LFSYs Monaco - how good?

[BassAdder60]

I often angled my cab slightly inwards instead of straight to the audience ie it would aim at the gap between singer and main PA cabs / bass bin leaving space for myself to not stand in front of it all night ( I never went through the PA ) 

[fabbabass]

I have two BF BBII cans and a Monaco. I usually use the Monaco, always through a PA and aim the cab at me and the drummer using a Standback amp/tilt stand. I even use it to my front/side as it is used as a monitor. It’s a fabulous cab. I use a Mesa + preamp, so can control the LF shelf if I get any boom issues. I also tend to play 5 strings more often than not and the cab copes easily. For reference, I’m running a Quilter 800 as a power amp.

 

When I’m thumping my Doghouse, I do use a pair of BF BBII though, as they definitely take the abuse of slapping’ da beeass!

[Sean]

On 18/08/2025 at 18:05, Phil Starr said:

Hi Sean, you'd have had a problem with any speaker in that position. Each surface the speaker is placed against boosts the bass in particular and you had all three surfaces to contend with. Effectively you had placed your speaker at the end of a huge conical horn. That's no criticism of you, I've been stuck many a time in the corner of a tiny performance space like that you really don't have a choice. Using the Monaco may have helped quite a lot but it's a horrible position to be in, literally

 

The only thing you can do in that situation is to wind the  bass right back. I'd use agressive HPF and be prepared to roll the bass eq pretty much right down if I needed too, I'd also be looking to boost the mids. Years ago I posted up the eq I'd ended up with in a particularly difficult hall. I had a Hartke with a graphic and I was stunned how much bass I had to roll off. It might have been better to swap places with the guitarist in this venue as it would be less affected by the corner position.

Is this plus Stevie's post, the seed of a Bass Bash talk? There's a lot of quick win handy hints for the gigging bassist. 

[Phil Starr]

9 minutes ago, Sean said:

Is this plus Stevie's post, the seed of a Bass Bash talk? There's a lot of quick win handy hints for the gigging bassist. 

It's a thought but what we've always tried to do are demos rather than talks. You'd need the right room to do that in and it would be difficult in practice. I'll give it some thought.

 

This year I'm wondering about a proper blind test of something but I'll give it a little thought. I know I wandered into PA last year so I'd like to go back to something more bass related this year

[Sean]

Just now, Phil Starr said:

It's a thought but what we've always tried to do are demos rather than talks. You'd need the right room to do that in and it would be difficult in practice. I'll give it some thought.

 

This year I'm wondering about a proper blind test of something but I'll give it a little thought. I know I wandered into PA last year so I'd like to go back to something more bass related this year

Class D versus big iron?

Valve amps versus not valve amps. 

I've got a GK Fusion 550 and a GK MB Fusion 500, same preamps, different power sections. 

I've got some big boxes of bottles too.

[Chienmortbb]

This discussion should really be on the SW bass bash thread. So I will post my ideas over there. 

[Paddy Morris]

I don't know if this is still a live thread, but my LFSys Monaco completely saved my bacon on Sunday night.  My usual set-up now is a Barefaced BB3 with a Monaco on top.  This particular venue was a bass standing-wave disaster.  I was feeding back all over the place.  I couldn't hear a note.  I turned myself up, and the bar next door complained that glasses were rattling off the shelves.  Really, really awful.

We stopped the gig.  I went down to just the Monaco, sited on the other side of the stage.  I graphic EQ'd tons of 100 - 150Hz out, to correct for the room, and flipped the phase of my preamp.  Also took every last trace of the bass out of the wedges and FoH PA.  So the entire gig I was just using a very thinned-out, heavily driven, single Monaco cab. 

It worked.  I was loud enough for me and everyone else to be able to hear what I was playing.  In the crowd phone recordings I have heard I was plenty loud enough, and the tone whilst not perfect (when is it ever?) was perfectly fine.  All this from one single, modestly-sized cab.

I would now go so far as to say that everyone should own at least one Monaco.  To get the sound you want, you will probably dial EQ in.  It's not a sumptuous sound in and of itself.  But the whole point of a FRFR speaker is that you can dial in a sound.  And in this case the ability to dial-out the sound of a terrible room really saved my gig.

[jazzyvee]

I would imagine if you swapped the cabs over and did the same eq process as above the results would have been equally satisifying as they are both FRFR. But in the heat of battle you found a way for the show to go on.

 

Edited 3 hours ago by jazzyvee

[Chienmortbb]

29 minutes ago, jazzyvee said:

I would imagine if you swapped the cabs over and did the same eq process as above the results would have been equally satisifying as they are both FRFR. But in the heat of battle you found a way for the show to go on.

 

True, but whether the BB3 is FRFR depends on the tweeter setting on the cab. It cannot be flat at all settings and IMO EQ/Tone happens at the bass and/or amp, not the cabinet.