How low does it go ...

[SamIAm]

If I understand correctly, a low E is about 41Hz and a low B 30Hz.

 

Do any bass cabs actually reproduce these frequencies?

 

Do any smaller bass cabs (12 inch or less) succeed?

 

Is there some magic in a cab that helps?  (What does a cab being tuned to XHz mean?)

 

Pretend I know nothing, which should be easy as I ... know nothing!  

 

S'manth x

[Mottlefeeder]

Almost certainly they will produce some sound at that frequency, but not at a volume comparable to 200Hz and up. 

For normal bass guitar use, that is no bad thing - the lowest octave often adds little to the bass sound, but adds lots to the general mush and boom.

David

[Bill Fitzmaurice]

The fundamental of the E is 41 Hz, but we don't hear just fundamentals, we also hear harmonics. They actually are most of what we hear, so electric bass cabs generally start rolling off their response around 60Hz.

One reason why bass can be overpowering through large PA systems is the subs go a lot lower than bass cabs, so it takes a well trained hand in the FOH to get it right. Good engineers know enough to high pass the bass channel at 60Hz or higher. The best engineers tend to be bass players themselves.

[BassmanPaul]

Acme cabinets do all that!  LOL 

[Phil Starr]

On 10/11/2023 at 21:50, Smanth said:

If I understand correctly, a low E is about 41Hz and a low B 30Hz.

 

Do any bass cabs actually reproduce these frequencies?

 

Do any smaller bass cabs (12 inch or less) succeed?

 

Is there some magic in a cab that helps?  (What does a cab being tuned to XHz mean?)

 

Pretend I know nothing, which should be easy as I ... know nothing!  

 

S'manth x

Good questions.

 

Properly specified cabs are given a cut off frequency, but that is the point at which the response starts to roll off, anyone designing a cab will use the point where the response is 3db down but it doesn’t stop producing bass there bur rolls off the bass at 12-24db per octave. As Bill has said that -3db point is often around 60 Hz, you can still hear it a bit but it won’t be very loud and isn’t important for a band.

 

Speaker diameter isn’t important in determining f3 (the roll off point). There are lots of 10’s That go lower than 15’s and I’m looking at my 5” monitors that go lower than any bass speaker. The cone mass and stiffness of the suspension determines f3.

 

There is no magic. God does not play dice 😀😀

 

Most cabs are ported or bass reflex cabs. In a plain sealed box a speaker may go down to 60 Hz but in a ported cab the port output take’s the response down lower and gives you an extra 3 db of bass. It is really hard not to want that extra free bass. The port and cab work like a bottle when you blow across it and resonates at a particular frequency which is tuned to come in just where the speaker starts to struggle. So the tuning frequency is the resonant frequency of the cab. In practice the speaker and cab interact which is where the real action is in cab design and there is the possibility of tweaking a design.