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Avatar 3 way 15/6/tweet part 2

#241
southpawpa said:
I lovee that P bass.
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I'll give you more to love: It's a Squier Special 5 that only cost me $99. I de-teenagered it by removing stickers. I shimmed and adjusted the neck, which made it play great. I narrowed the nut spacing and put on a slightly narrower bridge (18mm). I massaged it with Nordstrand pickups; the elctronics are passive. I'm not done with it, it's a project bass so it may never be done, but it plays killer and sounds even better. Sound men love it. And at most, I've got $500 bucks in it including all the high end parts.

Here's the starting point:
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#242
lomo said:
Cool. It's only getting even better from here:p. Try and mess with your mid controls and learn to massage 'em just right. This box will respond VERY well to eq and in that sense is more flexible than most conventional cabs, many of which 1)cannot handle any sig bass boost at gig volume and 2)are not clear enough in the mids to fully translate mid adjustments out into the room.
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Thanks for all your assistance lomo!:D Yeah, I can see what your saying about the mids, it's gonna take a while to get used to this eq'ing this cab. It can sound a bit harsh with too much mids up close but I notice it gets much rounder out in the room. Notes on the A and D string sound HUGE now but balanced. It's crazy how much the bass knob on my pre affect the tone with this cab. I'm used to boosting the bass and only making the lower notes on the E string loud, in fact louder than the rest of the bass throwing things out of whack but when you boost the bass with this cab the whole thing just gets louder/deeper yet evenly if that makes any sense.

It sits in the mix so different than what I'm used to but I'm so happy to not have a guitarist with a 2x12 kick my ass so it's worth the adjustment...... only downfall is now I'm thinkin to myself "if this is this badass what would a fEarful be like?". Do I see a cab build in my future?...:eek:
 
#243
The 6nd410/6nm410's mids are much smoother an the crossover seriously superior :)

That said, general note: Never judge a cabinet by how it sounds in the near field. It's always a good idea to test any cabinet you try by getting 20-30 feet away and walking in and out of the path of it.
 
#244
And also never judge something like this in a small room. those sounds waves bouncing around can easily cancel each other out in unpredicatable ways.

But I find all this interesting - I started on 15" speakers, then moved to lots of different things, landing on 4x10s for a long time. The about 3 years ago rediscovered the 15 - it was what I was after all along.

The Avatar has me interested, but the thing that's put me off has been the 3-way design. I like the high mid bark coming off the voice coil of a good 15" speaker, I never use tweets anymore, so not sure how my new "old school" sound will jive with the Avatar.
 
#247
bdplaid said:
The Avatar has me interested, but the thing that's put me off has been the 3-way design. I like the high mid bark coming off the voice coil of a good 15" speaker, I never use tweets anymore, so not sure how my new "old school" sound will jive with the Avatar.
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I wouldn't call it modern sounding, if fact my 210's sound WAY more modern/bright than this cab. I generally hate tweeters but this one is not bad at all, I assume it because of how it's crossed over. Even with the tweet on full it's not totally annoying but you can roll it off if thats your thing. Definitely can get barky by adjusting the eq or rolling the neck p/u off on my J bass if that's what you looking for.
 
#249
Nice that the conversation has turned to the near field issue, cause that's what's been on my mind for the past few gigs.

I was doing an outdoor thing without PA support the other night, so just for kicks I stacked the 153 on top of an Ampeg 410, daisy chained so they were both running at 4 ohms, pushed by a Demeter pre into a Crown xti 1000 bridged.

Elevating the 3 way really let me hear the mids more than I have in the past. Sort of harsh but in a good way - growly i suppose. For me it's tough to get a good read on the overall sound of this cab on a tight stage (and most of them are).

I have an inkling to reconfigure my rack to put the wireless back in so I can get out front and really get a feel for it. I have a good wireless but they always sound a little blatty to me.

It just feels like I have a hard time hearing the full tone of this cab when I have to stand on top of it. Anyone else running into this? (I'm looking at you fualnersj.:))

Overall, I get nothing but raves about my sound, particularly when I play the Lightwave bass. (Very clean and honest tone.) I guess I feel like I'm getting cheated out of hearing what everyone else is.
 
#252
monkeyking said:
I was doing an outdoor thing without PA support the other night, so just for kicks I stacked the 153 on top of an Ampeg 410, daisy chained so they were both running at 4 ohms, pushed by a Demeter pre into a Crown xti 1000 bridged.......Sort of harsh but in a good way - growly i suppose. For me it's tough to get a good read on the overall sound of this cab on a tight stage (and most of them are).........
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Don't know what Demeter pre your using but I have the 201 and would think if your eq'ing for the 410 then your 153 is getting cheated. My pair of 210's don't play well with the 153, they are VERY deep sounding for 210's but can't handle the eq'ing the 153 does at high volume. The eq I use for my 210's sounds a bit harsh thru the 153 at volume and doesn't make the 153 work like it can. You didn't mention which Ampeg 410 your using and while I don't think it would be optimum with any of them, certain models like the SVT-HLF would be especially problematic to get to work with the 153 while trying to eq them the same.
 
#253
Mainly I was listening to the 153. It was nice to get it up where I could really hear it. I certainly wouldn't recommend throwing those two cabs together on a regular basis, but it did give me some extra oomph.

The Ampeg is not the HLF version, and it actually sounded decent. Not wonderful but not bad either. The 153 was certainly the dominant tone of the two.

I may try elevating the cab a bit. The lion's share of the full sound is blowing right by me when I'm up close.

Of course, a more radical option would be to actually practice at home on occasion and get to know the cab a little better. But that would be just crazy...
 
#254
ya just gotta dial it in or get lucky. Last nite was my third gig with ST-900 & TB153 cab, '08 Am St P5 w/flats. I was def dialed in last nite. Mighta been the room, new club for us, I felt the room was very tight sounding compared to other clubs we gig. Not sure I can explain it to y'all, just what my ears felt/heard. Female singer, guitar, keys (with loud n low, Hammond B3 type simul-tone), good blues drummer n me.

First gig with new cab (TB153) was with a new band a couple weeks ago. Again, P5 and 900 head, it went well but this band has very good volume control, so I did not push the head or the cab that nite. Sound was very clean from me.

Second gig with occaisional band I gig with, loud vocalist and guiturd, same blues drummer as my reg band n me. I used my JoBo 5er w/DR Neons just for a change. Man, I was moving knobs left n right, all nite long trying to get a good volume and just cut thru the mix. Mighta been the room but I'm thinking the Jazz 5er is not that hot with the Lakland pups or something going on with this bass that I use it less and less for gigs. Maybe its those damn glowing strings.

Last nite, I used more bass knob than ever but it still was from 11:00 - 1:00 depending on tune we did. I was using all three settings on the mid-freq knob, rarely do that. I had vol/gain/vol mostly at noon; mid/treble @ 3:00 & 2:00 off n on. The rig just worked last nite, everything I dialed in worked. I rarely get that tube breakup that many say they easily find. When I dug in on a last song solo, I could hear it, very nicely. The lows were very low n tight. Sure the B string on my P5 not as nice as my Laklands but it did well last nite in that room.

Band said they really dug it, its the first time I used this rig with my regular blues/rock band. Heck, even my wife said, the bass sounds real good out here. She still asks, "you play bass right?" So that's a def compliment for her. They sat about 20' or so from band. I think they were feeling that gut-punch I get here at home at about 15' from my cab when I practice at home.

Anyway, I've been abit under-whelmed by the 900+TB153 at first two gigs with other bands. Last nite with my regular band and maybe cuz we just jibe well as players by now, this rig will be my go to rig when we gig. New room/club coming up in a couple weeks; we'll see if I can dial in perfection again. It's a process man. But I'm mostly enjoying that. As per my avatar, yeah I can beat a dead horse for awhile. Hang in there y'all....its' in there. ;)
 
#258
Did a first gig with my TB153 over the weekend - a wedding gig in a fairly big sized, 2-level room (couple of pics below). PA support was available, but we decided to only put some kick drum into it after doing an initial soundcheck. The stage volume was ample enough with the stage mics picking up some of the stage volume too - and although the room looked like a classic example of big & boomy (high ceilings, lots of hard surfaces), it was surprisingly kind to the sound spectrum - even more so once guests started to arrive. In any case, I'm not normally a fan of trying out brand new gear in a new room, but the band (guitarist, keyboardist, female singer, drummer, myself) got setup very early in the afternoon & had plenty of time to lock in a workable tone & soundcheck before people starting arriving around 5pm.

I was driving the TB153 with a SansAmp RBI>5-band parametric> QSC PLX-1602 (1100 watts on reserve at 8-ohms) and I gotta say, I was all grins for the entire evening. :) As others have already stated, the full range spectrum of this cab is a beautiful thing. You've got lows, mids & highs going on in a very balanced harmony - no holes in your sound spectrum & no harsh frequency hot spots to contend with. Which IME equated to a big, true sound of my jazz bass that was very articulate from top to bottom - responded accurately to playing nuances & took EQ adjustments very well. I played some of the gig with the SansAmp RBI's emulation circuitry disabled & was very impressed with the tone of the cab ran in that manner as well. The rest of the band noticed straight away that I had brought in a new cab from the get-go & were teasing me about trying out new gear on the spot (although my other cabs were locked up in the trailer outside). No complaints at all, in fact the guitarist said the tone was killer & projecting very well out in the center of the room during soundcheck. Even asked that I turn down a tad. :) I know a room like this is probably not the best measuring stick for a sound review, but the cab certainly shined & I'm looking forward to playing in more familiar rooms to get a better idea of the TB153. But so far - aces! No regrets on this purchase - at all. :)

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