Before I even brought any gear I did Bit of research and it said bass-amps were constructed to be much more solid to cope with the sounds.....maybe that's true of practise amps then?!? But maybe not so much for live stuff....
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Are bass amps obsolete?
- Thread starter sanwin17
- Start date
Ahh man I got it wrong again!!! When you said "out" I stupidly thought you meant "blown out" But you meant "new releases" new gear right?!?
I think that's really cool how you do it. I am in Asia, and there is a lot of sound-guys and gear. But recently I played a show and the FOH was really not into their craft, which is disappointing. The gear was great, but not their skill sets or drive. I have always respected skilled sound people, especially when they care as much about their craft as I do about my music. They are not musicians, but that doesn't mean they are not practicing an art. I was really happy I brought my amp and cabinet and avoided relying on these people. For those up close, they can hear our stage gear, they closer to the open space that's left of live music. Once you turn that over to entirely closed space, I think you lose something important between musicians. It is similar to the situation of the acoustic to electric transition. Amplification by electricity changed the way we related to the instrument, like feedback, resonance, etc. But the instruments became solid and the hollow body became a speaker. Finally with amps on stage there is still a space for us to hear what we are doing. A good engineer will help you understand the difference between your speakers and the mix, etc. A smart musician will take time to understand why, and improve his work. He will craft his sound on his amp, and leave it to others to honor that according to live or recording situations.
Personally being primarily a Ukulele player and classical 12 fret player I feel you. No piezo has ever done justice. Only microphone recordings. I often tape a piece of cotton over my mic on my phone when making videos with my nylon strings and cajon / percussion stuff... The stuff I'm good at.. But learning how to play electric... It's all scale length it seems. Only the bass speaks to me.
Complexity?
One cable into each cab. Easy Peasy.
No more complex than any other cab, but infinitely better sounding than most.
PJB cabs are some of the finest & most durable speakers that money can buy.
The bottom cab alone can handle 1,600 watts.
Why do I want to sell?
After 35 years of schlepping fridge-size cabs in & out of clubs, I'm ready for some lightweight, heavy-hitting cabs that I can carry easily.
The clubs I play all have nice PA systems, so there's no need for monster rigs anymore.
That, and I'm pretty much retired these days.
I just want a small, high-quality home setup that can handle the occasional gig or two & still keep up with a drummer at rehearsal if needed.
My PA is about 600W into two 8 ohm Samson 1x12s (it would do 800W if I had more speakers). It's not really going to cut it for bass unless I put 400W into the Samsons (mono) and took 400W into my 4 ohm 1x15 cab which can handle 4ohms, and set the right cross over from the crossover in my rack. I could then use my old Trace Elliot Commando at ear-level as a monitor or try the IEMs I have (wired not wireless headphone amp) as I am not sure I'd want to rely on my two 1x10 monitors for bass fold back. It doesn't feel like a the most satisfactory solution, although I've done it once, but for someone else, although in that case just slaved my bass amp to a feed rather than using the PA amp itself because I put the bass amp, acting as a sub, just offstage due to space considerations, so it worked better for cable runs that way.
I'll have to hire a hall at some point and invite a band to rehearse just to play with the gear under no time pressures and get it balanced better and a good set of notes created.
Now I get it. It's amazing. Even the PA in our rehersal room Is 700W, 1200W at peaks. When we rent PA for our 200 people gig, we rent shitload of 18" subs and linearrays around 6000W. But you know, we play metal, not country.
20 years ago for a 200 venue 1000 to 2000W was considered perfectly adequate if into a reasonable number of speakers. Sound being logarithmic 6000W is only going to be perceived as 50% louder, but at the expense of much more energy to damage ears with
As noted, though, it depends on how much headroom you have whether it's actually louder. My car can do 140mph in theory but rarely does it ever get to 40mph and I've never had it above 70!
20 years ago for a 200 venue 1000 to 2000W was considered perfectly adequate if into a reasonable number of speakers. Sound being logarithmic 6000W is only going to be perceived as 50% louder, but at the expense of much more energy to damage ears with
By that I wanted to say, that bands here in CZ are heard mainly from PA. Only on venues 80 or less people you can hear anything from stage unless you stand ať front rows. All I wanted to say that i like to play only throug preamp with cabinet simulation, because I know how my bass sound live, on rehersal, in strudio. All the same. No diffrences because of different microphones, etc.
Traffic sucks here too.20 years ago for a 200 venue 1000 to 2000W was considered perfectly adequate if into a reasonable number of speakers. Sound being logarithmic 6000W is only going to be perceived as 50% louder, but at the expense of much more energy to damage ears with
20 years ago for a 200 venue 1000 to 2000W was considered perfectly adequate if into a reasonable number of speakers. Sound being logarithmic 6000W is only going to be perceived as 50% louder, but at the expense of much more energy to damage ears with
The headroom makes it sound clear and it doesn’t go into distortion because of transients. Transients like a singer’s dynamics or a snare crack. It doesn’t have to be loud at all. At all!
A car that does 140 effortlessly will do 70 without a sweat and 40 like it’s parked. Contrast that with the car that works at 80% to get to 40 and 70 sounds like it is dying and it’s shaking like you’d lose control at 71 mph. On top of all that, the feeling of going 70 in a car that can do substantially more is so pleasurable it’s akin to experiencing a PA or Studio monitor system designed with high headroom.
The headroom makes it sound clear and it doesn’t go into distortion because of transients. Transients like a singer’s dynamics or a snare crack. It doesn’t have to be loud at all. At all!
A car that does 140 effortlessly will do 70 without a sweat and 40 like it’s parked. Contrast that with the car that works at 80% to get to 40 and 70 sounds like it is dying and it’s shaking like you’d lose control at 71 mph. On top of all that, the feeling of going 70 in a car that can do substantially more is so pleasurable it’s akin to experiencing a PA or Studio monitor system designed with high headroom.
We never got my friend's 1977 'classic' up to 70. 60 was pushing it. I've used PAs like that before. Mine seems to do OK for vocals, etc., but I would need to add something more at the bottom to put bass through it as that sucks up a lot of power. But using my 4 ohm 1x15 might do the job. I will have to test it.
A little compression or limiting would help with those transients too. Also make the band's sound a little smoother too.The headroom makes it sound clear and it doesn’t go into distortion because of transients. Transients like a singer’s dynamics or a snare crack. It doesn’t have to be loud at all. At all!
A car that does 140 effortlessly will do 70 without a sweat and 40 like it’s parked. Contrast that with the car that works at 80% to get to 40 and 70 sounds like it is dying and it’s shaking like you’d lose control at 71 mph. On top of all that, the feeling of going 70 in a car that can do substantially more is so pleasurable it’s akin to experiencing a PA or Studio monitor system designed with high headroom.
Like I said earlier, I’m going direct 90% of the time these days. My signal path is a MXR M-81 Bass Preamp into a Behringer XAir XR18 into two Bose L1’s with two B2 bass cabs. Both Bose towers set behind us pushing an average of 85 to 90 Db’s. With the four 10’s and the auto crossover directing my highmids and highs to the two towers, who could ask for more?
Complexity... Not how hard it is to connect.. But if anything goes awry with a driver... Complexity. With a warranty that's not a concern.. But you get one overheated coil buzzing on that rig and suddenly it's all garbage. Complexity. Replacing a pair of 12" or 10" not such a worry. Replacing one of those.. Would bother me. Im sure you've got a good response but think about that.. That's why nobody wants it. Because they scared of it
