stevie

What a great day out! And a great venue in the Somerset countryside. It takes a lot of work to organise an event that ran as smoothly as this one. So, many thanks to Mike for all his hard work and impeccable organisation, and to his wife (and/or daughter ) and helpers who prepared such lovely food and served it with a friendly smile. I can still taste that apple cake..... For anyone who half-considered coming but didn't, I can say that the atmosphere was very relaxed, and that everyone was really friendly and welcoming. So make sure you make it next year. People were keen for you to try their basses and amps, and there were some fascinating products - old and new - to play with. I tried out some of my fave Ibanez basses, and was surprised at how good an old Mk IV Trace Elliot 150W head was (bloody good!). I spent most of my time in the techie room, as Graham calls it, auditioning cabs and discussing the finer points of Linkwitz-Reilley crossovers (not really) and collecting opinions on the voicing of the latest incarnation of the Basschat 12 (a project that will no doubt continue as long as there is Basschat). John put in a lot of work for the cab shootout, even though it didn't quite go as planned - but lessons were learned . And Phil's cab building demonstration was an eye-opener. He built a complete, working cab in 42 minutes. Amazing! Thanks to all who contributed to making this such a brilliant event!

That's very good of you, thanks. I'll just try the top four strings.

Would anyone be bringing an Ibanez Premium 4-string bass by any chance? I'd be interested in finding out what the difference is between my SR500 and the Premium range.

I was just bemused by the fact that you needed a rehearsal to get your sound. As others have mentioned this too, I am probably missing something. Is this because you use so many different sounds or because the Klemperer is so complex? I bought a new bass a couple of months ago. Completely different sound, but I knew how it would sound in my band without having to take it to a rehearsal. Whenever I play an amp that somebody else has supplied, I take a few minutes to get the balance right without disturbing anyone else - and that's it. But I use one basic sound throughout the gig - more or less.

I'm not sure where you get that idea from.

Strangely enough, I played through my first Laney bass amp today. A 15 Richter cab with a 300W RB7 Richter 2x10 combo. The fan was a bit louder than I would have liked and the bullet tweeter was as useless as bullet tweeters usually are. On the other hand, the controls were well thought out and it was easy to get a good sound out of it. Overall, I enjoyed the experience and I'd be happy to use it again. It seemed solidly made and well finished and looked the part.

Fascinating.

Currently out of stock, but no reviews anywhere. Given that many other Harley Benton products are amazing value for money, why would one not get one of these in preference to the Mesa Boogie version at three times the price? I suppose they could have cut corners in places, but the power amp section is the same. Isn't it?

"When I was a boy of fourteen, my father was so ignorant I could hardly stand to have the old man around. But when I got to be twenty-one, I was astonished at how much he had learned in seven years." Attributed to Mark Twain (but not actually by him).

Very true.

And your dad was right!

What a damned awful racket that was!

The Focus 12 looks like a fairly standard 12" bass cab to me. It certainly looks smart and would probably benefit from a driver upgrade. 200 watts was great twenty years ago but today it signals a cheap driver. Even the bottom-of-the-range Eminence Betas are 250 watts. Obviously, it would be nice to know the internal volume, but assuming that Genz Benz have done their homework, any 12" driver designed with bass guitar in mind will work. The porting looks like it will handle more powerful drivers. I see they are plywood cabs, but what's the cabinet construction like? There's not much point installing an expensive driver in a cheaply constructed box.

It's in the PDFs.

There's probably a bit to be saved by choosing cabs with neo drivers in them. I notice the ZX1 is ceramic and I guess the subs are too. So you could probably save seven or eight kg per side for similar performance. I'll leave it to the others to recommend the brand names.

I'd say that's a fairly lightweight system already. It also seems quite good from a power-to-weight ratio, with subs on the floor.

So is a line manager an array of managers arranged in a line? I've noticed some manufacturers using the "line array" term when referring to a cab with two drivers on top of each other. It's all about pulling the wool over the punter's eyes.

I could be wrong but I think the originals had much better drivers. They used a Celestion 12" with a cast chassis, 3" coil and neodymium magnet, plus a Celestion compression driver with a 1.74" coil. The later ones have smaller voice coils for LF and HF and the 12" drivers are pressed steel with ferrite magnets. Sometimes it pays to be a bit nerdy about these things.

I'm wondering how 4 x 4-inch drivers can possibly generate 126dB.

Sorry, but any bass player who didn't find that fascinating is tired of life. It doesn't conclusively prove anything, but the guy who produced the video certainly makes a good point. And Jamerson's bass line is just extraordinary.

I'd love to hear those Synergy horns and tapped horns. Doesn't everyone know about Tom Danley?

Well done fleabag! You have shown that building your own bass cab is not beyond the ability of the average highly intelligent, manually skilled, inventive and innovative bass player.

Ten percent is hardly a huge increase. Let's hope they can maintain them. It's a tough market out there, but the US competition seem to be really expensive now.

Yes, likewise. It does look like your driver might be OK.

A definite possibility, particularly with a pressed steel chassis like yours. Which is why you should try the driver outside the cabinet.