Phil Starr

If anything happens to the speaker the cab is still a good potential home for quite a few 15's out there with only a bit of tweaking o the port length. Still it's great to know you have a working Scorpion.

Yes it's just the micro cab, 1x6. you can just about make it out at the back of the stage area. The cab was built as a bit of a proof of concept. I frequently roll off the bass when I'm playing depending upon the venue and what else is going on in the mix. It's pretty obvious that most of what we hear as bass is the second harmonic 80-160 Hz so I wondered what a speaker with a flat response to 80Hz but very little below that would sound like. I also wanted something really portable and not too intrusive to play when I meet up with an old university friend. I had the Fane kicking around waiting to become a midrange driver and when @Pea Turghasked for a 6" to fit in a practice amp I did some modelling in WinISD and built my own too. Three or four bassists have tried it now and the response has been great. (should that be the response to the response?) I'd taken the Lockdown 110T to the pub too but didn't need it, I'd hoped to swap it in but the place was really busy and we only played three songs.

A bit of an update, I've been using the amp for a couple of days in rehearsal with a single 6" cab, surely the ultimate bijou pairing. I wanted the Gnome for just this sort of thing. We have a duo with amplified acoustic guitar and two vocals and I needed something super compact to carry with all our luggage or a weekend away which would produce a satisfying sound for rehearsal. Which it does in spades. Within 5 mins the amp was quite warm and fair enough to get the volume through a small speaker it was working about 3-4x harder than with a 'normal' bass cab. the funny thing was that as we turned up it stayed at a similar temperature and even between songs it seemed to stabilise at 'quite warm' not quite q hot water bottle more like the forehead of somebody with a bit of a fever, so maybe 40C. The tone controls are OK the bass control seems to shelve so bass is enhanced without getting extreme boost at the bottom end, the mid frequency is lower than my Peavey or MB so it really enriched the bass without getting harsh. The treble is not particularly dramatic, I mean it works but you don't get searing treble and with this speaker moderate roll off wasn't making a huge difference, but this speaker is only flat up to 6kHz so maybe it is acting mainly above this frequency. I liked the mid control though. The best sound I've had so far is with my Zoom Hartke emulation and a touch of compression and bass boost, it pretty much sounds like it does through headphones. the Gnome works well with flat controls and something else doing the eq/processing So tonight I took it all to an open mic in Reading, the Butler if you know Reading. everything else through the provided PA but bass through the Gnome and 1x6. Maybe 50 people in the pub and it was a lively night with an enthusiastic and noisy audience. The pub is an awkward space with an L shaped bar area. I needn't have worried the Gnome and mini speaker were more than adequate My duo partner says the bass dominated the on-stage sound and and Nicole running the sound said it was about right out front. The amp was up quite high and the compression light was flickering but I reckon there were a few more db if I wanted them. I you remember that this was with a tiny 6" speaker then with a couple of decent 12's I think the Gnome would cope fine with a shed building drummer. Finally if you are in Reading on a Friday go and check out the Butler's open mic. The standard was insane for an open mic, some of the singing was exceptional, there were at least six singers I'd have loved to gig with. the audience were enthusiastic too, it was a great evening. Aha looks like the host recorded us, this was with everything set flat with a tiny touch of the top trimmed with the tone on the j bass https://fb.watch/8P3Y8FUcuU/ apologies for the audience singing

Thanks @agedhorse I've never been in a position to specify a speaker. and it's frustrating sometimes to see the compromises manufacturers of drive units settle for. I'd understood 'soft parts'as being essentially the cone and dust cap plus the surround and suspension. The Faital PR300 is a good example, the stock unit looks to be very untidy under break up, the peak in the 320 much easier to deal with in crossover design and I would guess more acceptable for most of us as a sole driver. I'm kind of assuming these are some of the issues you were able to address and wondered how you approached the issues? Just curiosity really, I've reached an age where I don't think anyone is ever going to offer me the chance to specify the speaker I want.

A lot depends upon how you are using your speaker. If you can separate the on stage monitoring from the audience sound by going through the PA then this opens up all sorts of options. Does your drummer rely on your bass cab for his bass monitoring? If your bass cab can be relieved of all other duties then there are lots of solutions. Kickback cab behind you, wedge in front, smaller less directional cab or in-ears. All of these will improve your band's sound as well as improving your ability to hear what you are doing. If not then you only have limited options. A cab with a decent horn crossed over well down into the mids is going to be less directional. Raise your cab to ear level by buying a second cab or use something to tilt your cab so it points at your ears. The other issue is eq. to pick out the details in your playing you need to hear the midrange essentially, boosting the mids is going to help a lot, but if your cab is what the audience hear then that probably isn't an option. I'm guessing here that you choose15'sand 4x10's because you like to shape your sound with your cabs?

If you can do tell more. Obviously we wouldn't expect commercially confidential details but the general principles of what you were trying to achieve and the methods you used to get there would be really interesting.

The important trick is to buy a new set of Stanley blades. They need to be really sharp for the best finish. Love the vinyl, haven't seen it called leatherette for a while and yes I've done the upside down trick, there aren't many mistakes I haven't made.

I've used a single 310 at rehearsal and wouldn't hesitate to use it as a stage monitor at a gig. They are a bit bass heavy when not on poles so as floor monitors for bass you'd roll the bass back a bit which would give you decent headroom. A pair of them would certainly do as bass speakers but I don't think I would use them as full PA including bass and kick without subs. So much of this depends upon what gigs you are doing and what your ambitions are. We are your typical pub covers band with a few functions where we normally are expected to be at a comfortable volume. the few bigger (small festivals) gigs we have done have had hired in PA's. We've never needed anything our QSC12's can't cope with. I've got subs and other tops but never needed them with this band. I've looked at RCF 735's but I'm not sure I can justify them, or want to lift them onto poles. I'd say your next step ought to be looking at a new mixer, I paid £335 for my RCF M18 and I'll get something for the Yamaha MG it replaced so the upgrade is only going to cost me less than £200. The Behringer isn't much more. That gives you benefits straight away as the mixer is just easier to set up and has so many more options for improving your stage sounds. It's simple then to move each band member to IEM's as you already have 6 or more Aux outs ready to go. Once a few of you have gone that way you can then move to putting more through the PA and upgrade your speakers then. If in ears didn't work for you a second set of ART 310's as individual stage monitors would let you go in that direction for a lot less than bigger better PA speakers. £10's with a sub are already quite a capable set up. Lot's to think about eh?

You shouldn't need to retighten the router at all but the collets sometimes aren't all that smooth and mine has a kind of false biting point where you get resistance but it isn't quite tight. It's worth double checking is all. They are one of the more lethal bits of kit, The rotation speed and gyroscope effect gives them a mind of their own and nothing else I have rotates anything like that fast. There's also no safety guard once you've locked in the depth of cut. I much prefer mounting the router and moving the workpiece if i possibly can, I don't enjoy freehand routing.

The 12PR 320 is the one we selected for the Basschat 112T cabinet as the best value for money/performance compromise we could find from any widely available manufacturer. It has been very widely tested and reviewed in these forums and i believe about 20 models have been built. That said it was selected or use in a 2 way cab. The decision might have been different if we had gone for a single driver without the tweeter. There are differences in the frequency response too with the 320 flatter up to 1kHz then with a pronounced but well controlled break up above that. However it isn't quite as simple as that, the big advantage o the 320 is the long voice coil and the consequent excellent excursion, that means it will handle the 300W thermal very well, it also has a heavier cone and will potentially go a little lower. Vas is higher though so it will probably need a bigger box, you'd have to mess around with the modelling to see if it was significant though. However if you were going to use this at lower power excursion might not be an issue but extra sensitivity welcome. The two speakers won't sound the same either looking at their midrange frequency responses and i wouldn't want to guess which you'd prefer. If it helps I went for the 320's which are really nice speakers at any price. I know @Stevie is looking for a better speaker at a price no object level and is finding it hard to find anything which is significantly better all round. It helps to start with a design spec in mind too, what do you want to use the speaker for?

"I did have a scare as I was not checking the tightness of the router bit after every pass. On the 4th or 5th cut the bit must have loosened and my cuts got shallower as it pushed the bit up to the collet. I am really glad I stopped at this point and did not hurt myself with a metal cutter spinning at 20,000 RPM." I did that just once, the bit flew out like a bullet and smashed on the wall opposite bending the metal shaft, you really wouldn't want it hitting something soft

Hi Al, our band are going through this slowly and each stage is an improvement. When I joined them I went to see them a couple of times and nearly didn't join them because their sound was so unstable. loved their set and they are really good people in every way but I'd just left a much tighter band and didn't want to go backwards. The starting set up before I joinedwas with no monitors but the singer used in ears just to shut out the on stage noise and hear herself sing. I can't pitch without monitors so first gig i took my ART310's along. They are fabulous monitors, no sonic nasties so you can push them really hard before feedback. Having good on-stage monitoring really tightened the band up. So at this point we had pretty much your phase B. Only with QSC's as mains but retaining back line, turned down however with bass/guitar going through the PA as well but turned down. Our next step was to purchase a new mixer RCF M18. this has 6auxes and separate mixing with phone apps. First gig I used the monitors with separate mIxes then the drummer and I went in ears. I just used the XLR out from the floor monitor to feed the IEM's so I could pull them out if there was a hitch, there wasn't. The drummer now has IEM's with ZS10's and a Behringer P2 and the guitarist has bought the ZS10's too. I'm expecting the floor monitors to go soon as we get used to it. I haven't had to explain anything, each step was a small one and each one was a noticeable improvement. No arguments we just tried things and they worked. Change is scary for a working band, it might lead to something better but we are all terrified of gear going wrong and having to play through it badly in front of an audience. for band members who don't understand tech it is doubly terrifying. Honestly I think you would benefit is lots of ways in separating your on stage and out front sound and a step by step approach does take people with you. Getting the in ears right is the revelation, you can hear everything like you can in the studio recordings, even better you can turn it all down to a level where your ears don't ring. You even have a volume control for the guitarist and the drummer All that depends upon the mixer with Auxes for all the band members. The old mixers that could do that weren't really portable and cost more than most bands PA, digital has changed all that. Oh one last thing, I use the RCF 310's with my duo for everything including bass. Put those babies on poles and the bass sound will be the best you've ever heard outside of a full pro touring rig. they aren't really designed to be flat response on the floor put them at ear level and let them sing, try it in the rehearsal room, I promise bass heaven

There are good reasons to choose to simply double up cabs, it is the only way to preserve the original sound and only increase the volume. It also avoids the problems of matching power handling, loudness, impedance and all the other technical and practical things. However you can 'solve' the technical issues to match cabs and it is possible to get a good sound, just different from either of the cabs you are using. The only problem is like blending spices you can never sure if they will clash or complement until you try them and the perfect blend can be a matter of luck or a lifetime trying things. Why do you want a second speaker? Isn't this one heavy enough ? Seriously though it's a 400W 15" speaker in a big box driven flat out it's going to be louder than your drummer and is going to make it difficult for your singer to hear themselves as well as bleeding bass guitar into all the vocal mic's. If it doesn't cut through then that is more likely to be about frequency response and eq or the noisy bad manners of the rest of the band rather than lack of ooomf. You might be anticipating a problem you don't actually have. I'd wait and try it on it's own first before deciding if it needs back up.

one of the big advantages of @Ashdown Engineering is that you can ask them

We did a shootout with the 121 at the Southwest bass bash a few weeks ago, it was up against some much pricier FRFR opposition but was very obvious that it has a quite strongly 'flavoured' frequency response. Not a lot of deep bass but a very noticeable hump in the 80-160Hz region which a lot of people like. Without going into technicalities it's also what you get from a lot of old school 4x10's. It's probably worth knowing that this is the sound you like. I can't imagine the situation where a decent 4x10 wouldn't be 'enough' on its own as you will be easily louder than the drums. I'd probably back the idea of looking for a stand alone 4x10 that sounds good to you and have the options your other speakers provide. The vertical 2x10 stack is a great idea for dispersion but you'd still need to look for 2x10's that are voiced to give the sound you like.

This all sounds very familiar, I use a Sheppach site saw for this sort of job and with the English weather working outside is a problem. My workshop is too small to manoeuvre an 8x4 sheet. Lots of temporary tables to set up. I recently bought a cheap plunge saw with a track and it means I can now cut the board down initially with much better accuracy than with the Skillsaw. It also does a scoring cut which is so successful I've started doing it with the table saw. Someone locally is selling a big industrial panel saw which I'm very tempted by but I've nowhere to set it up at the moment. I'm going to try my next build using just the plunge saw just to see how accurately I can cut with it. It's this sort of thing YouTubePlunge Saw

I'd strongly recommend the wine if like me you like full bodied reds with a really smooth oak finish. Portugal are producing some fantastic value wines at the moment. Can't remember if it was Naked Wines or Laithwaites

I see Barefaced are claiming 98db/W for the 210. 280W into 4 ohms from the Gnome will give you +24db or 122dB overall. that's going to be loud enough to match a drummer.

The AER is always a good shout if you can afford it. Lovely sounds impressively loud for the size and versatile too. Can I suggest the Warwick Gnome/TC Bam route though, perfectly clean sounding (partly I suspect because they use generic chipsets and boards) 200W or even 130W through 8 ohms is plenty for working with an acoustic set and fits in your gig bag. Frankly at £120 you can't go wrong and if it's a mistake you'd be able to sell it on for £100 I've designed a tiny cab for working with acoustic bands, if you are West Country based I'd love a second opinion if you wanted to borrow it .

I had thought of suggesting these too, if you are up for a bit of woodwork they can be rehoused, ironically the 2x15's didn't weigh an awful lot less.

Pet hate for me too

I've only ever played in covers bands. I love playing with my current band and being with people that I really like and wouldn't have met any other way. I've a few friends from previous bands that I still meet up with regularly. I get a lot of joy from playing almost any song when the band gels, that out of body feeling when the music seems to be coming from somewhere else. Most of all though I love an audience, love to see people having fun that I'm part of providing. For that I'll pretty much sacrifice musical taste. I've absolutely no problem with Summer 69, Mustang Sally, Sweet Caroline or any of the others we all get asked to play. There are so many pot-boilers it brings down the cost of learning a new set list as in the end you'll know half the set list of almost any covers band. I've no time for other band members who are constantly whining about having to play things the audience love. I'll freely admit I'm a musical tart, but I do enjoy turning tricks. I'd never listen to this stuff willingly if i didn't play the songs. I freely admit to never having heard 7 Nation Army until I was asked to play it but offer me a room full of middle aged men playing air bass and I'm your man. There is a balance however, there have to be a few songs you want to play, and a few for each of the rest of the band members, our drummer wanted to play Nancy Boy/ Placebo. God it's boring for the bassist but he loves it so it's a small price to pay. I'd stick with a band playing fun songs longer even if I didn't get on with some of the band and i'd put up with a 'lesser' set list if the band were getting good gigs or were good musicians. I don't need the money fortunately but it's also lovely to get £2-3,000 a year for your hobby. So, I reckon I'm lucky if I like 25% of the set and I wouldn't listen to any of the songs by choice but the deal is sweet and I'm not selling my soul, just a few hours getting each song together instead of watching trash on the telly.

It's more than that though. I wouldn't want to go back to the old levels of unreliability and high costs but there are still component level repairs which are possible. Two restrictions make repairs a closed shop: the unavailability of spare parts and the lack of circuit diagrams. I had a Behringer go down recently and could buy the board really cheaply from a trade supplier. It actually came fully assembled with a sub-chassis so the whole repair took less than an hour. Wharfedale (part of one of the biggest Hong Kong based manufacturing companies in our sector provide parts for PA by return of post. Why don't Mark Bass? I suspect it's convenient to outsource responsibility for your old kit and there is a healthy deal for a monopoly on repairs. In the end consumer satisfaction and reputation depend on a good product but also the lifetime experience of the purchaser. If Markbass want to wash their hands of their customers then that will quickly become reciprocal.