funkle

OK, I've had some time with my Acme B2 (4 ohm), the Vanderkley 112MNT (8 ohm), the Streamliner 900, and my Tecamp Puma 500. Tried out my maple neck Dingwall Super J, Squier CV Jazz, Sterling HH through the various combinations. (All 4 strings). Tested in a large sitting room with a wooden floor, all cabs sat on the ground. If it were a gig it'd be a coffee house gig. I'll try and summarise it all. The Acme B2 sounds very good with the Streamliner 900, now I have an idea where 'flat' is on the controls. The low end seems fracitonally tidier with the Streamliner than with the Puma. I suspect the HPF built into the Streamliner works well with the Acmes. The Acme + Streamliner 'flat' sounds very even tone from top to bottom, politer in the mids compared to the Vanderkley and definitely more way more low end extension with than the Vanderkley. I shouldn't be surprised, I don't know of any cabs tuned lower than the Acmes. The Vanderkley needs a ton of bass boost to get anywhere near the low end built into the Acme. This bass boost can be achieved well with the Tecamp or the Streamliner though I actually prefer the Tecamp + Vanderkley to the Streamliner + Vanderkley combination. The Vanderkley 112MNT is more of a mid machine overall. Definitely grittier in the mids with either head compared to the Acme B2. The treble is pretty full-on and there's definitely more finger on string noise with the Vanderkley + either amp head. It does need some EQ to sort it out which I don't need on the Acme. The Acme gets damn loud with the Streamliner though not as loud as the Vanderkley + Streamliner, which is just plain ridiculous. Turning up to the max on the Vanderkley + Streamliner made the windows and walls shake. I couldn't tolerate it for very long; I was afraid of scaring the neighbours. The Acme + Streamliner was bloody loud but didn't [i]quite[/i] hit the same SPL. I don't think I can imagine needing max volume right now from either combination. On the whole, I think the Vanderkley trades high SPL (mainly in the mid range) for loss of low end extension compared to the Acme. The Acme does the reverse; unsurprisingly, it has extremely even tone in the whole range but trades max SPL for the low end extension. The Vanderkley sounds good in the mids and I suspect if you'd never heard an Acme you wouldn't miss hearing the low E fundamental in quite the same way. I wouldn't call the Vanderkley a full range cab but I do think it sounds good and is loud. It seems to take EQ well and weighs 37 lbs vs the 50 lbs for my Acme. On the whole, I think a lot of the tone I liked when I heard it at Bass Direct was from the Streamliner. I was also hearing the Streamliner 900 push 2 x Vanderkley 112 MNTs and I think the low end extension and overall sound benefited from the 2 x 112 combination. Both cabs just seem like different flavours of good to me. Now I need to gig and see what I think works best out in the real world. Hope that stream of consciousness is helpful to someone....

Thanks for that! Interesting that the graphs only go down to 100hz. I'd like to know what's happening below that. I'll keep hunting.

Thanks. I have joined. I have been posting over there but no one has pointed me in the diection of any SPL charts even when I ask. Got any links to posts over there?

Thanks Richard. The Fearful builds and the newer Fearless f112 look really interesting, but without some sort of defined specs it makes it hard to comparison shop. A broadband SPL chart @ 1W/1M is sort of what I'm used to looking at now and would be a help if anyone else knows of any....

How can you tell it's genuine?

Anyone have a broadband SPL vs frequency chart for one of these builds?

[quote name='funkle' timestamp='1348979797' post='1820302'] So does a single Vanderkley 1x12 sound similar to the stack of 2 in terms of fullness/overall sound? The Acme cabs I have are as flat as any I've heard. They didn't gel well with the Streamliner I tried with them previously IMO. One of the things that made me go off the Streamliner initially. However when a Streamliner is hooked up to a Vanderkley...well. For that reason, I suspect the Vanderkley not to be as flat in the mids as the Acme. Just my theory. Also from spec sheet the Acmes may extend slightly higher. Whatever....I like the colouration the Vanderkley/Streamliner give to the sound. I just want to figure out if I should land one or two cabs... Pete [/quote] I have just received whynot's Vanderkley 112MNT and will be posting in more depth soon. However, I wanted to post that after further experimentation with the Acme B1 and B2 and the Streamliner, I can indeed get them to gel quite nicely. Previously, I don't think I understood the intricacies of the Streamliner's EQ, which is far more complex than I appreciated. I spent a long time on Talkbass on the 'Streamliner Tone Settings' thread (or whatever it's called), I have a much better grasp of how it works and how to get it to play nicely with the Acmes (and the Vanderkley after I've had a bit more time with everything). From the frequency response logs posted on Talkbass it's clear that the Streamliner has a heck of a lot of low end baked in, and 12 noon on all knobs is most definitely not flat. 'Flat' is possible to achieve, though I think even 'flat' the Streamliner stamps its personality on whatever signal is put into it in at least some way. As the Acme has so much low end extension, previously when I tried a Streamliner 600, there was just too much of a good thing going on there for me. Now I think I can get everything to work together nicely. It may well be that the Vanderkley is as nearly full range a cab as the Acme down to about 40 Hz. As I'm a 4-banger these days I probably don't need the Acme low end extension down to 30 Hz. I might be able to gain a lot of volume and efficiency. I'm wondering even about replacing my B2 (93 db @ 1W/1m, +/- 3 dB 41 Hz to 22 kHz, -6db at 31Hz) with the Vanderkley 112MNT (99db @ 1W/1M, 40 Hz – 16 kHz). I'll post further after some experimentation.

I picked up a secondhand 2006 black and maple Super J a little while back. With steel strings it really has a very nice 'modern jazz bass' sound a la Marcus Miller. Well built and easy to play. I'm going to try a Dingwall P pickup up front to see if I like the Dingwall PJ set-up too - should be fun to experiment. I'm also now awaiting a custom SJ4 which will be stunning. I now have definite DAS (Dingwall Acquisition Syndrome).