alexclaber

[quote name='Beedster' post='351970' date='Dec 11 2008, 05:36 PM']If size, weight and power are all issues, you can't beat Markbass[/quote] If you're looking at cabs rather than combos then I'd beg to differ! But for combos you're spot on. Alex

I've said it before and I guess I'll keep saying it ad infinitum. The nominal diameter of a loudspeaker tells you very little about the sound and performance apart from telling you how big it will look! Alex

I'd expect the Bass Cube and Kickback to be much of a muchness output-wise, and tonally it's down to personal preference. How about using the B1 with a lightweight cab? It's a very powerful head but I wouldn't anticipate any issues if used with common sense! Alex

[quote name='cheddatom' post='351755' date='Dec 11 2008, 01:46 PM']Why would compression be redudant when used in a live context as opposed to useful in the studio? Surely you're still listening to a bass sound through your ears?[/quote] Because the useable dynamic range of a hi-fi is a fraction of that of live music. Alex

[quote name='bilbo230763' post='351763' date='Dec 11 2008, 01:52 PM']I agree that composing is a great way to stay interested but, again, writing a 3 chord blues is not particularly satisfying if you have been playing/writing them for 30 years![/quote] Horses for courses and all that. I've never managed to write a three chord blues that actually sounds original and exciting - if I were to ever manage it I'll feel like the greatest songwriter in the world! I think of late my writing is becoming more interesting but my basslines are becoming more minimalist. Alex

Unless you're specifically using compression as an obvious effect I would say that compression is best kept for the studio only. With good technique, a good instrument and good amplification then compression is pretty redundant live. Saying that if your technique is less than ideal, your amp short of output or your bass lacking in resonance/fatness/thickness to its tone then compression can help mitigate some of these problems. The biggest issue I see with overuse of compression live is it becoming a substitute for good dynamic control from your hands. Power amp limiters are a completely different case and are an excellent way of getting another ~3dB of output from your rig with little change to your tone. Alex

[quote name='bilbo230763' post='351722' date='Dec 11 2008, 01:14 PM']I guess when all of us get into music we start with pretty basic stuff but we all move on because we look for somthing fresh to reinvigorate ourselves. If you keep looking, you need more and more sophisticated ideas to get you excited.[/quote] One way of finding fresh music to invigorate ourselves is to play more complex jazz as time progresses but another way is to write and play your own ('original') music. The big challenge I find with writing is the search for music that retains an elegant simplicity yet is also original - the more pared down the music is then the harder it is to find something new and exciting. I never seem to achieve that holy grail of supreme simplicity yet original expression of emotion but it's an enjoyable search and I do at least find some slightly more complex ways of expressing myself enroute. Alex

[quote name='BigBeefChief' post='351714' date='Dec 11 2008, 01:01 PM']That would explain my fondness of country.[/quote] I never thought I'd live to say this but Patsy Cline rules! Alex

[quote name='BigBeefChief' post='351709' date='Dec 11 2008, 12:52 PM']The music that inspires me usually consists of 3 notes. Y'know those tunes that make you think "It's so simple! How has no one thought of this before?". People who know more seem to struggle to keep it so simple. They find it boring. Hence Jazz.[/quote] The country scene in Nashville is full of players that are scarily good at reading, can improvise effortlessly over complex changes, yet manage to play half as many notes as even the most minimalist hacks would on their sessions... Alex

As an non-double bassist but someone who is interested in the amplification of them, in what frequency ranges does feedback tend to manifest? Alex

Now this is the only kind of thing I get GAS for nowadays! Sounds like it will be most awesome, hope the acoustics work out decent without too much treatment. Am jealous... Alex

I agree, particularly with Point 1. "Perception is reality"... Alex

[quote name='Crazykiwi' post='350122' date='Dec 9 2008, 07:46 PM']If you make it light enough, and fit [url="http://www.usspeaker.com/faital%20pro%20index-1.htm"]Faital drivers[/url] I'm sure it will be great. In principle I have no problems with a 12" cab, but it needs to be able to handle a B string with some authority.[/quote] That's why I don't like chopping off a load of cab volume to make it tiltback, because every extra cubic inch helps with getting an authoritative B string. Those Beyma/Faital drivers are quite impressive but I can't help thinking they'd work better for bassists with smaller magnets - for PA use where you have tons of EQ and need maximum midrange output then their approach makes sense but in a bass guitar cab that low Qts is going to choke off bass response and the gain in sensitivity higher up just isn't worth it when you're losing it low down where it really counts for bass. Quite heavy too for a neo 12". Alex

[quote name='Crazykiwi' post='350081' date='Dec 9 2008, 07:02 PM']Indeed you did, but I did make the point that the GK RB700 1x15 wedge combo I had worked fine for me. So if you fancied doing something with the same dimensions but lighter and more rigid, it would probably be good enough.[/quote] Ah, but I don't want to do just 'good enough' - it has to be great! Don't you think a 12"+mid with the same external dimensions as The Compact and then a tilty thing so you could tilt it at two different angles (~30 and ~45 deg) and have the cab either vertically or horizontally aligned, would tick all the audibility boxes whilst also making it easier to carry and giving better bass response? Alex

[quote name='eude' post='343004' date='Dec 2 2008, 01:43 PM']Well currently, I use a single Aguilar 12 with a LittleMark 250 (the weedy one), it works fine, even with a drummer at small gigs and rehearsals, and for louder gigs I use it as a monitor using the PA for the front of house sound. I'd still be interested in seeing what it's like, but I undertsand your concerns now.[/quote] I hope to add a 12"+mid to the range once the right speaker turns up which I would have thought would be the best solution for players such as yourself. The double bass cab is very much focused on minimising feedback and replicating the polar response of a double bass in a very unique fashion but the compromises required to do this make it a less logical choice for those playing non-acoustic instruments. [quote name='Crazykiwi' post='343006' date='Dec 2 2008, 01:44 PM']I was more interested in knowing whether you still had plans for the angled cabs we discussed once.[/quote] I thought you wanted an angled cab and I kept saying that the cost in low frequency response made an non-angled cab plus a tilt mechanism more logical? Still working on that, am getting very frustrated with unresponsive potential suppliers! On another topic entirely, the first full review of The Compact has just been posted: [url="http://www.barefacedbass.com/comments.html"]http://www.barefacedbass.com/comments.html[/url] And my measurement equipment has arrived... Alex

I gather NWR was really into Jaco when he came up with that bassline, which makes total sense. A while back my bandmates decided we'd cover this whilst I was absent but I've yet to put aside the time to nail it properly. I'll be singing as well for added fun... Alex

If the opposite of a 'dull' bass sound is Mark King's then I'm more than happy to have a 'dull' sound! It sounds like you've got a decent value and more manageable rig sorted. I know I'd have gone for a single lightweight cab that could take advantage of a more powerful head but I would say that wouldn't I? Alex

Active basses, FX pedals and foot-switches? Alex

[quote name='JPJ' post='348584' date='Dec 8 2008, 01:36 PM']I know that that is what the numbers say, but to my ears, a deeper cabinet will always have more roundness to the tone.[/quote] If a cab has insufficient internal damping (which unfortunately is the case all too often!) then a deeper cab may have a better midrange response due to the backwave reflections being more attenuated. Alex

[quote name='chris_b' post='348528' date='Dec 8 2008, 12:47 PM']I think the keyboard combo is fine for practise but don't spend any money on "improving" it. Save your dosh for the next amp.[/quote] Indeed. In fact I suspect that combo would work ok for playing in any band that's not too RAWK! There's something about old Peavey combos that makes them far louder than you'd expect for the money. I think that keyboard amp is just like the TKO or TNT bass combo from the same era but with a tweeter added and those amps are renowned for their loudness and durability. Alex

[quote name='redstriper' post='348083' date='Dec 7 2008, 08:04 PM']Try it with the original blueline speaker before buying a replacement, it's not a bad driver at all and I only changed mine for the extra volume when using it on it's own. You might find it's fine as it is alongside the 2 x 10.[/quote] I agree. Although the 3015 will go a lot louder on its own than the Blueline, if you're using it in conjunction with your 2x10" then your 2x10" will run out of power handling before you get to the point where you need the extra power handling of the better 15". Alex

I did once but I wouldn't now, so not sure how to vote! Alex

[quote name='Merton' post='346284' date='Dec 5 2008, 11:38 AM']Bloody hope so, I completely missed it coz Alex and I were deafening people with his Big One. [/quote] Indeed we were! I'd really recommend anyone looking to use an ACG preamp on their bass to consider Q-Tuner pickups. The Q-Tuners have a much higher resonant peak than any other passive pickups so you can then use the ACG filters to simulate the sound of any pickup you want without having to fight the sound inherent to most pickups. Another approach would be to use a low impedance low output pickup like Alembic ones which have a similarly high resonant peak but need a suitable high impedance buffer and then voltage gain to drive an amp (which the ACG can probably do) but the Q-Tuners achieve that response whilst also being powerful enough to run totally passive (due to some kind of Dutch black magic in them - or possibly air coils and neodymium magnets...) Alex

[quote name='ben_eat_pie' post='346653' date='Dec 5 2008, 05:15 PM']true, but that hasn't answered the question... whats the difference in sound![/quote] Internal volume will affect the low frequency response but it doesn't matter how you get that internal volume. The taller a cab the better you will hear the midrange and treble. Alex

[quote name='BassBod' post='346162' date='Dec 5 2008, 09:45 AM']Its worth talking about "lows" with double bass amplification. Piezo's (used by most) produce a lot of very low stuff, (more than you'd ever hear acoustically) and can be a real problem even though you can't hear it directly. I've seen the cone on my CXL110 jump just from damping the strings! So if you are looking to reproduce the acoustic sound its worth thinking about? The low cut (or high pass?) filter on the Acoustic Image preamp works, but it seems a bit crude to me? I guess it really designed with the combo "downward" speaker design in mind.[/quote] That is a very good point! The highpass filter on the AI preamp isn't crude at all, these kind of steep active filters are the best way to deal with unwanted lows, which is why you find similar highpass filters on all decent PA systems. Trying to control the very low response through cab design doesn't really work because the only options are sealed cabs which reduce cone excursion but as a result also reduce LF sensitivity or ported/transmission line/bandpass/horn cabs all of which unload below a certain frequency but do give more sensitivity down to that point. [quote name='bassace' post='346189' date='Dec 5 2008, 10:07 AM']Also bear in mind that the further away from the speaker - ie in the audience - the more you hear the lows and the less the highs. So in addition to getting a good tight bottom (I can't believe I said that) you still need a rig that gives a strong sound right up to the thumb position if poss. When I set up on stage I look first for something like a Fender Jazz sound - yes really! - and then I tweak the preamp to bring the sound back to URB. I don't start with a lot of boom.[/quote] Have you ever wondered why the further you get from the speaker the more you hear the lows and the less the highs? The main reason that this occurs is that although the on-axis frequency response of your cab may be fairly flat the power response of that cab is not. Power response is the sum total of all the output from a speaker in every direction across the frequency spectrum. So how does this relate to a typical cab? Lets look at a typical 1x12" cab with fairly flat response between 100Hz and 3kHz. The low frequency output is omnidirectional so you get equal output both backwards and sideways as you do to the front. The midrange output is directional but still well dispersed, so it occurs only to the front but is spread broadly to both sides of the forwards direction. The treble output is more directional, being in a more narrow cone beaming from the centre of the speaker. So if we say that the total midrange energy coming from the speaker is equal to 100dB then the total LF energy will be four times that (due to backwards and left and right output) which will be 106dB. And the treble energy is in a much more narrow cone, so probably only about 89dB. So although the on-axis frequency response is fairly flat the power response is stronger in the lows and weaker in the highs. Now if you play outdoors or in anechoic chamber then all you'll hear out in the audience (assuming no PA support) is the roughly on-axis forwards response. But if you play indoors then some of that energy that isn't on-axis will be reflected and will add to the direct output, hence the sound gets less and less clear and more and more bottom heavy as the proportion of reflected vs direct sound increases. With an open-baffle speaker you reduce the power response in the lows by removing sideways output whilst increasing the power response in the mids and treble by improving the dispersion. So theoretically this kind of speaker should allow you to have a much more similar sound onstage compared to out front. The downside of an open-baffle woofer is that you lose a whole load of output in the lows because of the cancelled out sound to the sides, hence the need for a larger woofer to move enough air (but because this woofer isn't in a conventional cab is doesn't have a typical 'sound'). [quote name='chris_b' post='346216' date='Dec 5 2008, 10:32 AM']Alex, you're trying to emulate the process of sound creation from a double bass, but surely what traditional instrument makers and players are really interested in is the sound projected from the front, to the audience. A complicated solution might be more interesting but might not get the best results.[/quote] I'm not so sure - I thinkthe sound of an acoustic instrument is the whole sound you hear from it and that will be a combination of direct and reflected sound. I may be barking up the wrong tree but I just have a feeling... I don't like complicated solutions - I'm a complete minimalist at heart so always try to design down to the minimum complexity without noticeable detriment to the performance (hence my RIM Custom 5 being like it is and the same with my cab designs!) If anyone wants some more reading on the concept of open-baffle speakers, pop along to [url="http://www.linkwitzlab.com"]http://www.linkwitzlab.com[/url] - the man knows his stuff! Alex