jezzaboy Posted January 11, 2019 Share Posted January 11, 2019 Right, this might be a stupid question but hey it won`t be the first! I have been reading the FRFR thread. Now I have just saved rock n roll by buying a ABM 500 and was looking at getting a 15 " cab to go with it. Would I be better looking at a passive pa speaker rather than a bass cab? Are the passive pa cabs a good bet to handle a bass amp as most of what you hear at gig is foh anyway? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jrixn1 Posted January 11, 2019 Share Posted January 11, 2019 What is the technical difference between a good passive PA speaker (i.e. one which can reproduce all reasonable frequencies without colouration) and a flat-voiced bass cab (i.e. one which can reproduce all reasonable frequencies without colouration)? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jrixn1 Posted January 11, 2019 Share Posted January 11, 2019 Or from another angle: What is your preference for an on-stage monitor: to hear the same tone as the audience will hear (an "accurate"/flat cab), or to hear a different tone (a coloured cab)? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bill Fitzmaurice Posted January 11, 2019 Share Posted January 11, 2019 Passive PA cabs within the same price range as bass cabs tend to be not all that much different where the woofers are concerned. The usual difference is larger HF horns that cross over at lower frequency than tweeters is bass cabs. You may prefer that, especially with larger than ten inch woofers, but there's only one way to know and that's to try before you buy. 1 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Phil Starr Posted January 11, 2019 Share Posted January 11, 2019 The answer is the same as for an active PA speaker really. Any decent PA cab will handle the bass and a FRFR response (yep response twice) will give you an 'uncoloured response and a good basis for amp modelling or eq. The trick is to get a good passive PA speaker cos the cheaper ones tend to have underspecified bass drivers. PA gear has come on a lot recently and a fair bit of the older kit did have limitations. Equally there is a lot of very decent passive gear out there that isn't fetching much of a price on the used market, so there are lots of bargains. The downside is that most of what you find will be fairly heavy wooden boxes with huge ceramic magnet drivers, the old cabs have passive crossovers of varying quality so they don't sound so good pound for pound and the most modern PA cabs have DSP built in so the responses are generally almost unnaturally flat. I can't resist playing bass through any speaker that passes through my hands, the old Yamaha S115V is a good contender and uses bog standard Eminence drivers with little light bulbs as protection so both bullet proof and repairable. 1 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Steve Browning Posted January 12, 2019 Share Posted January 12, 2019 Our favourite bass player (Adam Clayton) used 4 PA cabs as his backline for quite a long time I remember. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
EBS_freak Posted January 13, 2019 Share Posted January 13, 2019 30 minutes ago, Steve Browning said: Our favourite bass player (Adam Clayton) used 4 PA cabs as his backline for quite a long time I remember. Yet poses with Ashdown rigs... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bill Fitzmaurice Posted January 13, 2019 Share Posted January 13, 2019 (edited) As has Sting, but Martin and Clair Brothers aren't your average PA cab. Quote Yet poses with Ashdown rigs... One does have to pay the bills. Edited January 13, 2019 by Bill Fitzmaurice 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
EBS_freak Posted January 13, 2019 Share Posted January 13, 2019 (edited) 3 minutes ago, Bill Fitzmaurice said: As has Sting, but Martin and Clair Brothers aren't your average PA cab. Indeed. Although when I saw him on the Police reunion gigs he was into thoroughbred Ampeg. Also - Anthony Jackson - Meyer Mike Gordon - Meyer (although they may be powered) (think Phil Lesh also uses/used very similar rig) Edited January 13, 2019 by EBS_freak Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bill Fitzmaurice Posted January 13, 2019 Share Posted January 13, 2019 Don't forget about Geddy Lee- Whirlpool. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
grenadillabama Posted January 13, 2019 Share Posted January 13, 2019 When I saw Emerson Lake and Palmer in the '70s the bass cabinet was a "W" cabinet that layed on its side. The 2 15s pointed their sound around some zig-zag and came out the front. It was about 3'high and 5' wide ! The really strange thing was a LARGE high frequency horn on top. I have no idea how it was crossed over. I did buy a green Altec Lancing horn for my bass amp. It got some killer treble until it bit the dust . Then I went to a common SVT and it was good. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Phil Starr Posted January 13, 2019 Share Posted January 13, 2019 (edited) 9 hours ago, grenadillabama said: When I saw Emerson Lake and Palmer in the '70s the bass cabinet was a "W" cabinet that layed on its side. The 2 15s pointed their sound around some zig-zag and came out the front. It was about 3'high and 5' wide ! The really strange thing was a LARGE high frequency horn on top. I have no idea how it was crossed over. I did buy a green Altec Lancing horn for my bass amp. It got some killer treble until it bit the dust . Then I went to a common SVT and it was good. Reverts to old man reminiscing. I used to build these in the days before Thiele Small. the biggest problem in those days was just being loud enough. Amp watts were fiercely expensive and heavy for touring bands. Speakers had primitive treated paper formers and glues which only temporarily held the coils together so efficiency was all. I dread to think what the frequency response of the old W-bins was but very little mids and treble escaped those folded horns. I remember some bassists using them without an HF horn too. With vocals through a 4x12 there was little but very loud mush. It was fun making it all up as you went but thank goodness we don't build them like that any more. Edited January 13, 2019 by Phil Starr Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Steve Browning Posted January 13, 2019 Share Posted January 13, 2019 15 hours ago, EBS_freak said: Yet poses with Ashdown rigs... I was going back a fair bit here. I think before Joshua Tree. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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