Phil Starr

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

That's brilliant, I still get excited at every gig but the first one....... Be prepared, gigs can be chaotic at times and the more secure you are about your bits the less the chance you will panic. Other people in the band will make mistakes and the better you know your songs the less likely you are to get thrown by things. Unless @Woodinblack knows different never trust a provided PA/backline. I always take my own gear even if it ends up staying in the van or more frequently on stage but turned down or even off. If you can't hear yourself or the band can't hear you then there's no way the gig will go well. It's probably better that the audience can hear you too Great advice from everyone else, especially about the dark/flashing coloured lights. There's nothing worse than trying to set up your gear in the dark when the previous/next band are treading all over the stage. If you make a mistake glare at the drummer, if he glares at you it's because he got it wrong Have fun!

That's quite sensible, I'm making the move to in-ears but if I have little or no control of the PA I like to have an amp in reserve. If the monitoring is good I turn it off/down but there is a bit of pride in setting up with a good sound and every now and then, well you need to have a blast. I'm also quite lazy about tone so an amp that is plug in and go is quite a nice proposition. I quite like what my Peavey MiniMax does. Most f us do this for pleasure and nice gear is a pleasure. Don't completely discount the monitor though, Alto's are great value for money but there is so much better out there. Even the humble ART310 from RCF makes a great monitor and I use mine for bass, my vocals and a bit of FOH when I don't have in-ears. If you have in-ears maybe the guitarist ought to be upgrading their monitor

The more sound you make on stage the more your instruments will be picked up by the vocal mics and the dirtier your sound will be out front. It's essential though that you can all hear each other so there's a balance. It's hard to get the exactly right balance to everyone and the room acoustics affect this so if you play in different venues one night where it sounds good may be to do with that. You might be better off looking into in-ears or the mix going into your guitarists monitor rather than ramping up the on-stage volume. Just a thought.

For multi purpose use why not look at a small active PA speaker? It has the advantage of no inbuilt sound of it's own and you can then do the modelling outboard. Zoom G1/B1-four for example then you have great guitar sounds and bass sounds. Something like the Alto TS308 will give you very decent sound and volumes in a compact package.

If you love the sound of your 110 then stick to getting a second, you'll get a worthwhile increase in sound levels if you need it and will preserve your sound. They come up used on BC fairly frequently so your wait shouldn't be too long.

Have you finished the Eight I think the 'fighting physics' thing is important without being totally crucial. Cone size affects a lot of outcomes though there are technical ways of stretching the limits. We live in a time where amplifier watts are abundant and cheap, so speaker efficiency isn't so important. FX and amp/speaker modellers are getting better and a guitarist (no booing please) doesn't need a full Marshall stack to 'get their sound' any more. That itself has a knock on effect on the rest of the band and bassists no longer need to 'compete' with guitarists. PA systems have come along so we don't need to fill the room from the backline. We've reached a stage where for most of the time your bass amp only needs to work as a monitor for the band and match the drumkit. A reasonably decent 12" speaker with 300W of amp can be expected to do this. It should go to something like 122db at 1 metre from 80Hz upwards with a -10db point of 40Hz and do so in a reasonably sized portable cab. We no longer really need 4x10's and if you can do it with a 12 why carry a 15. A single 10 will be fine a lot of situations but most if not all will struggle in others. So long as you have PA support for the bigger gigs a good 12 will do almost all you'd want and is the Swiss army knife of cabs.

I wouldn't be choosing cabs on the basis of impedance but how they sound. Ask what sort of sound you want, is weight and portability important and so on first of all. The probability is that with 1200W into a pair of 4 ohm cabs or even 800w into 8 ohms you are going to be able to drown out the rest of the band and blow the whole bands eardrums/cochlea so extra volume is the last thing you want even if your 4ohm speakers could handle 600W. Do you have a particular speaker in mind?

Thanks, that sounds more reasonable then especially if they did contact you before going ahead.

Being reasonable it is really hard to fix intermittent faults. The problem often disappears and you can't diagnose a fault that isn't there and so often you can leave the amp on a test bench for an hour or so and it maddeningly decides to behave only to repeat the fault when it gets back to the customer. Having said that if it worked for a year before playing up again then you could say it was fixed and that what you have is a new fault and something else is just giving similar symptoms, or of course it could be an inherent fault with this amp and the responsibility is MB's not Real's However £180 is an extraordinary cost for replacing the pots and why would you replace anything if you can find no fault? Did they contact you before going ahead with this repair? I was quoted around £200 for fitting a replacement board, effectively replacing all the works inside the amp so effectively fitting a complete new amp inside my case. If there were only a few tens of pounds between a complete new amp and a bodged repair why wouldn't they advise you to have a new board? At the moment MarkBass take no responsibility for their products outside of warranty and do not provide parts or circuit diagrams to third party repairers preferring to keep (probably sell) a monopoly to Real. Real have a monopoly so they don't need to respond to customer pressure and their attitude is take it or leave it. Mark Bass gear is effectively just a disposable item with no after sales support in the UK