alexclaber

[quote name='Chopthebass' post='145595' date='Feb 23 2008, 02:03 PM']You could use biscuit joint instead of 3/4" timber runners - this will keep things aligned when clamping and save a bit of weight and avoid the need for screws.[/quote] Would I not need a biscuit jointer for that? Alex

I should add that the 9mm ply makes for a crazily light cab! (Unsurprisingly half the weight of the usual 18mm stuff). Alex

Have built 5 sides of the box, put it in the boot of my car and found that I can't fit the rack through the opening even though it would theoretically fit once it's in. Doh! Need to knock ~2" off the height. Also now that I have some experience in dealing with the joints I might go without the 3/4" runners along each joint and just be more precise with the screwing and more liberal with the glueing. Alex

I now have six plywood rectangles to form the main body of the cab. That was quite painless! Alex

[quote name='steve-soar' post='145285' date='Feb 22 2008, 07:38 PM']Hi Alex, I don't know about how the amp will sound but I like what I hear from my cabs. I know what you mean about, "Hey buddy..." what do they say on the home page, Audio...on steroids, I love the sound from my cabs and they are dead light. [/quote] I like the sound from Robbie's Whappo Jr too - I just don't think it's either 'audiophile on steroids' or anywhere close to meeting it's hilarious specs. And it's one thing to sell a cab for such a high price that is so poorly designed (it sounds good because it has some nice speakers in it, but put some monkeys in a warehouse full of nice speakers and different sized boxes and they'd create some nice sounding cabs too) but their trumped up design claims are just ridiculous. I note that they no longer have tons of 'patent pending' claims on their site - were they laughed at by the attorney or did they never have any pending? A few years back in a response to questions about Acme vs AccuGroove, Mark said this: "Originally posted by Whappo (on September 20): Good questions. I’ve talked with Andy before & he’s a great guy & builds nice cabs. “…it's not possible (due to physics) to have a driver that has extreme low-frequency response AND still have reasonably high sensitivity.” The issue of sensitivity is multifaceted & not an easy one. The first drivers we had developed sounded great, but they were not very loud. Most of the time there is a trade off between sensitivity and the sound you are looking for. If you get one, you may have to compromise on the other. (In keeping with the quote above) However, after testing 1,200 different drivers from 6 different countries, we finally got things nailed down where we were able to get the best of both worlds. It wasn’t easy. But if it was, everyone would be doing it. There are over 21 different parameters that can be changed like a Rubik’s Cube to make the driver do what you want. What a puzzle? After worrying about the driver, it’s the cabinet design that also contributes. This includes volume, porting, tuning, material, etc. By the time you make many small changes to multiple items, it can add up. The bottom line is that like us, Andy makes his cabinets unique & different compared to what everyone else does. We builders choose a path we think is best & hope that players tend to agree. Are our specs correct? You bet your low B string!" Charlatan, uneducated or a mix of the two? Whatever, I'd rather spend my money elsewhere. Alex

If your amp has vents in the top or bottom it probably needs clear space there. Most well designed rack gear does not need clear space in either direction. Alex

[quote name='bass_ferret' post='145262' date='Feb 22 2008, 06:57 PM']Beware of cabs claiming to go to 35Hz as if it tried to do it will suck all the power from your amp - see numerous threads as to why trying to go that low is a waste of time but its basically what we really hear is harmonics not the fundamentals.[/quote] I think you meant to say "Beware of cabs claiming to go to 35Hz because that's just marketing bs, none of them (bar Acmes) actually do so with any useful output". Trying to go that low is definitely not a waste of time but if you do wish to do so you will need more speakers and more power than otherwise. All the 4x10" cabs mentioned will have fairly similar sensitivity and response - it comes down to personal taste whose colouration you will prefer. Alex

I seem to have got it out of my system! I'd rather get one really nice instrument and focus on getting every sound I want from that (ok, I have got a new one now but it took years of planning to suss out how to improve on my old bass) and then get the best rig possible to get that heard (and again avoid messing with it - yes, I've changed everything once over the last 9 years but that's not a bad record!) To look at if from another perspective, how many classical musicians do you see constantly changing their gear? Are you a bass player or a bass buyer? Alex

0.022uF for maximum subtlely, 0.047uF typically, and 0.1uF for maximum dubness, tend to be the typical values. I have 0.047uF in my RIM Custom. Have never experimented with treble bypass cabs, I'm more a full volume for almost everything kind of person and if I want to be quieter I pluck more softly. Alex

[quote name='BB2000' post='144855' date='Feb 22 2008, 10:04 AM']You'd be surprised (or maybe not!) at how badly designed some of the 'big name' bass amplifiers are. In the case of Accugroove any technical information they provide is likely to be bullshit ...[/quote] (Or not!) The thing that really bugs me about AccuGroove is the marketing is all like "hey buddy, I'm a bassist too and have made this amazing perfect amp that is like miles better than everything else you've been stuck with for the past decade and that's why it's so expensive, because it's made of super magic parts, you know I'm only doing it because I love you..." I mean there is marketing bs and then there is AccuGroove's marketing bs. Has anyone else noticed that it seems like practically every other bassist playing through AccuGroove gear is an endorser? I think Aguilar, Markbass, Euphonic Audio and Thunderfunk have done some really nice things with improving the quality of the bass amp head. Honourable mention to Peavey for consistently making really solid gear that does what it says on the tin and to Carvin for finally waking up and removing their undefeatable preshapes from their amps and also releasing a true beast in the shape of the B1500. But you can see from my signature what my own preference in amps is! Alex

Have plywood (9mm brazilian 5 ply), wood, glue (PU expanding) and screws. Had the plywood cut into four, thus saving me a few cuts and allowing me to get it into the car! Alex

[quote name='TheBrokenDoor' post='145103' date='Feb 22 2008, 03:09 PM']Alex - So you're suggesting a second mid-range cab, such as the ones I listed in my first post? That's what I thought as I'd reckoned i'd need the mids to actually hear the fundamentals, as opposed to just ball-shaking bass.[/quote] No, I'm saying the 15" can do a decent job on its own but if you want more midrange/treble content, particularly off-axis, then a custom cab with a small midrange cone and built in crossover will work wonders. The problem with using a 10" or 12" to add higher frequency content is they're both still pretty hopeless at dispersing the highs in a useful manner instead of beaming the ice pick in the ear sound to whoever has the misfortune of moving exactly on-axis. I'm gradually getting myself set up at home to build cabs so if I find it a pleasurable process as opposed to a task to be endured to get better sound for less money then I might make the odd design available. Alex

[quote name='queenofthedepths' post='145083' date='Feb 22 2008, 02:33 PM']I'm sure my ability is increasing in correlation to the length of my hair...[/quote] Samson? I find ability is often inversely proportional to strap length. Alex

[quote name='SJA' post='145063' date='Feb 22 2008, 02:10 PM']so the harmonics for guitar and bass peter out at about the same freq- around 5k?[/quote] Guitar amps have fairly limited bandwidth, restricted to ~200-5000Hz due to the nature of a single speaker in an small sealed or open back cab. DI'd bass guitar can go higher than 5kHz but there's not really any harmonic content above there. Alex

[url="http://www.independentrecording.net/irn/resources/freqchart/main_display.htm"]http://www.independentrecording.net/irn/re...ain_display.htm[/url] [url="http://www.hometracked.com/2006/12/07/instrument-frequency-map/"]http://www.hometracked.com/2006/12/07/inst...-frequency-map/[/url] Alex

[quote name='TheBrokenDoor' post='144931' date='Feb 22 2008, 12:01 PM']I'd never even thought of just using the 15". The online specs state it's a fullrange cab but on the back it actually says it range ends more around 4.5kHz. I take it this isn't too low?[/quote] 4.5kHz on-axis sounds about right for a decent 15" - off-axis you'll find you stop getting useful response above about 1.5kHz, so be sure to point the speaker towards your ears if you want to hear the rest of your highs. There isn't a much amount of harmonic output from basses above 5kHz, it tends to just be percussive sounds (plucking attack, fret sounds, string squeak, etc). I'm strongly of the belief that a good 15" plus a good midrange speaker is the most practical solution for hearing the true sound of your bass from a loud and light package but even without a mid speaker a 15" on its own can be pretty nice. Alex

[quote name='bremen' post='144959' date='Feb 22 2008, 12:28 PM']Cabinet shape (within reasonable limits) makes no difference to bass response or distortion. For high mid frequencies you do have to consider ratios so you don't end up with one big fat standing wave (eg a cube), but using bracing as Alex intends will help break these up anyway.[/quote] Indeed. Two things I'm doing to minimise standing wave issues is using a triangular port which will turn the cab interior into a pentagonal prism fused with a cuboid, hence few equal distances between boundaries; and also also placing the midrange in an irregular square based pyramid further breaking up the shape of the woofer enclosure and acting like the tapered B&W nautilus enclosures from the mid's perspective. [quote name='dood' post='144950' date='Feb 22 2008, 12:17 PM']not related to your build diary, whilst I have been potentially looking at getting a single 1x12 type cab, I did start wondering about the acme method of getting cabs to go low. It'd be interesting to see a 1x12 + mid + tweeter in a smaller box. I'd expect the same sensitivity as the acme 2x10's, but would be nice to find out how LOW a cab of that type could go.[/quote] Unfortunately there are no 12" woofers on the market that can do what two Acme 10"s do in the same or less volume - I should know, I've searched pretty extensively! I gather there may be a Kappalite 3012LF in the pipeline which will hopefully have the kind of Xmax you want but is still unlikely to have a low enough Fs or Vas to do the Acme thang. If I could persuade myself to spend the money on a nice compact head, like an AI Clarus/Focus, then I'd definitely get a Low-B1 as a micro/practice rig - fantastic little cab! Alex

[quote name='david_l_perry' post='144845' date='Feb 22 2008, 09:40 AM']Its pretty large (6x10 size !!), I assumed it was going to be a tiny little AGUILAR type cab....but then the driver does benefit from internal volume to get the external volume....[/quote] It's more like 4x10" size than 6x10", so not quite as huge as say an Omni 15. But as you say, if you want decent response from a woofer you need to give it enough space, and if you do so then you can also fit in a nice big (and thus low air velocity and thus lower distortion/compression) port. Despite the height, it's quite narrow and shallow so hopefully won't be too much of a pain with doorways and staircases... Alex

Once you investigate all the different sounds you can get through changes in plucking technique EQ starts to seem rather superfluous. I play with my thumb loads nowadays, with varying degrees of muting. Different fingers sound different too and where you pluck and how hard you pluck (and in which direction) makes a huge difference too. Alex

I agree, hang onto the 15", sell the rest and buy a suitable head. If you need more clarity than the 15" will provide (though you probably won't) a simple 6" or 8" 'bright box' will do a much better job than adding a 10" or 12" cab. Alex

If there's one speaker company I'd consider to not have the technical ability to design their own amp, this is the one. Whose power amp module does it contain anyway? Look at that frequency response spec - +0dB -5dB. Frankly, that is rubbish and potentially means that their claim of 1000W into 2 ohms will be as little as 300W at some points of the response curve. Alex

[quote name='ped' post='143945' date='Feb 20 2008, 07:43 PM']Here's to many more creations in the future![/quote] More? More??! No, no, no, this has got to keep me happy for at least the next decade, possibly century... Alex

[quote name='ped' post='144247' date='Feb 21 2008, 10:21 AM']I just thought I would gather opinions. It would be quite nice to have a big gallery of good bass clips to watch all in one place, don't you think?[/quote] I guess there's two ways to look at this - one is to approach it from the view of tidy archiving, easier searching, more focused discussion, the other is to consider the whole melting pot of stuff that is collected with bass playing and bundle it all together. That's my inclination but its chaotic nature probably doesn't appeal to anyone running a forum! I'd rather have more traffic in fewer places and more wide ranging discussion, I believe it opens out thinking and results in knowledge and experience becoming more widely distributed. An example - say we're talking about that regular question, "which cab does 30Hz so I can hear my low B string?" To answer that fully you need to actually discuss the nature of sound production on the bass guitar, the effect of string type, scale length and technique amongst other things on the balance of overtones, you need to cover the realities vs the marketing dreams of bass cab specification, and then you might want to open out the thinking to what the main originator of the low B string, Anthony Jackson, is up to - what he's using and an example of his playing. That covers enough ground to need to be in theory & technique, amps and cabs, repairs and technical issues, bass guitars, miscellaneous equipment, and even bass porn. Maybe the answer is to keep the forum for dynamic discussion and start using the wiki for archiving and searching? Alex

[quote name='Thunderthumbs' post='143974' date='Feb 20 2008, 08:32 PM']Totally off topic, but seeing Linda Ronstadt's name reminded me of Aaron Neville, and the fact that I saw the Neville Brothers performing live in Philadelphia around 1995...[/quote] I didn't realise there were so many Neville brothers - Art is of course the fantastic organist behind The Meters (the third most sampled band in the world after the JBs and Parliament/Funkadelic) and Cyril joined the 2nd incarnation of The Meters as a percussionist. Alex P.S. [url="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Funk"]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Funk[/url]

I too haven't heard a bad word said about these preamps though I haven't had the pleasure of trying one. Unfortunately Aguilar can't have sold many because it was discontinued a while back - too big, too heavy and too expensive for the mass market. I'd be interested to hear how it compares to my Avalon U5 - although short on tweakery the Avalon is full of tonal goodness. Alex