Just out of interest... PA v Bass Cab

[warwickhunt]

I'm in the process of selling off my band's old PA system, which among other things consists of a pair of Peavey Hi-Sys II cabs; these are (IIRC) Black Widow equipped 1x15 cabs. Now for a bit of a laugh I have just run my Sadowsky/Thunderfunk through them and they were quite frankly... stunning!

This led me to wonder whether I wouldn't be better off offering these cabs as individual bass cabs. They handled the bottom end fantastically well and as would be expected had sufficient top end (via the horn) to satisfy any Marcus Miller/slap fans.

They are no good for me as bass cabs because of the overall size (not massive but larger than my Aggies) but my question is; why, at less than £100 a piece, wouldn't they make stonking bass cabs and why don't more people utilise used PA cabs as bass cabs? After all, full range PA cabs have to handle all of the bass frequencies and then some!

[jimmybass04]

i couldnt agree more, i v owned plenty of bass amps and they all cost a f~~~n fortune wot a rip off.
i now play via my desk , power amp and various size p.a. cabs sounds great, never run out of headroom, great!
jimmy.

[Bill Fitzmaurice]

[quote name='warwickhunt' post='580791' date='Aug 25 2009, 06:13 PM']why, at less than £100 a piece, wouldn't they make stonking bass cabs and why don't more people utilise used PA cabs as bass cabs?[/quote]Because the average bass player is under the wrongful assumption that 'electric bass' cabs are somehow better suited to the needs of electric bass. The very highest frequencies aside the needs of high quality PA and high quality bass are the same.

[coasterbass]

Yep - PA cabs can really sound great.
I'm sure someone will correct me, but I believe that Sting has a Turbosound backline (or at least he did in the late 90's).
I used a turbosound wedge once as backline when I couldn't get my cab into a, ummmm... cab and it sounded great. Superb bite and clarity and made the floor rumble along nicely.

[alexclaber]

[quote name='Bill Fitzmaurice' post='580909' date='Aug 26 2009, 02:16 AM']The very highest frequencies aside the needs of high quality PA and high quality bass are the same.[/quote]

"High-quality" being the critical phrase!

A well designed bass cab should perform just as well for a bass player's needs as a well designed equal quality PA cab whilst costing less (mid/high smoothness being less critical) and being a more suitable form factor (designed to be audible on the floor and not need pole-mounting, and can be wider but shallower due to backline position). Again, "well designed" is the critical phrase in that sentence!

Alex

Edited August 26, 2009 by alexclaber

[casapete]

I have used one of my bands 1x15+horn ASS PA cabs on numerous gigs, and loved it!
Same goes for amps - how come you can buy a good quality 6 maybe 8 channel mixer,say 500 watts per side output and with digital FX built in for less than a single channel bass amp of similar output/quality etc? My Yamaha mixer amp sounds fine for bass to these ears!

[Fraktal]

Possibly the best bass sound I ever had was through 2 Electrovoice cabs, sheffield-like, 2x15+horn, 800w RMS each. All the band went through them for reharsals at least partially, bass drum, guitar, bass and vocals, and believe it or not, noone got lost in the mix. Their definition and clarity was impressive, specially having in mind that they lacked a proper midrange driver and the stereo power amp used was old and cheap.

Bass cabs are a lie (sorry, Alex)

Edited August 26, 2009 by Fraktal

[JTUK]

Something like Turbosound on stage makes bass-monitor rigs kind of redundant but since I don't have that all the time...it is the reason I bought my current stuff.. it is pretty full range

[lemmywinks]

I have used a couple of EV bass bins at a gig when my old cab failed and they were great, couldn't complain and if they weren't so heavy and cumbersome i'd have looked into it. We paid £210 for both of them too!

I also used an old Carlsbro sub our drummer had (a 2x18 4ohm 800w monster) and went lower than any cab i've ever tried. Again if i could be bothered to move it more than 5 feet i'd have used that for gigs

[Bill Fitzmaurice]

[quote name='alexclaber' post='581114' date='Aug 26 2009, 05:48 AM']"High-quality" being the critical phrase!
Alex[/quote]That depends on your definition of high quality, which IMO isn't far off from high fidelity. As with a hi-fi speaker a good PA speaker puts out pretty much the same sound as the source, with minimal coloration of its own. At the opposite end of the spectrum are guitar cabs, which are as colored as it gets, the tone being virtuallly defined by the speaker. Some electric bass cabs are so highly colored that it doesn't matter what you have for an instrument or amp, everything sounds pretty much the same through them. Some, though very few, electric bass cabs are uncolored, allowing the tone of the instrument and amp to come through. Most lie somewhere in between. For the most part the degree of coloration is inversely proportion to the cab's level of engineering and cost, though some very expensive cabs are highly colored and poorly engineered, which IMO makes them low quality irrespective of their price.

If you prefer a cab that's highly colored there's certainly nothing wrong with that, beauty does lie in the ears of the beholder. My preference is for cabs that allow me to get the tone that I want, not just that tone that they're capable of delivering. For those with a similar bent trying PA cabs to see how they work for them is a more than worthwhile exercise.

[jhk]

About 15 years ago ,for a period of some 4 months i gigged with a set up of two Bose 802cabs with Bose 302 bass bin coupled to the Bose controller 802c.A very worthy pa system! but it sounded incredible with mm sabre and mm sr5.Very little colouration and hi fi like quality.Also loads of headroom when powered by 2 x 1000 watt amps ................. weird that! I think huey lewis`s bass player used something like this for a while!

[EssentialTension]

Twenty-five years ago I used a pair of Electrovoice PA 1x15 bins driven by HH amps for bass backline. Sounded great out front (apparently) but I used to have trouble hearing myself on stage.