Phil Starr

Just to redress the balance. It isn't true that mixing speakers is always a bad thing or that the effects are completely unpredictable. If this were so then everyone who ever mixed a 15 with a 4x10 would sound bad and that simply isn't true. What is true is that if you mix speakers of different types (not just sizes) then the results won't be the best of both speakers, Normally you will lose the character of both types a little but if the resonances in frequency response coincide you might get something new appearing. It is also true that 15's aren't automatically more bassy than 10's or that 10's have more top, though this happens more than the reverse. It depends upon the model. I'm not advising anyone to mix speakers and certainly the only way to really know if a combination works is to try it before buying but if a half truth becomes repeated often enough it becomes the received wisdom.

Hi Pete, you need to go through the elimination process just to check that nothing is going wrong. the last thing that I can think of is that speakers can get hot if driven really loud and then lose definition and output. I doubt that you'd push your 4x10 hard enough to do that with a 300W amp though. Another possibility is that you are setting your tone for your practice space not the gig space. Bass amps are affected by room shapes far more than guitar amps and so you always need to re-set eq when you move into a bigger space. I usually end up with some bass roll off but eq differently in every pub we play. the other thing is the Ashdown gear, I started with a Mag 600 which i thought was great until I bought a little Hartke combo for semi-acoustic stuff. I then realised how much tone I was missing and bought a new amp, suddenly all my speakers gave very different tones from each other and my basses came to life. The Mag was making everything sound samey and was veiling the tone. Your MAG has the same pre amp/tone shaping as mine and may be killing your tone. I want to love Ashdown as a British firm and people who provide great after sales but the MAG isn't good IMO. You may just be getting more demanding as you gain experience.

OK the next thing to try is using the amp with no pedals at home or in the rehearsal room but playing at gig volumes on your own so you can really hear what is going on. Can you get a good tone? Is it stable over time? Is the balance between strings good? If everything is now OK it is the pedals. Try adding in only one at a time until the problem returns. If you have the problems with no pedals in the chain it is bass, lead or amp/speaker. Over to you

Sounds like a compressor problem to me too. Is the Mag the one with compression built in? that or the pedal could be the problem.

Don't fall for the idea that 10's sound different from 12's. 10's vary and so do 12's so there is a lot of overlap in 'sound'. You can't guarantee even that 12's will be deeper never mind the rest of the frequency range. It's a bit easier to design a 12" driver that will go a bit louder or deeper but you aren't going to be designing the drive units. 2x12's can be louder/deeper than 2x10's but it depends upon who makes 'em. Go for the sound you like, play through a speaker before buying and listen to local bands to see what they are using.

[quote name='bassman7755' timestamp='1370510646' post='2101921'] Personally I would stick with full range systems designed specifically for bass, like the ones I mentioned. Your going to struggle to get close to the low end response / size / weight as say a BF big baby, even with high end generic PA gear like FBT. Budget and mid range PA gear is not even in the game. [/quote] Ok I'm sure the Baby is a competent speaker and I love the design philosophy alex uses but you are talking about a £750 speaker that still needs an amp. Even mid-range PA is pretty competent at bass, They are designed to handle bass and potentially keys which can have even more bass energy than our stringy things. Take something like the yamaha DXR12, it is £200 cheaper and has a 700W RMS amp built in The frequency response is 10dB down at 52 Hz so the baby goes lower at 30Hz but sensitivity and maximum out put is a lot higher 130dB plays 121. Bass excursion may be a limit though the higher fs will compensate a bit. In any case the speaker is protected by a signal processor so this speaker isn't going to fart out. the speaker weighs in at 6lbs more than the Baby, but that includes the amp. There's loads of others to choose from too. I'm sure your system sounds great, why wouldn't it? But it isn't really the only solution.

One more for the PA route, and they are, or should be, designed for low frequencies. Active cabs usually have low level inputs/2 channel mixing so you can DI your bass too. They also come with built in speaker protection and are cheaper than bass gear of similar quality. It's easy to try too as you can just play straight into the PA to see if you really like transparency.

A lot depends upon the relative importance to you of having something you've made yourself versus a practical solution. A second hand speaker means you can try before you buy, you have good residual value if you need to sell, you know exactly what you are getting. If you decide to go ahead you could try this driver [url="http://profesional.beyma.com/pdf/SM-212E.pdf"]http://profesional.beyma.com/pdf/SM-212E.pdf[/url] I use them and like the sound, smooth and controlled. This is a ceramic magnet driver but still only 2kg more than the Celestion with better excursion and lower bass. 6V6 is building a cab at the moment with this driver, you could wait until he reports back how it sounds and then go for it. Here's the thread [url="http://basschat.co.uk/topic/200152-1x12-diy-cab-build/"]http://basschat.co.uk/topic/200152-1x12-diy-cab-build/[/url]

[quote name='Mr. Foxen' timestamp='1370293635' post='2098852'] Also twice the price, and about same price as the Kappalite, which has slightly better specs. [/quote] This is the problem with self build, you don't really get a guarantee as to how it will sound. I think these two drivers are fairly similar in specs and quality. The Kappalite shows higher headline efficiency and Xmax (excursion, important for deep bass without distortion) to the Celestion NTR but the extra efficiency is because of the K's peak in the midrange, bass efficiency is pretty similar maybe favouring the Celestion but not by enough to worry about. Xmax differences could be entirely down to the different ways the two companies measure Xmax. They are going to sound different though, The Celestion is a PA driver and has a fairly flat response apart from the dip at just above 1kHz The Eminence has a big midrange peak at 2.5kHz, much like the majority of bass drivers which will give it a livelier, punchier sound. Not knowing what sound you like makes it difficult to give you advice. Both of these would work well in your little cab the first cheaper Celestion would find the cab a little small, workable, but with a bass hump and roll off at a quite high frequency. Much like a lot of commercial cabs and a sound a lot of people like, but not accurate and lacking deep bass if that is important. You might get something you love and all the satisfaction of making something good, or you may end up disappointed. the trouble is that it will cost you £200 to find out.

Very few strings will maintain their sound for six months, corrosion and the build up of dirt will change the way they resonate. New Rotosounds are very bright sounding, you don't say which string you changed either and we don't know what the original strings were, Rotosounds are out to one end of the sonic spectrum. I'd expect adjusting the pickups to have a more subtle effect unless you've cranked them so close to the strings that the magnets are significantly damping the string movement. You say noob? if you are new to bass you may also have changed the way you play, a lot of what we describe as tone is in our fingers.

Hi Steve, I'll look out for you. Welcome to basschat.

Poundland have a website! do they deliver, is delivery a pound? we should be told.

I found very little in the way of useful soundclips on any PUPs when I was trying to research them. A few you tube clips but with bassists of wildly differing skills playing their pride and joy all through different amps/speakers and fitted to different guitars so you can't make any meaningful comparisons. Seymour Duncan have clips of theirs but even then the bassist was more interested in showing himself off rather than the pups. In the end i took a leap in the dark but it worked out OK, better than OK really. Hot trad really describes what I bought from Kent Armstrong.

if you've ordered the Wizards they have a great reputation for everything except answering their phones. I've just fitted some Kent Armstrong Hor traditional Pups to my Precision copy and I can't tell you how good they sound, just the sort of thing you are looking for in your post. Might be worth seeing if they do a replacement for your PUPs. Only £50 for mine

I just thought I'd update you on this. The mic has arrived and we gave it a good going over at rehearsal. It does sound a lot, lot better than our second best mic which is a decent AKG dynamic (our third best mics are SM58's) It is much more open and natural sounding but what surprises me is the warmth. The sound doesn't sock you in the face though, it just subtly sounds more like you, if you are in the next room it sounds like someone is just speaking very loudly. In front of the PA I suspect the 'sound' you are hearing is that of the PA, not the mic. Sonically it does what it says on the tin. Feedback wise it really beats the dynamics hands down, we are at least 6db up on the SM58's which is pretty impressive for a condensor. It has a really tight pickup pattern which is switchable to cardioid and pickup falls off stunningly quickly if you pull back from the mic, It really isn't going to pick up a lot of spill from the drums etc. Pychologically it has made our singer read up on mics and mic technique. Within an hour she is really aware of addressing the mic, holding it straight and being aware of distance positioning she is experimenting all the time with the sounds she can get out of it, you can't take hold of something like this and treat it like it is just another piece of metal. So, would I recommend this mic, yes, if cost is no object. Price wise it's a bit like buying an American Standard bass, Oh, you have? Better start saving.

[quote name='aende' timestamp='1368780059' post='2081311'] Hi Phil, I am using Eminence Beta's in one cab (500w total) and Eminence Alpha's in the other cab (300w total). The cabs are old Peavey TX's that have been refurbished. I am thinking that the Delta's may give me more flexibility and I can make the cabs 8ohm instead of 4 ohm and use a wider range of amplifier...... Thoughts? [/quote] The betas are a couple of dB louder than the alphas but only in the midrange, their efficiency in the bass is the same. with the deltas you'd get a an extra 2dB of bass efficiency. However they all need different sized boxes to get the most out of them. The Alpha really needs a huge box to be at its best and the delta the smallest. They are all limited by their excursion which means putting even 250w of power through them from your E string will drive them into overload, so if you did get a bigger amp then you'd have to roll off the bass to avoid the speakers farting out. The alphas aren't really good enough for ported enclosures either. All of them have big midrange peaks which will make them quite punchy and 'loud' sounding. I think if I wanted a cheap fix I might swap out the alphas for betas so you have two matching cabs and then if you give me the dims of the cab and port I can help you tune the cab to get the best out of the betas, Try some really critical listening to the Beta filled cab to see if this is the sound you really love though. Two Betas will cost you £105 and four Deltas £230, though the Deltas will give you a small increase in volume and tighter bass. There are better speakers for the money though four [size=3][font=arial, helvetica, sans-serif][color=#000000][b]Beyma SM110N w[/b][/color][/font][/size]ill cost about £200 and give you a much cleaner sound and more extended bass in a much better made speaker. the only downside is a bit of a wait to get them as Blue aran have to order them in from the factory in Spain. Like everyone else I think your rig ought to be loud enough though and PA support is what you need for big gigs.

The difference between 1000W and 500W is only 3dB, noticeable, but not by much. Changing speakers can cause problems as they have to match the box and more expensive speakers are not necessarily louder. One of the problems with mis matching speakers and box is that it may mean the speakers won't handle their rated power. Deltas have a limited Xmax excursion rating so this might be a problem. Without knowing the dimensions of your 2x10 and what drivers are in it this is all speculation, but you may be about to embark on a plan which won't deliver what you need. If they are big gigs then you ought to be thinking in terms of PA support anyway. with 500W into 4 10" speakers you should be louder than your drummer and he will have to go through the PA, so why would you choose not to? If you generally need more volume then changing cabs will potentially give you a lot more than an extra 3dB but simply swapping drive units might not be the best option.

sadly it isn't as simple as this. Most speakers are a similar size but the bass response goes to pot if you put them in a box the wrong size. The problems are multiplied if your cab is ported as the ports tune the cab to that specific speaker. To match your cab we'd need to know the internal volume and the size and lengths of any ports. Add on to that the sound of a speaker is only very loosely correlated with its size, Not all 12's sound the same so changing the speakers and then matching the cab to driver will still leave you with a very different sounding cab. It could be better or worse or just different. Someone might know what the original Eminence was and if you want to keep it simple then just put one of those in. Plenty of people here will help choose a speaker if you give them your dimensions but be prepared for head spinning detail.

Different processes for different challenges but the first thing is to hammer the song into my skull. I put it on the iPod and listen to it over and over again in the car/kitchen/headphones until I've got the shape of it. Whilst i am doing this I'll look up the chords (yeah I'm lazy) which are usually, but not always, more accurate than the tabs. Strum through the chords to check and if it sounds OK over to the bass, By this stage I've learned the chord changes and the bass line just kind of grows around that usually. At this point we'l be trying out the song as a band so the bass line won't be settled until we get a settled arrangement. After a few weeks the whole thing becomes automatic and the chords get forgotten, a bit like driving in an area you know well and can't actually remember how you got home.

Something is still wrong, mine just blows cold air when there is no signal. I don't think bias is adjustable so probably the transistors in this part of the circuit have blown. This is probably what blew the original output devices. Or he may have caused another problem in fixing the original. Don't use it, it will only make a more expensive repair.

Oh my lord! If you are thinking of putting on decent PUP's onto a cheap bass do it now. I've just received my Hot Trad Kent Armstrongs and 30 mins later they are fitted and I can't believe what it has done to my bass. Just night and day. To cut a long story short I've a Cort Action Bass IV that was my starter bass, I've also a Gibson Thunderbird and a MIA Jazz which i use for gigs. I hate playing the T'bird though it sounds great and I always practice with the Cort because it plays the best of the three and has the best finish and fittings. With your advice I ordered the KA pup but whilst I was dithering someone gave me a Wilkinson to try. That was a huge improvement on the standard pups, all the uneveness between strings went and the uncertain sound with it, suddenly the bass had a bit of character to add to the nice neck. Started to wonder if I had wasted the extra money on the Kents, not a bit, there's just a bit more of everything, punch, definition, clarity. It just sounds like a good Precision. For £150 including the new PUP, why didn't I know this before? Thanks for your help, I'd recommend the KA's to anyone. Other pickups are available. I'm off to the shed.

Actually a lot of desks like my little Yamaha do use the L channel as mono and you only get stereo whenyou plug in the R jack. also you can use the pan/balance control to send the signal to whichever side you want. Behringer desks generally have a mono output too. A bigger problem might be your record deck if the output is direct from the cartridge. This will need RIAA equalisation as the signal has the bass deliberately cut and the treble boosted to reduce record noise. You can buy a box to add this equalisation or a few old mixers have it built in. DJ mixers might be worth a look if you don't intend using the mixer for anything else as some of these still have disc inputs. Also worth a look is the Hipster PPGM which I use for headphone practice, though it won't take a disc input it works great with an iPod.

Hi Lawrence, Celestion told me on the phone that they don't release the details of the speakers they make for Marshall. there's a Marshall logo on the back of these

OK after a lot of dithering I went for the Alnico version. To be honest I couldn't find a negative comment about either model. thanks for your help again. I'll let you know how it sounds.

Yeah, I remember, though more how you played rather than what you played. Proper Job. I thought you had a fretless there?