Phil Starr

Not the Peavey Microbass which I started out with. They are fine in that they make a noise and are bulletproof but they just don't make a satisfying noise. Lot's of deep bass and knowing you can go loud if you want to is really fun and for a bassist still satisfying even now. He's going to play more and practice more if it sounds good. I'd probably go for a used combo from one of the 'known' brands. I sold a Hartke Kickback 10 a couple of months ago for £100 only £25 less than I'd paid for it 10 years earlier so £2.50 per year. It sounded really nice, wasn't too big and I even gigged with it a couple of times. Ashdown, Fender and the like all offer similar options and a named amp will sell on really easily compared with something less well known for bass.

Ha ha I shouldn't mention ideas so easily, now I think I've accidentally committed to designing something to get the best out of a 212 as a sub. It's really tough to design a small sub and less than 50l is problematic. To get something with a small box to have a predictable response you need to compensate for the reduced air mass with a low Q/big magnet driver. That leads to problems with a shelving response as detailed above. You also have to look at the moving mass of the driver and compliance and the knock on effects of all of this affect Vas and so on. It's where the SM212 hit a sweet spot of great all round driver. I think a <50l sub is going to involve compromises. A high cut off point, gradual roll off or reduced efficiency, it might work better with a smaller drive unit for example if box size and portability is the crucial factor. At this point you are designing a system not just a sub. The original 50l SM212 design was created by Basschatters asking for as much low bass output as possible from a truly portable speaker but which would cover the full range of a bass without a tweeter. As such it's most of the way to being a sub design. Maybe we could start another thread if you want a teeny tiny sub design, it might be an interesting challenge. I'm using DSP now in developing designs, so much quicker and easier than building passive crossovers and as you say you can retro fit something passive if it becomes a go-to cab.

Whilst it is almost impossible for us to know what is going wrong at a distance and without more details I think Bill has probably nailed your issue and you need to eliminate this first of all. Your Traynor is lower powered than the other amps, has no bass boost and intrinsic to it's design it a lot of the bass frequencies filtered out. (Forget it sounding louder and bassier for a moment) Your other amps can drive higher powers at lower frequencies into your speakers and that is the classic cause of speakers 'farting out'. Of course we can't hear it so there is a possibility it is something other than the speakers. The thing is to understand how your tone controls work. Your Orange for example boasts +/- 15db of bass control and 'flat' is probably at 12 o'clock, turning the control to 6db of boost will deliver four times the power to your poor speakers (and demand it of your amplifiers output stage. The passive controls in the Traynor can't boost the bass, they only adjust it relative to the mids and treble. Everything full up is the nearest to flat it will do. It's a system that worked for many years and it's kind of intuitive to use because it isn't unlike the way our brains perceive sound. What we hear as 'bassy' is where the bass part of the spectrum is louder relative to the upper ranges. Most of what we hear as bass is upper bass low mids anyway. The really deep speaker flapping frequencies we are nearly deaf to and the valve amp sidesteps this issue by leaving them out and giving the speaker an easy ride. Try using a bit/ a lot of bass cut on your solid state amps and then seeing if the speaker flapping goes away. If so then you are just pushing them too hard. To restore your tone you might need to trim your mids and tops and/or buy an HPF but at least you will know where the problem lies. Our analogue brains weren't really made for the digital world

They are, just got back from rehearsal, saved the settings from our last gig and then just plugged in and good to go. Good to go every time and first time. Individual monitors and the only one I have to ever set is the drummer's (and mine when he logs in to mine by mistake) The psychology is interesting, give them ordinary over ear headphones and they aren't threatened, it's just like the studio which they've all tried before, then get them to try in-ears and it's just a natural progression.

Nice to see the M18 getting a workout.

DV247 still haven't replied to a request for a missing bit from my delivery. I'll try and see if they can sort it as a way of testing out their after sales, let's see if i get any response.

Unable to resist a challenge. I can see what Beyma have done but from a bass players point of view they haven't done us many favours. Essentially this is a completely new speaker and is a bit more 'specialist' than the all rounder the SM212 was. Basically they have fitted a bigger magnet and a larger diameter voice coil. The coil is shorter in the 'new' speaker and the magnet gap bigger and that has reduced Xmax but the power handling, which is rated thermally because the bigger diameter coil can radiate more heat. However the SM212 can shift more air 453cm rather than 334cm (wshat happened to the mathematical notation) which means more of the power is available. This is both speakers in a 50l cab with the SM212 in blue. You can see the extra 50W power handling on the flat lines but around the port frequencies the SM212 is clearly a 'winner' You can how this affects the sound levels produced this is the maximum sound levels with 300W into both speakers. By using a bigger magnet the magnetic forces are greater in the WR12 Qts is much lower and BL is higher. This creates new gains for the new design but also some losses. The new speaker will operate happily in a smaller cab. for a classically flat response it only needs to be in a 30l cab. the SM212 needs a 100l cab. I've chosen to model them in a 50l cab to make a 'fair' comparison. All this extra magnetic force will damp the movement of the cone. As the cone moves the coil in a magnetic field it induces a current in the coil opposite to the current coming from the amp. The stronger the movement and the stronger the field the more this happens so low Qts speakers tend to roll off the bass. Lots of other things come into play but you can see this in the frequency response. Again I've modelled this in the same 50litre cab for comparison. the last graph I promise You can see that the SM212 in blue shows that the 50l cab is a bit small and the magenet a bit weaker so the bass is slightly underdamped and has a peak. For the new speaker the reverse is true and you get an over damped response and a slow roll off from 200Hz. The -3db point is 80 Hz and down to 50Hz the SM212 has more bass. This is reversed below 60hz and at 40hz you get 3db greater output from the new design. However that is at low power because of the higher maximum displacement shown in the second graph the actual maximum bass clearly favours the old SM212 So is the new speaker better? I would say that at the price (big magnets aren't cheap) I'd have gone for a longer coil and a lower Qts, though that has all sorts of knock on implications for the rest of the design. The old SM212 hit a real sweet spot offering still outstanding excursion, power handling, efficiency and other positive features. The new speaker is better suited to a smaller box, both speakers have well controlled cone break up in the higher frequencies but for me Beyma have missed the mark slightly and there are other options. At the price of the SM212 in the UK it was a great speaker.

Good news for anyone who wants to use the Beyma SM212, Blue Aran have just had a delivery of 33 speakers. I'm not sure if this is the last 33 in Europe all now in the UK or if BA have persuaded Beyma to make a small run of speakers. Either way if you are thinking of building one of our Mk1 or Mk2 designs I would consider securing the drivers now, they may not be available later. I'll put up some links later and get back here if I get more information from Blue Aran. I've also been looking at a design for a small PA sub using this speaker, I can put that up if people are interested.

My first gigging cab, already quite old but sounded great, I still don't think I've found a better sound. I didn't find it too difficult to move, castors on the flat and it was no heavier than one of the Peavey 1x15 BWBW cabs. Looks like yours has the BW's with the metal domes? They had a nice top end

Are you going to use it as a single driver for bass guitar? It has a slightly bigger magnet and good efficiency. The frequency response has a slight lift at the top end which is likely to sound quite nice with bass, I'd expect it to sound a bit livelier than the SM212. On the downside the excursion isn't so great as the SM212. This speaker is middling rather than exceptional in that area. For a pub gig one of these would work pretty well but you might need a second for bigger gigs. At £65 the price at Blue Aran is good. The best replacement we've found is the Faital Pro 320. That's a lovely speaker and lightweight but it's a neo and much more expensive, but not much more than the other Beyma so maybe within your budget. You could also look at the Beyma 12CMV2 which i've actually tried in our cabs and sounds quite good too, it's just had a price hike though.

It's always good to look but they are very different beasts. The giveaway is the power handling this one has a 4" voice coil and it's that bigger coil that increases the ability to dissipate heat. It has a much heavier cone which is also stiffer so it doesn't reproduce high frequencies. It is designed for bass frequencies only and for a very small cabinet. VAS is only 40l versus 150l for the SM212. Xmax is calculated differently for the two drivers and is actually almost the same, there are three methods commonly used for measuring Xmax and beyma has joined the rest of the manufacturers in moving from the least flattering to the most flattering measurement. It's a nice speaker but designed for deep bass only, Xdamage is huge. It'd make a compact sub for PA or possibly for duties in a multi-way PA speaker.

Any upright players looking for a slot. I've a friend looking for someone to play with his rockabilly band Redfoot based around Taunton. I've seen them and they are the real deal, the ad is in the bassists wanted section https://www.basschat.co.uk/topic/460457-double-bass-player-for-rock-and-roll-wanted/

The matching of cab to speaker isn't rocket science and with software to do the calculations not time consuming. There are rally only two variables to get a cab that works (though plenty of nerdy tweaks to squeeze a bit more performance). If a cab has the right volume and tuning to match a speakers parameters then it's going to be OK. If they don't you'll probably be messing up the bass response and crucially they won't handle high power levels and you could end up blowing speakers. That's worse case and most drivers have similar characteristics so swaps are only sometimes catastrophic. If you go that route, of swapping drivers, pm me and I can tell you if you are headed for disaster or not. Here are the build threads , though you seem to have decided this is not for you

As one of the people designing speakers on Bass Chat I'll do my best. You seem to have considered most of the options or they have been suggested to you. Lighter Cab Wheeled Cab/Sack Truck Some sort of self build or modification seems to be something you are prepared to contemplate, so is the self build bespoke solution your preferred option or just the means to an end. I always advise people that self build is rarely a money saving proposition in that sometimes it works out but usually the cost of the materials and the new speakers works out similar to the cost of a second hand cab. A second hand cab can always be sold for pretty much what you paid for it. If you radically alter a cab it is likely to dramatically reduce it's saleability/price. Having said that a self build is really good fun and you learn a lot. sometimes it's the only way of getting exactly what you want. I've got a Lidl sack truck. They are cheap lightweight and pack down small. adding castors is simple and you can buy handles that fit on the top rear edge of a cab for wheeling. For lightweight you could go down a size. A single 12 if it's a good one will match an old 2x10 in output and that saves the weight of a magnet and frame. the smaller cab saves weight too. Whatever speaker size you use a neo magnet speaker will save you a couple of kg's per speaker on average. You can save more by using lightweight materials to make the cab. Another back saving solution is to split the cab. An 18kg 2x10 will weigh 10kg per cab if you buy it as a pair of 1x10's. Something like a Barefaced 1x12 will almost certainly have enough output for you and has a lightweight cab with a neo speaker. Other brands are available If you want to build there are designs by @stevie and myslf on here that will perform as well and come in at similar weights. There's also a 1x10 design. Just swapping speakers around is slightly more complex. Speakers and cabs are carefully matched and not every speaker will work in every cab. We can advise you. Think about what you really want and come back here

Yeah we use RCF ART310's as floor monitors. They go to incredible levels before feeding back (courtesy of a nice flat response) and vocals are done really well. Bass is good but a bit heavy because they are designed to be on poles. I used the 310's as floor monitors at a jam night I used to run where a few bands were silly loud. The 310's didn't blink. I'm not saying they are the final word in monitoring, they would't do for a really huge stage but for a gigging band I honestly don't think you need to spend more. I've also used them for bass both on the floor and on poles. On poles its as good a bass sound as I've ever had. Very like the sound I get at home through my £150 Sennheiser headphones. The one thing I ought to say though is that it sounds like you have a bit of a volume war going on, It might be better to shift to in-ears for your hearing's sake.

As you probably know Stevie and I have been designing cabs for BassChat members to build and I've sent several built and half built cabs to various people either to complete the development or for review. I've also sold off a few of the prototypes. Honestly I've never had a problem and it's the small packages that seem more likely to get dropped. I've not been fussed about which carriers I use, whoever is cheapest on the day and I ted to go to one of the brokers like parcels2go. I pay a lot less than £25 including insurance. £12 is nearer the mark for me. I always use a drop off point rather than have to hang around at home waiting at someone else's convenience. I use the same technique of layer of bubble wrap and double skin of carboard box. The couriers usually have a 20 or 25kg limit and a maximum size but none of my speakers are over a metre. I think there is an advantage in the size of speakers, they tend to be on the floor in the vans and they get carried one at a time so drops are less likely. Frankly they are designed to be dropped by roadies/musicians /drummers so you shouldn't have a problem.

If you want to fix this the only way is to work through this logically eliminating each possible cause. You've already swapped in pickups you know are working and had the same result so you now know the pups are working. Everyone is telling you it isn't the tome wood so forget that. You haven't reported checking the height so I'm assuming you haven't tried that yet? The simplest thing would be to compare the height the strings are above the pole pieces on your working Squier and your not so good Vintage. If they are similar then it's unlikely to be that but you should try moving the pups upwards anyway to see if that improves things. If that doesn't work it's probably a wiring issue or possibly a faulty component, something just wired up the wrong way or something short or open circuit.

I don't know how universal this is but I get so hot whenever performing, just buckets of sweat and complete over-heating by the end of a set. I'm straight outside at the mid-way break even when it's freezing. I guess it's adrenaline. I'm still a black T-shirt person mainly because I don't have to think about it, other stuff if the band want it of course (I have a fetching all pink left from a breast cancer gig) basically though the rule is as little as possible. I'm only 70 though so I'll let you know when I grow up.

I think this is the question you need to answer. Looks like you need your bass for recording as much as playing out loud. For that you might only want headphones for practice and there are ways of having a little pre amp that will give you great sound through headphones and which could feed direct to your soundcard. Or for better quality audio interfaces which will also give you a good headphone sound. Are you currently feeding your combo sound into the recording via a mic? Or is the recording issue a red herring? If you need live sound into the room then that's a different issue. Is cost important to you or space?

They don't seem to be offering any prices on their websites

The big difference between the 735's and the 745's are in the horn driver. the 3 is the diameter of the voice coil in the 735 and the 745 has the 4" coil driver. Your 732 has the same 3" driver. Having the bigger compression driver means the crossover is lower down the frequency range and this moves it away form the critical vocal midrange so it will sweeten up the vocals and any instruments that use those frequencies, you also get better dispersion in those frequencies. The bass driver is also improved but I don't think you would necessarily notice that so much. The bigger voice coil also handles more power so you get a couple of db's more at full power. Since you have the 732 you already know how good the RCF's are. Do you need improvement on that? Actually have you tried the 732's without the subs? We use K12-2's without subs and they are similar specs to what you have. They will handle kick and bass at quite high levels, completely capable for any pub gig we've done. Indoors with wall /floor reinforcement I don't think we'd need the little bit extra bass we'd get by using 15's and you might not either. Just an aside as it's an expensive choice; the 745's are the same size as the subs in the EVox's just a different shape, the tops not much bigger than a couple of speaker stands.

I guess it depends upon how you see it and of course how it works out in practice. A pair of 932's are around £1500 and a single RCF sub around £1000 depending upon which you choose. That's £2500 vs £3200 for a pair of Evox 12's. If you wanted two subs then the conventional system would be £3500. The column then sits in the middle price wise. Then it comes down to performance and practicality. Performance wise the conventional system is a better known system for me and with two subs will probably exceed the maximum output of the Evox. In practice I'm not likely to use the subs very often on past performance. The practicality of the Evox is that I'd be using the same system for every gig and it has a smaller footprint than speaker stands so is actually going to be better for smaller venues. The directional properties are appealing too, a broad flat fan of sound so most of the audience get the same sound and less spilling back onto the stage all sounds good. Moving the crossover out of the midrange is appealing too and could mean a better presentation of vocals. That's all promise though and it's how it will work out in ever changing venues each with different acoustics that remains to be discovered. As you say it's a lot of money. I'm not one of life's natural early adopters either but it's still an intriguing prospect.

I've had systems with subs for years 'just in case'. I only take them out when I know there is a need and have used them once a year or maybe less. Essentially they've only gone out for open air gigs with no hired PA or indoor gigs where they've been there as robust stands to stop people knocking over the PA. How often do you play functions with 500+ guests I wonder? This is all with 12" tops 15's will give you a little more so the times when you'd 'need' subs are going to be very limited. I'm thinking of upgrading our PA if we get back to regular gigging again, I'm seriously looking at some of the RCF Evox type systems, these would solve your space issues for transport and to my mind look really professional for a function band compared with the look of 15's on stands.

I think you have your answer here. I've just sold a pair of 25year old Yamaha speakers fitted with Eminence drivers. I've loads of speakers 10-15 years old and a 40 year old Peavey driver that still works fine. MB's Italian drivers are all well made speakers. If you didn't like them then that would be a reason for changing but there is really no reason to change them if you don't. New technology isn't really an issue either if you aren't looking to change the sound

Hopefully @Dan Dare you've had half a day to recover It's a reasonable enough term, not a scientific definition. It's a bit like calling something hi-fi or a car an SUV. How faithful does hi-fi have to be? Which sport and what utility? For decades most bass speakers and most instrument speakers were deliberately designed to colour the sound. By and large most PA speakers were designed to give a reasonably honest impression of what was fed in within the limits of price and the available technology. With the availability of computer modelling of amp and speaker sounds you don't want to start with a deliberately coloured sound from a speaker with a built in smiley faced eq. As we know if you mix colour with colour you usually end up with muddy brown. No hi-fi system is ever going to convince anyone that they are listening to live sound, at least not in the near future and few PA systems are likely to be as honest as a mid-range domestic hi-fi speaker. FRFR is a design philosophy and an aspiration, there will be good systems and better systems and ones that aren't worth the money but that is true of conventional coloured bass amps too. FRFR is just a shorthand for a flattish system we all understand. Not every vacuum cleaner is a Hoover. PS it isn't the plastic it's what you do with it