HF Drivers

[SpondonBassed]

I have never owned a rig with a high frequency driver. I can't see the point in them frankly. I wondered if I was the only one.

What are the pros and cons?

[LITTLEWING]

In a nutshell, if you slap and pop then they're good for that hi-fi crispness, but if you play ordinary stuff then they're a total pain. They just amplify your finger squeaks and sound like an annoying wasp's nest. You can turn the treble down to lose it but then your bass's character disappears. Higher end equipment can sound great though if you have a spare grand to drop.

[Chrismanbass]

They're usually called HF horns or Tweeters and It does exactly what it says really.

provides high end, Useful if you wan't a biting tone or play slap to get that real zingy sound

but it depends what kind of tone you're looking for some people like that some people don't neither is right or wrong really.

FYI your Laney RB3 has one according to Laney's website

[Dood]

A great cabinet with a decent set of drivers and an exceptional crossover doesn't appear to be the norm. It's a shame as it should be. There are of course plenty of manufacturers that do make incredible sounding bass cabinets, but unfortunately there are also plenty that make cabinets to a price point rather than a quality point. The poorest of designs leave a gaping hole in the frequency spectrum in between the woofer and tweeter, often making the HF unit a pointless addition as all you end up hearing is hiss from the amplifier through it. This is made even worse by those using, for example, dead strings that have a softening of top end content anyway, or, an amplifier that is design to roll off the highs in the regions where a tweeter might be useful.

[SpondonBassed]

[quote name='Chrismanbass' timestamp='1489314951' post='3255889']
They're usually called HF horns or Tweeters and It does exactly what it says really.

provides high end, Useful if you wan't a biting tone or play slap to get that real zingy sound

but it depends what kind of tone you're looking for some people like that some people don't neither is right or wrong really.

FYI your Laney RB3 has one according to Laney's website
[/quote]

FYI mine hasn't. Might be a newer spec one that you've seen.

[Painy]

The horn went in one of my cabs at a gig a couple of months back and it lost so much of the articulation and note definition.
I am a brand new roundwounds kind of guy though so I really like that bright aggressive sound and the horn helps with that.
If I was playing reggae or Motown then I'd turn it down but for what I play and the sound I'm looking for its pretty essential.

[SpondonBassed]

Having flatwound strings and no inclination to pop the strings unless for accent I think I'm okay with what I've got. The sort of music I am playing doesn't need me occupying the upper frequencies. Playing at an open mic recently, the bass went through the house system anyway.

Thanks for the comments.

[Cosmo Valdemar]

Evil things! For my style of playing anyway!