fusionbassist1

I can see your point Ross and it's true that pc speakers and headphones don't do much justice to 4 string basses, let alone ERB's but I do think you need to calm down a bit. Personaly on the death metal thing i don't find music that's designed to displease attractive at all so I won't bother giving an opinion on ERB's in that context as I'd be pretty biased i'm afraid.

thought I'd throw this in..........bassplayer magazine apaprently didn't believe jaco's portrait of tracy was a bass guitar when they first heard it and jaco still gets stick for being different even though he's been dead for 20 years, despite this he still won the '07 readers poll for best bassplayer of all time. change DOES happen, it's a question if you want to be a part of that group of people pushing the boat out a bit. I'm all for it,like argh said - ERB players shouldn't feel the need to justify anything and mabye some of these people didn't stop so too much to think about why they want more strings; the sad person in that equation is the person who sat for hours at home in front of a pc trying to think of reasons why what they're doing isn't cool. In the self explanitory words of zappa "shut up 'n' play yer guitar". now i'm going to go to bed. It's a good debate so I hope no one throws something completely un-pc or starts having personal diggs at people (the penis thing is very very immature btw so don't try it).

no worries . I agree about the punk thing, it's like if a punk was bragging about how he can't play his/her instrument it's moving away from what should be the focus ie the music. It shouldn't matter is someone plays a one string bass (and they do exist) or a 12 string (and i'm sure there's basses with more than that...) - the aim is to make music, forget the rest. This convo just got a bit Victor Wooten on everyone's arse so i'll let someone else get a word in now guys.

[quote name='6stringbassist' post='86567' date='Nov 10 2007, 06:13 PM']True, in fact anything higher than Eb (6th fret on the A string) is a note that's also on a guitar. And why do bassplayers who choose to play a 4 string, appear so smug about it when posting their comments on this sort of thread.[/quote] was that aimed at me by any chance?? i play four.....never played any mroe than that either...

my only thing to contribute to this debate is that in my eyes bass is a role rather than an instrument with 'x' amount of strings or 'x' amounts of frets. As long as you're playing lower than the melody instruments and contributing some bass frequencies to the mix then i honestly don't care what's producing these sounds. it's then down to the tone you want, whether that be a synthetic keyboard like bass sound, bass guitar, tuba etc is up to you. If high notes is what you want then in the same way it shouldn't matter what kind of instrument is making the sounds. it's a fact that at the higher frets of even four string bass guitars you're starting to dabble in guitar freq territory but you don't hear people complaining about that on such a level either. the higher notes on a 6 string or 5 string with a top 'C' could be played much easier on an electric guitar so if that's ALL you're going to play on your '6 string bass guitar' then i think you're making more work for your self. if someone wants the tone that a 50 string 'bass' has at higher register then that's up to them and tbh if someone wants to be able to play guitar style licks occasionally and still be able to go right down to a low B then I can't imagine an instrument more convinient than the 6 string bass. In most comercial atmospheres the look is equally as important aswell, can you really see the spice girls coming on stage soon with the bassplayer waving a 12 string beast, the guitarist being on a 8 string thing and the guitarist having a huge drum dome??? of course not, image is equally as important if not more so than the music they pump out. you can factor that into why you don't see so many ERB players on MTV i think. Anyone's opinions on what I said would be very interesting for me o read through

i always go for a 15" to have the ground contact of a big speaker, bit of 'wmph'. Gives me a balanced tone between both cabs. Nice having a tall rig i think aswell so there's some sound near your ears. But as a rule of thumb, don't take other people's opinions too much for granted, go try stuff out, see what's good for you.

[quote name='bass_ferret' post='84191' date='Nov 5 2007, 08:20 PM']The daddy of all speakers is either the Cerwin Vega 18 inch Earthquake with 2.5 inches of cone excursion or the EV 30 inch that I think was used by Accugroove in a silly cab.[/quote] i noticed accugroove at the bass gallery, 20"+ speakers..........us bassplayers need roadies......and bill dickens doesn't really look like he does much jogging imo.....

[quote name='Jack' post='84218' date='Nov 5 2007, 09:21 PM']Did someone wake up cranky this morning? [/quote] of course not i've been using a ashdown evo3 (i think), ashdown 4x10 and 1x12 as a lent rig with a band i've been playign with recently as my setup's out of action and i must say we don't get along very well. i'll admit that if you want that bassy round, phat sound that lies underneath everything (what i now call 'the ashdown sound') then they do that ok but nothing special. but that's ALL they do. after jamming every button and vomiting on the silly slidey things and the not so responsive turny things i got nothing but a sh*tty trebly sound that sounded like all the speakers had been replaced by tweeters, and poor ones at that. nothing against mr ashdown, it's just not my thing.

I'm sure she'll be going mental christmas day. If only we all had that kind of encouragement as youths, it seems to have worked pretty well for Victor Wooten hasn't it !!! We'll have to keep an eye out for your daughter as the next big thing then I suppose Burpster's right about them not beign taken seriously because they're aimed at girls, that's like saying BC Rich shouldn't be takens seriously because they're aimed at a specific heavy rock audience. I never played a Daisy Rock tho, haven't heard much crap about them tho I must admit.

[quote name='crumpet_tramp' post='83879' date='Nov 5 2007, 10:30 AM']I have got one! the neck is sh*te though, i want to use the ibanez s its in better nick however i have got a vintage one. (Bit of a bitsa though!) I'l post a picture When i get home[/quote] 'vintage' as in the manufacturers of that name or vintage as in it's old :|????? If it's a relic bass then I'm sure plenty on the forum will be glad to have a look.

I haven't read it all but that seems like a very good explanation apge of what exactly's going on in the mighty world of speakers. Cheers!!

Norman Watts-Roy from Ian Dury and the Blockheads There's plenty more but when a musician's doing exactly what's asked of him in a band, especially as a bassplayer or when there's a frontperson involved you'll never know he/she's there there.

[quote name='Bill Fitzmaurice' post='84129' date='Nov 5 2007, 06:16 PM']Sometimes it does. Output is limited primarily by driver xmax. Where that's concerned a 150 watt Eminence Basslite S2010 will put out more than a 350 watt Kappa Pro 10. There are other pertinent factors as well, for instance the driver Qts. In the case of the S2010 versus the Kappa Pro 10 the very low Qts of the Kappa Pro chokes off its response over an octave higher than the S2010. In most cases drivers with very high power ratings are accompanied with low Qts values, so if you buy a cab with a very high power rating in the quest for more bass output the opposite may be the result. [/quote] Sorry but "Qts." ?? I suppose (this may sound very thick here but I'm trying my best not to) 'response' as you put it is how well the speaker amplifies and re-produces frequencies created by the guitar....... You really seem to know your stuff when it comes to speakers Bob. Thanx for sharing. I'm guessing you're in the trade then?? Or used to be. Could you please comment on speaker area as I'm sure that more sound is usually thrown out of a cabinet (or set of cabinets) with a large speaker area than one with small area. as in a 8x10" cab on it's own has 80" speaker area and a 2x10 paired with a 1x15 has 35" speaker area, unless I'm missing some very basic math here. I'm genuinely learning stuff here by the way, so please continue, this is useful stuff.

lucky you....very lucky you....or should I say 'ye'. losing the ashdown wouldn't have been that bad though, the unforseen spark would have been it's only chance to shine.

ah ok then, i was just thinking in terms oh looking at cabs via tinterweb before trying them out and in turn purchasing them.

Hello again, I just can't keep away I'm afraid, you're all so helpful (Y) Still on a mission to buy new cabs. I AM going to get a 5 string after this setup is all payed for so I thought I'd find it really useful and many others would aswell if there was some sort of a checklist of things to check out for and keep in mind when you're buying cabs with a low B or even a high C (or both!) string in mind. Kind of like the topic with what to be checking in second hand gear that's here somwhere. Things i think should be adressed if anyone feels like contributing to people who are complete greenhorns to added stringness were freq. range (is it a made up number??) ports on a cabinet, how many and they're layout on the amplifier output of speakers accross the range loss of frequencies and the causes loss of clarity/distortion good cabinet combinations manufacturers who stand out price you're looking at tweeters/horns etc sub-woofers (?) different speaker use according to acoustics footprint on stage/weight/portability performance of cabs in a band setting VS solo bass I have no idea if this will catch on but I'd find it really usefull to know more about what I should be looking for in cabs when I've got 'extended bass' in mind. Thanx a lot everyone, FB

Thanks for that Bill. Just one thing, to get the best performance possible out of a bass cabinet and amplifier, should the power handling be as close to, if not over what the amp's able to shed out. If I've understood correctly this should keep the speakers a decent distance away from it's maximum travel limit. Have I got this correctly?

Hello everyone, I've started to doubt what I've always believed about power handling and stuff, nothing wrong with being corrected when it's needed. My beef is about power handling and my paranoia about blowing my brank-spank new speakers (once I get them of course...it's always the way). I always thought that each cabinet in a multi-cab setup had to have a 'power handling RMS' higher than the amplifier its self. An example would be a head of 500watts being used to power one 15" cab speaker that's got a handling of 400watts and a 2x10" that has a handling of 300watts. In my head that wouldn't be wise as the speakers in both cabinets would be getting pushed really hard. I'm half expecting someone to point out that the load from the amplifier is spread out between each individual speaker but i really need someone to TELL ME THIS so I know for sure. (i know the impedence things btw so in this scenario we'll take it the amps are all wired correctly for their impedence etc) Could someone clarify this for me and please tell me exactly what the deal is if I really have got it wrong. It'd be sh*t to get new gear then have to go have it checked out really quickly due to me not setitng them up correctly. Cheers guys 'n' gulls, FB. P.S. I'm getting a topic running to inquire about smaller cabinets for 5 string basses so I'd much appreciate it if you dropped a word in.

I've been massively drawn in by [url="http://www.warmoth.com/"]Warmoth's Website [/url]recently and have been having massive GAS for buying main components such as the body and neck (routed and painted by Warmoth themselves) then completing the project over here in the UK. I was goign to get a J bass body and neck then buying hardware seperately and asking Shuker to asemble and then set-up the bass for me, prehaps getitng me some decent pups while i'm at it. Can anyone share anything about Warmoth components, good OR bad? Is this the best route to go if there isn't quite enough money to get a full custom bass but when u want something more than bog-standard fender? I'm suprised there's not a Warmoth topic already, if there is (I did search the relevant forums but didn't find anything) then I'm sorry and this can be deleted. I think a wee li'l' bank of information about Warmoth's products would be very useful for BCers so please TYPE AWAY!! Thanx a lot, Ben.

I played through an all Ashdown rig today, a 12" on the floor and 4x10" with an EVO II head. really really boomy, couldn't get any mids from it for the punch I like, it was extreme clicky grindy trebel or rediculous 'I can't even make the notes out' bass. And a silly freq. select setup doesn't help with trying to dial in 'your' sound either. I'll never buy one after that experience. Only good thing was that it was loud enough for the rehersal and cut through with a nice amount of headroom.