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Anyone else playing an All Tube Head through a Ported Cab?

Are you playing an all tube head through a ported cab?


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No, but I do play an all valve amplifier through a ported Barefaced cab. ;)

allvalve.jpg
 
Andy Lewis says a lot of stuff that makes no sense to me :D He once lectured me in a rather unpleasant way about not using cabs that go as low as his do because I'm doing my audiences a disservice.

Anyway, while on paper this damping factor stuff may be true, I've found it to not matter at all, with the possible exception of when you are slamming a cab within an inch of its life with volume.

Hmmm...there's got to be more to that story.

Riis
 
Hmmm...there's got to be more to that story.

Riis
Not really but I'll say it anyway. He once asked why any bass player would want a cab that doesn't give them full low note reproduction. I gave him my spiel about how I think it only serves to create mud in the music I'm playing, and he totally went off on me about how I'm doing a disservice to the music, my fellow musicians, and my audiences. I told him how the music I'm playing was recording with all those lows high passed, my fellow musicians love how I sound, and not only person in the audience ever complained that I didn't have enough low end. He responded by saying something snarky about how using the audience as my barometer is foolish, and if anyone knows anything about me (which he apparently didn't), I consider that to be fighting words. In the end, we came to an understanding, but while I can forgive, I never forget!

OK, once in a while, I forget :D but remind me of it and I remember pretty clearly.
 
Thought I'd post this for fun....

I'm enjoying an old Ampeg through my Bergantino HD410 cabs. It's lots of fun with lots of boom...but so natural sounding!

Not knocking sealed cabs at all. I'm learning Barefaced has made some deadly sealed cabs. I've yet to try a sealed Berg NV610 or NV412 but have played through an NV115. It was alright...but my ears liked the ported cabs better. I guess I'm going to have to get used to the bass control being dialed back or the bass cut switched on.

Happy New Year 2018 everyone!
Thought I'd post this for fun....

I'm enjoying an old Ampeg through my Bergantino HD410 cabs. It's lots of fun with lots of boom...but so natural sounding!

Not knocking sealed cabs at all. I'm learning Barefaced has made some deadly sealed cabs. I've yet to try a sealed Berg NV610 or NV412 but have played through an NV115. It was alright...but my ears liked the ported cabs better. I guess I'm going to have to get used to the bass control being dialed back or the bass cut switched on.

Happy New Year 2018 everyone!

You know, now that you mention it, I’ve only used one non ported cab in 50 years of playing bass, which was actually a Hiwatt guitar cab I used for the bridge pick up on my Ric when using Ric-O-Sound. Everything else has been ported.

This is another issue I’ve never pondered before. Can somebody kind of list the pros and cons of a sealed enclosure.

Other than helping to keep a speaker for hyper extension, I can’t think of much of an advantage other than exacting high fidelity, but at the expense of cabinet efficiency. Can I get some comments from experts on the subject. Thanks.
 
No, their not sealed.....their close to being sealed...more like a hybrid. Just check out the four10, six10, or eight10 on their website. It confused me when I looked. I didn't see the "resonator" detail in the specs.

Oh, I own a couple of their Two10 cabs, I'm familiar with that series. :)
They're ported alright.
I just didn't recall any of their cabs being sealed and was wondering if they ever made some.
 
I'm really wondering with all the added efficiency of these Barefaced Cabs if anyone would really need the eight10 under any circumstance? Heck, I'd try it.....but it might end up being just as loud as my two Bergantino HD410's, just less boomy.

I use a couple of Two10, generally stacked vertically, with a Mesa D800+. I've never had to push them too hard or had the opportunity to see just how loud they can get... but that combination is much louder than I'll likely need. Playing outdoors in a marquee without PA support for a smallish/medium beer garden party (maybe 300 people?) it did very well. I did not have the wireless with me that day, but my girlfriend (also a bass player) was there and she told me it sounded good and with plenty of 'meat' in our ska/reggae band. I was nowhere near pushing them.

However, if I had roadies, I'd probably go for an 810. Why? Because the more speakers I have, the nicer it feels even if you don't play very loud. Hard to describe, with more speakers you can still play at the same volume but the bass wraps you up better ;) I can imagine how having an Eight10 on a large stage would be a joy. But I am extremely happy with my pair of Two10 cabs. Best experience I've ever had on bass: very easy to carry, take up little space, and sound great.
 
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so, the fdeck is the first thing in the signal chain after the wireless unit ?

You can use it anywhere, and you'll get a different result (slightly). I used to use an SFX Thumpinator (tiny fixed frequency HPF pedal), and that was at the end of my chain, before the amp. My thinking was to take the signal already processed through any pedals I might have used (in some bands I use nothing, but in others I use up to 8 pedals), and remove the extreme lows just before feeding the amp. It was interesting to note how despite not really noticing a difference in the sound, the amp ran cooler.

Now I use mostly a Mesa D800+ head which has a built in adjustable HPF, which is very very good as you can adjust how much to cut depending on the situation. No need for the Thumpinator. As the HPF is on the amp itself, again it comes after whetever pedals I may have.

If you use it first thing in the chain you'll remove those lows from the bass itself, but any other signal processor may end up adding those low frequencies back on. However, some pedals will work better (or in a way you may like better) if you feed them a signal without those lows...

So there's no absolute best, it depends on what you want to do and what sounds best to you.
 
My Acme Low B-1 has the port on the side so it was convenient for me to experiment with plugging it. (The verdict: meh.)

My Two10 cabs have the port on the 'small' side. If you stack them horizontally (assembling what looks like a standard 410) the ports are on the side. If you stack them vertically, the ports fire down and the effect is as if you partially blocked them. There's a clear difference in the lows in each position, indeed. It's fun to experiment. I actually like them better (tighter lows) stacked vertically, but I'm not sure what I'd think if I blocked them entirely. They might miss too much.
 
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However, if I had roadies, I'd probably go for an 810. Why? Because the more speakers I have, the nicer it feels even if you don't play very loud. Hard to describe, with more speakers you can still play at the same volume but the bass wraps you up better ;)

To me, having more speakers just feels more "full", without necessarily being louder - although many of my gigging situations call for a smaller approach these days...
 
To me, having more speakers just feels more "full", without necessarily being louder - although many of my gigging situations call for a smaller approach these days...

That's exactly it.

And I don't *need* an 810 (my vertical 410 solution works very well and even when space is limited, the footprint is tiny, so it's never an issue), but if I play at a venue where they provide one I don't complain :)
 
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