URB Amplification Question: Tweeters

[Ben Esparza]

To all of you that amplify your URB for gigs, how important do you feel the tweeter on a bass cab is? A few of the cabs and amps out there that are favored by URB players do not have tweeters (Gallien Krueger MB150-12, Aguilar GS112NT) while others tend to have tweeters.

I'm sure style has a lot to do with it. I'm talking straight ahead jazz and blues...not rockabilly or other styles that utilize a slap technique.

Opinions, please.

[Marc Piane]

I dislike the tweeter in most bass cabs. They really just add sizzle to the sound IME.

[Ric Vice]

Originally Posted by Ben Esparza

To all of you that amplify your URB for gigs, how important do you feel the tweeter on a bass cab is? A few of the cabs and amps out there that are favored by URB players do not have tweeters (Gallien Krueger MB150-12, Aguilar GS112NT) while others tend to have tweeters.

I'm sure style has a lot to do with it. I'm talking straight ahead jazz and blues...not rockabilly or other styles that utilize a slap technique.

Opinions, please.

This ones kind of a tough call. I have them on both my LDS 2x8 Three Way and my EA VL 208 &108. They sound the best IMHO when they are used in the D' Appolito Array where the tweeter placed below the mid driver or in between two mid drivers. That's how the EA VL 208 and 108's were designed. It's a three way configuration. The LDS has a custom matched tweeter that's not as aggressive as most tweeters. So my take is that it works nicely in three way cabinets. Two way cabinets with a really bright sounding tweeter may not be an ideal voicing for Double Bass.

Ric

[bolo]

Ben, I also have a VL-208 like Ric. It has one attenuator dial for the tweeter and another dial for the two 5 1/4" drivers. I basically turn the tweeter almost all the way off for db. But it sounds great all the way up with my electric basses though. And I'm talking old school. Flatwounds on a Lakland Bob Glaub and a Joe Osborne 5. I know you're a Duck Dunn fan.

The other cabs that I use a lot for doubling have no tweeters. EA Wizzy 12 and Wizzy M-line.

I also used to have an SWR Workingmans 15. Preferred the sound w/ the tweeter turned off for db there too.

I think maybe they tend to accentuate qualities of piezo pickups that just sound scratchy and sizzly. That said, there may be some tweeters out there (like silk domes?) that sound smoother than others.

[B String]

The Bergantino HT112 is one of the few tweeter boxes that I've found to work well with upright bass. Its a very sweet sounding tweeter and I believe its crossed over slightly lower than some.
I usually much prefer a mid speaker to a horn or tweeter.

[16fuss]

Hi, i use a Ampeg Portabass 11o with AI-Head. Th Tweeter is always completely on. When i turn it of, i notice a difference in the higher mids which i dislike.

[Chris Fitzgerald]

Originally Posted by fingers

I dislike the tweeter in most bass cabs. They really just add sizzle to the sound IME.

+1

The thing about amplifiying the string noise that tweeters typically put out is that it doesn't sound natural to me. The natural sound of the bass has low lows and highs on the edges of the sound, like water on a plant after a rain. The real meat of the sound is the low mids and mids to my ears, and to overamplify the edges always makes my bass sound more "electric" and artificial to me. It's as though the sound is of the bass with your ear about 1 foot from the top, and that's not what an audience would naturally hear acoustically. All YMMV, FWIW, JMODO, JCCAIDC, etc.

[drurb]

Originally Posted by Chris Fitzgerald

+1

The thing about amplifiying the string noise that tweeters typically put out is that it doesn't sound natural to me. The natural sound of the bass has low lows and highs on the edges of the sound, like water on a plant after a rain. The real meat of the sound is the low mids and mids to my ears, and to overamplify the edges always makes my bass sound more "electric" and artificial to me. It's as though the sound is of the bass with your ear about 1 foot from the top, and that's not what an audience would naturally hear acoustically. All YMMV, FWIW, JMODO, JCCAIDC, etc.

+2!

[Ric Vice]

Originally Posted by Chris Fitzgerald

+1

The thing about amplifiying the string noise that tweeters typically put out is that it doesn't sound natural to me. The natural sound of the bass has low lows and highs on the edges of the sound, like water on a plant after a rain. The real meat of the sound is the low mids and mids to my ears, and to overamplify the edges always makes my bass sound more "electric" and artificial to me. It's as though the sound is of the bass with your ear about 1 foot from the top, and that's not what an audience would naturally hear acoustically. All YMMV, FWIW, JMODO, JCCAIDC, etc.

I've always suspected that you probably don't need tweeters in DB cabinets. When I set the levels of the tweeter controls on both the EA VL 208 and LDS 2X8 Three Way they are way below the levels of their corresponding midrange attenuator. I do like the sound you get from three way cabinets, because they have a separate speaker handling the mid frequencies. Using the Super Flight Case probably has the same net effect since all those drivers work in tandem to present smooth transitions between different notes.

Ric