alexclaber

[quote name='BottomEndian' post='569529' date='Aug 14 2009, 09:37 PM'][*]My idea of a low action was way off the mark. I mean, I knew I liked it pretty high, but several of these guys' instruments were so low they were unplayable to a heavy-handed mofo like me.[/quote] We need to come up with some kind of basschat official action standard. Exactly how many mm at the 12th fret (assuming sensible nut height and relieft) is low, medium and high action? Alex

[quote name='Hector' post='569218' date='Aug 14 2009, 04:51 PM']Alex, that's awesome - thanks so much! Would absolutely love to get the chance to try one of these beauties out. I'll be around at home until the 25th when I'm going backpacking across Europe. Will you be around sometime?[/quote] Should be - I'll let you know! Alex

[quote name='EBS_freak' post='567962' date='Aug 13 2009, 02:02 PM']Wrong! It's the output of the pickups being too great for the circuit. Need to reduce the gain in the circuit. Simple job - one resistor.[/quote] Well I'd have thought with a circuit board that huge it would at least have enough headroom to handle a hot pickup! Alex

[quote name='4000' post='569431' date='Aug 14 2009, 08:09 PM']Yeah, he needs to stand still and play nothing of any interest at all like Guigsy. Although Guigsy had good taste in footy teams...[/quote] Guigsy needs some sort of a prize for putting possibly the most pointless basslines ever recorded onto a couple of extremely successful and actually rather good albums. Their only redeeming feature is that they're thoroughly lost in the mix - but for lesson in how not to play bass find the isolated tracks on youtube. Alex

I'm 100% sure Flea would deny it. (And no, only the true best bass player doesn't deny his best bass playerness). Alex

[quote name='Uncle Balsamic' post='569420' date='Aug 14 2009, 07:54 PM']How smooth and warm can the Big One be? I like treble in some situations so I wouldn't want to 'sacrifice' a mid-driver with another model, but if the cab can be a bit smoother it'd be great! Also, how aggressive sounding is it, and can this be dialled out at all?[/quote] It can be as smooth and warm as you want. It's arguably the best reggae cab you can buy. Likewise you can knock out the mids for those 80s bass sounds that would get completely lost in the mix with a less powerful cab. [quote name='Uncle Balsamic' post='569420' date='Aug 14 2009, 07:54 PM']Lastly, someone told me that the mid-driver was a bit too much and there wasn't much bass from the speaker due to the thin plywood. I took this with a pinch of salt as it doesn't seem to go along with what I've heard about this cab. Were these views unfounded?[/quote] I can think of one person who might have said that, in which case he was talking about the very first prototype which had a different mid driver, different crossover, different subenclosure, different porting, hardly any insulation in it and way too little bracing. It sounded vicious and it vibrated so much it walked across the floor at volume. (That prototype got broken up for scrap, woofer got reused and the mid driver sold. And the crossover components are probably somewhere in my garage, as an excellent example of why resistive model based calculators do not work.) Anyone who's heard a production cab can concur that this is not the case. Alex

[quote name='chris_b' post='569390' date='Aug 14 2009, 07:18 PM']I know 12's are rounder than 10's and 15's are lower...[/quote] Well you might 'know' that but it doesn't mean it's the truth! Alex

[quote name='fenderiko' post='568759' date='Aug 14 2009, 10:42 AM']did the 500w was enough for a big gig ?... ...what cab did you use to get the most efficient power of the amp[/quote] Bear in mind that the loudness of the rig is much more dependant on the 'speakerage' than the wattage. So 500W into 2x15" will be far far louder than 500W into 1x12". Also there aren't many small cabs that can actually handle more than 250W so a modular rig of one or two smaller cabs could be an effective solution. [quote name='Gunsfreddy2003' post='569022' date='Aug 14 2009, 01:55 PM']My Epifani cab runs at 8 ohms so effectively I have been running at 250w and I have never found it underpowered even in some big pubs. A while ago I bought a 1x15" 8 ohm cab to get the full 500w and to be fair it did not make much difference - certainly did not sound noticeably louder.[/quote] That's a classic example of where the whole is not equal to the sum of the parts. Two matching cabs would sound a lot louder, about 6dB which once you figure in the human ear's oddities in the low end that's getting on for twice as loud. Likewise two non-matching but phase coherent cabs would be similarly effective. However two cabs which were 100% out of phase (not possible but it's a useful illustration) could actually cancel each other's sound out entirely! Any different cabs will have different phase response, and the more different the phase response, the less well they will combine. In this case you've obviously happened upon a particularly bad pairing. Alex

Well to be honest miked recordings of speakers played back through other speakers are of infinitesimally small use! How many of those who watched the video are listening on a set of studio monitors anyway? Just read the words and enjoy the novelty of accompanying sounds. A good way of assessing what speakers sound like is to play one of your favourite CDs through them. If you haven't done this before it's quite shocking but very enlightening - you will not believe how little bottom most bass guitar cabs have! Or you could record a sample of a bassline - maybe use a classic bass intro from a song - actually I sometimes use the solo on Everything Is Everything because the rest of the band is pretty quiet - and play it back through the rigs, with them turned up to about 120dB @ 2m. That'll sort the men from the boys! Alex

[quote name='BottomEndian' post='569213' date='Aug 14 2009, 04:48 PM']Hmmm. Interesting. So is the bump that I've heard somewhere around 1-2kHz part of the speaker coupling bump? If so, it's a good, good thing.[/quote] No, the bump around there is part of the natural response, the coupling is lower down. I think what's most notable with these woofers is they don't have any dips in their response, whilst cheaper drivers tend to have gaps in the midrange, plus the break-up nodes are very controlled so they don't get all peaky in the top-end. Alex

[quote name='dood' post='569201' date='Aug 14 2009, 04:38 PM']I was just reading on the Martin Audio site, they have a passive full range cab with a 2x15 in, where the 15" cones work together up to a certain frequency, then to counteract the problem you speak of, only one of the 15's takes over for the midrange frequencies, then the treble unit takes over for eveything above.[/quote] That's what I'd do for a PA cab, like the 2x12" plus large horn tweeter I'm planning. But if you want that kind of response in a bass cab then that's what the Big One is for. When I referred to a bump from the lower midrange downwards, I wasn't referring to it as a problem - it's a benefit! That's once reason why big rigs sound big - lots of coupling in the lower frequencies increases fatness. Alex

The problem is that anyone with experience of those other drivers won't have experience of them in the Jack 12, and that's the only kind of experience that counts. Based on my knowledge of Bill's other mid-horn designs you'll need a rising response in the midrange to compensate for the lowpass nature of the horn. Alex

[quote name='BottomEndian' post='568904' date='Aug 14 2009, 12:23 PM']Alex, have you ever made a frequency response plot (even just a modelled one) for the Vintage? I'd be really interested to see it, and I'm sure there would be a few other interested parties. Oh, and... port plugs. Progress? [/quote] I'll have the port plugs soon - that supplier is out of stock but its imminent. And regarding frequency response, on-axis it's pretty damn flat up to 4kHz. There's a bit of a bump from the lower midrange downwards where the speakers couple and then there'll be some wiggles due to the baffle size as you go lower. But all in all its pretty good and even across the whole 50-4000Hz passband. I do want to do some proper measurements of everything soon but it's a time-consuming exercise. And you really need a lot of measurements to paint an accurate picture - in my opinion half space on-axis on its own just doesn't cut it. Alex

[quote name='warwickhunt' post='569091' date='Aug 14 2009, 02:52 PM']Any chance you could photoshop some of those tatty old Fender basses out of your 'Barefaced' thread... you'd think bass hadn't moved on in the last 50/60 years! [/quote] But I like tatty old basses! If it wasn't for the fact I hate having unplayed instruments around I'd have a flatwound strung Precision and a tapewound strung Jazz myself. As it is I just play my weird thru-necked chambered 36" scale passive beast for everything. Alex

[quote name='The Bass Doc' post='569000' date='Aug 14 2009, 01:30 PM']Don't know much about Xmax (except it's still along way off isn't it?) but in the room the two 2x15s sounded about the same volume.[/quote] Yes, they would do. The greater Xmax means the Vintage can take almost four times as much power, which equals a 6dB advantage - same as using a pair of the Fender/EV because that would give you 3dB more sensivity whilst doubling the power handling. But as you'll know with 2x15" cabs even a small amount of power gets you LOUD! Alex

[quote name='Hector' post='568979' date='Aug 14 2009, 01:18 PM']Yeah, but not emphatically![/quote] If you can hang on a few weeks then as I'm often out and about in Kent I can let you try one of the first production models of this: [url="http://basschat.co.uk/index.php?s=&showtopic=55882&view=findpost&p=557980"]http://basschat.co.uk/index.php?s=&sho...st&p=557980[/url] Alex

That's a really weird looking piece of wenge. It tends to be very evenly coloured, with consistent lighter/darker stripes in the grain itself. Has it been bleached by the sun or some chemical? Alex

[quote name='Hector' post='568750' date='Aug 14 2009, 10:34 AM']My ideal tone is clean, punchy and sort of modern sounding without being too nasal (I'm not very good at describing tones, so not very helpful!).[/quote] Are you a tweetery kind of person or not? Alex

[quote name='Bill Fitzmaurice' post='568534' date='Aug 13 2009, 11:32 PM']'If' being the operative word. I run a Superfly myself, and with it I have to run two cabs the equivalent of fEarful 12/6 (3012 HO/ Celestion NTR06-1705B loaded) to deliver as much clean output as one 2512 loaded J112.[/quote] Well if you will insist on using such a spectacularly wimpy amp... Alex

More info about that notable EV 15L here: [url="http://archives.telex.com/archives/EV/Speakers/EDS/EVM-15L%20Pro-line%20EDS.pdf"]http://archives.telex.com/archives/EV/Spea...-line%20EDS.pdf[/url] Note the rising response through the midrange to the highs (the Midget is quite like this), hence the brightness. As the Xmax isn't much over half of that of the Vintage's drivers you'd need two of those Fender cabs to play as loud as one Vintage, which makes the weight saving even better! I use hydrogen not helium - more lift and rock and roll effects if you get the voice coils hot enough. That's why the port is at the bottom - please do not invert the cab. I'd be interested to hear a Midget/Compact stack next to the Fender 2x15" - suspect that would be very similar sounding. Alex

No, you're right - the Fender's treble goes higher but it dips in the upper midrange and then has more in the mid and lower midrange. The Vintage has more upper midrange bite but less treble air, less thickness in the rest of the mids and then it sounds quite a lot thicker and deeper on the bottom. Alex

The Fender is more midrangey - less treble and less bottom. That's not a bad recording - I'm listening on studio monitors with a good sound card which helps! Put youtube on HQ to hear it better. So did you find out which goes loudest? Alex

[quote name='EBS_freak' post='568734' date='Aug 14 2009, 10:20 AM']Really? If you asked the general public, I would wager Macca would come above Flea. I don't think the majority of the general public would even know who Flea is.[/quote] If you asked the general public most of them wouldn't even know that Macca played bass. In fact a few years back the answer in a pub quiz to "who was the rhythm guitarist in The Beatles?" was deemed to be McCartney. An argument ensued... Alex

[quote name='wateroftyne' post='568687' date='Aug 14 2009, 09:43 AM']Subscribed...[/quote] Never mind that - what about that shootout?! Alex

[quote name='Musicman20' post='568538' date='Aug 13 2009, 11:37 PM']I still cant stop looking at the Barefaced...[/quote] Corrected that for you. This is the Barefaced forum after all! Alex