stevie

My sincere thank to @scrumpymike and his clan for organising another wonderful Bash. Everything went so smoothly, it's easy to overlook the amount of organisation that goes into staging this kind of event. The food was a highlight, of course, and the weather meant we could all eat lunch outside in the sunshine. Lovely!

What a fantastic selection of basses to admire and try out! The early afternoon shootout seems to have become a regular event, and @Phil Starr's insightful comparison of a wide range of bass amps didn't disappoint. Hats off to @neepheid, who drove down from Aberdeen and - amazingly - completed the 550-mile return journey in one go in a car full of gear.

It was also gratifying to see a fair number of Basschat DIY cab builds on display.

I've got a Rane graphic equaliser I don't need, a set of black bass tuners, and a compressor pedal.

On 10/09/2023 at 09:23, TheRev said:

Cabinet wise, for upright I much prefer lots of small speakers (6" or 8") to single 10s or 12s. Notable exceptions* are the Barefaced One10 and the LFSys Monaco.  I tried the Monaco at last year's SW bass bash and thought it was a great cab for double bass - the notes on the E string had plenty of separation/articulation, which is rarely the case with 12" cabs*

 

Thanks for the plug, Dave. If you're going to the SW Bash again this year, you'll be able to try the LFSys Monza, which is basically a scaled-down version of the Monaco with a near-identical sound. I'll also be bringing the first of a new range of lightweight cabs, which were designed for bass guitar but could also be of interest to double bass players, as they're full range with a very smooth frequency response.

@Dan Dare's right. High-powered subs need to be crossed over actively. You can do it passively in theory, but the components needed to cross over at low frequencies are big, heavy and expensive - which is why active is the preferred solution.

1. Follow the colour coding for the tweeter wires. They're usually red and black. If you wire them the other way, you'll put the tweeter out of phase.

2. There shouldn't be a problem making a couple of holes in the baffle for the connection tabs. Nobody will see the holes you've drilled when it's covered by the tweeter. The main thing is that you don't introduce any leaks in the baffle. Stick a strip of adhesive foam around the tweeter to make sure it's sealed. 

3. Ashdown normally use adhesive foam strip under their grilles. As @BassmanPaul says, you should be able to simply replace the grille on the old foam strip. If you'd like to replace the foam, you can get it in the width you need from Ebay or Blue Aran. 2mm thickness is usually right.

Where do we send the money?

May be interesting for some.

https://www.proavl-asia.com/details/73643-b-c-speakers-acquires-eminence-speaker

On 10/09/2023 at 09:13, Phil Starr said:

 

Wood still out performs  plastics as a cab material  IMO/IME.

 

Agreed. Having carried out a/b comparisons of plastic vs wooden cabs, I think the difference (when reproducing solo bass guitar) is bigger than most people suspect.

I sold Mike a pair of Kappalite drivers a couple of years ago and forgot to mention it here. I'm putting that right now. Everything that's been said so far is true. Great guy to deal with.

The FRFR concept comes from the world of electric guitar. Among other things, it gives you the benefit of having a proper monitor on stage rather than a guitar cab. However, you definitely need a modeller of some kind to simulate the sound of a guitar speaker, which is an inherent part of the electric guitar sound.

You absolutely don't need to use a modeller when you're using an FRFR cab designed with bass guitar in mind. A standard bass amp will do the job just fine.

Our guitarist turned up last night with a Headrush cab and a small Line 6 modeller. "It's 2000 watts," he proclaimed. It looked like it had an 8-inch speaker in it. It didn't sound bad, but he tried the modeller in my FRFR cab with a neutral bass amp and there was a world of difference.

Sorry for the delay in replying to this. If you want to disconnect the tweeter you must bypass the crossover. Do not simply disconnect the tweeter. The easiest solution is to leave the crossover where it is, remove all the wires going to it, and then connect one black and one red wire from your Speakons to your two bass drivers - as per the diagram above. If you leave the crossover in circuit with the tweeter disconnected, you are likely to damage your amp.

That's what it looks like, yes.

The ground is common. They're both connected to the negative input.

Yes, connecting two 16-ohm drivers in parallel will give your cab an impedance of 8 ohms. You're right about red and black - they stand for + and -.

If you can't see any markings on the PCB, you'll have to try the polarity both ways and listen. Choose the polarity that gives you the most treble. The easiest way would be to assemble the cab, listen - and then remove the tweeter, swap the wires and listen again. Then choose the polarity you prefer.

Connect the green and yellow wires to the tweeter, observing the polarity marks on the PCB.

It looks like the cab was originally wired in series. If you have two 16-ohm drivers, you'll want to connect them in parallel. So, take the black and red wires coming from the Speakon and connect them to the first driver. Then take another pair of wires from the first driver to the second one. 

Indeed. Lovely finish.

Let's hope the "you must never mix cabs" brigade don't see this. 😊

Proper PA cabs.

Have you tried Musictribe support?

On 08/07/2023 at 08:13, Newfoundfreedom said:

I don't know if I'd call it an unsung hero. I've certainly sung it's praises many times on here, but the Bugera Veyron is an absolute monster of an amp with a superb tone range and more power than you're ever likely to need. I've been using mine for over 3 years now and it's been nothing but excellent. If I needed to replace it the only thing I'd buy is another one the same.

You've got to hand it to Behringer - when they do it right, they make the competition look silly. I had the BX4500H head for a while and it easily kept up in terms of sound quality an output with the lightweight amp I had at the time - a Markbass LM3, I think. The only problem with it was a noisy fan, which I fixed with some resistors. It's a great second-hand buy for the impecunious bass player. I'm currently using the Bugera Veyron, which is *much* cheaper than the  Aguilar Tonehammer it replaced.

Richard's latest drawing is now on page 1.

Yes, please.

It would be good if you could bump your items wanted posts.

Drawings now added to post 1. Many thanks to @RichardH

It definitely won't be called the Mini-Monza. 😃

Pm on its way, @Stub Mandrel