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Double Bass the end: Wizzy 10/AI Focus cures my gearlust.

A

anonymous02282011

Jun 27, 2007
2,132
9
#1
shen SB100 --> realist and amt sp25 mic --> AI focus --> wizzy10

after reading all the threads and rave about AI and this new wizzy10, i figured, "hey, why not." Well, I've been playing for 18 years and this is best amped DB sound I've ever heard.

So, the quest is over. I'm kind of at a loss. There's only one thing left to do . . . .

go play some music :)


if you're into details:
wearing my action ab out 1/2 inch off the board

mic EQ: flat (i'm getting lots of volume, little feedback with the AMT)

pickup EQ: bass at 9/10, mid at 0, treble at 11 o'clock. I had to move a bunch of **** out of the room to make sure the signal coming through was clean (furniture was rattling), and it's clean as a whistle. I can't see how this rig can dissapoint.

I'm gigging all weekend, small rooms, church, clubs, so I'll have a more complete idea of everything by tuesday. I'll keep yalls posted. (plus i'll be getting in and out of every gig in one trip!)

the end.
 
#2
I'm experimenting with exactly the same amp setup at the moment (the rest is NS LaScala----->Full Circle/Beta57a) in my living room. I haven't posted about it yet because I haven't gigged on it yet, but I will do that this week in three different rooms and report back in. So far, the rig sounds great and is insanely light. If it works on the gigs, it'll save me about 35 lbs of schlep each gig. I'm keeping my fingers crossed.

Congrats on your new rig, hope it performs as well on your gigs as it does at home. Normally I don't like the Realist, but I imagine that the Wizzy is a great match for it in that it has what the Realist lacks...I bet that's a nice combination. Let us know how the gigs work out.
 
#4
adbass said:
on the EQ, bass at 9/10, mid at 0, treble at 11 o'clock. I had to move a bunch of **** out of the room to make sure the signal coming through was clean (furniture was rattling), and it's clean as a whistle. I can't see how this rig can dissapoint.
Click to expand...

Just curious...why the radical EQ with the mids completely rolled off? In fact, with all the EQ cut somewhat, why not move the treble to flat and back off the bass just a bit less?

OTOH, if it gets the sound you're after, that's what counts.
 
#5
rad EQ, b/c the cab itself is very midy.

The mid ranginess of the cab is great because it allows the box to cut through and project really well. The other thing I noticed about it is that what you hear standing next to it is closer to what is actually being heard 20-30 feet in front of the stage, compared to other amps i've used.

more on the EQ thing: it's a balance between volume and low frequency. The louder you get, you have to add mids into to the eq so things don't get boomy. Also, by cranking the lows, the gain becomes very sensitive. So you've got this (relatively) quiet, punchy, low-end over-driven type of sound. Great when blended with a mic and the natural acoustic sound. Again, the rad eq setting will limit how much volume you can use before things get boomy.

none the less, i used the wizzy10 (with an ai focus) in two small rooms, an outdoor gig and a church gym over the weekend and it was great at each venue. very light, easy to carry in and out, and the sound is fantastic. I agree with all the other reviews on the wizzy10; mid rangey, very light weight, perhaps lacking slightly in the low end . . . after all it's only a 10, but it's def a 10 you can get away with as a bassist.

lacking slightly in low end issue: i got around this using the rad eq explained above, plus i was using the realist, which IMHO is a little darker, less defined sounding than the FC.

the cabinet is loud and projects but is mid rangey; the eq and the pickup can allow to make up for this. in the end you've got a nice little lightweight bass rig.
 
#7
I've got 4 gigs coming up this week to test the Wizzy 10 on. One room is one of the most difficult rooms to amplify bass I've played in recently, two are at the place I play most, and the third is a cathedral. This week should be a good acid test. :)

Regarding the EQ, on my Focus 2 series II in my music room, I've gotten the best sound so far with the following settings (using the "clockface" scale):

Bass at noon (flat)
Mids at 9 or 10 o'clock
Treble and Brite OFF

HP filter on the PU channel is set pretty low, maybe at 10 o'clock. On the Focus III with the VL208, I usually have the highs turned up a bit more and the HP filter set at about noon or so, but that's a darker cabinet for sure. Looking forward to trying the Wizzy out in real life circumstances as well. I should also be getting one of FRANCIS SCOTT DECK's HP filter gadgets in the mail soon, and will be curious to see how it stacks up. Hoo-ahh!

ADDBASS - you're saying all the right things in your review. Hope I still agree with you in a week. :hyper:
 
#9
Chris Fitzgerald said:
Regarding the EQ, on my Focus 2 series II in my music room, I've gotten the best sound so far with the following settings (using the "clockface" scale):

Bass at noon (flat)
Mids at 9 or 10 o'clock
Treble and Brite OFF
Click to expand...

That seems pretty extreme. Is your pickup really that bright? You've actually got something like a 15 db cut in the upper frequencies going. If I tried that with my Focus, I'd get a weird, airless, almost electronic sound even with a BP 100 which is really bright.
 
#10
I don't analyze it, I just turn the knobs until it sounds best. The only intellectual principle I follow is to never boost any frequency band...just cut the ones that sound out of proportion and turn it up.

I don't know if I'd call the Full Circle terribly bright - certainly not as bright as a BP100. It's more a question of balance. When I hear a DB played acoustically by someone else, when I move more than 5 or 6 feet away the highs seem to blend in with the mids and I don't hear much acoustic fingernoise, so that's the sound I go for with the amp. I usually check my sound from 8-10 feet away from the amp and then deal with the discrepancy when sitting right in front of it by understanding that it blends as it travels forward.

With all that said, Dominants are certainly not dark strings, and the Wizzy is a pretty bright cabinet. The EQ turned out pretty much how I expected. We'll see what adjustments need to happen on the gigs. :)
 
#11
drurb said:
Huh? Lo-mids are what make a sound boomy. So I don't understand why you'd add mids to prevent boominess.
Click to expand...

on the amp (i'm using an AI focus 2RIII) there's only three options: low, mid and high.

. . . . these frequency descriptions are so vague . . . i can probably find the precise ranges on the AI website . . ..

anywho, the "mid low" may fall under the eq setting "low" on this amp.

more on the wizzy10 mid ranginess: i also tried to beef up the sound using a powerful little tube pre amp, but the speaker cone started moving in a very funny way, so i took that out of the loop. here's a quote from EA a written document that came with the cabinet:

"The physical limitations imposed by a 10" driver in a small box limit the amount of bass boost you can safely apply to the cab. Excessive bass boost might cause driver failure and IS NOT covered under warranty."

none the less, imho, i was able to get enough lo end from the amplifier and overall was very happy with the cheap-bass/realist/focus/w10 combo.
 
#12
About the AI EQ...from the owner's manual:

Bass Control Shelving type, ±15 dB at 60 Hz
Mid Control ±15 dB at 650 Hz
Treble Control Shelving type, ±25 dB at 10 kHz

These points place the bass knob in the bass fundamental range, the mids in the "nasal" tone area and the treble located at string noise sounds. Of course, these are curves rather than absolute dropoffs, so frequencies outside these ranges are also affected, but to a lesser extent. Correct?
 
#14
tornadobass said:
About the AI EQ...from the owner's manual:

Bass Control Shelving type, ±15 dB at 60 Hz
Mid Control ±15 dB at 650 Hz
Treble Control Shelving type, ±25 dB at 10 kHz

These points place the bass knob in the bass fundamental range, the mids in the "nasal" tone area and the treble located at string noise sounds. Of course, these are curves rather than absolute dropoffs, so frequencies outside these ranges are also affected, but to a lesser extent. Correct?
Click to expand...

Yeah. That's about right. 10 kHz is mostly string clicking on fingerboard, finger noise and air (the sense of head room) on a bass. Since it is a shelving unit, it is affecting frequencies probably all the way down to the 650 Hz mid control but is profoundly affecting frequencies above and around 10 kHz and there really isn't much bass up there. 25 db is a lot of roll off though.

I usually roll a little treble off depending on the room but I can't do extreme EQing on my rig without it sounding really artificial. Chris is right though, whenever possible, cut EQ and boost the gain to compensate for lost volume. The sound will almost always be more natural than if you boost EQ. In other words, if the sound is muddy, cut some bass and boost the volume. If the sound is too thin, cut the treble and boost the volume. The only time I boost EQ is if I can't get the sound I want from cutting and boosting the volume and then I'll try boosting EQ out of desperation.

mark
 
#15
Progris riport:

Played a room tonight in a neighborhood pub, freeish jazz, youngish crowd, loud*** room. The VL208 didn't cut it alone in there, causing me to look at other louder options. Last time I played there I took a VL208 and a 108, which was plenty, but still dark and too gooey around the bottom. Tonight played with the Wizzy 10 and everybody in the band loved it and could hear everything. A musician friend in the audience commented that it was the clearest bass tone he'd ever heard and wanted to know what the hell I was doing differently.

I pushed it pretty hard, and it hung in there like a trooper. At one point, I looked down and saw some pretty serious speaker excursion going on, so I turned on the HP filter (at lower volumes, it isn't needed) and set it only for low lows. After that, the sound was about the same but the speaker wasn't jumping around anymore. The lows on this box are amazing, and up in TP, I've never heard myself as clearly or as well. The sound that comes out of this thing and the way it sits in the mix are so good it borders on just plain wrong.

Right now, I'm thinking two things: I really like this speaker, and for some reason I seem to have caught TD* while writing this post. Time for bed.

End Progris Riport.
















*(Toad Disease)
 
#17
By itself, the Wizzy 10 was louder and cut better than a VL208 in that room, which makes sense since it's a more efficient cab and a 4 ohm load instead of 8ohms like the VL208. The 208/108 combination was bigger and "fuller" sounding, but also darker and had a tendency to get a tad boomy. The Wizzy was clear at all times. They may indeed have rewritten the laws of physics...
 

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