Does the cab affect tone?

[AccolaStudios]

I'm new to stacks in general, so bare with me. Currently, I'm using a GK 1001RB-II and a GK Neo 4x10. If I were to later change the head to something more "smooth" sounding than the aggressive GK, would it be beneficial to change the cab as well?

[kraigo]

To some, ideally the cabinet just disappears because it is extremely accurate. For example, a fEarful. For others, the cab ideally is part of the tone of the system. For example, an SVT cab. Hi-fi vs. Colored.

I would suggest that your GK leans more toward the latter category. The speaker cabinet has a LOT to do with the tone that comes out, usually.

KO

[lburton2]

Short answer: Yes.


Long answer:

Some cabs are very transparent and allow for the head to do most of the tone sculpting.. Others, however, add some colorization to their sound for their own purposes.. So i'd suggest playing different heads through the cab you already have to try and find what suits your given cab best compared to the kind of sound you are looking for.

It's not entirely necessary to match head with cab in regards to brand name either..

Here's a little sample from the David Eden website in regards to the "voicings" or their cabs.. Enjoy

Many years ago, our Bass Guru founder investigated this and other psycho-acoustic phenomena with a number of controlled listening tests. We used a wide variety of people — from expert musicians to people that had no knowledge of music. For one test we built two identical speaker systems and tweaked one to be perfectly flat and neutral, with a minimum of dips and peaks. It was a bit louder than the other cabinet (+1 to 2 dB) because of that. The other cabinet we set up as we do most of our cabinets and voiced it to sound good to our ears. The flat cabinet clearly had superior specifications to the second ear-voiced box. After running the listening tests we found, much to our initial surprise, that every one liked the uneven, slightly rougher version because it sounded more interesting.


This is one of those strange psycho-acoustic, human factors that make this business so interesting and challenging. All the current wisdom says that everyone should have liked the flatter speaker, which was, after all, louder. In general listening tests people normally select the loudest speaker as the best sounding.

These controlled tests provided an important lesson: it’s not what’s right about the sound that people like, it’s what’s not perfect; it’s the oddities and the unique colorations, together with the little sonic “mistakes”, that give great products their unique and special sound. You need to have the right sonic nuances, or mistakes, if you will.

[timber22]

Different cabs definitely sound different when played with the same head at the same settings. Maybe you could EQ your new head to make the GK cab sound the way you want it to sound. You may want to try that before buying a new cab.

[bertbassplayer]

+1 to what everyone said, cab does affect tone.

However to what you said, the aggressiveness in the GK I would say has a lot to do with the head. GK heads pretty much have that agressive sound no matter what cab it's mated to. I'd say try out whatever other head your looking at out on your cab... if you like it great no having to change that. If not then you can always change out your cab later.

[DWBass]

Definitely YES!

[billfitzmaurice]

Originally Posted by AccolaStudios

I'm new to stacks in general, so bare with me. Currently, I'm using a GK 1001RB-II and a GK Neo 4x10. If I were to later change the head to something more "smooth" sounding than the aggressive GK, would it be beneficial to change the cab as well?

The cab has at least as much to do with tone as the amp does. The amp has EQ to adjust the tone that it produces. The cab doesn't. It is what it is, and they're all different.

[Sartori]

The cab is one of the most important things to your tone. Very few are anywhere near flat, and except for a few basic controls like tweeter/midrange driver attenuators, there isn't any practical way to change how a cab sounds.

[will33]

Everything from your fingers to the speakers affects your sound, it's a sum total of all the parts. That said, the speaker is the final link in the chain. It's the part that turns all that other stuff into sound. I'd say that's a very important and influential part and it makes a big difference.

Edit: Again, Bill nailed it, speakers don't have knobs to turn.

[AccolaStudios]

So ultimately, it's beneficial in the long run to use a different cab if I get a different head? Don't get me wrong, I love the GK, but I can see myself in the future wanting to have the option of a smoother sound.

[will33]

Originally Posted by AccolaStudios

So ultimately, it's beneficial in the long run to use a different cab if I get a different head? Don't get me wrong, I love the GK, but I can see myself in the future wanting to have the option of a smoother sound.

No, try a different amp with the same cab, or try a different cab with the same amp. Try turning some knobs on your current rig. Change your strings, change your technique. Try a different bass.....etc.

[Edward G.]

Issues of accuracy aside, if you can hear it it affects tone. If you can't hear it, turn it on.

[will33]

Point is, everything affects your sound, the speakers maybe more so than some other stuff but if you change it all at once, you don't know which piece made the difference.

I don't have any experience with GK speakers. Played many of their amps and like them. They do have a rep. of being bright, modern, etc. but I've never had a problem getting a nice full, warm sound out of one. Turn some knobs, that's what they're there for. I'd be inclined to try a different speaker with that amp than I would be to change everything all at once.

[wcriley]

+1 to everything will33 said.
I've never played through a GK cab, but I've been using a 1001RB II for the past 5 years.
Between the 6 EQ knobs (plus the Woofer Hi Cut switch, if you're not running bi-amp) that amp has a whole lot of sound possibilities.

[jeff7bass]

The cab has absolutely no effect on tone. ; )

Just kidding of course. You really want to pick speakers (or cabs), then pick an amp that suit the cab(s) best. I played a Carvin B2000 with a couple of BRX cabs and got real smooth very easily. I was walking around the neck more, no fret noise but still clear. The BX1500 is another animal though.

[deeptubes]

Hmm. I have the same GK head and play through an SWR Workingman's Tower (8x10). I can get ANY tone out of my rig - bright and aggressive, soft and warm, and anything in between. You may just need to alter your eq settings. I'm not familiar with the Neo cabs, but it seems that an awful lot of people think the Neos are lacking boominess, for lack of a better term. I don't have that issue with my rig.

[joeydavidson]

I have that head too and also agree with the comments about it's ability to sound smooth and warm given then right EQ setting and cab. I use a passive Jazz strung with old roundwounds and have been using cabs without horns. I never really notice that much more smoothness or warmth when I demo other amps generally. The cab is almost always a bigger factor in tone.

[Arjank]

Originally Posted by lburton2

Here's a little sample from the David Eden website in regards to the "voicings" or their cabs.. Enjoy

I do not agree with David N's so called research.
I would really like to know how they tested this, what amp? what cab configurations (2x10, 4x10, etc)
I'm still a firm believer of a cabinet that "measures" flat and has a controlled off-axis response(which is very important to the overall sound of the cabinet). IMO the amp and the bass are the tools for your tone. But, If you like coloration then you should really go for it , buy an Ampeg 810 or an ampeg b15, these have a very distinct coloured sound. But as far as the so called hifi cabs go, I prefer a cabinet with superior technical specs which should give the least coloration as possible.

[Sartori]

No reason to be so dismissive of such listening tests. Has the idea occurred to you that maybe you just don't like the same things that lots of other people like?

For me, the cab is a huge part of my sound. But if others would prefer it not to be, that's fine for them.

[Arjank]

Originally Posted by Sartori

No reason to be so dismissive of such listening tests. Has the idea occurred to you that maybe you just don't like the same things that lots of other people like?

I'm not talking about what other people like. It's just that eden makes a comparison between cab A and B, with A being "flat"(probably on-axis) and B being not flat. When cab A and B are e.g. 410 cabs it might be possible that because of that particular configuration the non flat version sounds better. When you make e.g. a flat version of the fEarful and a non flat version, the flat version will probably be favored over the non flat one because it's a totally different configuration which has a totally different off-axis response then a 410.
The 210 I did build is very flat (frequency response wise ) and because of the three way design with the coaxial driver it will sound different then a regular 210(with the same on-axis response).
It's great if people want the cab to be an integral part of their "sound". It's just what you're after. For me the reason that a cabinet should be measuring flat is not only the sound....