Aguilar DB112 / Schroeder 1212L question

[plyguy]

I play upright bass, often fairly loud with rock'n'roll / blues bands through a Little Mark II head and 2 x Aguilar DB112's. It's been a great set-up tonally and volume wise for 95% of my gigs, but recently i've noticed the cabs are occasionally breaking up on big low notes (I think the band is getting louder!!) so I'm considering getting a Schroeder 1212L as it has a rated power handling of 800w and is still small.

Does anyone have direct experience of both cabs and how they handle things when pushed? I'm thinking the Schroeder would be a louder cab with more headroom. How about other alternatives in the same price bracket?

Incidentally, I'd possibly be up for a trade for the above speakers. The Aguilar I'd trade is in silver and black with tweeter and roqsolid cover.

[chris_b]

Due to their design, Schroeder cabs don't have much low end. They have a lot of mid push though.

Given that you already own the better cabs of the two, I'd keep the DB cabs.

Sounds like you're just overloading the low end. I'd experiment with dialling out some of that out.

I'd also take the filters back to 0 and start with small EQ adjustments.

[plyguy]

Thanks Chris, I will experiment a little with EQ tonight at a gig. I can't say I've really noticed the breaking up before but I've recently changed pickup and can now get a lot louder without feedback. The rig does put out an amazing amount of bottom end, i run the EQ flat and use the tone shaping knobs to scoop some mids. If I run those flat and the EQ flat the sound is very thin / mid-rangey. The mark bass puts out 500w with both cabs connected, the cabs are rated at 300w each.
For smaller gigs, sometimes without a drummer i can get by very well with just one cab so maybe i should just keep one cab and look for a bigger cab (4x10 / 6x10) for these bigger gigs?

[Lozz196]

Schroeders have a mid-push to them. On their own they can sound middy/scratchy/nasally, but in the mix there are plenty enough lows, and because of the mid-push, they fill out in the mix amazingly. Plus, no matter where you stand, they sound the same, no drop-off of highs.

But, if you really like the sound of the Aguliars, I`d look at either the 212 or 410 in the same range, and as you`ve said, keep one of the 112s for gigs without drums. A Markbass Little Mark II into a 410 will be plenty for loud gigs. Only downside, the weight.

[plyguy]

Thanks Lozz, I'm also going to take an old 1x15 500w SWR cab to the gig to absolutely make sure that the distortion isn't coming from the amp. I reckon i'm looking at a bigger cab though, I'll put up with the weight if it sounds good!

[chris_b]

If you've noticed the new pickup running hotter, I'd dial the gain back a little. Sounds like you might be overloading the input signal.

[plyguy]

Chris - it's just a passive Underwood bug pickup - the Markbass would handle that easily, I have to turn the input to 3 o'clock to get the clip LED to light but i run it more like 10/11 o'clock so i can't see it's that.

[JTUK]

yes..I'd be worried about you getting break-up on that rig. Hopefully it is your signal clipping rather than
the cabs.
The gain is where I would start...as Chris has said.

[plyguy]

OK, so I experimented with the settings on the Markbass Little Mark II last night, put the VLE and VPF knobs back to 12 o'clock -- I had been using the VPF on full and I think I'd been pushing the sub and scooping the mids too much -- with the controls backed off I seemed to have a lot more volume to play with, and with less low sub through the speakers the whole sound was fuller and cleaner (but still plenty deep enough), no breakup on the low notes! In the end those knobs were back towards 10 o'clock and i guess I gained back a lot of low-mids and mids, giving me a heck of a lot more overall volume. My master didn't go above 1! Usually it's at 12 o'clock or slightly higher. What a difference! Anyway, I'm now perfectly happy with the Aguilar cabs....for now.....

[Lozz196]

Ah, yes, that would be it. For a while I used just the VPF - at about 2 or 3 o`clock - to get my sound. Was a great sound, amp clipped at around 2 o`clock on the gain, but had plenty of volume available.

Now I have bass & treble at 2 o`clock, low mid at 9 o`clock, and high mid at midday. Amp will now not clip on these settings, and the sound is much fuller.

Just goes to show, those filters really add a lot of lows that speakers seem not to like/handle too well.

[chris_b]

The filters are off at 7 o'clock.

They can really mess with the sound if used too much. When I had my LM2 I didn't use the filters at all.


Do you get a lot of cone movement when you're hitting the low notes at volume?

If so, you might investigate getting an SFX Thumpinator. http://www.sfxsound.co.uk/mainpage.asp?page=thumpinator

There are a few threads about the benefits.

[Lozz196]

Yes, with the filters on those cones look like they`re going to jump out of the cabs - mainly the VPF filter. But, once I changed to the eq mentioned the cones just seem to move like any others.

[plyguy]

Looking at the manual, the VPF boosts lows at 35hz, cuts mids at 380hz and boosts highs at 10k, so with the VPF cranked as i had it, I was boosting a lot of 35hz....not especially useful on an upright!....not to mention cutting the mids where there's a lot of body in the sound.

[plyguy]

Haha...started out as an Aguilar thread and ended up talking about Markbass settings!