Interested in the use of Tweeters in bass cabinets, so thought I would run a poll, be interested to see what you all do...
I've never turned the tweeter off on a bass cab that I've used. I like to have enough top end so that there's some brightness to the sound, particularly when playing the odd lick up the dusty end of the neck. Either I've been lucky enough to not come across any of the ice pick versions or i've been able to EQ it to taste.
Depends on where the crossover splits the frequencies & what type of driver it is. Horn tweeters are ok, but I have to suffice with them, because I play with some much O/D I'd blow a piezo tweeter in seconds, & I don't mean figuratively.
I can't stand anything above 3-4 kHz on bass. Tweeters on a bass cab has about as much meaning to me as running a piccolo flute through a three-oktaves-down effect and hook it up to a sub with a low-pass filter set to 80Hz. I play BASS, not string noise. (actually, the piccolo flute thing might be cool...)
I turn mine way down; may have to turn it down more, because I heard some string noise while I was rehearsing today. Didn't like that.
Kind of handy when slapping and doing some tapping. No much use for it otherwise. Prefer horns though.
No. For the life of me (and this is after having more than a few very smart people explain it to me. . . .), I don't know why I need a bass guitar cabinet that goes to 18 or 20khz, and I've never heard of a bass guitar pickup package that's putting out any useable content up there. Of course, it's entirely possible I'm a complete dooofussss when it comes to this, but I still have never been presented with a practical reason that it's useful in the real world, not the world of scopes and measured responses. I'm more than happy to have hiss, line noise, and pickup anomalies trapped above the frequency response of most average cabs. So if I want some extra high end, I'd prefer smaller cone-type speaker matched to the design.
I used to think I wanted to sound like I was playing through a PA system (late 80’s). I used Eden, SWR. Next I went Ampeg Classic. Horn sometimes up a bit. Then I realised I’m just a fun-lovin caveman and went back to the sweet sweet nectar of the EVM 15 in a TL606.
Tweeters for bass cabs are just like any other tool. Sometimes they are useful, other times they are not. Want the thumpy Jamerson sound? Turn it off. Want a modern, dirty, aggressive, gritty tone? Turn it on. Or, use a DI and don't worry about it
When I first bought my cab, I turned on the tweeter for a minute or so then turned it off. That was six years ago.
Because I run a pre-amp that has cab modeling, tweeter loaded cabs sound a little more authentic. That being said, my next project involves 8x6.5" drivers in a 3-2-3 honeycomb pattern and a ported enclosure. No tweeters, no crossovers, just a lot of full range drivers with fast transients. Still in the conceptual phase, but it looks good numerically. Will A/B against my current 3 way once I get some time to spend with my power tools again.
I found the horn type sometimes has it’s uses if you play an ABG. I have zero use for a piezo tweeter and always turn them off if I can, or attenuate them as much as possible if they can’t be fully disabled.
Sounds interesting. But what advantage does the 3-2-3 arrangement bring to the party? Are the banks of three angled off axis in some way?