Recommend me a cab!

[richardjmorgan]

Hi all, it’s been a while.

Since my return to bass about a year and a half ago, I’ve been playing gigs pretty regularly and a recurring issue has come up. Generally the shows we play we’re sharing backline and just taking our own instruments, plus heads and breakies. I’m using a Aguilar Tone Hammer 350, and for the most part, I’m loving it. The only problem I’m having is that it sounds noticeably worse going into a 8ohm cab than a 4ohm one (presumably to do with it only outputting half the wattage into 8th). Since I don’t have much control over what cab I end up using, I wonder if a potential solution would be picking myself up an extra 8ohm cab i can take with me to shows and daisy-chain it in along with the “house” cab if it need to make things up to 4 ohms. Since most 8ohm cabs I encounter tend to be short, this would have the added advantage of giving me something coming out of a speaker closer to head height.

First up, is this a sensible solution, or have I overlooked some issue with it/a better and easier way of solving the problem?

Second, if yes to the above, then what cabs should I be looking at? The smaller, lighter and more portable the better, really – ideally, something I can carry one-handed. Genre-wise, it’s a stoner/desert rock kind of vibe; Jazz Bass through a Bass Muff, into the amp, so ideally, something well-suited to that.

Cheers.

[jrixn1]

1 hour ago, richardjmorgan said:

Since most 8ohm cabs I encounter tend to be short, this would have the added advantage of giving me something coming out of a speaker closer to head height.

You're on to something here - I would at least initially try raising the existing single 8-ohm cab onto a milk crate etc.  It could turn out to be the cheapest solution.

[richardjmorgan]

Just now, jrixn1 said:

You're on to something here - I would at least initially try raising the existing single 8-ohm cab onto a milk crate etc.  It could turn out to be the cheapest solution.

Cheers, althoughI have actually given this a go (well, running into the top of two 8s stacked up as my amp only has one speaker out and these couldn’t be daisy-chained) and there wasn’t much of an improvement – a lot of the heft I get through 4ohms just seemed to be missing.  (Additionally, I’ve had pretty decent results from a single, lower-down 4ohm cab.)

I assume it’s something to do with headroom, but I’m still fairly new to anything that isn’t a massive valve guitar amp.

[sifi2112]

Having your own 8 Ohm cab isn’t a bad idea however I’ve read many times that mixing different speakers, even the same size, is a bit of a gamble .. I had a similar dilemma as I (my amp) also likes a 4 Ohm load so I built my own. 

Not sure where you are but you’re welcome to trial my 8 Ohm 112 cab I have to see if it gives you the added heft ... 

If I had the cash I’d probably just get a Barefaced TWO10 (4 Ohm) or something similar & hope the sound guy doesn’t mind you using your own cab lol

[Lozz196]

I think I`d look at a different solution, the Tonehammer 500, then you won`t have to roll the dice on a possible future 8ohm cab pairing with whatever 8ohm cab is provided. 

[richardjmorgan]

8 minutes ago, Lozz196 said:

I think I`d look at a different solution, the Tonehammer 500, then you won`t have to roll the dice on a possible future 8ohm cab pairing with whatever 8ohm cab is provided. 

Interesting. So you reckon the higher wattage is likely to solve this issue, even if going into an 8ohm cab?

[Lozz196]

Well having had both the 350 and the 500 the latter is obviously more powerful, and when you say that the 350 is sounding noticeably worse that sounds to me like it’s being pushed too much - are you on nearly max volume when this is happening?

[itu]

TH350 has 175 W / 8 ohms. It is not extreme, especially for stoner, I think. BUT if you want more, I would consider a more sensitive speaker.

Impedance has quite a little or nothing to do with loudness. Sensitivity has a lot. Next thing might be to read some of the manufacturer's sites to find out this particular number. It is of form XX dB / 1 W / 1 m. That means that when the speaker gets 1 W in, it produces XX decibels measured from 1 meter distance. This is a common way of telling something about the speaker's ability to transform the electrical energy to sound. Example: Aguilar cabinets' lowest sensitivity is 95 dB / W / m and highest is 104 dB / W / m. The difference is a lot, 9 dB! Try to compensate this with watts and you get the idea.

1) 1 watt produces 95 dB, 2 W 98 dB, 4 W 101 dB, 8 W 104 dB ... 128 W 116 dB, 256 W 119 dB (this is already more than the TH350 can produce; the threshold of pain is 120 dB)

2) 1 watt produces 104 dB, 2 W 107 dB, 4 W 110 dB ... 32 W 119 dB, (here in between is the threshold of pain) 64 W 122 dB, 128 W 125 dB, 256 W 128 dB

Naturally power from the amp has something to do with loudness. But the speaker's sensitivity together with the power handling capacity tells a lot about loudness. Impedance is just one poor number that is often overemphasized. If you double the power (by halving the impedance), you get only a bit more loudness (3 dB) but if you can get a total of 9 dB extra through a more sensitive speaker, go for it!