"Bi-Amping Is A Terrible Idea for A Bass Rig"

[Joe Louvar]

Originally Posted by billfitzmaurice

Perhaps. I have not read it so I can't write a complete review. However:

Both of those statements are 100% incorrect, so that leads me to be skeptical of the rest of it as well.

I disagree with both of those opinions as well.

+1.

[nysbob]

What Letsch says doesn't in any way contradict my experience with using two amps without a crossover.

Sure there's some mid range overlap.

Oh rats, more mids.

[will33]

Not using a crossover is by definition, not biamping.

Some of this seems to come down to vocabulary/terminology, or just plain not knowing what's going on. So much confusion....

Biamping does not mean just using 2 amps......there's more to it than that. Biamping using a pair of fullrange bass cabs...well..there's much more to it than that.

This is a bunch of people dismissing something as "that's not cool", when they don't know what they're doing in the first place.

Biamp with the right drivers operating in their sweet spot, and it kills...

[Joe Louvar]

Originally Posted by will33

Not using a crossover is by definition, not biamping.

Some of this seems to come down to vocabulary/terminology, or just plain not knowing what's going on. So much confusion....

Biamping does not mean just using 2 amps......there's more to it than that. Biamping using a pair of fullrange bass cabs...well..there's much more to it than that.

This is a bunch of people dismissing something as "that's not cool", when they don't know what they're doing in the first place.

Biamp with the right drivers operating in their sweet spot, and it kills...

+1.

[jeffgnr90]

hey guys so im a noob to all this lol not at playing bass but when it comes to the technical stuff. i have an Acoustic b600 head going into a 4x10 and 1x15 acoustic cab. i'm in a progessive band and really want to get that prog. sound like Geddy Lee and Chris Squire. pedal-wise I have an oc3 and a Sansamp bddi, so no crazy pedal boards. i want to try plugging into my 120w Crate combo guitar amp at the same time to get that geddy like sound. will i run into any problems with this setup. is what i want to do even biamping or dual mono? idk if my head or the combo amp have built in crossovers and im trying to learn about crossovers as i type this. would i need a crossover pedal to successfully do this or is it unnecessary?

[seamonkey]

It takes a lot of careful design to design a cabinet for effective bi-amping.
No sense taking regular off the shelf bass cabinets and trying to bi-amp them. It would be dual-mono and comb filter city and a crap shoot at best.

[JimmyM]

Many folks who like distortion like to take a guitar amp and crank it and turn down the lows to get a crunchy sound along with their bass amp running clean. Sometimes they'll put it on a footswitch so they can switch it in and out of the circuit as needed. It's good because you don't lose the low end, and you can usually do it at more manageable volumes than cranking an SVT/810. That's not bi-amping. That's a "clean/dirty" blend.

[Downunderwonder]

You might have started by reading this thread. You'll have to eq the lows out of the guitar combo or it will blow.

[Marley's Ghost]

Based on current prevailing wisdom, you should bi-amp if you have mismatched cabinets, as opposed to running them together bridged. Assuming of course your amp supports both modes. This would apply to the fairly common 1x15/2x10 or 1x15/4x10 setups.


...waits for incoming.....

[countrybass007]

Great thread, I love reading about bi-amping, speaker size, and cab design. The first time I heard a Phil Jones rig is when I realized size is not the deciding factor when it comes to great bass response. To say bi-amping doesn't work for bass is way to generalized. When properly done it works great. Thankfully, with all the great new amps that have come out in the past few years, it seems unnecssary to me.

[xelaalex]

hey thanks dmrogers , interesting,

[Basshappi]

My own experience was that it worked quite well, even in a band mix. But was more inconvience than it was worth, especially once small PA systems improved significantly.