Bass Cabs OK for Subs? Which Crossover?
 

I'm in a Country band with a good problem, we are all mature (not youngsters) and are a low volume band (lots of elders at the gigs). The drummer plays at a low volume and I am having a little problem locking in with him because I can't clearly hear his kick, I stand to his left at practice, and left slightly ahead at gigs.

We've decided to add a sub to the mix. The P.A. has a limiter, sufficient (excess) power but we need to add a crossover. I believe the P.A. uses 2 80's era JBL 12" mains (looking to replace but that is a question for another thread).

I have 2 excess 115 cabs (Eden XLT and Schroeder w/o a tweeter). Would either or both work for a sub? I also have a 80' era sealed cab 18" JBL speaker sub (may have been designed for a vehicle I had it in a van), would this work better?

I also have a Yamaha SRV Club 15" monitor, could we just add a little kick there instead (along with my vocals)? We are not looking for crazy volume, just so I can hear the beater a little better.

So, in addition to the above what is a recommended crossover?

Thanks, I've been at TalkBass for 13 years, and this is my first time here (finally got all my other gear sorted out :)

A sub out front will make the overall sound better, but may not help you personally; bass guitar cabs won't do for that job at all, they're closer to full-range top boxes than they are sub cabs.

For your issue, the 15" monitor would work fine for your vocals and a pinch of kick drum (no crossover needed).

Perfect, thanks Mr Wright.

I'd go with the monitor. The higher, defining frequencies of the kick are probably just as useful to you on stage as the thud.

I've used my bass rig to drive kick for both the stage and room many times. It's pretty easy since I use separate pre and power amp, but if your amp has an effects loop you can wire the send to a mixer and wire the mixer output (or an aux) to the return on the amp. Wire the kick mic to another channel on the mixer and add kick to taste, but be very wary of your speaker excursion, kick has much more peak than bass.

I 'd still like some crossover input :)

DBX makes good crossovers. If it was me i would buy a powered sub with a built in crossover instead of trying to make a bunch of unsuitable cabs work.

For these purposes I don't think any crossover is going to be better or worse for the application. The bass cab will produce overtones up to about 180Hz even if you have a good 24dB/oct filter at 80Hz. You might as well just put the kick through the cab(s) separately and EQ to taste with no crossover.