Phil Starr

[quote name='Ghost_Bass' timestamp='1504719277' post='3366893'] Yes you're correct but i think there's even more to it than just that. With the port to the front it sounds more focused and punchy. The notes "breathe" more. The back ported cabs just throw me a wall of wooly bass that in some stages may become boomy. BTW, i use my cabs lifted to ear level and never in corners or backed against walls unless there's no other option available. [/quote] The trouble is you are comparing chalk and cheese. You aren't comparing speaker cabs with the same drivers in, they aren't the same shape, size and the ports are all different sizes and shapes. In addition unless you did your testing all in the same room with the speakers carefully placed at the same spot using the same bass and amp with the settings all identical it isn't really a fair test. Oh, and you'd have to put the speakers behind a screen and the assistant switching the speakers round wouldn't have to know which was which either, a double blind test. What I'm hearing is that you prefer some forward ported cabs to some rear ported cabs. You are probably right but that isn't necessarily about the port. Most of us prefer the look of a traditionally ported cab (me included) they just look right. The reasons for putting the port on the back are usually to do with the restricted size of modern cabs. As someone has said you can't put a big port on a small baffle. Small cabs are only really practical with speakers with more powerful magnets to get the damping and they have characteristically different frequency responses. Maybe you just like big old cabs or underdamped responses. Nothing wrong with that it's what made the bass sounds we've all loved for years. I guess the only reason for saying this is to help the next person looking to buy a cab. The advice is that you should try them out, see how they sound, don't worry about where the port is. Buy the one that sounds right. Always be sceptical of experts unless they offer evidence, which people have, but science does give you a way of deciding right from wrong and a lot of people here like the technical details. In this case the science is unequivocal, the placing of ports isn't going to make a difference unless someone has screwed up. There are better things to worry about, like the size of the ports.......

For me the answer is no, or at least not usually. The limiting factor for most pub bands is the ability of the sound engineer, and the time taken to set up. Keeping it simple is always a worthwhile thing to think about. Mostly the drums are too loud anyway unless you are lucky with your drummer. Acoustic drums sound really nice, poorly miked ones not so much. It's not really a case of shoving any old mic somewhere near the kick and automatically getting a good sound, it takes a lot of skill/experience. You really need to listen to your sound. does it need more drums? If not then why do it? Do you have someone out front mixing? If not you can't tweak the sound anyway so again why make it complex. Obviously if you are playing bigger venues you'll need PA support and a lot of bands like a bit of extra kick drum in the mix but it is horses for courses and I'd need a reason to start miking the drums. If you do then go on the internet and start researching, I quite like two overheads, have a look at the 'Glyn Johns' method.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QeIxJzdPD0A

Your question doesn't make total sense. Which amp are you talking about? The output from a valve amp goes through a transformer which is designed to match the speakers. Depending upon the amp the output may be matched to 4,8 or 16 ohms or even all three. You may also have just a four ohm output with two sockets, plug in two 8ohm speakers into these two sockets and you have a 4ohm load. (so that's [b]either[/b] one 4ohm [b]or[/b] a pair of 8ohm speakers) You'll only get full output if your output and speaker impedances match. A fifty percent mismatch isn't going to break anything but will reduce the power available. You need to read the manual to check which situation you are dealing with.

[quote name='fftc' timestamp='1504425008' post='3364683'] What about side ported or bottom ported? [/quote]with side ported common sense works. it's no different from a rear ported cab. A bottom ported cab is going to hve some extra resistance imposed upon the port but the designer should have allowed for that in the design.I personally can't think o a commercial bass speaker with a bottom port.

the port only makes a sound around the tuning frequency. For most bass speakers that will be roughly 50Hz. The wavelengths down that low are roughly 6metres so moving the port 30cm round the back of the cab will make almost no difference to what you hear. Obviously if you were to jam the speaker hard against a wall and block the rear port then that would affect the output from the port but if it is more than the diameter of the port away from the wall you won't have a problem. You can use a rear ported cab with no worries

Are you listening for pleasure or trying to transcribe a bass part. If the latter then extra bass really won't help. Try rolling of the treble and mids, effectively this removes the other instruments/vocals a little and lets the bass through.

In a previous band we used a Behringer B205D on a mic stand or the drummer which he quite liked (bought it off me, so he must have done) I think he liked being independent of the main monitors.

I had the chance to try side fills for the first time this w/e. A couple of Wharfedale Titan 12A serving backline and keys with traditional floor monitors for the frontmen. I have to say the sound was great with vocals and keys really in focus over some noisy bass. No feedback issues on a biggish despite the vocalists using cardioid mics, can't weed them off their SM58's

[quote name='Gottastopbuyinggear' timestamp='1504094112' post='3362618'] By way of an update, we've gone for Yamaha DBR12's (based on reputation for reliability and the four year warranty) and a Soundcraft UI12 (based on having 8 mic preamps, should we need them, and ability to have up to four separate aux mixes). Not used in anger yet, though we have used for rehearsal and I found it really easy to get a good mix. So far no problems with the built in WiFi on the UI12, though I have also got it linked to a small WiFi router via ethernet cable. Still looking at new monitors - the Alto TS210 looks a likely candidate, although there are a lot of stories about the tweeters blowing on them. [/quote]I'm sure you'll get many years of great sound from them. If you don't blame the band One school of thought is to use the same speakers as your PA for monitors, then if one goes down on the PA you can swap them out. It's worth a thought if you can afford it. Having said that I like dedicated wedges with the controls available on the front. I bought a couple of cheap Behringer 1320's to try out and currently (two years later) they are still going strong and are my 'go-to' monitors, really clear but lacking in bass which is not a problem for vocal monitors of course.

[quote name='thepurpleblob' timestamp='1503737333' post='3360594'] ....and Noris, you *still* haven't linked us to her Facebook page [/quote] you need to be more enterprising, there's a link to the band's Facebook page in Norris's sig

I can see what you mean. However if it is for stopping draughts then it ought to work. Unless it's from the Y100 store It will be crushed when you screw the baffle down remember so my thought is that it should be fine. It's impossible to be sure from a photo at this distance. Go ahead and if you think it's an issue later you can always replace it.

You'll know where you stand pretty quickly. If they are reasonable people they'll accept it was their mistake and move on. If there's any resentment it's time to start looking elsewhere. FWIW I'd have done the same as you.

+1 a 300W amp turned down 3dB is a 150W amp. Turned down enough it's a 1W amp.

I use black screws which hides them nicely, and I space them neatly as well. Ultmately they would be hidden by the frame the grille is mounted on. If I'm screwing the baffle on I always use a closed cell foam to seal the baffle

I'd say you'll be fine, it looks a lot better than most commercial cabs. If you did have any troubling resonances the back of the cab is usually the critical face and you could add felt through the speaker hole. That felt is quite heavy so there's a compromise between practicality and optimum damping. If you had continued the 25mm battens along the top panel and the top of the port you could have had a removable baffle, always helpful when prototyping but this looks like a lovely job. Well done, I hope you love it.

I'd go along with the Hal Leonard books. They are nicely graded and because they are edited the tab/notation is accurate, a lot of free tab is a bit off which is really confusing when you are starting out. I found it really encouraging to learn real songs right from the start though, very motivating and the discipline of learning a whole song and not just the main riff makes you concentrate. Hal Leonard used to do a Fast Track Songbook series with CD's and notation/tabs of real songs to play along with. Quite old songs but good fun, and they'll match the book you've been recommended. Reading music and learning music theory is going to make you the best bassist you can be and will unlock your imagination but you can get a long way with tab and it can be learned in minutes but regard it as a way of making quick notes and swapping ideas. Like reading a mates lecture notes rather than reading the textbook. For lazy bu****s like me you can get by with it. The internet is great but finding things at the right level for you is tricky and most of it is unedited and can be confusing when starting out. It gets more useful later on. most importantly spend time with your bass and don't get too hooked on Basschat (other internet sites are available) Have fun

My HA3500 is still easily my favourite sounding amp. I love having the graphic. I'ts only the weight that makes it my second amp for gigging.

Oh! a bit more response than I was expecting! It's as if we are on the opposite sides of a chasm of understanding. I doubt very much that anyone here, if they've been playing a couple of years, doesn't know about scales and chord tones, or about which chords go together and form the structure of most of the songs we play (and by implication the circle of fifths). Even transposition is something you won't really avoid, even if all you do is the bassists version of using a capo... move your hand and play the same pattern. Whilst there are a few people who may play everything by a combination of a decent ear and trial and error and proudly proclaim it as the only way I suspect most of us are hungry for any bit of theory that would help our playing. The trouble is that when someone just says 'learn your scales' it's a meaningless phrase. I'm sure all of us can play a pattern of eight notes and probably know major minor and blues scales (avoiding the mixolydian word here) but if that is all there is to it how does that help? This is where the conversation usually breaks down with frustration on both sides. Most of us can play a major scale, up and down, starting on whichever root note we choose. If we can't we could learn to do so in a few minutes. Surely there is more to it than that? Even calling the notes out as you do it, well I can see that would be useful in learning the fretboard but is that really all there is to it? And how does that help in a practical sense? Honestly I'm not trying to be contentious, I know the ignorance is mine , I just don't get it and can't understand why the people who do get it can't explain what I have to gain. That's why I'm interested in what the OP gets by making the journey.

I'm probably in the same place as Bonzodog. I started with covers bands within months of picking up the bass and the pressure of always learning the next song. (just off to run through 50 songs I haven't played in a while for an occasional duo i play in for next week for example). I'm not averse to learning a bit of musical theory, it's really interesting and I'm confident that it would benefit my playing but I also know the benefits of just learning the songs and it's hard to take a step back for longer term thinking. I'm also confident that our OP will have picked up a lot of bits of musical theory on the way. Learning the scales is surely just shorthand for improving his understanding of theory. So I'm really interested in how he gets on, and how it directly affects his playing. Is it really worth my while in terms of stage performance to ease up on the practice and learning of songs to deepen my understanding of theory?

I have to share one early experience. We played a rough local pub, we were brilliant (for us anyway) in the first set but something went in the second set but by then the punters were well watered and we went down a storm. At the end of the set the landlord disappeared, he's apparently 'gone to bed' according to the bouncers protecting the stairwell. They then had a conversation, decide we were well worth the money, charged up the stairs, frogmarched the landlord down and stood over him whilst he counted out what was owed! Only in the West Country

well done

You might be able to remove the slide up handle mechanism from a suitcase and fix it to the back of the cab, but I'd recomment a lightweight folding sack truck. If it won't slide under your cab then just get some bigger feet fitted to lift it a little.

good luck

As to the 10,12,15 argument I think you have to listen to them and maybe do a bit of homework. Not all of them automatically use the same horn driver or horn. The crossover points may be different and the 10's will be slightly less efficient all other things being equal so the horn may be padded further down. I'll give you one example, my Yamaha Club speakers both have the same horns and drivers but the 12" S112's use the Eminence Deltas which have a huge peak in the frequency response, the 15's floor monitors don't and they sound much better especially on vocals, whereas you might expect the smaller speaker to handle the midrange better. I went along to PMT in Bristol armed with some decent vocal recordings and auditioned their range of PA speakers with a very patient assistant. If the Cardiff branch is as well stocked,,,,,,,,