T-Funk/Acme B2 finally making nice

[ToneMonkey]

I guess I have two reasons for posting... first, I was on the verge of ditching both these pieces of gear (and my bass) because I just wasn't happy with my tone. Secondly, maybe someone else could benefit from what I (finally) figured out.

I've owned my T-Funk 420 head for 8 years. For most of that time, I've been trying to find a cab that would give me a warm but somewhat modern sound. Not too bright, not too rolled off. Somewhere in the middle. I've tried Avatar, Genz, Shroeder and finally the Acme Low B2 II.

From the beginning, the Acme seemed to lack clarity. And, even though it's 4 ohm, it just didn't seem like I could get enough dbs out of the cab to make it practical. I know Acmes aren't very efficient, but I was always running my head at least 2/3 up even in modest volume situations and the cab would frequently misbehave.

It turns out that I was pushing too much bass into the Acme cab. I've had always set the T-Funk flat on the tone controls, but the Contour knob set even halfway pushes too much bass, which interestingly enough makes the Acme even less efficient.

This past weekend I set the Contour knob all the off, kept the tone controls flat and just rolled the Timbre control one notch to the left. I played the entire gig with the amp set about 1/3 of the way up and it sounded monstrous.

My conclusion is that these Acme cabs do such a great job reproducing low freq extension, that if you push too much bass from the head, it just destroys the natural balance of the cab. But it sounds just good enough that you don't realize how far off you really are with the EQ.

Thank God I figured this out before I sold either of these two.

[jasper383]

I run a LMII into an Acme B-2 4 Ohm, and I usually roll the bass back to 10 o'clock or so.

[BurningSkies]

Originally Posted by ToneMonkey

I guess I have two reasons for posting... first, I was on the verge of ditching both these pieces of gear (and my bass) because I just wasn't happy with my tone. Secondly, maybe someone else could benefit from what I (finally) figured out.

I've owned my T-Funk 420 head for 8 years. For most of that time, I've been trying to find a cab that would give me a warm but somewhat modern sound. Not too bright, not too rolled off. Somewhere in the middle. I've tried Avatar, Genz, Shroeder and finally the Acme Low B2 II.

From the beginning, the Acme seemed to lack clarity. And, even though it's 4 ohm, it just didn't seem like I could get enough dbs out of the cab to make it practical. I know Acmes aren't very efficient, but I was always running my head at least 2/3 up even in modest volume situations and the cab would frequently misbehave.

It turns out that I was pushing too much bass into the Acme cab. I've had always set the T-Funk flat on the tone controls, but the Contour knob set even halfway pushes too much bass, which interestingly enough makes the Acme even less efficient.

This past weekend I set the Contour knob all the off, kept the tone controls flat and just rolled the Timbre control one notch to the left. I played the entire gig with the amp set about 1/3 of the way up and it sounded monstrous.

My conclusion is that these Acme cabs do such a great job reproducing low freq extension, that if you push too much bass from the head, it just destroys the natural balance of the cab. But it sounds just good enough that you don't realize how far off you really are with the EQ.

Thank God I figured this out before I sold either of these two.

Makes perfect sense. If you're pushing too much lows through a cab that is sensitive in the low reaches like the Acme, you're eating up your cabinet's clean headroom for stuff you can't hear or hardly hear because you're getting a ton of excursion that's no benefit.

[BassmanPaul]

I'd never dream of using a single B2 at a gig. It's always a pair in a vertical stack. Controls usually set flat with sometimes a touch of added bass.

Avatar shows my Series I pair.

[ToneMonkey]

^^^ The guy at Acme wouldn't sell me a second one. Originally, (by mistake) he shipped me a single 8 ohm B2 and I inquired about rather than shipping it back to him (on his nickel), would he knock a few bucks off on a second one. He told me that 400 watts was not sufficient to drive two of them and so no, he wouldn't do it. Just saying.

[BassmanPaul]

One thing I've learned about Andy is never argue with him! He knows his products and I agree with his assessment.

I run mine one 4Ω cabinet per channel using either a Carvin BX1500 for 450W each or a Carvin DCM1000L for 325W each.