Why can't bass cabs be as shallow as guitar cabs?

[Sartori]

Originally Posted by TravTrav

Do you guys think it'd depend on how I eq/want my tone to sound? Lets say I was going for more of a Lemmy tone, rather than a fat dubby sound. Do you guys think I would run into much trouble?

I think I recall seeing a video on here a little while ago, and it was that girl who plays a Rick (the band is Chatter, I think?) and she had multiple amps for what she did. One of the amps she was using was a Mesa Recto halfstack (it was a guitar rig through and through, she wasn't using the head through a bass cab), and her tone wasn't at all how we would usually think of bass. But, I guess it wasn't blowing up on her or anything.

The band is Clatter. She uses a very complex rig and sends mids and highs to the guitar half stack.

[Session1969]

Originally Posted by chadds

Some of us just aren't as shallow.

Classic. Lol !

[Hobobob]

Originally Posted by TravTrav

Do you guys think it'd depend on how I eq/want my tone to sound? Lets say I was going for more of a Lemmy tone, rather than a fat dubby sound. Do you guys think I would run into much trouble?

I think I recall seeing a video on here a little while ago, and it was that girl who plays a Rick (the band is Chatter, I think?) and she had multiple amps for what she did. One of the amps she was using was a Mesa Recto halfstack (it was a guitar rig through and through, she wasn't using the head through a bass cab), and her tone wasn't at all how we would usually think of bass. But, I guess it wasn't blowing up on her or anything.

Generally, bassists who operate in such a manner use a crossover which sends the mids and highs to the guitar rig and the lows to a dedicated bass rig. If you don't do that, you'll either blow the guitar speakers with the excess low freq's, or you'll be drowned out by the guitars since you're operating in the same frequency ranges with less power than necessary. Even Lemmy uses a 4x12 AND a 4x15 to get his tone, which produces a respectable amount of lows. My humble suggestion is that you try something like two Baer 112 cabs or one 212. These cabs have mid drivers instead of tweeters, which give them a more guitaristic high-mid and treble response and will sort of act like a mini version of the crossover rig I described above. I have read many accounts that they all but own the Chris Squire/Geddy Lee aggressive tone.

[TravTrav]

Cool. I feel this is all cleared up quite well for me. Thanks, guys.

[Clammy]

Originally Posted by B-string

Bass needs more cabinet internal volume.
Put bass speakers in a guitar cab and get really bad results.

I disagree. I ran a quad of Celestion bass drivers (BG12S-100) in a Marshall 1960B guitar cab for over ten years without any issues.

Cheers!

[Pilgrim]

Originally Posted by Clammy

I disagree. I ran a quad of Celestion bass drivers (BG12S-100) in a Marshall 1960B guitar cab for over ten years without any issues.

Cheers!

One of two things in this case:

1) You happened to have a cab with dimensions compatible with the speakers.

2) The speakers performed less well than they would have in a cab with more appropriate dimensions.

#2 is almost certainly the case. That's not to say they couldn't sound good, but to say they probably could have performed better.

[Clammy]

Originally Posted by Pilgrim

One of two things in this case:

1) You happened to have a cab with dimensions compatible with the speakers.

2) The speakers performed less well than they would have in a cab with more appropriate dimensions.

#2 is almost certainly the case. That's not to say they couldn't sound good, but to say they probably could have performed better.

They may not have been operating at peak performance, but I was merely disagreeing with the statement: "Put bass speakers in a guitar cab and get really bad results." . The fact is that I ran a quad of bass drivers in a guitar cab, for many years, with no "bad results" Quite the opposite. I liked the sound a lot, and the drivers were never damaged, even after being played at high volume an average of 3 to 4 times/week (not including gigs) for over 10 years.

Cheers!

[3mrhythm]

i use a theile design cab with a 15" EV speaker in it. works great. takes up very little room and its built into a flight case :P




if depth is an issue you could also make it taller :P volume is volume..

[Kirk Bryant]

I believe my Schroeder 15L or whatever its called sounds pretty darn good and it's the size of a standard 2x12 git. cab, its great for smaller to medium moderate vol. gigs. I think you would need 2 to get very loud and 4 to kill small rodents. It does only weigh about 35 lbs.