Phil Jones Cab 47 with Ashdown head

[lownote]

It's always good to know who's getting what heads, cabs and basses together for a particular sound.  Here's my twopennyworth.

My current quest is for a faux upright sound but with a certain clarity. So, bassy but not boomy, easy on the highs but not thuddy. I 'spose a photographic analogy would be exposing for the highlights but retaining detail in the shadows *.

So first I went for fretless basses - Vintage 940FL PJ, and a Revelation P bass, with flats. 

Then I got me a Phil Jones Cab 47 - 4x7" drivers.  My reasoning is that's the combined trouser flapping surface area of a 15" driver with the instant response and crispness of the smaller driver. 

After dallying with an Elf head which though nice I couldn't get to my liking (too hot and middy for me), I almost as an afterthought hooked up my old Ashdown 300 Evo 2 head.  Result: happiness, just the clear chocolaty low end smooth sound I wanted.  OK, the big head looks stupid sat on the tiny cab but not bad a sound at all. 

Head now down to Heybridge for a service with @Ashdown Engineering then looking forward to getting it back.

* My descriptions of wine are equally pretentious.

Edited April 24, 2020 by lownote12

[Dan Dare]

10 hours ago, lownote12 said:

 OK, the big head looks stupid sat on the tiny cab but not bad a sound at all. 

As long as it doesn't actually overhang the edges of the cab, the bass police should leave you alone 😊

Welcome to the PJB fan club.

[TheGreek]

10 hours ago, lownote12 said:

Head now down to Heybridge for a service with @Ashdown Engineering then looking forward to getting it back

Yep, great service from the boys in Essex...

[lownote]

1 hour ago, Dan Dare said:

As long as it doesn't actually overhang the edges of the cab, the bass police should leave you alone 😊

Welcome to the PJB fan club.

neh, it does.  maybe I ought to build out the sides of the cab to match the head width.  or stand the head on end.

[BassmanPaul]

In my mind you use whatever you have to get the sound you're looking for. My own system resides in a four space SKB rack case. The cabinets are a pair of Acme 2x10s stood on their ends for a vertical 4x10. The case is wider than the cabinets and I don't give a damn!

[stewblack]

On 24/04/2020 at 08:37, lownote12 said:

My descriptions of wine are equally pretentious

Not pretentious at all. What you describe is close to HDR and I have that in mind with my bi-amped rig. 

[stewblack]

But don't listen to these heathens, an overhanging amp is nothing less than proof of the devil's presence here on earth. 

👿🙈🙈🙈👿

[Frank Blank]

Getting as close to an upright sound was something I was after too. Having bought a Rob Allen Mouse that seemed to do the trick the next thing was to find the right amp. Having gone through a few acoustic amps I ended up with an AER Basic Performer, (in fact here is mine after trading) having seen lots of upright players using AER amps live. It has four 8” cones. It was a lovely sound but still lacking something. Finally I ended up with an FRFR powered speaker and the HX Stomp, it’s the 12” speaker, that’s what I was missing, just the deeper, richer tones of the bigger speaker and then the massive versatility of the Stomp allows me endless tweaks to my core ‘upright’ tone. I have different (albeit small and subtle differences) tones for each Fretless song of our set. I don’t know if it really gives what other would consider even close to a ‘real’ upright tone but flirting around the edges of that idea with the Stomp and the QSC has been immensely satisfying and also enriched our songs no end.

Edited April 26, 2020 by Frank Blank

[TheGreek]

IIRC I read a very interesting article somewhere (here?) praising the virtues of Peterson amps with Double Basses. 

Had a quick Google without any success...I'm sure with more persistence I could have found it but TBH I can't be rrrrsed