stevie

Probably best not to draw attention to the fine details.

I found this on a page entitled: Dog vomiting yellow bile, with blood in the morning: Good match I'd say.

But some people like puke yellow.

At least the driver manufacturers provide a frequency response under known conditions (and TS parameters) so that you can get a good idea of what their products do. Comparing the datasheets for the two Faital divers is quite informative. Bass cab manufacturers could do something similar, but choose not to.

I was going to say exactly the same thing. Midrange efficiency, which is what everyone is talking about when they quote efficiency figures, doesn't really matter that much in a bass guitar cab. What matters is its efficiency at low frequencies - and cabinet size is a major factor in that. The PR320 gives up a couple of dBs of midrange efficiency compared with the PR300 but gains LF output potential. Here's a comparison of the two in the cab we're using: It's clear from this that the extra midrange efficiency of the PR300 doesn't contribute anything useful. It just (over-)emphasises the mids. To get a proper sound balance between bass and midrange , you'd probably want to cut the excess mids. In a mid-high PA cab, where you have subs, the PR300 would be the better choice because that's where you want good midrange efficiency and aren't too worried about excursion.

Thanks, Charlie. I find that using a good compression driver (with the right horn) in a bass cab makes a huge difference. Unfortunately, good ones cost nearly as much as the bass drivers themselves. On the rare occasion that I pop over to the dark side, I am always impressed by what Duke is getting up to. He's virtually the only person in the business who continues to push the envelope and provide practical solutions to the problems bassists have with their cabs. The particular problems that this new design tries to address are: 1. Hearing yourself clearly in front of your compact cab without having to raise it, tilt it or stick another cab on top of it. 2. Hearing the same sound you are sending to the audience (how else can you balance your sound properly?). 3. Producing a sound that does not change when you move around the cab. 4. Producing a sound that is balanced without needing a second cabinet to boost the bottom end. 5. Producing a sound that "throws" into the audience and retains clarity (i.e. doesn't become boomy) at a distance. 5. Having a flat frequency response cabinet that doesn't need endless fiddling with your amp's midrange controls before it sounds right. I can see that these are the kinds of things that Duke is also takes into consideration in his designs - so I feel that I'm, in good company.

I have an SR500 and have no problem with a straight Neutrik jack plug. I believe OBBM uses them. If you upgrade your lead to something fitted with Neutriks the problem will go away.

I don't see any evidence they're any better or worse than anything else. Is there really a glut of used Mark Bass cabs? There are currently none in the Basschat amps-for-sale section until you get to page 3 - quite a few MB amps though, and quite a few other brands of cab.

I had an LM3 for a while and thought it was fine. However, I have also played a few times through a Markbass rig (15" + 2x10" ) with the same model amp and had to pull back the bottom end and boost the HF to get a balanced sound. This was at a small festival that I have played at several times - so I was able to hear other players through the same rig. Most of them left the controls flat and sounded like they were playing a double bass in a cupboard.

You could tag him and ask him to come along and explain how it works.

That shootout was quite interesting. Particularly illuminating was the performance of the £70 Maplin cab (Prosound). Here's a link:

Steve bought some acoustic foam tiles from me. He was a pleasure to deal with.

Thanks Richard. The drawings are now pinned to Post #1. The cut list is accurate. However, the cab assembly drawing is of the prototype; it shows a couple of braces that are not needed (I and J) and does not show the braces on the back panel, or the vertical brace on the front baffle between the horn and port apertures. We'll get that fixed as soon as we can. Nevertheless, if you have your wood cut based on the cut list and refer to the photos when assembling, all should be clear.

My problem is locating the latest versions on my computer, Richard, because we went through a number of changes. I'm sure I can find them, but if you could PM me the PDFs, I'll re-attach them to the first post in the thread.

Made me laugh.

I finally managed to replace all the photos. As you can see, there are now just two circular braces with some supporting battens. I'll get the drawings up as soon as I figure out how to do it.

I'm using the same cab for the no-expense-spared version. The baffle cutouts will be very slightly different because of the different horn. Unfortunately, the cab drawings on page one of this thread disappeared when Basschat relocated, but if you have them, Gotta, just give the cutting list to Avon. Chienmort and I have already assembled cabs cut from that list by a wood merchant and they go together perfectly. You'll get two cabs out of an 8 x 4' sheet. Maybe someone else in South Wales would like one. I'll try to replace the drawings some time. A lot of the assembly photos have gone too. I've replaced a few and will do the remainder as time allows. Also, some of the additional bracing tweaks I did (in addition to those shown in the drawings) proved to be unnecessary. I'll revisit and revise those posts later. One final thing - I found that I needed a lot of clamps to assemble the box because if you're going to paint it you have to line the joints up very accurately. So assembly took some time because I had to wait for each section of the box to dry before I could to re-use the clamps elsewhere. However, I have read on some other specialist speaker sites that some builders are using Spax screws very successfully. These are German screws that need no predrilling but go straight into the wood without splitting it. Naturally, you need to remove them and fill the holes later, but a box of Spax screws should save a lot of time and cost a lot less than eight long clamps. I'm sure some of the woodworkers will comment.

Yes, this is by far the most important announcement so far.

Wasn't that because there isn't any difference (between Italian and Asian Markbass cabs)?

On the flat-pack idea, I think we got up to about half a dozen potential takers. I haven’t given up on the idea, but we haven’t reached critical mass yet. Maybe the next incarnation of this design will get some more interest. I’ve designed and built a few bass cabs with midrange drivers, and gigged a cab with an 8” midrange chassis for a few years. I built my own take on the Fearful with an Eminence 3012LF and a Celestion sealed back midrange (the Celestion is much better than its price suggests but it needs some fancy crossover work). I also built a 15” system with the Beyma 6” neo midrange. Although I thought all of these were a worthwhile improvement on a single driver, I still much prefer a two-way system with a high-end compression driver and this is the direction in which I am heading. Naturally, I’m still interested in finding out how Phil gets on with his line array design. Both John (Chienmortbb) and I have been keen to try to get the weight of our cabs down a bit. He has been using the Beyma SM212 and Celestion CDX-1445 (as used in the Yamaha DXR series incidentally) in this cabinet with a fairly weighty crossover, while I have been using neos, albeit quite heavy ones. So we’re now on a mission to make a more lightweight 12” system, although it will of necessity be more expensive. I received the Faital Pro chassis about a month ago – probably the first in the country – and this is what I have been working with in the odd hours I get to spend in my garage/workshop. For those interested in such things, it’s the 12PR320. It’s an uprated version of the 12PR300 used in the Vanderkley 112EXT and the Bergantino CN212 which beat all-comers at the Essex Bass Bash cab shootout a few years ago. The main improvement over the PR300 is in its xmax, which has now gone up to 7.37mm. Its 300W power handling matches the 8-ohm output capability of the popular lightweight amps, it weighs in at a fantastic 2.5kg and is very well priced (by Blue Aran) at about £130. It works well in our Basschat cabinet, although it looks like it will have even more low-end oomph in a slightly larger cabinet. We’ll see. I’m not messing around with cheap tweeters this time round. I’m using a top-of-the range Celestion 1” neo (the one above the model used in the QSC K-series and the one used by Duke Lejeune in his multi-thousand dollar hi-fi cabs) on an asymmetrical CD horn and crossing over at 1.5kHz. I’ve already designed the crossover, although I still have to tweak it. It’s complex and won’t be cheap, but this is a no-compromise box – so it has to be right. This will be a genuine FRFR design. You’ll be able to use it for keyboards, for PA, or as a monitor. I expect it to sound at least as good as the Yamaha PA cabs that are getting such a good press at the moment – but it will be designed specifically with the unique requirements of bass guitar sound reinforcement in mind. The drivers I’m using have distribution in the US - so we might even get some input from our US contributors, where DIY cabs seem to be a lot more popular than here. I’m not sure how they’ll deal with our new-fangled millimetres though….. Chienmortbb and I don’t live too far away from each other and we’ll be getting together in a few weeks’ time to check the new design out and compare it to the previous incarnation. We’re hoping Phil can make it as well. Anyone else within travelling distance of Dorchester is welcome to join us if they can bring a high-end 12” bass cab along with them for comparison purposes. And yes, the new cab will be at the SW Bass Bash. I have to be there to watch Phil building a cab in a day.

It might take me a while to figure that one out....

I have to confess, I have not used distortion for decades. In fact, I've spend decades trying to get a great clean sound.

If you already have a cab with a flat frequency response (quite a rarity), whether or not to use cab sims is perhaps more of a philosophical question. The question being: do you consider your bass guitar to be a guitar, or do you consider it to be a bass instrument? As we all know, electric guitars sound awful through flat-response speakers. They need that midrange honk and HF distortion to make them come alive. But that's the last thing you want if you have a double bass, for example, or an electric piano, because you want to amplify their sound without adding those peaks and dips that make it sound unnatural. If you want to add colour, fine. But I'd rather have complete control over the colour I create and play through a loudspeaker that can reproduce it properly. I can't see how a cab sim can add anything worthwhile. I'm talking about simulating the sound of a cabinet here, not an amp, tone controls or effects.

Impressive.