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bass bins, and horn loaded cabinets, for bass.


Mark Percy
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Horn loaded cabinets are by thier very nature, more efficient. one has only to stand in front of a function one rig, to grasp this fact. additionally, the low end is assisted considerably indeed by horn technology.

For onstage purposes, there is the factor of short throw and long throw. a good example of short throw would be micheal anthony's early van halen rig, of scoop bins, with JBL/GAUSS 15" drivers, with SVT mark one heads, and impedence box, for ganging up heads. the low frequecies are fabulous, with foward facing drivers.

Fashion removed horn cabinets. until ashdown added thier recent single throat turbosound TS115 inspired bass bin, to the adam clayton rig. obviously adam has used the ampeg 8x10 and ampeg 2x15 V4-B folded horn cabinets together, and as anyone who has heard this combination will tell you, is low end solid.

For a small gig, a good combination is 4x10 and a 1x15 and a bin thats 1x15.

you could even use a 4x10 with a 1x15 bin.

there are many different exponential bins, foward facing rear horn loaded, and rear facing, double and single throat.

when dan armstrong invented the 8x10 bass cab in the 60's, the five string bass had not been invented.

JBL list in thier old technology write ups, that the 18" driver can accomodate low "C" which, is near enough low B.

so, five string basses demand larger drivers, as the 8x10 doesent really handle a 5-string bass, even with the acoustic coupling effect of eight ten inch speakers in close proximity.

linn acoustics pioneered the isobaric concept for bass, that halves the resonant frequency. orange isobaric cabs, are a semi-complete good example of isobaric for bass.

isobaric is, partially horn loaded in design. and these commercially modified cabs create wonderful low end, and dont offend the fashion-senstitive at all, because they look conventional in appearance.

thus not offending the considerations and significances of the fashion- sensitive bass player, who may get enturbulated, or enturbulate themselves unwarrantedly, by an unfashionable appearance of an old style bass bin cabinet.

in an industry of "here this morning, gone this afternoon," fashion has tagged the horn loaded cabinet as 'NOT OK' for bass players who never made it up to a touring level of the game, but those who did, ask the crew about side fills, and low end cabs out-front.

DJ's realise nowdays, in the struggle to get function one cabs, that the old turbosound full-range, light-coned cabinets, sound staggering with huge power-supply amps, when they hook it up to thier decks.

even the touring bassplayer listens to the huge P.D. cabs out front, when wandering down to the desk, on his wireless, and listens to the difference to D.I. and miked cabs for bass guitar.

so on a small scale, a tasty bin in your rig, works wonders.

you could even use a 1x12 bin with a 2x10

it shows up most, on using a double bass through a bin.

cheers mark.

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Pretty sure this one is full of wrong too. The classic short and long throw bit, lack of mention of the necessary use of a crossover if you are going to use a horn sub along with midrange drivers. 8x10 copes with a 5 string fine, is you aren't expecting more bottom than an 8x10 makes (not enough for a 4 string for the sounds I'm after).

There are hardly any horn cabs made for bass, BFM has some designs, and the classic Acoustic W horn are apparently being reissued, the only other one I've seen was a home made apparently based on the Ampeg 2x15.

LArge drivers being more suitable for more stringed basses is definitely wrong.

Isobaric and horn loaded are totally different things, and can be combined should you feel the urge, but it is a fairly pointless excercise, since horns need to be big, and the advantage of isobaric is in being small. Plus halving the resonant frequency isn't a proper explanation, isobaric mounting doubles some characteristics and halves others, result is sacrificing overall sensitivity for more lows from a smaller box.

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