Best lightweight head and cabs for Reggae?

[Marcus Cornall]

Hello everyone! 

This is my first ever post ,but I have read great advice on so many threads here.

Now I am hoping you can help with advice for me.

 

Sorry if this is long but I have learned it pays to help those trying to help you ,by providing the right info.

 

I am in a Reggae band ,and have for the past 3 years used my Peavey Firebass 700 going into my cab, an old front ported one which says 'Artiste Professional' on it.a 1x 15 ,which I think is a 300w speaker.i have never had it apart to see what impedance the speaker has.

I'm playing a Cort B2 headless (with flats),as I have a back injury and its very light..It has a split P pickup ,and I play with tone off for the deepest roundest tone I can get.Settings are : low almost full,low mids quarter to halfway,hi mids and treble right off.contour on full 'roundness'.      I LOVE the sound of The Firebass but it is heavy,as is the cab.

 

I want a light rig but that can still deliver the biggest deepest bottom  end.i do plan to use it to put my other Fender basses through for other styles,and hope for something which will also suit vintage type Fender J tones.

I am thinking this probably means a class D amp? Or could there be a light(er) SS one out there?

I use an Ampeg PF 500 in rehearsals going into a 4x10(unbranded and old),and that delivers more than my own rig,which I sometimes do have to push bit.

But I have also looked at the Little Mark Tube and Vintage amps (although never tried them.-do I need a tube stage for better vintage tone?

I want an amp that adds 'colour' like my SS amp does.The PF seems to do that with the lows.

 

As for cabs ...PF ? They're light ,but Markbass are even lighter! At what point do you start sacrificing bottom for lightness?

For what I do ,I need to put as much out between 0 and 120 hz as poss.I may also have to use a 5 string soon.

 

I just ended up with my current rig.I didn't really pay attention to a better one as I never had the money,and didn't gig much for several years.

So I also don't really know about impedance ,despite trying to get it,nor about pairing amps and cabs,nor what the differences are in sound and power between a 4x10 and a 1x15!

ANY advice would be really gratefully recieved,and sorry I am asking a few things at once.

 

[Reggaebass]

Hi Marcus, I use the barefaced big baby ll cab , I would highly recommend it , it’s got really deep clear lows perfect for reggae and dub , with an ashdown RM or my ampeg V4B, it was don chandler who put me on on to the BB , he uses 2 of them with the 1000w markbass ninja head 

[Marcus Cornall]

Thankyou Reggaebass for your help. I don't know those items,but will go and check them out online straight away,especially the cab.

[Reggaebass]

2 minutes ago, Marcus Cornall said:

Thankyou Reggaebass for your help. I don't know those items,but will go and check them out online straight away,especially the cab.

I used to use markbass 15’s but the BB is much better imo , at 8.20 don mentions the ninja here 

 

[Lozz196]

Yep for small/lightweight with warm lows for reggae the Ashdown RM amps have to be in there.

 

That said having used the Peavey MiniMega last week at rehearsal, that amp has some kind of control on it that "fools the mind" into believing that the lows are much greater than what they really are, so given your love for the Firebass, @Marcus Cornall it may be worth checking a MiniMega, being made by the same company.

[chris_b]

8 minutes ago, Marcus Cornall said:

At what point do you start sacrificing bottom for lightness?

 

 

 

These days you don't. 

 

Your amp through a BB2 or Super Twin, would tick all the boxes.

[jazzyvee]

I do reggae gigs and replaced my Mesa Boogie Powerhouse cabs with Barefaced ones and so far they have proved perfect.  I have a  Big Twin II, Big Baby II, Dubster II (18" speaker). For most of my reggae gigs I use the Big Twin II.

That's my rig that I use most of the time. Big Twin II

 

 

Occasionally I use these two Bib Baby II and Dubster II ( Complete overkill actually) .

 

I don't tend to use the big baby II on it's own for reggae gigs

For me the Big Twin II has proved to be the perfect cab for reggae and with the tweeter it is great for other genres too. 

There is no sacrifice on the bottom end. From my personal experience, the design of these cabs makes the bottom end glorious but balanced throughout the range.

Put a lot of bottom end in, you get a lot of it out. 

 

@Marcus CornallI notice you are a fellow brummie. I'm doing a gig at the Jam House on 1st March and at the 02 in Digbeth on 25th and will have my Big Twin II most likely. Other than that I may be able to squeeze you in at a rehearsal to check out the BBII as i sometimes carry that one along.  

 

Edited February 16, 2023 by jazzyvee

[fretmeister]

I get a great deep tone from my Markbass AG1000 head. I think all the MB heads would do you very well.

 

Add a Barefaced Super Twin cab and you'll have so much bottom end you'll be using the bass control on the amp to reduce the lows!

 

 

 

[Bill Fitzmaurice]

Where tone is concerned reggae isn't low end strong in the 40-60Hz range, it's midbass strong in the 60-90Hz range. That's because the benchmark reggae cab, the SVT 810, isn't low end strong, it's midbass strong. It's also loud. The reason it's loud is the eight drivers, which have a combined cone displacement of 1300cc. If you want to get SVT volume without the SVT size and weight the way to do it is with high displacement drivers. The highest displacement drivers available in commercial cabs are those used by Barefaced. Four Barefaced tens or two Barefaced twelves will go almost as loud as an SVT 810. 

[Lozz196]

Having had two of the Barefaced Super 12s I can def confirm that. 

[jazzyvee]

Barefaced cabs also have a much better off axis sound than the ampeg fridges i have had to use at some gigs. On a recent gig i put the ampeg 8x10 on the guitarist's side of the stage and kept my BT II for me. Plugged my SC Acoustic preamp into the back of the ampeg head and the sound was great.

[Bill Fitzmaurice]

FWIW don't split cabs. When you do it creates hot and cold zones in the lows, AKA 'Power Alley'. If you want to be heard on the other side of the stage aim one cab at yourself, the other across the stage. That aims directional mids and highs so they can be heard, without creating a power alley. This explains. It references PA subs, but applies to bass cabs as well: https://www.prosoundweb.com/the-power-alley-discussion-solutions-to-the-troubling-interaction-of-subwoofers/

[Bassybert]

Power Alley, where all the best ten pin bowlers go...

[jazzyvee]

2 hours ago, Bill Fitzmaurice said:

FWIW don't split cabs. When you do it creates hot and cold zones in the lows, AKA 'Power Alley'. If you want to be heard on the other side of the stage aim one cab at yourself, the other across the stage. That aims directional mids and highs so they can be heard, without creating a power alley. This explains. It references PA subs, but applies to bass cabs as well: https://www.prosoundweb.com/the-power-alley-discussion-solutions-to-the-troubling-interaction-of-subwoofers/

Thanks for that, I haven't read it all yet but it's not something I was aware of but next time i will suggest they have more bass in their stage monitors. This question may be dealt with further on in the article but, is this also an issue with side fills as most of the larger stages i play on have those too? 

[Bill Fitzmaurice]

Louder yes, but it's best to have the bass feed in the monitors high passed at 120 to 160 Hz. Side fills too. The backline provides all the low end either you or your band mates need on stage. It's only the directional frequencies, above 120 Hz, that need to be be spread around better. Part of the problem with spreading cabs and running full range into monitors and side fills is that it not only provides more mids and highs that you want but it also provides more lows that in most cases you don't. The case where you might need lows is on a huge stage outdoors. Feel free to run full range at Wembley. 😉 

[Marcus Cornall]

Thankyou so much to you all for your input.

I dont know how to respond to individuals,so I'll put it all in this one comment.

Reggaebass thankyou for the initial advice ,and the link to the vid.

Loz196 thanks for the amp idea.in the old days of my tnt130 I didn't think much of Peavey,but the FB changed all that.

Jazzyvee thankyou for the pic.what an awesome rig.(and bass!) And thanks also about your gigs.i will try to make one.(incidentally ,how do I message individuals outside of a topic?-i'll arrange it with you). Its really good to hear a thing in use,and to hear another new-to-me band and fellow player. 

Thanks Fretmeister for the amp idea .

Bill Fitzmaurice thanks so much for the technical explanation,which I was sorley in need of.Knowledge is power, literally in this case!

I've got several amps to look into,but when it comes to cabs there is consensus!

I have started to take in the info on the Barefaced site in order to further my knowledge.

Their cabs are so powerful but so light! It's science fiction ! 

Thanks again all for helping ,and when I have got amp and cab I will report back.

Edited February 17, 2023 by Marcus Cornall

[Bill Fitzmaurice]

One thing to look for in an amp is an EQ section that allows you to boost at 100 Hz and cut at 50Hz. This will allow you to closely duplicate with a ported Barefaced the tone of the sealed SVT.

[Reggaebass]

5 hours ago, Marcus Cornall said:

I dont know how to respond to individuals,

Hi , if you click the quote at the bottom of the post it will reply to that post

 

6 hours ago, Marcus Cornall said:

incidentally ,how do I message individuals outside of a topic?

If you want to talk to someone privately you can send them a private message by clicking on their avatar/profile and there’s an envelope to select 👍

 

6 hours ago, Marcus Cornall said:

Their cabs are so powerful but so light! It's science fiction

Definitely, I’d always used 15’s and 18’s in the early days to get the deep bass ,and was really sceptical about dropping to a 12in speaker but it really does work, I’m not bothered by weight but the barefaced cabs are super light, I can’t see myself changing anything except maybe adding another one if ever I need it 

[Marcus Cornall]

thanks Bill Fitzmaurice again. That's a small but highly significant piece of info.

[fretmeister]

12 hours ago, Bill Fitzmaurice said:

One thing to look for in an amp is an EQ section that allows you to boost at 100 Hz and cut at 50Hz. This will allow you to closely duplicate with a ported Barefaced the tone of the sealed SVT.

 

 

The Mark Bass AG1000 has controls at 65hz and 100hz. The other models have different EQ centres.

 

https://www.markbass.it/product/little-ag-1000/

 

Funnily enough with my Super Twin (now on sale in the classifieds - hint to the OP!  ) I do cut using the 65hz and boost the 100hz.

 

I had no idea I was effectively re-creating an 8x10 though! Every day is a school day!

 

 

[Bill Fitzmaurice]

Yep. Sealed cabs and older ported cabs have a natural roll off below roughly 80Hz. We compensated for that with the bass tone control, which started boosting around 200Hz, reaching maximum boost around 60Hz. When you do that with a modern ported cab that rolls off at 50Hz or lower it changes the character of the sound, from what we think of as vintage to what we think of as modern. All we have to do to get that vintage tone is to use EQ to roll off the low end below 80Hz, emulating sealed and higher tuned ported cabs. What's interesting is that if we'd had cabs that went flat to 50Hz or lower back in the day 'vintage' might have sounded quite different. Or not. Bass cabs didn't go very low, but neither did the speakers that most people listened to music with. The evolution of electric bass tone went hand in hand with the evolution of consumer speaker capabilities. One major complaint of younger drivers of BMW, and I'm sure other makes as well, is the audio  systems won't wake the dead two counties away with pounding bass. That's because the low frequency knee is around 60Hz with full bass EQ boost. I've got no complaint with the sound of my Bimmer, as the only music I listen to is Classic Rock. 😁

[fretmeister]

Well, in a BMW you don't have to have it loud enough to get over the annoying click of the indicators if you never use them...  

[Raslee]

I've been playing a bit of Dub & reggae over the years and always been happy with a Markbass setup. Perhaps my favourite head of all time though was the Eden WT800. The Markbass LMT amp and a ported 4 x10 is sweet, phat and lightish to carry.

 

[Marcus Cornall]

I am beginning to realise that I know NOTHING about amps and cabs! 

All these yrs I just plugged into the old stuff I had .it made a bass sound.

But then I started pre-internet,then taught for yrs and played through the amps there,or my old stuff,and didn't KNOW all this great lore !(particular thanks yet again Bill Fitzmaurice-learning so much from you)

 

Heres another dumb question..it seems if I had a BB II and a 1000w amp,most of them give 500-600w to the cab since it has 8 ohm resistance.

So you don't have to put the full 800 into the cab to get the best sound +/ loudest output from it then? 

 

And I was just getting to which amp....

Thanks Fretmeister for the tip re the AG1000 because that got me thinking about the whole question of eq types and centre frequencies.

I dont fully understand the connotations of the low one being the 40hz of my FB compared with the 60 or 65 of these heads.

There's quite a range of different mid and high mid centre freqs across even just the different Markbass heads now I look.

My FB has a sweepable mid going from 200hz to 2k and I find that really useful for dialling in for different rooms. One thing I would miss with one of these little class D heads.

The hf is only 7khz.No matter for Reggae but slightly limiting for my gritty Jazz bass.

The other thing I would miss is the 'contour' knob on my FB.

It can give a huge round boom esp when combined with the low up full

But alas! The manual enigmatically says that is "a special preset eq" but won't TELL you WHAT!

 

[Bill Fitzmaurice]

1 hour ago, Marcus Cornall said:

So you don't have to put the full 800 into the cab to get the best sound +/ loudest output from it then?

No, and for that matter chances are you may never put the full 800 watts into it. The first 100 watts are the most significant, and in most cases you won't put much more than that into it, other than as short transient peaks.