hi Bassdad,
first up, if you're blowing cabs once a year, something is seriously wrong. there are a lot of possibilities - mismatched cabs and head, poor design of the cab, regularly unplugging your the jack from you bass without turning the volume down, running the whole thing at full volume all the time, clipping the power amp (normally requires the speakers to be much higher powered than the amp for you not to audibly overload the speakers first...), or indeed being a little overindulgent in the EQ department. EQ sections often give you +/- 15 dB which is a heck of a lot of variation - if you set your sound up with the EQ flat, turn up and then boost one of the channels up full, you've more than trebled the perceived volume in that frequency range, putting a lot of strain on your cabs and power amp.
My first suggestion would be to change the 'start point' of your EQing - instead of turning up the frequencies you want to boost, try turning down the ones you don't want to boost, if you see what I mean, so you get the same EQ shape, but with everything down at least 6dB. then turn up the output volume. If you find that using it like that you can't get the volume you need, it's a sure sign that youre amp is underpowered for the situation you are in. If that's the case, my first suggestion is to get the speakers up to ear level, so that you're not just blasting 350W of bass power into the backs of your knees - I'm assuming you're not actually a grasshopper, and therefor don't have ears in your knees... :o)
As for the tone of your 15 - was the cool tone when you played on your own or with a band? the two things are way more different than they seem, as the magic of a bass sound in a mix is how it blends/contrasts/fits in with the sound of the other instruments. The smiley face EQ thing seems to work if you have guitars that are very midrange and bottom heavy - you boost the bass sound either side of the guitars, and leave the space in the middle for them to do their thang... My preference is to roll some bass of the guitar, and actually be able to distinguish notes on the bass rather than just feel a rumble (ever tried picking out the bass parts on Coal Chamber/SOAD/any other detuned metal band you care to mention CDs? It's mostly really difficult due to the bass having no sound in the pitch detection region - just ultra low for rumble, and ultra high for clicky plectrum sounds... :o)
The mid boost that you are doing with the 15 sounds to me like you are having to compensate for not really liking the sound that is inherent within 15s - ie, not much mid range! maybe you should try out a few different 2x10s, and if you like them, maybe switch. If you're going to go for two cabs, it might also be worth trying two 2x10s stacked on end, so you have a tower four speakers high - that way you get to hear the top speaker, and the bass stays clearer over a longer distance (due to the sound dispersal happening in a column shape rather than a more random omnidirectional muddy pattern... or so the theory goes... :o)
have fun, and take it easy on those 2x10s!!!! ;o)
Steve
www.steve-lawson.co.uk
