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Everything posted by chyc
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Don't laugh, but I walk onto stage carrying it by its handle, I put it down, plug in and then I flick it on. I see no reason to have it on the cabinet. If I can hear myself I'm not one for fiddling which probably works in my favour here.
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Just finished a gig with my trusty BC110T cabinet and my ABM600. It was excellent but the main reason I'm writing this is because I've never seen anything written by someone who's used the ABM with a double bass. I wasn't sure as at least to me the ABM is seen as an electric bass amp. It was really rather good for double bass. The input impedance is high enough that I could just plug straight into the amp from the piezo pickup. Other amps that I've tried (lookin' at you Markbass) are horrible and really need a preamp. A little bit of compression meant that I was able to do something I've never really done before: slap. I also really don't take issue with weight that people seem to have. Yes it's heavier than my other amp, but it's by no means heavy, and it's probably one of the lighter items I need to carry to the venue.
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It was all good fun. I'm probably all good for bass cabinets, but sadly I've got the itch now. One thing I keep forgetting to mention is that I bought some BFM plans. For various reasons I decided to instead build the BC112, but I will say that these plans are full of tips, like how to do joins, and how to test for leaks. Purchasing the plans for the Simplexx 12, say, will give you a good set of mental tools to get you going with cabinet building so I would definitely recommend purchasing at least one.
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OK, update time. Won't bore you with details, but the cabinet has only just arrived at home for me to blast through. The harsh resonant frequency is gone which makes me conclude it's either been bashed into shape in transit, or the previous location had some pretty nasty standing waves. I'm going to compare this with the BC110T because that's the most similar cabinet I have. Some caveats out the way Neither of these cabinets is built to spec. The mk3 I couldn't find the horn so had to swap it out. The BC110T I swapped the woofer, because why not! I then tinkered with the crossover, again because why not! I am not a critical listener. I'm fairly sure I could enjoy music played through tin cans and a wet string. So, with that out the way, here's me listening through a Denon HiFi in the living room. Room is around 8' floor to ceiling and fairly stuffed with, erm stuff. If you swap the cable back and forth, it's immediately apparent, with the EQs set flat, that the 12" woofer allows the bc112 to exude an authoritative bass that isn't there in the 10". Bear in mind I could (and did!) buy two 10" speakers for the price of the one 12", but I played the comparison to my wife and I believe her words were "wow, where's the bass gone?" when I made the switch. For a bass cabinet that's rather a big deal in my opinion, but see my previous comments in this thread about playing upright bass. For the treble side, I will treat this comparison with extreme caution as this is where the changes I made to the designs come into effect. For my cabinets at least the BC112 has pleasant highs, albeit a bit veiled towards the upper end. It's very similar to my ancient Sennheiser HD580s in that regard. The BC110 is much crisper by comparison, perhaps a little too pronounced in absolute terms, although that may have been me tinkering too much. I'm too lazy to go back and revert the crossover changes I made so it can't be that bad though. For my wife, she liked the BC112, but felt it lacked something, She couldn't put her finger on it, but whatever that something was was present in the BC110. For the record, this was at pleasant living room listening volumes rather than face melting volumes. Absolute volume? No idea. I've played a pair of BC110s in an absolutely worst case scenario venue and it cruised through a jazz big band. I haven't gigged the BC112. Both cabinets exceed the capability of what I can play at home sensibly. For practising, I have to say that neither is appropriate: they're definitely for taking on the road. When my children are tucked up in bed upstairs I want my bass cabinet to be about 3 feet from me. At that distance, both cabinets are too big, and also for both cabinets, the two sound sources of the woofer and the tweeter are distinct, which for me is a distraction. I'd say that for this task I have a fantastic cabinet in the shape of the GSS06B400MKD, containing a co-axial speaker. I've even done gigs with this. Marvellous cabinet. Anyway, back to the direct comparison. For convenience, the 10" scores highly. Not only is it much lighter, but its size makes it much more manoeuvrable round corners and through doors. I've put the BC110 on a bicycle pannier rack. I cannot do that with the BC112mk3. If I could build the BC110 again however I would absolutely put in the top circular handle that the BC112 has. That's so nice. The BC112 is my largest and heaviest cabinet, but I know it's a feather compared with some of the behemoths out there. There are no conclusions to this ramble to be honest. I'm the happy owner of three cabinets (one BC112, two BC110), and a lot of sawdust. I'd probably still pick the BC110 over the BC112 for double bass. For electric, I'd probably pick the BC112 unless I was cycling. If anyone has any questions I'm happy to answer honestly to the best of my ability. If anyone wants to play through them, I'm happy for that also. Next steps? Probably another BC112 with the correct horn and nicer wood, if I can afford it. Sheesh wood is expensive now.
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Depending on the layout of the cabinet, placing it on its side may move the woofer significantly closer to the floor. That can have a difference to the sound. Similarly if there's a tweeter with different vertical and horizontal dispersion patterns.
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Yeah, it's a beautiful sound. No boom at all. I have an ABM 600 which I've never tried with it. I think that's for my next bass gig where I travel by car. Last gig I cycled the BC110t on the back of my bike! Next up is the wedding where these will be PA tops. Can't wait!
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OK, I've done some critical listening, and I don't think I can pass judgement on the design as I don't think I've made it right. I played a 30Hz tone at a fair volume and there were definitely artefacts that shouldn't be there. I ran my ear along all the seams and couldn't detect any leaking so the turbulence may well be something inside the cabinet. That I can probably live with. What I cannot is there is a pronounced hump in the upper bass frequencies, probably between 100-400Hz. It may be the room I'm playing it in, but I played my Acoustic Image side by side and that was a much flatter response. This cabinet was intended to be the prototype using cheap wood. I'm still bitterly disappointed that I didn't nail it, but I'm a little buoyed that I'll be able to correct the niggling errors that I made along the way with a second one. If I'm slow enough the horn may well come back in stock!
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Yeah, sucks to spend more on something that doesn't fit the requirements. The cutouts are different so it's not like I can swap it when it does come back in stock, and the horn's weight is noticeable when holding it on its own: it's a chunky monkey. Haven't been able to play through it today as the cabinet is being painted. I've built a frame for a cloth grille. What kind of fabric is suitable? I read somewhere that mosquito netting is good but I cannot find it now that I'm searching.
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I think this must be it: I've used both phones into a mono input, and CDs from my Denon hi-fi. Perfectly pleasant to listen to all genres except classical, but I'd prefer the Denon bookshelf speakers given the choice. I have very little frames of reference you see, so maybe I'm comparing the wrong things. I have the GSS 06B400MKD which sound absolutely amazing for hifi, but the speakers in those are coaxial studio monitors. The coax isn't a gimmick, it really makes a difference when you're sitting right next to your speakers. I see that the P-Audio is out of stock again. It's a popular horn clearly. Unlikely as that is a part that I didn't make! For the BC110T I swapped out the woofer for one that is 3dB more sensitive, so the less sensitive highs was probably my fault. I know enough electronics to realize that it's the resistor that causes attenuation so I shorted the resistor in the design. It is much much better now because of that, but I wasn't expecting to do it here, but given the above it may just be me. I'll report back when the cabinet has done a gig, or when I've practised a few hours through it. I'm buoyed that I plugged in a double bass and no knob twiddling needed it sounded fantastic and rather loud (or so my children say, I was enjoying myself too much at the time to notice.)
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Thanks @BlueMoon for your kind words. I bought the Celestion Horn, available at Lean Business in the UK. Whether they ship to the continent I do not know sadly.
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I will do this. I don't have the two cabinets side by side at the moment to compare. I've just played a double bass through it and I have to say it did sound rather good. Would people like sound samples of this, the BC110T, a GSS 06B400 MKD and an Acoustic Image Coda R? Nothing scientific, just a fun shootout of all my cabinets. The muted highs were from playing music through the cabinets from my phone. Are traditional (inexpensive) hi-fi cabinets scoop voiced? My wife can hear a subtle treble rolloff as well so I don't think it's just me. A nudge with the EQ fixes things so it's not critical by any means, and I don't even need to do that when playing bass, which ultimately is all I care about. These cabinets are going to be played and worn in. I have a wedding in March and depending on how the chips fall I may be using the BC110Ts as PA tops for a ceilidh band! The BC112 will then take double bass duty It is indeed. To have a pair demolish a big band in an acoustically compromised venue for me shows just how potent they are. I probably could have got away with a single BC112, but I would have needed a bigger amp than the "100W" GSS Bullet
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If you notice I changed the model of horn. That was for the simple reason that the one in the design was out of stock when it came to ordering. I understand that this changes phase and dispersion so with my mk3 that may be the reason the highs are a little muted. I picked the horn that explicitly listed compatibility with the Celestion CDX1-1415. It was never my intention to make it look like a Monaco, and as it so happened I took so long the horn came back in stock again. Doh! Now, the planer. Firstly I have to admit this was my first time in this so there was some pilot error, but definitely the wood didn't help. Both the planer and the sander seemed to latch onto loose ply and use that to rip up the fascias on some of the panels. There was none of that with the nice Baltic birch. Again, wood filler has saved me.
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Initial thoughts: like the BC110T I think its highs are a little veiled. Do I need to wait for the speakers to loosen up? I would have thought that waiting would give me more bass rather than more treble, but I'm no expert. In terms of as a bass cabinet, I can totally hear stuff through this cabinet that doesn't come out the BC110T. There's an authoritative thud (not boomy I hasten to add) for kickdrum and low bass. That may be your jam, but I'm not working in those genres and I have to admit that the BC110T with its smaller size, and particularly its lower weight, is a better fit for me personally. I will say that the BC112mk3 seems to have better dispersion in the sense that I can sit on it and can hear what I'm playing. This may prove incredibly useful as the cabinet is the perfect height to sit on while playing a double bass. By no means am I disappointed with this cabinet: it sounds great with a bass and maybe I can grow to love it as a general purpose noise maker. I'll report back in a month or two once it's bedded in, but as things stand, I think the 10" speaker is better for double bass. I will have to post later about my experiences with a planer and sander. All I can say is that cheap wood and planing and sanding do not mix at all, and I have become quite an expert in wood filler as a result
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If you're serious about being talked out of a purchase, I get the vibe that when you ruck up with a fretless bass, people think you're a show-off, whether rightly or wrongly. Bizarrely nobody seems to think that about a violin or cello player, but life isn't fair.
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It's the final straight. Last panel glued down and drying now. I've made my first major boob unfortunately. If you've made the cabinet before you can probably see it just by looking at this photo: Basically I didn't like the vertical mount of the rear panel, so I rotated it. Now unfortunately I cannot put the rear brace up the back panel without interfering with the connector plate. Bummer Not to worry, I'm unlikely going to be playing anything heavier than Neil Sedaka so I just added a noggin that dangles just above the plate. You can see it in the photo above. I have tins and tins of seriously out of date paint. I'm going to open them up and see what options I have on the colour front. This was supposed to be the experimental build using uber cheap wood, but to be honest while I didn't nail everything first time, it's turned out pretty well, and I'm sure it will become a perfectly usable cabinet; this may well be my last build! The wood was atrocious though. Voids galore.
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Afraid not. It's being built at my parents' house with all the tools, a fair distance away from where I live. That's why it's always so slow progress with me Hoping to visit next week (half-term) and most likely I will be able to get some sound out of it then. Really cannot wait!
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I had exactly the same thing! Based on my own experiences I would place UPS lower than Evri for reliability and service.
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Agreed. When the (pair of) cabinets is positioned around 10 feet behind me, they are absolutely perfect. I can hear myself clearly to tune, and the room fills up with the warm hum of a double bass that you just cannot get with an electric, although granted you can get close if all you do is pluck. I'll take this opportunity to thank three people again, @stevie and @Phil Starr for their amazing work designing, testing and writing up this cabinet, and the mk3, and @GlamBass74 for all his advice and support off-thread. I've gone from someone who didn't know what plywood was to someone who's built, finished and varnished his own cabinet!
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I think next time I will lean the cabinet back. Thanks for the tip about rotating the horn. It looks symmetric but the blurb online says that it does have different vertical and horizontal dispersion so that may be an option, like on the BC112mk3. Don't think it would have helped in this case as the cab really was right next to me. The cabinet really is a very good fit for double bass. A bigger cone and cab will give me extended lows which I'm never going to need, and since I have two the SPL is taken care of already and I can easily take on drummers. I may even get away with one if ever I play with a tasteful drummer (if such a thing exists).
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Just finished a community panto, playing bass. What a blast, had a great time. Played three performances with my Acoustic Image Coda [AI], and three with the BC110T, for science. The BC112mk3 still isn't ready sadly. I think that from the audience's point of view the BC110T sounded better. There's definitely more welly in the lower bass frequencies what with it being a ported design, and there was no boom to tame with a HPF. There's one scene where I bow a low A pedal note, and through the BC110T came this wonderful powerful growl that I have never ever been able to achieve before. However, the praise isn't all one way traffic: the AI, because of its clever down-firing woofer and mid range speaker was much, much clearer to me, which is important when you need to hear yourself to tune. This is a community panto and in the "pit" there was enough room for me, the cabinet/amp and a cup of tea. Thus, the speakers were around 2 feet behind me at ground level and served as both monitors and the only bass amplification for the room (seating capacity around 80). I'm sure I was vibrating teeth out in the front row, but I couldn't always hear myself. The AI is much smaller, although in this instance it has points deducted for that as I couldn't place my mug of tea on top of it. Next year if I'm asked back, I'll hopefully have the mk3 so I can bikeshed with even more cabinets
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You can count on it! A word of warning though: my kit can be politely described as niche, and mainly geared towards double bass and lightweight cabinets. I'm also incredibly lax about my sound, so long as I can hear myself.
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Am I the only person on this planet that prefers the staggered pots?
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I've played the Yamaha TRBX 605, which essentially is the one you played with fancier wood. I did not get on with it at all. I ordered it in at PMT to try before I buy, thinking it would tick all the right boxes, but it didn't. I found the cheaper basses there, like the Sterling SUBs to be far better for playability and tone. I'd note that prices have gone a bit bonkers now so I don't know if the price differentials are the same. It's clearly a marmite bass. When it was no longer reserved for me and PMT put it on the shelf, it was gone within two weeks.
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Gig over. The verdict is that these cabinets are indeed perfect for double bass, and are plenty powerful and clear. I played some small band stuff, but also some big band which I wasn't expecting. These cabinets filled the room with the GSS bullet amplifier you can see on top of it. Got some nice compliments about my sound, and a distinct lack of compliments about the woodworking and varnishing efforts on display. Venue was a nightmare scenario of a gym with hard floor and high(ish) ceilings. Almost certain my Acoustic Image wouldn't have coped but this setup worked fine. It is significantly heavier mind you, and while there was a little left on the dials to give more welly, the GSS was warm to the touch by the end of the gig and I wouldn't want to chance it. It's soo portable and cute though how could anyone not love it? I will have to get L brackets for the grille as the duct tape holding them in place is starting to peel. I think I will also make a scrap ply wedge to angle the upper cabinet towards my beautiful face next time (if there is a next time: I was quite rusty.) Here is all my equipment fitting into my car, double bass, cabinets, and child seat because I was too lazy to take it out.
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