Loudest Bass Rig That You Have Heard or Know of.

[Arthur U. Poon]

Originally Posted by Steve Dallman

I'm thinking Tim Bogert, with his wall of 4X15 cabinets.

I never had the good fortune of seeing Tim Bogert live, but you may be right. I remember reading a GP interview with him, and he went over the various rigs he played up until that time. IIRC first powered those 4-15" cabs with several Fender Dual Showman heads, then converted over to powering them with several Sunn tube heads(?).

And Jeff Beck claimed that playing live with Tim Bogert permanently damaged his hearing!

[son_of_mogh]

King Crimson "Three of a Perfect Pair" Tour ( '85?? ) - Tony Levin was playing MM StingRay, Chapman Stick and Moog bass through a Yamaha preamp, power amps and 2 2x15 cabs and it was rib-cracking, gut-punching loud and clear. We saw them outdoors at the Pier in NYC and Bruford, Belew and Fripp together were less loud.

[BillyB_from_LZ]

Originally Posted by Steve Dallman

I'm thinking Tim Bogert, with his wall of 4X15 cabinets.

In the mid 70's I was in a hard rock band in Minocqua, WI. I used an SVT with two cabinets. One was a 2X15 West cabinet, with two EV SRO 15's...the original coffee can types. The cabinet was made of inch thick particle board...very heavy. The other cabinet was a huge Carvin folded horn 2X15. Quite a loud rig, and I never needed PA support.

I was thinking the same thing about Tim. I have a copy of the interview he did with Guitar Player originally published in the September 1979 issue. About his rig he said that the 4x15 cabinets were designed by a guy named Tony Frank. Each cabinet was subdivided into four sections and loaded with Altec 421A loudspeakers. He used EIGHT 4x15 cabinets!!! Each pair (I believe) was powered by a Sunn Coliseum amp turned up to 8 "to get the clipping frequencies that I (he) needed".

I can't imagine how loud Thirty-Two efficient 15s being driven by over 1000 compressed and clipping ('70s) watts worth of power would be!!!

Beyond Tim's rig, which I never got a chance to see in person, I fondly remember attending a concert at SIU Edwardsville (IL) in 1974 to see The James Gang (Tommy Bolin era) and Black Oak Arkansas. The bassist for the The James Gang had a wall of Acoustic 360s (at least four cabinets, maybe more) and Black Oak Arkansas had their Ampeg wall behind them. Seeing Pat Dougherty stand center-stage with his walnut brown Jazz bass and start Mutants Of The Monster was something that really got my attention!!! Here's a link from that era showing their backline (although Pat's playing a Gibson EB-3L here).

And, just to be fair, a James Gang clip with the bassist using "just" three 360s link

[Sartori]

Originally Posted by Arthur U. Poon

Wow, I didn't know Live Evil was recorded during that tour!

This makes me realize how freakin' old I really am.! The stage had a Gothic/Castle backdrop or something. Neither Geezer's or Tony's amps were visible. I do remember Geezer was playing a B.C. Rich Eagle bass.

I saw them later that year in Salt Lake City, and their amps were still behind a backdrop IIRC. They were incredibly loud, but Tony was having feedback problems throughout the show.

Somewhere, I still have the Tour Program. I was hugely influenced by Geezer Butler at that time, and seeing the band live in London was a real event. I liked how his bass tone had grit, yet was distinct at the same time, and had massive punch.

I love the bass tone on that album. One of my favorite bass sounds ever. I can only imagine what that must have been like in person.

Its clarity and distinctness is one of the things that stands out most to me, as it's a sound that's very big and fat but not in the least bit muddy, while having just the right amount of overdrive/grit/whatever you want to call it.

[pnchad]

back 'in the day' FOH couldn't handle low frequencies (the Dead & others worked on this)

so, we used BIG amps

#1 Acoustic original 360 w/powered 18" cab - was weird head weighed nothing but the cab needed wheels lol - it had a fuzz knob! LMFAO

I also had an Orange 18" folded horn cab - same size but not powered

this is bellbottom days - these cabs could not be heard on stage but you knew you were loud if your pants flapped in the SPL wind (still laughing)

loudest ever personally was a mixer > Crown 2400 driving an 18" yamaha keyboard cab and a 4/10

crushing

[FromTheBassMent]

A lot of the metal and hard rock guys being mentioned achieve their face-melting volume in the midrange and treble spectrums. But the loudest pure BASS rig I ever heard was Robbie Shakespeare backing up Black Uhuru. He was playing a fretless Steinberger through some ungodly rig that included 15" bins and what appeared to be 18" down-firing subs powered by stacks of power amps in racks. I was right up near the edge of the stage for one of these shows and thought I was going to lose control of my bowels. The venue was Montezuma Hall at San Diego State U, which has large clerestory windows up near the roofline, and I swear you could see those windows bowing and flexing with the bass lines. I thought the building was going to suffer significant structural damage.

[Sartori]

I can say for a fact that Al Cisneros' rig pumps out the lows. Maybe not the super sub-lows, but definitely enough so that if there had been an earthquake when I saw Sleep, I would not have noticed.

[Calaverasgrande]

Al Cisneros rig does have a lot of low mid, but not much sub low.
I have seen some metal bands that certainly do put out the low end.
Sepultura and Emperor come to mind.
Then there are all those bands on Relapse or Southern Lord records.
STUPID loud comes to mind.

[Tractorr]

Originally Posted by Sartori

I can say for a fact that Al Cisneros' rig pumps out the lows. Maybe not the super sub-lows, but definitely enough so that if there had been an earthquake when I saw Sleep, I would not have noticed.

I saw Om like a week or so ago and I was standing maybe 20 feet from his rig, not that loud. Though he has downsized. Now he pays an SVT VR with 8X10, PF500 w 1X15, and either a PF500 or 350 with a 2X10. He said that he used the VR for the lows and the PFs for the mids. That is probably why I found the mids lacking 8X10>than 1X15 and 2X10.

[hifibass]

Mel Schacher with Grand Funk Railroad...... his West rigs could tear your head off! THAT WAS A POWER TRIO!

[N.F.A.]

Phil Lesh during the Wall of Sound era.

[DWBass]

I did an outdoor gig once and the backline was an Aguilar 750 (I think) going into an 8x10 cab (probably Ampeg). I can't really recall as this was almost 20 years ago. Boy did that rig move some air! Of course I had to back it off as I was working with a soundman but for the brief moment I had her turned up......whew lawdy!

[jphilauren]

Black Sabbath 1971 and Deep Purple 1974

Back in the days 2 Svt heads and 2 cabs was my rig!

[N.F.A.]

Originally Posted by hifibass

Mel Schacher with Grand Funk Railroad...... his West rigs could tear your head off! THAT WAS A POWER TRIO!

Yes, you are so right. Forgot how loud Mel was back then. Good times!

[sweetwillyp]

I have owned a couple of the Acoustic 360 amps..IMHO they are useless in anything with less then 4-5k people with a huge stage. You cannot event hear them properly until about 20 feet in front of them..


Anyway I was having a discussion with one of the Guys from Sunn O))) and he said that they get to 135DB onstage and that they use special Silicon earplugs and have to tape down their effects..

[preside]

Originally Posted by son_of_mogh

King Crimson "Three of a Perfect Pair" Tour ( '85?? ) - Tony Levin was playing MM StingRay, Chapman Stick and Moog bass through a Yamaha preamp, power amps and 2 2x15 cabs and it was rib-cracking, gut-punching loud and clear. We saw them outdoors at the Pier in NYC and Bruford, Belew and Fripp together were less loud.

Hey I was at that show, I moved all the way back to the chain link fence to take a rest and Tony was CRYSTAL CLEAR!! and loud, that show and the versions of Elephant talk and waiting man led me to get a Chapman Stick. God what a great night. Oh and that tour was in the summer of 84 I think

[hifibass]

Jphilauren, two complete SVT rigs..........you've always been a show off.

[son_of_mogh]

Originally Posted by preside

Hey I was at that show, I moved all the way back to the chain link fence to take a rest and Tony was CRYSTAL CLEAR!! and loud, that show and the versions of Elephant talk and waiting man led me to get a Chapman Stick. God what a great night.

Great to hear! Phenomenal era to be a musician growing up, although I've heard tales of Wetton's rig killing David Cross and Jamie Muir... anyway, we were on the Opposite side of the stage as Levin and all those bodyblows wore my buddy down ( he wasn't a musician ).

[Sartori]

Originally Posted by Tractorr

I saw Om like a week or so ago and I was standing maybe 20 feet from his rig, not that loud. Though he has downsized. Now he pays an SVT VR with 8X10, PF500 w 1X15, and either a PF500 or 350 with a 2X10. He said that he used the VR for the lows and the PFs for the mids. That is probably why I found the mids lacking 8X10>than 1X15 and 2X10.

He uses different rigs with his different bands. When I saw him with Shrinebuilder, it was just a single SVT and 810.

When I saw him with Sleep, the second time (different, larger rig than the first time), it was the rig from the picture I posted.

Four SVT heads, four 810 cabs, two PF's, and two Mesa 4x12 cabs.

Originally Posted by Calaverasgrande

Al Cisneros rig does have a lot of low mid, but not much sub low.
I have seen some metal bands that certainly do put out the low end.
Sepultura and Emperor come to mind.
Then there are all those bands on Relapse or Southern Lord records.
STUPID loud comes to mind.

True, not much content 60hz and below, but those upper bass/low mid frequencies can actually really shake things around.

Was way, way louder than Emperor, or Sepultura ("Nation" lineup, saw them when I went to see Voivod), at least the shows I saw.

[aasti3000]

Went to see A band called Audio Slave years ago with a because my co-worker wanted me to hang out with him. I don't know the bassists name but his gear was LOUD! And that tone was killer. ??? I forgot how good that show was. What happened to that band?