alexclaber

[quote name='chriswareham' timestamp='1460637735' post='3027466']Hi Alex, what's this I hear about you making a cab with an 18" speaker in it? If it's true I might have to place my wallet under lock and key :-) I love the middly "thunk" I get from an 18" and would love to hear what you can do with a speaker that diameter.[/quote]

Shhhh...

Did the polarity check confirm everything is ok on that front?

[quote name='bigjimmyc' timestamp='1461051345' post='3030884']I've read elsewhere on bass chat that the replacement 15" driver (Celestion BN15-400S) doesn't have much excursion. This could account for my missing bottom end at volume whilst sounding awesome at modest levels. Here's the question though: what do I replace it with? Original Ashdown drivers are still available from Ashdown![/quote]

I'd be very surprised if the original driver had usefully more excursion than that Celestion.

If the 15" has been replaced, check the polarity matches with the polarity on the 4x8". Stick a 9V battery on the end of the speaker lead and all the cones should leap in the same direction. Those cabs shouldn't be too dissimilar in bass output to your previous ones. However, if your bass has quite a hot output and you pluck hard and your gain is up fairly high then I wouldn't be surprised by an amp distorting at 4/10, or you pushing so much power you overload the cabs.

We considered putting both 'glass - fragile' and 'biohazard' stickers on our cabs so they'd be treated with care/fear! Unfortunately the risk of customs clearance issues precluded that...

[quote name='Twincam' timestamp='1460583963' post='3027132']Yes indeed very true I get the science. Although I still think that 15s in general have a certain sound and feel to them which is HEFT! Lol[/quote]

In a 'general' sense you're right - in the same way that men are generally stronger than women. However it's a bit different when you get down to specific cabs, and as you use one or two actual cabs as opposed to some kind of averaged generalised thing it's the specifics that matter. I know if I wanted a person to help me move house or fill a skip with concrete I'd rather have a female olympic shotputter than a male hipster.

Even if you don't care what anyone else thinks and you always have your back to it when you're playing, it's still satisfying to have an aesthetically appealing rig for all those times you're looking at it but not using it. Like with cars, motorbikes, bikes, etc - how it looks doesn't matter when you driving/riding it but there's a lot of time it's just sitting around either being ornamental or an eyesore.

And obviously with a band there's also the image you're projecting, though I think that matters far less than what your instrument looks like (don't play a quilted maple topped fanned fret active 7-string with fretboard LEDs in a punk band!)

[quote name='Twincam' timestamp='1460497290' post='3026357']
Must say I do pretty much prefer 15 inch speakers.
It's sounds very common to say but they really do give a certain something smaller speakers just don't give.
And only 15s can deliver heft! Unless your using like an 8x10 fridge.
[/quote]

"Heft" = volume displacement. Volume displacement = cone area x cone excursion.

Historically 15"s have tended to have longer cone excursion than smaller drivers because of what they're designed to do. But if you design a 10" with similar parameters to a 15" but slightly greater cone excursion then two of those 10"s will deliver equal heft to the one 15".

Generic 8x10"s have a lot of heft because they have a lot of volume displacement, with the huge total cone area more than making up for the lack of cone excursion. But make a 10" driver with more cone excursion and you don't need as many of them to get HEFT!!! Same for 12"s - or 8" or 6" or 18" or 21" etc.

However much packaging was used, short of putting it in a box the size of a car to give you a few feet of crumple zone, that damage would have been unavoidable. It takes a huge load to break a woofer frame like that! The courier is 100% at fault. We had two cabs damaged in shipping relatively recently - both shipped on the same day to the same part of the world and both damaged in the same way. I suspect the same individual chucked them off a high loading bay or something. Anyway, we submitted a claim for both and one was accepted and one rejected despite the damage being near identical! We then had to appeal and escalate things higher through our account manager and eventually they agreed to pay out. A huge waste of time!

[quote name='lastanthem88' timestamp='1460550696' post='3026699']
Hi Alex - just ordered the super midget from a stockist of yours, should be arriving with me tomorrow! I'd have ordered direct but obviously you guys have a small lead time, where as this was next day. The helpful guy I spoke to yesterday on the phone said that lots of guys are using a GKmb500, which gets really good reviews on line - any thoughts on this? Really looking forward to getting my new cab tomorrow anyway, and whilst you are on the staff member I spoke to at your place was incredibly helpful and really explained things to me which helped in more laymans terms. Fantastic customer service!
[/quote]

Excellent! Yes, that's a good amp for cleaner sounds - if the MB800 isn't much pricier than I think the extra power is always worth having (as our cabs can do something useful with it). That was me on the phone, so thanks!

If you don't mind carrying a bit more for a few gigs (or if it will come out), try using the Markbass amp in the combo to drive the Super Midget. If that sounds great then get a Markbass amp. If you want more warmth, growl, bite, etc then we can advise you on what amp to buy for the best results. Likewise if you need more power.

[quote name='chris_b' timestamp='1460536245' post='3026486']It's like driving my diesel Volvo Estate at 70 mph on a motorway. Everything above 70 is irrelevant and the 160 mph on the speedo is just pure fantasy.[/quote]

It isn't.

1000W is only 3dB more power than 500W and nowadays no-one makes a fuss about using that much power.

I imagine that changing your default plucking position (unless you already shift around the strings a lot) and some of your muting/ghosting choices will sort this out.

Lots of bassists like 'pretty' bass sounds but many great recorded bass sounds are pretty damned ugly - and the pretty recorded tones rarely translate in the noise of a live gig (even with in-ears, expensive PAs, proper monitoring, etc). Off the top of my head I can think of two examples where a bass that worked brilliantly on record couldn't be used for touring for sonic reasons (Raphael Saadiq's old P-bass and Flea's old J-bass, both with flats).

I'm not a big advocate of boostings mids on amps - yes, most of the tone is in the mids but in my view it's a case of playing the instruments so the mids speak and then having a rig that lets enough midrange through. Do what you will but unless you were suffering a terrible case of Emperor's New Clothes, the problem isn't the cab. Unless, to continue the metaphors, you're having a Princess and the Pea moment!

[quote name='dave_bass5' timestamp='1460113727' post='3022684']
Thanks Alex.

I understand point 2 but not point 1. Do you mean the EQ is set wrong? I tend to use an almost flat EQ, with The lows backed off slightly, as I find the BB2 has a lovely low end but can overpower the mids.
As far as turning up, I'm now at volume levels where my wireless receiver is falling off the rig. In 13 years off gigging this hasn't happened until recently where I have been turning up.
You could be right though, maybe I just need to go louder and stand further way.
[/quote]

EQ is a personal thing - it depends on the player, the bass, the amp, the cab, the venue, etc etc. Where the knobs are pointing is irrelevant (same with the gain/volume knobs).

If your tone is right in the context of the mix then it'll be right out front. If you judge your tone in the context of being much closer to your cab than to everyone else's amps, you'll be hearing yourself much louder in the mix than you'll be out front, which means you're more likely to tend towards a tone that sounds great soloed but may not be appropriate for sitting correctly in a properly balanced mix.

One of the best things any bassist can do for their sound and the band's sound is to stand further from their cab, so they can judge their tone in the mix more accurately.

[quote name='dave_bass5' timestamp='1459954347' post='3021226']Ive had my BB2 for a few months, and its been the best sounding cab ive ever owned. Recently ive started to notice the tone when up close is way more punchy and articulate than, say 10ft and over from the cab. This is in rehearsal rooms as well as gigs. I was very used to my old 1212L, and although tone wise that wasn't up to the BB2 it had more out front punch.[/quote]

Sound always starts at the cab and the only thing that changes the up close vs out front sound (ignoring room acoustics) is the dispersion - if the dispersion is good then a cab will sound more articulate and punchy up close than one which has less good dispersion. If the cab with better dispersion doesn't sound as good at a distance then there are two possible reasons:

1. The tone you're getting from it isn't right.
2. It's not actually turned up loud enough, you just think it is because it sounds loud when you're close to it due to the better dispersion.

If it sounds good up close then you are getting the right tone from it, therefore you need to turn up!

[quote name='Barabass' timestamp='1459712321' post='3018897']
Perhaps the tweeter + crossover weighs as much as the (thin) wood that the SM has less than the SC.
[/quote]

Bingo!

[quote name='Lozz196' timestamp='1458847006' post='3011578']So it is to do with cab design and other components that voice the cab - this is why I love Basschat, you can get the spot-on answers from the people who make the gear with understandable explanations.[/quote]

It's mostly speaker design not cab design that gives the cab its voicing, unless you have complex crossovers and multiple drivers. I don't consider the cone diameter the dominant characteristic which defines the tone or performance of the speaker, it's just one of many different interacting parameters.

I guess you could compare it to the number of cylinders in a car engine and how that affects the performance of the car - there is a correlation but the bore and stroke of the cylinders, compression ratio, valve number and area, cam shapes, reciprocating mass, rotating mass, exhaust design, induction design, aspiration method, fuel type, etc, all matter and together have far greater importance than the number of cylinders alone.

[quote name='Lozz196' timestamp='1458762587' post='3010678']
Apparently different sized speakers have no specific sound - I can`t disagree with those that know far more than me on this. However it does seem that manufacturers of speaker [u]cabs[/u] voice them in specific ways. Cabs with all 10s seems to be tighter and more focused, cabs with 15s seem to be warmer and concentrate more on lows than highs. I`ve had a good few rigs with 210s & 115s and in all cases, through all brands, the 210s were toppier and more focused than the 115s of the same range. Cabs with 12s seem to be the middle ground, with the makers covering most of the sonic area with these.
[/quote]

Our 10CR cabs are warmer and fatter sounding than any other cabs we've made, be they 10"s, 12"s, or 15"s. Some of our 12XN cabs can do much better lows than many of our old 15" cabs. Our 12XN cabs have more clarity than any 10" I've come across.

It's nothing to do with the nominal cone diameter and everything to do with a ton of different design decisions to the cone, suspension, motor, enclosure, crossover and so on.

Will you be changing your username to Gottastopbuildinggear?

[quote name='Bass-Thing' timestamp='1455575210' post='2980455']Your quote means stealing so I'm not sure of it's relevance. Copying isn't the same thing, though I imagine if you are being copied it must feel like it is.[/quote]

If you copy another business's intellectual property then legally and morally that is considered theft. Whether the company being stolen from can afford to get the lawyers involved to defend themselves is another matter - but there are plenty of cases on record of companies receiving settlements from the group in question.

I'm glad you see the art in what we do but what matters to me more is the engineering - and once you've done the R&D work it's very easy for another business to reverse engineer what you've done and make a copy. Whether the copy is as well executed will depend on the manufacturing process and the components used.

[quote name='Bass-Thing' timestamp='1455388152' post='2978736']I think the thing to remember is that with high end brand names, you are paying a lot for extensive research and development. Music Group don't spend any money on this (they just copy everything) so they can pass on the savings to the buyer.[/quote]

I think the thing to remember is that with buying any bass cab from a legitimate source, you are paying for someone to build it. Anyone selling a cab that's 'fallen off the back of a lorry' doesn't have to spend any money on that, so they can pass on the savings to the buyer.

[quote name='Phil Starr' timestamp='1455006028' post='2974851']
I love Basschat. There are four people freely giving up their time to produce plans and instructions for the build and just making it happen. Is it bass players?[/quote]

I've often looked into forums for guitarists and drummers but they never seem to work as well - I do think it is a bass player thing! We're used to playing a supporting role, often not getting much credit and being the keystone of a team. Go bassists!

The SWR sound is much nicer for bass at low volumes - it compensate for the weirdness of the human ear with quiet sounds, which otherwise makes bass guitar sound rather midrangey. At high SPL it has a habit of getting lost in the mix so you need a lot of output (my old solution with an SWR Grand Prix and cabs which were rather subdued in the mids was almost 2kW of amp power - and that was in reasonably restrained bands (100W 2x12" guitar amps, not full stacks).

I think you need to ask them for a specific recorded example of the kind of tone they're after, for instance Tim Commerford on Bulls on Parade or Geezer on War Pigs or Paul McCartney on Hey Bulldog or Flea on Give It Away or Lemmy on Ace of Spades or Les Claypool on Tommy the Cat etc etc etc.

Regardless you're going to need a very controlled drummer and guitarists for you to get loud enough to be so up front in the mix with a relatively small rig.

Low F# as a note isn't a problem for lots of bass rigs, though they generally need to be big or have lots of volume displacement so they can reproduce the first and second overtones (second and third harmonics) with enough sonic weight. The low F# fundamental frequency is extremely difficult to reproduce at rock loudness - you can do it with a sensible specialist rig at lower levels but to manage it at high SPL requires spending a lot of money on some very serious kit.

And even if you can build a bass rig that does low F# fundamental well, the PA system won't manage it, so either your rig has to be able to fill the whole venue or you're going to be much louder in the mix onstage on your lowest notes but those notes will be quiet out front. You might have noticed a similar problem with balancing your pickup heights on a 5/6/7+ string bass if you're using much bass boost on your rig. Having excessive very deep content can also throw off the string to string or up and down the neck sonic balance between more controlled SPL and full on rocking out, as the human ear gets better at hearing low frequencies when everything is much louder.