Phil Starr

I'm quite rusty on electronics and I don't know what value those capacitors are but C1 and C2 just look like DC decoupling to me, They may well be rolling of the bass, C2 at least which is nice as it means you can boost bass by 3db without over excursion of the speakers low down below the port frequency. I'd have to go back and look at the whole circuit but I'll guess Trace designed a decent roll off in to make the most of those watts. It's a nice feature of old single ended power supplies. It's possible the values chosen will affect response but yeah it is a 'proper' gain control rather than just allowing you to overload the next stage. In the end you have to trust your ears. The Alpha's have poor damping of the one movement, the old Celestions may not have been much better as they tended to be under damped too. Is the cab sealed? in any case the underdamped cone will jump around at relatively high bass frequencies and roll off early so you'll have plenty of warmth but little deep bass, I quite like that sound playing live. Sorry I didn't offer to help on your other thread, which I followed with interest

This is what matters: "I can't see myself needing anything louder" pre shape and boosting the bass will make it louder, but you do it because it's the sound you want. 4x10's are louder, all other things being equal, than 1x15's. The input gain doesn't matter a fig, you can have a 1W amp with lots of gain or a 1,000,000W amp with low gain. Gain and power aren't linked. I kind of love the blank incomprehension of these threads. A watt is a watt, there's nothing magic about TE watts or any old watts v's new watts but lot's of technical reasons why people might think one amp is louder than another. For people with a love of Trace amps nothing else will do, they are just sharing the love with others who share their passion. For techies a watt is a watt so long as it's measured properly. We worry about people making poor purchases based on mythology or advertising hype. We can run on for more than four pages about all this In the end though this isn't about MMR vaccination or using homeopathic medicine to cure cancer, it's about people getting pleasure from a sound they love. We should cherish those who love vintage as much as those who want to help by sharing expertise. It's all good fun over a coffee break spent on Basschat. Oh, well done for getting your combo back on the road Stub

I have to say I love playing this. It's both a nice one to relax to and just enjoy the ride, and the audience reaction but it also has places you can put a bit extra in if you fancy it. There seem to be dozens of versions over the years with a gradual change from a very pronounced shuffle towards four to the floor. It also seems to show up most of the guitarists I've played with who can never seem to remember the repeats of the opening riff when they recur or how to end the song As for changing keys. I do not for the life of me understand why singers don't demand it more often. They can't all have the same natural range as the original singer, surely they ought to sing it in the key where they sound best. It seems to be more about the crossover points in their voices, between head and chest voices and so on. If the dramatic part of the song or some fast articulation occurs when their voice is weakest a semitone or tone can really beef up the song. So many singers can't seem to 'hear' the song in anything but the original key. It's all compromise of course; I'd struggle with All Right Now if I didn't have an open string to play in the octave jump and I'm usually happy when the guitarist asks to play E rather than Eb in a few songs. In the end though if the singer is straining for a note or pitchy the whole band sound crap so why wouldn't you play to suit the voice they have?

It's probably worth going over the whole driver and the cab itself. If it's an old speaker sometimes the dust cone in the middle or even the corrugated surround start to come loose as the glue hardens and breaks over time. anything loose in the cab will sound and anything not screwed down properly or even the speaker grille might be making a noise.

The power an amp can drive is roughly halved if you double the resistance. If you connect two 8 ohm speakers in parallel they will act like one 4 ohm speaker with each getting half the power. So yes your amp will give 300w into 4 ohms You say home practice so is it worth the cost for a little extra volume you probably don't need?

I feel like a spoilsport but the AH 200 is 200W into 8 ohms and the MB is 300W into 8ohms. That sounds like a lot but is actually only 1,76dB noticeable but only a marginal increase. Loudness is mainly about the mids, any mid suckout and an amp will be noticeably quieter and a mid boost will make it sound louder. We also know nothing about the gain structure, the Trace may just have more gain. What is interesting is that we probably all get pretty pleased when an amp delivers more than we expect and pee'ed off when they under-deliver. I'd rather have Trace's reputation for loud watts than make outlandish claims of high power that can only be delivered under very limited circumstances, which is now the new normal. I use an MB Tube, it's loud enough. I can go louder than the drummer, previously I had a HA3500 and before that a Peavey MkIV, they all went more than loud enough, I'll bet the Trace is more than enough too. I borrowed one of the Trace 15" combo's and it was loud enough but more importantly it sounded great. Sounding great seems more important than who has the biggest watt.

People are being far too pessimistic. The RCF is a good quality PA speaker designed to have as flat a response as they could get. It will use the same drivers as the powered version and peole have had good results with RCF speakers. The point about your bass amp not being flat is valid. Room problems apply the same to any speaker and by 'flat' we simply mean it tracks the output from the bass pickups, whatever that is. you are talking about small gigs so output below 59Hz is usually little more than a nuisance to be filtered out. the only other issue is whether the speakers can handle bass without damage, that shouldn't be an issue with a 15" RCF driver, PA drivers are designed to have similar heat dispersion to bass speakers and the bass only driver is likely to have better excursion than a bass instrument speaker if there is indeed any difference. The advantage of an active speaker is that the matching of amp to speaker is done for you and it is easy to build in protection for the speaker. There are plenty of old PA cabs around, borrow one and see if you like the sound. The RCF is probably going to be an upgrade on most PA speakers but just check you like the cleaned up sound before you spend any money. It won't be exactly like the RCF but it's better than just a leap into the dark.

I was thinking that too, we do two hour long sets and they average about 14 songs each. I too think that looks like a fun set and well worth an evening out, I'd go and have a dance/listen. I wish I could persuade some of the pub bands I've played for, or still do that this is the sort of thing people actually want to hear on a night out.

The drill guides are excellent, I use them when drilling for dowels, or anything where a right angle is critical. I shouldn't say this as I live just outside Axminster but other people do similar guides. Axminster power tools do a bit of quality control though so theirs will definitely be ok.

Just a little update, I used the little cab on it's own for the first time in a while last night. Typical situation hereabouts, a small country pub with a low ceiling and they had changed the start time so no chance to soundcheck. I made a last minute decision to use the 30l cab on it's own backed against a wall but up on a bench seat to save space. It sounded fab with my J-bass/John East set up. Lot's of punch and bite and no need to roll off the bottom end, just a little tweak to the mids. It shouldn't have been a surprise as that's what it was designed to do but it's nice to have the theory backed by practical experience. There was another bass player, ex band member but now fully pro there. He made a point of complimenting the sound and seemed genuinely impressed. Maye it was just to avoid commenting upon my playing of course

The Fane wouldn't be a good choice anyway anything LF is designed to work with a tweeter and the roll off in frequency is likely to be too low to make a successful single driver cab.

Might be worth asking here as South West folk are likely to be following this thread

this is a great way of doing it, I use a Zoom H4N at the moment. The sound is fantastic through headphones with the built in mic's and they run on batteries for way longer than a gig. I just put it in a pocket at rehearsal straight into headphones. You hear a kind of super-real copy of everything around you (we have floor monitors so it's already fairly well balanced already) except that you can control the volume, turn everyone down at will. If you reposition the Zoom it allows you to alter the balance a little. Put it nearer the bass amp if you want more bass and nearer the vocal monitors if you want more vocals etc. By carrying it on my body I get more of my vocals which is what I want and it's hands free without a wireless connection. All until the ZS10's fall out that is I'm looking at the Zoom H1 or H2 at the moment the H4 is a bit heavy in your pocket or on a belt. I reckon the H1 on a lanyard might be right for me.

I think the thing to remember when choosing your speaker is that there is no magic pixie dust. the Technology and Physics involved in the speaker drivers is the same and indeed sometimes the drivers themselves are identical or near identical. To make bass you need to shift lot's of air. To do that you need big cones and they need to move a long way. In turn this means you need powerful magnets and long voice coils with good heat handling. All these make for expensive drive units and ultimately more expensive cabs. There are value for money speakers out there and some offer less value but there is no magic budget speaker that breaks the laws of physics or common sense. RCF and Barefaced are doing the same trick essentially, handling all the bass with a single small driver by using an incredibly well specced bass driver with a long coil and a big magnet. That's the other factor. Increasing the cone area increases the efficiency of the system and increases the volume of bass. A cheapish 15 may well match an expensive state of the art 12 for output and a 12 however good isn't going to match an 8x10. So when you come to choose don't expect a Headrush or Alto to match QSC or RCF (btw these are equal in quality but the RCF's are currently cheaper) any more than you'd expect a single basic TC or MB/Ashdown to match a Barefaced. If you can't get what you want out of a single 12 at any price point using a bass cab then moving to a single 12 PA cab will still have the same limitations.

It works really well for the bassist. My very first gig I used someone else's rig which was set up like that. In memory it's the best sound I've ever had. Later with one band I used a Hartke Kickback 10 with the notch filter set to remove the deep bass and bass DI'd with a bit of eq to balance the sound from the two sources for the audience. It's crystal clear for the bassist and you do get all the lows you want from behind the PA. It's my favourite set up and yes it absolutely works. However my drummer hated it, likes the bass to flap his trousers and the constant whining from the drum stool spoilt the otherwise excellent sound.

Never been big on faith, plodding realism is more my thing Thanks though

I think that's right but I want proof of concept before I splash out that much. In rehearsal I'm loving ambient miking and I'm gradually adjusting to using the ACS plugs in gigs. One of the ZS10's will stay in place for a few minutes and the other ear maybe 20s, not even a whole song. I've some Sennheisers I use to listen to music with and they are better but I've always had problems with keeping anything in place in my ears especially when I start moving.

Hi Al, I don't now the venue but from their web site it looks like a big shed, metal framed and a corrugated roof, a big old barn in fact. Is that right? If so then on the plus side it's indoors and you will have some reinforcement from walls etc.On the minus it's huge and looks pretty poor acoustically, lots of echoes and long delay times. How loud do you need to be? Just playing to 100 people gathered round a stage area and background for the rest or are you trying to reach concert levels across the whole room/space? If it's the latter then using your own PA just isn't sensible, you are probably in line array territory with multiple subs, a hire job then. If you are the former then, as someone who has tried it, kick through the bass stack is horrible. Because they are coming from the same source you'll hear it as a single sound so what you hear won't be what you are playing and it's very disorienting. Like sitting in a train when the one next to you starts moving. RCF 310's work great with subs, even a single sub makes a huge addition but not in this situation. It isn't sensible to buy for a one off in any case but a planned development of what you have, that's a different question.

That is quite possible. most of the sheds change their suppliers and fail to offer consistency. Most of the staff have no idea what they are selling so asking for help doesn't work. Some things to look for check for at least one good outer veneer with no knots or unfilled holes. Two smooth outer faces is a good sign Check the board itself is entirely flat. Examine the cut edges for any voids, if there are any at the edge you can be sure there are more hidden in the middle. If the edge cuts cleanly that's a good sign.

There are different grades of plywood and at extremes would affect the cabs performance but most of what you are likely to see would be ok. Poplar ply is very lightweight but the cab being so small that makes less of a difference to the overall weight. Low mass panels need extra thought to bracing too. I used Baltic birch as the original cab was built out of offcuts from my workshop. It's fine but the wood had repairs to the surface where knots had been and wasn't highest quality. I suspect that in this case Baltic was actually Russian birch. It also didn't machine very well which made it splinter when cut. I've gone back to Wickes who sell a fairly high quality hardwood ply which cuts and finishes well. they used to sell a marine ply which was very high standard but last time I could only get 'exterior ply' which I was very happy with. B&Q sells similar and will cut it for you in the bigger stores. Plywood is moderately complex to specify, the grading is for the surface plies with AA or N being the highest quality and other grades having blemishes. However the interior layers are more important for sound quality, you don' want voids where the knots have fallen out and denser woods generally sound better. Often you can see voids by looking along the cut edges which should be solid. The other factor is the glue or resin used to bind the plie,. you want this to be strong. Exterior grades and marine ply are waterproof. https://decordezine.com/plywood-grades-explained Birch is preferred for portable cabs as it is moderately light but is tough so it takes knocks well. Often only the outside layers are birch and the inside is poplar. I usually go for AB grade where one side is perfect. There are no guarantees but it usually means the inside layers are decent quality and I actually prefer hardwood plies to birch as it is easier to work. Basically though don't worry, the stuff from the warehouses is generally ok. you could agonise over details and it would make only a little difference to the outcome.

Yes suction, though I've done it in the past by just sucking through a tube. It gives you a bit more control but a vacuum cleaner which was adjustable would work.

Any advice please, I bought the ZS10's on the basis of advice here and they are everything offered, they sound very good if not exactly honest when properly seated but, and this is a deal breaker for me I can't get a seal that lasts. Don't suggest the foam plugs either, tried them too. I've had this problem with just about every other in ear and most ear plugs as well. The only ones that seem to work are the long skinny fittings on the ACS plugs. My ears are different sizes and it seems my ear canals are quite narrow. I tried to fit the silicon ends from the ACS plugs to the ZS10's but the diameter of the ZS10 is too big, in fact I've realised the ZS10 won't take anything that fits my ears, they are already about the diameter of my ear canal so anything that goes on the outside won't work. Any suggestions of something smaller that might fit welcome.

Don't feel bad, you haven't done anything wrong at all and like everyone else I think it's more about fit and the new direction than the so called 'pro' bassist's skills. I don't think that if they had stuck with the soul/funk thing that they would have gone there. You are looking at everything straight in the face and are coping with it well it seems to me. I've only been sacked once and it isn't nice, even though I'd pretty much decided I was going anyway it wasn't handled well. Musicians probably ought to be more loyal to each other. Bands that stay together do better IME and we shouldn't forget our bandmates are people worth caring about. That said look after yourself. It's not worth saying all the things you are feeling to them. Part on as good terms as you can, stay friends with the drummer and make sure he/she knows you rate and like them. Then if a project comes up you have a rhythm section good to go. As a bassist who plays soul/funk you have really marketable skills. Start looking around when you are ready. In the end tis is just a blip.

There's an Goldilocks size for each frequency. Too big and the high frequencies are lost due to the mass of the driver and the dispersion issues, too small and you simply can't move the air with any sensible level of efficiency. You also only get undistorted sound when the speaker cone or dome moves as a piston. In practice most speakers only really work well over 3 octaves. There are loads of tricks to extend the range of speakers beyond this and it isn't a switch thing. Just as the porridge can be a little bit too hot or cold but still be edible In terms of getting the best out of the drivers a 4-way system looks appealing. The problem is that crossovers produce their own distortions and it's really hard to stitch two speaker outputs together, a midrange is especially difficult because it has to match both the bass driver and the tweeter and also sound good over it's own special bit of the spectrum. The designer has to balance the increased cost of extra drivers and more complexity in the crossover along with increasing technical issues against the simplicity and reduced crossover problems of a 2-way. In the end there isn't a better or best, just alternatives. You've also to remember that this is for bass. For PA you are probably looking for vocals to be the thing you want to sound best and the crucial frequencies for vocals are in the mids. A 2-way will have the crossover inevitably just where you want it least. That is less of an issue for bass which has a different frequency profile. In fact a cab with bass and mid driver but no top would make some sense. Is FRFR the way to go for bass or do we want a cab with a bit of character? Rhetorical question really, that comes down to taste. The reality is that whilst speaker design hasn't moved on much since the 1920's other than Thiele and Small coming up with a mathematical model in the 1970's the materials we use has come on in leaps and bounds and technically we have been able to integrate 2 way designs with far better drivers. Why carry three when two will do? DSP also allows you to remove a lot of the distortions from the crossover too in active designs.

Listen to Bill. That is correct. Are you sure it is a 12 ohm cab? Most drivers are 8 ohm with 4 and 16 being the main alternatives. I'd expect a 2x10 to be 4 or 8 ohms, maybe 16. In any case using cabs of differing impedances means the power will be shared unevenly between them. You won't be getting the best out of them.