Phil Starr

It says a lot for Leo Fender that these are still go to basses. Personally I love the tone of my Fender Jazz at home but so often the P bass just sits so well in the mix when with the band that it is always what I turn to if there is anything rocky going on, they really do just work. The jazz works well with softer semi acoustic stuff though. Pickups pick up more of the fundamental relative to the harmonics the further away from the bridge they are. This means there is a sweet spot where the balance between fundamental (the deep bass) and harmonics gives a nice balanced sound, with a twin pup design you can't have both on the sweet spot and usually the neck pup is too heavy and the bridge pup too light. Blending them restores harmony grasshopper, but because the pups are separate there will be cancellations of some frequencies so you get a new sound often described as a mid scoop. Personally I love the sound of my Jazz with the neck pup on full and the bridge pup just about 2/3. It is smooth when I'm gentle and snarls as I dig in, but it doesn't sound like a P bass. I'm surprised no one has mentioned the neck, traditionally the P neck is much more solid and chunky, the J bass really quite elegant and slim. With small fingers I much prefer the J-bass neck, though lots of P-basses are now fitted with a J style neck. The experience of playing them is very different IMO. I'd absolutely agree with the guy who said the one he prefers depends upon which month you are talking about. Most gigs I use my American Deluxe P-bass which has a neck halfway between J and P with a P pup and what looks like two J pups fixed together as a humbucker. No two fenders are alike anyway.

That's a fantastic budget and should give you a pretty wide choice and some great gear. Your approach is going to be the best way forward. You are going to give everything a good listen before you buy. I feel sorry for the shops a little if they are going to invest hours in you auditioning gear before you go to a German discounter. You should at least offer them the chance to price match Hartke speakers are unique and if you like the sound then you probably have to stick with them or use them as the sound to compare your other options with. Too many people here go on about dispersion with 4x10's. There are problems with a restricted dispersion of higher frequencies but this is also part of the sound, the restricted dispersion pattern is also helpful in many venues as it reduces the reverberant sound off the side walls and ceilings. Mixing cabs is ok but it has a tendency to smooth out any character in the speakers rather than adding the character of both. I'll question however the wisdom of going for a huge rig like this. I can see that you might struggle with 170W into a couple of dodgy old speakers but put that through a 4ohm 4x10 and you are going to get a lot more volume immediately. Get a really good 2x12 and a more powerful amp for example and you can completely drown out the drums. I've said it elsewhere but my drummer complained he couldn't hear his own snare when I cranked up my own rig. If you are going to have to mic the drums then your band will sound better with your money invested into the PA. Really if your rig can reproduce bass without distortion at 120dB you are going to be more than loud enough to drown the drummer and damage your own hearing permanently (That's serious, not exaggeration by the way) I really wouldn't give most guitarists a 4x12 for the same reason. You've said that you will be playing small to medium venues, why carry gear designed for playing stadiums in the days before PA support was available?

Personally I prefer a 'heavy' 3/4" cab with minimal bracing to an extensively braced cab. Not that i think one is wrong and one is right but I'm less than convinced that the extra work is justified by the change in sound. There is very little weight saving if the bracing is extensive. One day I'm going to do extensive testing of this but I haven't so far. I'd stick to broom handle style cross bracing with only one or two across the panels. Keep them off dead centre, you are damping panel vibration as well as stiffening the cab and a central brace only moves the fundamental up an octave. Kind of like trying to damp at the twelfth fret and playing an accidental harmonic.

What I'll end up gigging with is up to how it sounds, I always advise people to listen before they buy and not rely on well meaning advice and then what do I do? I'm just fed up with the weight of the Hartke 3500 and given that I rarely touch the amp during gigs the eq ,versatile though it is, won't be missed. 350W through my current speakers is total overkill and my drummer complained of not being able to hear his own snare so I guess that's loud enough. I contemplated using a PA amp and Sansamp but at just over £200 from Andertons this looked cheap enough to take a punt on, I have a bit of a soft spot for Ashdown because their after sales is so good. I'll let people know here how I get on with the amp.

Just had a successful gig last night with my Hartke Kickback 10 that someone mentioned earlier. It was a small pub with a low ceiling and I decided to use this which I carry as emergency backup. My normal rig was in the van but as I expected it would have been overkill. Depends upon your band of course but it is surprising how little you can get away with. We play Pop/Rock and the pub would have taken about 70 people. I'm toying with replacing the speaker with something a little more capable and using it more often in small venues. The only problem is that it doesn't handle extreme bass at all well and if you crank it you need to roll off the bottom end a bit. Shoving it hard against a back wall brings the bass back up a little though, you couldn't use it on an open stage.

You can overdo the worry about joints, rabbets make it easier to clamp up but don't add significantly to the strength, there isn't a big increase in glue area, there are lots of successful cabs with simple butt joints for example. My favourite for home construction is the reinforced butt joint with a 1" batten screwed and glued along all the joints. Screwing and gluing means no clamping increased strength and some damping of panel resonance and it is so easy. It was the recommended technique for years and even some commercial cabs used it when they were hand built. Almost any mastic is good for sealing joints, though if you do a good job should be unnecessary. The glue should seal everything. I use water based mastic because I don't like solvent fumes around expensive drivers but by all means use silicone if you leave the cab to air for a couple of days before fitting the driver permanently in place.

Depends upon how bad it is. My first bass (Cort) had a real problem with the D and G strings sounding really weak. New Rotosounds brought them back in but a month later they were lost again. Numerous internet searches and forum discussions revealed it to be a common problem but nothing suggested about set up or eq really did more than disguise the problem. It was solved when i bought a new bass, (MIA Jazz) the D and G are intrinsically punchier with everything from flats to Rotos and beyond. Eq the mids and tops and you get a nice balance. Same with my T-bird and P-bass. I swapped pickups on the Cort for Kent Armstrongs and that works well now, problem solved. If you are unhappy with this I doubt you'll tweak it out and I don't think it's the strings, though I'm sure some are better than others. Some basses and some pup's are good at this though.

If like me you are new to playing the blues there's a Hal Leonard book on blues bass which covers about a dozen blues standards, pretty much all the songs mentioned above. There's a play along CD too so you can make your mistakes in private. Most importantly it gives an explanation of 'from the five' or quick IV and the endless variations of the turnaround (last two bars). Most blues players kind of underplay how much knowledge they have, the music has a structure but infinite variations and if you've been playing it for years then you kind of forget having had to learn it. Don't undersell yourselves guys. Have fun

Thanks for this guys, I think I'll go for it. The AER will have to wait.

Thanks, I think from an earlier trawl that Doddy has the earlier MiBass with the semi parametric eq, since I use very little eq this shouldn't be a downer for my use.

If you are putting 500W into a single 15 unfiltered and probably with bass boost then there isn't really a speaker made that will cope long term. It says something good about the Peavey that it is still coping. Look inside and if it says Black Widow on the speaker it is a decent speaker. The Thumpinator is a great idea for a speaker abuser It removes the deep bass you can't really hear without affecting your sound much and you can crank further without damaging your speaker. It sounds like you need to get a second cab if this doesn't work. You are asking a lot of a cheap single 15. You can buy a second hand Peavey in a cab for £50-100. Less than the Kappa pro

I'm wondering about getting one of these as they are going cheap at the moment. I prefer an uncoloured sound. DI into the PA sounds fine to me but my bands prefer to have some bass on stage. Any one had any experiences with one of these?

[quote name='grenadilla' timestamp='1409178484' post='2537293'] I have a similar problem. I just bought a used Ashdown ABM 610 with one blown 'Blueline". I have found no replacements except Eminence Beta , Eminence Delta, or some newish BL 10-200X Celestion. I am leaning toward this 200w Celestion. The Ashdown speaker says "made in England 150 watts".This cabinet is sealed. Opinions or advice wanted... [/quote] Sealed cabs are much simpler and you are less likely to have a caastrophic result but mixing drivers in a cab isn't really going to be the best way of going ahead, internally they share the same air and externally they will 'share' the sound radiated and will probably make the cab sound a little blander or less characterful, although one speaker in six isn't going to make much difference.

[quote name='hogman' timestamp='1409162923' post='2537020'] I am currently having a veritable nightmare with my nemesis 2x10 and 1x15 cabs, there humble speakers dying, granted they have had a hard life. Got manufacturers replacement speakers that were both replaced by myself I am more than qualified to do this, I ran them in at low volume for 72 hours as I do with all my drivers. They have had very little hard use (compared to what they used to get I was gigging between 3 and 5 nights a week and out 4 - 5 a month now) and suffered no real abuse, I use an Ampeg SVT 3 and have since I bought the cabs. The speakers looked the same but are obviously not. Could you suggest a better quality speaker for the cabs (Eden Nemesis). To say I am disappointed is an understatement. The cabs have served me well for over about years ( being fed a diet from punk rock to Jazz and experimental playing) and I have replaced the 10's but not the 15 and was hoping to get a lot more out of them than 7 Months. Not to bothered about price n drivers is what I am after the cabs are a great size. The horns are a bit shouty. Any help would be ace! [/quote] You need to give us some help here, We need to know the internal volume of the cab or the internal measurements, if you know the thickness of the walls you can work it out from the external measurements or you can remove the speaker to get inside. We also need to know the size no and length of any ports.

Andertons have an offer on at the moment, the Mi12 is £199 [url="http://www.andertons.co.uk/bass-cabs/pid24233/cid686/ashdown-mibass-mi12-1x12-cab.asp"]http://www.andertons...12-1x12-cab.asp[/url] This might be the thread they are referring to [url="http://basschat.co.uk/topic/227904-1x12-cab-design-diary/"]http://basschat.co.u...b-design-diary/[/url] as usual it has drifted a little but there are enough details on there for you to go ahead and build one already and the final design will be ready soon, I promise [url="http://basschat.co.uk/topic/227904-1x12-cab-design-diary/"]http://basschat.co.u...b-design-diary/[/url] . If you ask on the thread I can put the dimensions back up. Someone ( 6V6) has already built a close 'version' of this [url="http://basschat.co.uk/topic/200152-1x12-diy-cab-build/page__hl__1x12"]http://basschat.co.u.../page__hl__1x12[/url] which will give you an independant view of how it might sound.

Well I never, I was going to challenge you on that one Stevie but I checked, Youngs modulus for steel is 210,000 v's 70,000 N mm-2 for aluminium depending upon which alloy you are talking about. So you are right. However of course rigidity and stiffness are not the same and cast aluminium structures are thicker for the same weight so aluminium chassis may be more rigid even if steel is stiffer. It is certainly true that all the bigger ceramic magnet speakers have had cast chassis for the extra rigidity for years. Bill is right though, I think, about heat dispersion for neo speakers, their light weight would not need particularly good load bearing but it is difficult to radiate heat from small structures with a relatively low surface area. [url="http://aluminium.matter.org.uk/content/html/eng/default.asp?catid=217&pageid=2144417130"]http://aluminium.mat...geid=2144417130[/url] [url="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Young%27s_modulus"]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Young's_modulus[/url]

Don't paint your cones, depending upon their make they will be made of carefully mixed plant fibres (markbass use a bit of banana fibre in the mix I think) possibly treated with a coating to damp resonances and adjusted for weight and stiffness. Adding paint will affect both the mass and stiffness and ultimately the sound of the speaker. I think the OP has decided changing the grille is better anyway but just in case anyone else is considering it.

Sorry but that isn't [size=4]right[/size] at all, you'll have noticed that I said all other things being equal, as you say the laws of physics aren't swayed by opinion. The resonant frequency is inversely proportional to the square root of Mms [size=2][/size] which I'm sure you know. For the non technical the resonant frequency is determined by the mass and the compliance of the speaker. Compliance is the floppiness of the cone support, The bendiness of the corrugated spider and the cone surround combined. For the examples Bill gave the compliance and the mass are both different. That's exactly why I wanted to make the point about it being a little more complex than 'the only difference is dispersion'. You can tune a small speaker lower by making a heavier (and usually stiffer as a result) cone or by raising the floppiness, these in turn affect other speaker parameters. I could give plenty of examples of speakers where the large cones are heavier but I don't think people will have too many difficulties in seeing that an 18" cone will usually be heavier than a 6" cone for example.

Sorry to spoil the party but dispersion isn't the only factor affected by cone diameter. First of all you can't vary cone size without changing either its mass or cone thickness both of which will alter the sound it produces. A heavier cone will resonate at a lower frequency and ultimately reproduce lower frequencies as a result, all other things being equal. It will also take more energy to accelerate and decelerate, changing its ability to track high frequencies and its transient behaviour. It's also true that speakers with high surface areas tend to be more efficient, all other things being equal. Even the dispersion issue isn't quite as clearcut as presented. This assumes the cone moves as a piston, and it won't. In practice they all flex to a greater or lesser degree so that more high frequency sound is radiated from the centre of the cone and for most speakers the effective radiating area reduces with frequency. As a result it is possible for a single 15" speaker both to produce appreciable output at the upper frequencies of a bass and to have acceptable radiation of those frequencies. As in the Barefaced compact. You'll have noticed the repeat of 'all other things being equal' and of course they won't be. There are lots of variables other than cone diameter and all have an effect on the sound the final design will make. What Bill is saying is that there isn't a characteristic 'sound' made by a 15 or a 10 which is completely right, but it is easier to make a 15 go louder and deeper than a 10 and much harder to get a decent top end out of a large speaker. The 'sound' depends upon a lot of factors not just cone size.

The aluminium basket does two things potentially. It is more rigid than its steel counterpart and this might help in the longevity of the speaker. Ceramic magnets can be pretty heavy and the basket can potentially distort over time. The second advantage is that aluminium is a great conductor of heat and the frame may help in cooling the magnet and coil. This could mean less power compression as the speaker heats up. Notice the conditionals, maybes and mights. I've not seen any figures on this though Bill may have some sources to offer. Generally I prefer to go for the cast frame although I've had few problems recently with pressed steel frames. Cast frames are always more expensive to implement and there are potential benefits so they are one indicator of a little more care in the speakers design/implementation. I'm using the Fane 10-300's with the steel frame in my stage monitors however with no problems at all so far.

All of the above is good advice. There are three abilities that will get you constant work and none of them are to do with musical ability. The most important is the ability to network, go to the places musicians hang out and talk to people, listen to them carefully and store up their knowledge and share your own. If they know there's a bassist going spare and one of their mates needs a bassist... Equally if you can help them a bit with a contact they'll remember you and pass you on more often. The second ability is the one in shortest supply with musicians, organisation. I'm a crap bassist but a born organiser, Book rehearsal spaces, gigs, run the PA and lights, blow noses carry spare fuses and wipe their little bums at times. I play with people much better than me and so far no problems finding a band. The third ability is self awareness, what are you actually like to work with and what are you looking for in a band? Know your own strengths and weaknesses especially personality traits and work with them. Also recognise what you are prepared to compromise over and what is a sticking point for you. the more you are prepared to compromise the more desirable you will be as a bandmate. Originals bands are always going to be tricky as it demands big egos. If one of you wants to write power ballads and the others metal it really isn't going to work. If you are open minded and respectful of other peoples tastes it can work better. OK musical ability does matter, but there are so many talented and skilled people out there that it takes other skills to get out of the bedroom.

[quote name='davehux' timestamp='1408018061' post='2526276'] I use a Behringer F1220A http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B0028GWJCG/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o02_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1 Solid, well made, with rubber bumpers on all the corners . Loads of power (forget the 125W thing, it is seriously loud) Nice 3 way EQ. The Feedback filter actually works!!! I know Behringer doesn't get much love on here, but mine gigs regularly and I've had no trouble at all from it. Hard to beat in a 'bangs for your buck' contest [/quote] It seems to me they are getting better. The limits to the 1220's are their volume. Max 113 dB from memory. However for most bands who play on cramped stages this should be enough. Once your monitors start to give feedback problems any extra volume isn't usable anyway. I've not tried them but I wouldn't dismiss them without hearing them.

[quote name='LukeFRC' timestamp='1408054028' post='2526775'] odd off topic question..... say I went and bought a RCF HD12a.... what would stop that (and a preamp) working as a powered bass cab? [/quote] Only the expense. There are several threads on using pa speakers as bass speakers and if you like the sound of DId bass then these speakers should hadle this as well as any. It is still a 1x12 though, so enough for some people but not everyone. Try before you buy though.

[quote name='LukeFRC' timestamp='1408054028' post='2526775'] odd off topic question..... say I went and bought a RCF HD12a.... what would stop that (and a preamp) working as a powered bass cab? [/quote] Only the expense. There are several threads on using pa speakers as bass speakers and if you like the sound of DId bass then these speakers should hadle this as well as any. It is still a 1x12 though, so enough for some people but not everyone. Try before you buy though.

For testing I use a PA amp to get a flat response. Usually a Peavey IPR1600. I've been gigging the cabs with my Hartke 3500. My drummer complained that he couldn't hear his snare when I turned it up so I don't think sound levels are a problem.