Phil Starr

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.

Of course we are only assuming the speaker is 8ohms, I may have some good news; the passive version is 8ohms and it's likely the active version uses the same parts. 4ohms was a good shout from Stevie because it's a way to get more power out of a cheap amp and bump up your figures in the sales literature, if you offered me better than evens I might take a punt on it being 8ohms all the rest of the range are 8 ohms unless they have twin bass drivers http://www.phonic.com/speakers/isk-8-deluxe/ to understand the ratings AES is based upon measurements on how much heat the speaker can handle. (it's as near as you'll get to the rms rating) Music power is simply doubling the AES and Peak Power doubling again hence yours is 175,350,700 and the Fane 225,450 and 900. The main issue on heat dissipation is the size of the voice coil, the Fane has a 2" coil and the Phonic probably 1.5" The figures in the Phonic brochure claiming 124dB only really make sense if the speaker is around 95 dB sensitivity that's close enough to the Fane which is only 97db over part of it's range. I don't think you'll find a better match. I've just read your initial post again. I don't think this speaker was ever enough for bass on-stage you've probably driven it beyond it's excursion. The Fane is a much better driver but I'd be very careful about using a single one for bass.

I'd agree with Stevie, if as I suspect you have a 4-ohm driver then the crossover is going to be way out but if it is an 8 then the Fane 8-225 is a nice driver with a good spec for the price and matches your cab, though it's more than you paid for the cab. I wouldn't trust their specs, you won't find an 8" bass speaker that handles 350W or that produces 124dB probably anywhere but not in a budget cab.. At least it means you don't have to worry too much about power handling though.

serious question. Are you wearing ear defenders? If not you should be. 500W into two 12's you'll be pushing out over 120dB where you stand and the rest of the band may be adding another 6dB. Your average sound exposure will be well over the 100dB level. Over half an hour exposed to those sound levels you will be permanently damaging your hearing and it will get worse each time you play. It seems slow at first but the hearing loss will become noticeable and then seem to accelerate. I speak from experience and wish I had used ear defenders earlier. Your guitarists and drummer will all have problems too. Maybe it has already happened and that's why they won't turn down. Maybe it's already why you can't hear yourself playing in the band. On a practical level you could try re-eq'ing if that's a word. You say it sounds nice at practice levels. Do you reset your eq when you play with the band? Most of your amp power is used up by the deep bass, and that can't be heard over the rest o the band. If you reduce the deep bass a little and boost the upper bass and low mids you'll sound bassier in the mix and it'll give your amp more headroom. If you want to be heard over the band then you need more mids generally. These are the frequencies our ears pick up best so if the guitars have all the mids and you have none they are going to drown you out. Bass eq'd for live work sounds awful played at practice levels but it's what it sounds like as a band that matters. Final point, are you actually not loud enough or just struggling to hear yourself? Try getting a long lead and go out into the audience area or record yourselves and have a listen. It's natural in a band to want to be louder than everyone else so you can hear what you are playing. You have a volume war. Nobody wins at war.

If you live in the West country then it's always worth keeping an eye on Lemonrock. Most of the people who advertise for band members there are cover bands. I've also found bands and band members on JMB. The tricks are to learn to read between the lines a little. A list of 'influences' especially a long one means they know that many songs, one by each of the people mentioned. A mention of genre means they are going to be inflexible. Any mention of timewasters means 'my way or no way' and so on. Any band who have gigged regularly will be able to tell you where and will probably have recordings and video and a website or active Facebook page as a minimum. I've asked every time if people have any recordings and it cuts out most of the dreamers. The thing is to be clear about what you are looking for and what you can offer. Be clear about what is essential and what you are prepared to compromise on. Then you know exactly what to ask when people make contact. For example I'm completely unclear about what you are seeking, a gigging band? They are probably going to need someone who will learn all their songs in a few weeks, they'll have set lists if they are covers bands and recordings with chord sheets if they play originals, if not you know they aren't well organised. The next step down is a start up band, they should be at least at the rehearsal stage and have the other musicians in place. Most start ups never leave the rehearsal room unless at least some of them have gigged regularly in the past.

This is really good advice. They are so helpful

OK had a quick look and as far as I can see the Ashdown cab is something like 35litres internally. That's a touch bigger than the cab I gigged with this afternoon with SM212's in. They certainly work in that sized cab. If you live anywhere near Somerset you'd be welcome to see how they sound. Interestingly we had a shootout a couple of years ago where a little Ashdown 1x12 surprised us all by sounding rather good compared with some much more expensive cabs in our room with admittedly poor acoustics. I designed my little cab a year ago as an attempt to counter some of the difficult small venues I was playing and built it in the same room at the bash a year ago. I thought at the time it sounded rather like the Ashdown of a year before though that hadn't been my intention.

I don't often comment on the quality of particular cabs, I prefer the safer objectivity of technical issues to the subjective judgement of what sounds best/suits my needs. However I've heard Jim's cab a few times now at the SW Bass Bash and we had a chance to compare it with the new 1x12 design Stevie is doing on Basschat. In fact Jim spent some time playing through both. I love the sound of Jim's Greenboy/Fearless cab but I felt the Basschat design matched it fairly well, one edged the other in some areas but I don't think one cab had a clear advantage. Both are exceptionally good IMO. I'd be interested if Jim came on here to give what he felt about the comparison between the two. Of course you'd have to build the Basschat Mk2 but if the kits work out that won't be such a difficult option.