Electro Voice ELX112p My next bass amp

[gmarcus]

So I've been struggling with the boomy low end on my GK MB212 combo. Great amp, light powerful enough for an out door gig (sounds perfect outside), over-all great tone, but I've been playing a lot of smaller theater gigs and the low end is just too much. I bought an FDeck HPF pedal which allows me to roll off the lows at anywhere from 35hz to 140 hz and I'm finding that inside I have the lows rolled off at 12 db/octave from about 130Hz down. This did the trick, but its Christmas and daddy needed a new toy so I pulled the trigger on an Electro Voice ELX112p cabinet (with Mrs gmarcus's blessing)

http://www.musiciansfriend.com/pro-a...12-loudspeaker

I played in a band that used the 115 version as mains and my bass sounded great. These are only 37 lbs ( according to the EV manual) and pretty compact, plus they are kind of like a powered AK Thunder child (not as much bass, but I don't need that much deep bass). It's supposed to show up on Thursday. I'll let you know how it sounds and I might have an MB212 for sale......or a lightly used ELX112p if it doesn't work out.

advertised specs:

Freq. Response (-3dB): 60Hz-18kHz
Freq. Response (-10dB): 50Hz-20kHz
Max. Measured SPL: 132dB
Coverage (Horiz. x Vert.): 90° x 50°
Power Handling: 1000W
LF Transducer: (1) EVS-12K, 305mm (12") Woofer
HF Transducer: DH-1K, 39mm (1.5") Titanium Diaphragm Compression Driver
Crossover Frequency: 1.7kHz
Connectors: (2) XLR/TRS Combo Jacks, (1) Stereo RCA, (1) XLR Link Output
Enclosure Material: 9-ply, 15mm Plywood, Internally Braced, with Textured Paint

I get all of my tone from my pedal board (VTbass, Pork Loin HPF + some fuzz) so I really just need an accurate monitor. This particular model has 3 vents on the front so I'm keeping my fingers crossed that it doesn't chuff. Its a plywood box so I can put some big rubber feet on the bottom and on the monitor position side.

[Tuned]

Powered speakers have 50Hz high pass filters as part of the speaker processing, a little high for a bass amp, hope you're not playing a 5-string. As long as you're playing rooms with subwoofers it can work well, but I'd hate to try to drive a room bigger than a cafe, and you'll never feel it in the chest like a bass rig.

[ThisBass]

Originally Posted by Tuned

Powered speakers have 50Hz high pass filters as part of the speaker processing, a little high for a bass amp, hope you're not playing a 5-string. As long as you're playing rooms with subwoofers it can work well, but I'd hate to try to drive a room bigger than a cafe, and you'll never feel it in the chest like a bass rig.

Relevance of 2nd Harmonic?

[gmarcus]

I'm playing an Ernie Ball SR5

Here is a recording from one of our shows. I had the HPF set at ~130Hz. We are not super loud. The theater held about 170 people and was round and pretty boomy. I was amazed at how high I had that filter set. I play with a really dirty tone, but there was plenty of thump. We have another gig lined up there in March.

https://soundcloud.com/slpcalamus/re...ns-closing-set

This was recorded with a sony PCM-M10 using the internal mics located in front of the sound man who was about 30 feet from the band.

[gmarcus]

Here is a picture of the theater. We were tucked under the balcony stage left. It was a dance show so we were kind of the pit orchestra.
http://cambridgeymca.org/index.php?id=45&maincat=16

[1954bassman]

I have always loved EV speakers. We use the older SX112 (powered) with the Sb120a powered subs in my main band and they have worked great for over 10 years.

I will be curious how the ELX112 works out for you.

One of my favorite amps of all time was a GK head with two Mesa EV loaded cabs (210 & 115). Too bad I got lazy and went with a lighter rig.

Are you planning on using a preamp at all, or just plugging straight into the EV?

[Tuned]

What was doing the HP filtering? The mics on Sony portable recorders have a 75Hz HPF so the recording isn't useful as evidence. Cool tune though!

[gmarcus]

Originally Posted by Tuned

What was doing the HP filtering? The mics on Sony portable recorders have a 75Hz HPF so the recording isn't useful as evidence. Cool tune though!

Glad you liked the music....that is what its all about anyways.

I didn't have the High Pass engaged on the recorder. Its actually 200Hz on this recorder. Without the filter this one has a very low cut off frequency. See measurements here:

http://kenrockwell.com/audio/sony/pcm-m10.htm#meas

I was using an HPF-pre series 3 by fellow TBer fDeck. He is a really smart thorough guy and designed a very useful little box that will probably always be on my board. It was the only way I was able to clean up my sound in that theater with my combo. fDeck is a straight shooter and great to do business with, his posts are always right on the money too.

https://sites.google.com/site/hpftechllc/home/hpf-pre

[gmarcus]

Originally Posted by 1954bassman

I have always loved EV speakers. We use the older SX112 (powered) with the Sb120a powered subs in my main band and they have worked great for over 10 years.

I will be curious how the ELX112 works out for you.

One of my favorite amps of all time was a GK head with two Mesa EV loaded cabs (210 & 115). Too bad I got lazy and went with a lighter rig.

Are you planning on using a preamp at all, or just plugging straight into the EV?

I use a Tech21 VTbass pedal for a preamp and it works very well. Plugging straight in sounds pretty thin and lifeless. I've been testing it out with an 8" EV ZXA1-90, which has a similar frequency response, but a much lower SPL. It sounds great in the studio with recorded music. I'm hoping that scaling up to the 12 speaker will make it usable with the band.

http://www.musiciansfriend.com/pro-a...red-pa-speaker

[nanymoa]

I have ELX-215's for PA, but sometimes I plug my bass in for practice when I want to thump my chest a little. It sounds great standing at least at 6 feet away. Usually I practice on a 20w (eminence alpha 8a loaded) cheap combo, but i tend to get hungry for a little shirt-shaking low-B action. That's when I call my EV's in. Love them.

[Tuned]

Originally Posted by gmarcus

Glad you liked the music....that is what its all about anyways.

I didn't have the High Pass engaged on the recorder. Its actually 200Hz on this recorder. Without the filter this one has a very low cut off frequency. See measurements here:

http://kenrockwell.com/audio/sony/pcm-m10.htm#meas

I was using an HPF-pre series 3 by fellow TBer fDeck. He is a really smart thorough guy and designed a very useful little box that will probably always be on my board. It was the only way I was able to clean up my sound in that theater with my combo. fDeck is a straight shooter and great to do business with, his posts are always right on the money too.

https://sites.google.com/site/hpftechllc/home/hpf-pre

Interesting, back in my taper days portable audio recorders were poorly designed for taping live shows, now that I'm not recording anymore the gear finally works great :\

I've heard of those HPF units, very handy for maxing out bass rigs and tightening up tone, essential for upright.

[gmarcus]

It is amazing how good the music recording and playback gear is these days. Could you imagine a 37 lb 1000 watt self powered speaker powered with an analog simulation of an SVT in a 9 volt pedal even 10 years ago?

[gmarcus]

The speaker showed up today. It sounds really good, I can't get it to chuff, plenty of bass and its very loud. It definitely has that smooth mid response that requires you to bump up the mids a little bit to get it to sound like a bass amp, but once it is dialed in it sounds great.....at home playing to recorded music. It will be a couple of weeks before I get to play it live with the band. Our gig on Saturday comes complete with a sound man and back line Here are a couple of pictures

[gmarcus]

So the engineer in me required me to take it apart. The grill comes off easy enough but it require a star driver (kind of like an allen wrench). The ports are 2.2" in diameter and 3.75" long. The woofer is stamped steel with a medium sized ceramic magnet...(I see a possible upgrade in the future) and held in with T-nuts and machine screws. The cabinet has some felt stuffing on the bottom and the top but nothing behind the woofer so I added a little bit of mattress topper for good measure.

[JimmyM]

Cool...I'm with you. Who needs all that low end? Just interferes with the bass drum anyway. Have to wonder how a 3012HO would do in it, though...

[gmarcus]

Here is the inside. The stuffing cleaned up the mid range a little bit.

[JimmyM]

They didn't line the inside? Sorry, but that's kind of lame if you ask me.

[seamonkey]

Nice Cabs!
These new breeds of power speakers are really a great value.
Add a little signal processing and you're set for any tone you'd ever want.

[gmarcus]

Here is a little sound clip with my Sony PCM-m10 recorder about 1 foot from the center of the woofer. First I play with just a VTbass, then I kick on a phase 90, then phase 90 off and a pork loin on, then I add a Bass fuzz deluxe, then an Attack goat, then the phase 90. Some off the low notes sound like they are rattling, but I didn't hear that in the room, could have been built in the microphones giving up. Anyways, this tells you nothing about how this sounds in a mix, but does give you some idea of the sound of this thing with some effects. Oh yeah the HPF was set to ~60hz for the recording so you can get a sense of the bass extension.

Enjoy

https://soundcloud.com/gregg-marcus/112p-sound-check

[gmarcus]

I had the recorder sitting on my trumpet case. I think the low notes were shaking the case causing that distortion, or causing the recorder to vibrate against the case.