is it's in a very popular town with a big music scene (and annoyingly large number of transient BIMM bands) and is close enough to London to even attract customers from there, and they're very big online. When I think off the investment in stock to have a shop that I'd be interested in visiting the start-up costs seem immense. More profitable than producing music though, at least you can't just digitally download a pirated copy of a guitar... Alex

[quote name='Toasted' post='382542' date='Jan 16 2009, 03:49 PM']I've really never understood the penchant for "stereo" poweramps.[/quote] With the 12.0 it's simply a result of the module they use - the 6.0 uses two modules bridged, so the 12.0 can't then bridge the two pairs of modules it has. If the 6.0 used a single module then it would drive down to a 2 ohm load and the 12.0 could then bridge a pair of them for full power into 4 ohms. At the rate the micro-amp market is growing every man and his dog will making their own model, most of which using the same power modules! Alex

[quote name='MythSte' post='382597' date='Jan 16 2009, 04:35 PM']thats interesting, will drive three TC cabs but only 2 "competative" cabs.[/quote] I'm guessing they've tried three of their own cabs at once but haven't tried this with anyone else's. I suspect that if it works fine with theirs then it will with the vast majority of others - most amps are pretty tolerant of low impedance loads, that's how AccuGroove got away with the AccuSwitch for so long! Alex

[quote name='escholl' post='382519' date='Jan 16 2009, 03:37 PM']I'm guessing by "tone" you mean perceived pitch? Since the tone or timbre of a note is pretty much defined by the harmonic content, which is essentially the sum of the individual frequency and volume envelope components.[/quote] Actually I did mean the tone, not the perceived pitch. You're quite right that the harmonic content defines the timbre but what I was trying to make clear is that in the lowest register the harmonic content becomes quite strangely skewed due to the note wavelength vs instrument size and therefore those lowest notes on an ERB still sound like a bass guitar even though their harmonic balance is very different to an octave or two higher. [quote name='escholl' post='382519' date='Jan 16 2009, 03:37 PM']Also wanted to add that the ear perceives these low frequencies (or any frequencies) by, IIRC, the largest common denominator between pitches. So even if no frequencies below 100 Hz are generated, a note with a 50Hz fundamental will generate 100, 150, 200, 250, and 300 Hz, as an example, and the ear will "hear" a fundamental of 50Hz since that is the LCD. 25 Hz, on the other hand, will generate 100, 125, 150, 175, 200 Hz (and so on) so the LCD is 25 Hz, and the ear will "hear" 25 Hz; end result is that it will sound much lower. So as Alex mentioned, getting a really strong second and third harmonic out of a cab is extremely important, as these will really "define" the fundamental pitch.[/quote] Indeed. What also helps with defining the pitch is having an instrument and amp that lets through the midrange frequencies with minimal distortion. As soon as you get harmonic distortion you get overtones being created from all the original overtones which can turn into real mud in the lowest registers. With many bass cabs the speakers have insufficient excursion to cleanly handle the lows on the lowest notes so you end up with increased harmonic distortion and thus mud. This is a particularly bad when you get distorted overtones of the 2nd, 3rd and 4th harmonic filling up the region around 150Hz - nightmare area for nasty boom. And the reason that many bassists caution against having too much bottom in your sound is not because the bottom itself is a problem (though they all think it is) but because trying to get your cab to reproduce that bottom causes overexcursion and thus an increase in harmonic distortion and thus mud and boom. Alex

The modes of the harmonic minor open a world of possibilities in exotic sounding scales, giving a more eastern vibe. I remember my band back at uni having quite a weird song in our set which if I remember correctly (it was a long time ago!) it was based around the 3rd mode of the harmonic minor scale yet rhythmically it was rather like Tower Of Power. Not the most accessible tune but fun to play... Alex

[quote name='drumbloke' post='382223' date='Jan 16 2009, 12:08 PM']What about harmonics on the fundamental frequency then?...you may not hear 14khz, but you would hear the lower register harmonics of 14khz, so your brain would know that 14khz has sounded, therefore your brain would know that was 14khz, thus you 'heard' 14khz...[/quote] You're on the right track but in the wrong direction! Any musical note will have an overtone series above the fundamental but will not exhibit any harmonic energy below the fundamental (there may be percussive noises but these won't form part of the harmonic series and thus won't aid in defining the note). When listening to orchestral music you will hear the piano, double basses and tuba play notes with fundamental frequencies well below 100Hz and even down to A0 (27.5Hz) and you will perceive the depth of these notes accurately. However because these instruments are all too small to produce appreciable fundamental content acoustically you will not actually be hearing the fundamental frequency at all, you will just be hearing the overtone series and your brain is doing the rest. With electric bass guitars as you play progressively lower notes the fundamental content diminishes and more and more of the low frequency energy becomes focused on the 2nd harmonic (aka first overtone) and the 3rd harmonic. This is particularly notable with low B (and lower strings) even on longer scale lengths. Also the human ear is particularly poor at hearing these lower frequencies so the lower harmonic content is easily masked by the harmonic content just above that. I noticed this in practice last week when I gave The Big One its first outing. For most of the rehearsal I mistakenly had the 50Hz filter engaged - between songs I was messing around seeing how much big open B notes made the speaker move and it didn't look like it was moving much at all. Then I realised I had that filter switched in. I switched it off and the speaker started moving a lot more but there was barely any change in the tone despite that resulting in another 10dB of output at 31Hz. On the other hand I noticed that The Big One had clearly more fatness in the bottom than The Compact with no EQ on either, which I believe it attributable it having on average about 4dB more sensitivity below 100Hz. In fact it even sounds as deep as my Acmes were, if not deeper, even though I know that they are only 6dB down by 31Hz whilst The Big One is over 13dB down at that frequency. But both cabs stay very strong down to below 60Hz which means you get full output of the 2nd harmonic on the lowest B string notes, whilst mainstream cabs are already quite a lot down by there. I seem to have gone off on a tangent but the essence of it is this - you will hear how low a note is even when you're missing the lower harmonics. The tone of that note does not so much depend on the balance of the harmonic content but on the balance of the frequency content, so even if you're playing a 7-string with a low F# string as long as you get a good wodge of 50Hz action it'll sound fat and bassy and the way the overtones are stacked will make it sound a lot lower than four stringers low F# despite the vibrations hitting your eardrums being no lower in frequency. Alex

[quote name='Moody' post='382134' date='Jan 16 2009, 11:00 AM']Also, is there is another option, i.e using a non-MarkBass cab?[/quote] Apart from cosmetics there are no reasons to stick with one brand of gear for your amplification. Use whatever does the job best! Also bear in mind that if you're stacking the cabs you can turn the 2x10" or the 1x15" on their sides to get the look/sound you want (though having the 2x10" with the drivers vertically will get you a better sound around the room in 99% of situations). Alex

Gwen Stefani - L.A.M.B. Great production! Alex

Something that needs to be considered is that we don't not merely hearing noise, we're hearing vibrations and then there is a huge amount of processing going on for the brain to disseminate that information into musical sense. I mentioned this in another thread but "This Is Your Brain On Music"is really enlightening on this kind of stuff. So although a young human might hear 20-20,000 just fine, how well they turn that sensitivity to frequencies into hearing the components of music is dependant on what their brain does with that data. A good example is to just think back to when you started playing bass and how much harder you found it to hear the basslines in recordings compared to now after years of experience. Have your ears got better or has your hearing got better? Alex

I believe it's a tapped artificial harmonic. Alex

[quote name='Merton' post='380423' date='Jan 14 2009, 04:51 PM']Imagina a bareface[b]dB[/b]ass 8x10... Ooooh. [/quote] I have wondered about that but I think we need to get The Vintage and an 8x10" side by side and see if there are any pros to the old school design. I think it might be too close to call on tone and The Vintage can clearly go louder and lower. Alex

[quote name='Buzz' post='380384' date='Jan 14 2009, 04:28 PM']See, I do ponder if a Neo 8x10 would make it a helluva lot more managable by shaving off a fair number of kilos. Food for thought.[/quote] Not by as much as you'd think because the type of woofers used in sealed cabs have relatively small magnets and thus stamped frames, both of which save weight compared to larger magnet cast frame drivers as found in similary priced ported cabs. The biggest difference would be through changing the construction of the box itself to thinner ply with more bracing. Alex