Bass Through PA

[vincentprice]

Hi guys,

I am preparing a small-size basement for a rehearsal studio for my band.

At the moment I am looking for PA system solution that will take care of vocals AND bass guitar (+possible synth bass). Drums won't run through PA since the place is small.

I play the guitar and use a 30watt all tube Laney, so the rest of the band needn't sound much more powerful.

Anybody experienced, please advise whether the following speakers & amp will carry the bass comfortably with no risk of destroying the PA. If not, what are the general requirements for specs of the PA to fulfill the task.. ?

running a couple of these guys:
BEHRINGER E1520 | Toнколони | Професионално аудио | Продукти | МЕГАВОЙС - Новото име на MARNY

through this guy:
BEHRINGER EPQ2000 | Усилватели | Професионално аудио | Продукти | МЕГАВОЙС - Новото име на MARNY

(Its a Bulgarian site, since I live in Bulgaria now. But the description is in English)

Thank you in advance!

 

[nicoli]

Based on frequency response I would be concerned that you wouldn't get great low end response and thus not the best bass tone out of those speakers. It's probably enough firepower and it'd work fine, but there might be a better option as far as speakers for reproducing bass. I think they'd be alright for vocals.

 

[vincentprice]

Thanks nicoli !

Great sound is not THAT important, since we won't be playing for an audience, just want to make sure we won't blow the system up, using the bass through it.

 

[GodinFan]

It's a good idea to run the bass through some sort of preamp/DI so there's some better tone control for the bassist. I use a Sansamp VT pedal when I go direct.

 

[Silas Stingy]

So long as you don't overdrive the speakers or peak on the amp and desk then you will be O.K. Just don't try to get more out of the kit than it will comfortably give you. I would suggest compressing the bass signal fairly heavily and high pass filter at around 75HZ.

 

[Steve]

I have never encountered a two way PA cabinet that would (IMHO) reproduce electric bass properly at any kind of gig volume.

The low notes always corrupt the vocal and make it sound fuzzy.

 

[Gearhead17]

I think you would be better off getting some used JBL 15 EON series powered cabs. As far as recreating low end, just grab a powered sub.

Behringer gear in general will break down MUCH FASTER than other brands. For a low budget setup, it's not the worst.

 

[ksandvik]

It works but without a sub-woofer don't expect a lot of low-end.

 

[seanm]

I had a Behringer amp that I used at a practice space. Since it didn't get the kind of rough treatment gigging gear gets, it worked fine for years.

How loud do you turn up the Laney? Normally, to compete with a 30W tube amp I would want at least 300W for the bass alone. I had a 1,500W Behringer amp and it was about the same volume as a 300W bass amp, so you should be ok, but just.

But since the bass will have no bottom end..... you might have problems hearing the bass unless you keep the guitar amp way down and really rein in the drummer.

Why not let the bass use a real bass amp?

 

[vasoundman]

run a limiter on your bass this keeps the bass level where you set it take a powerful system to keep the bass under control try that

 

[MNAirHead]

modern powered pa cabinets with quality boxes will do this... the boxes need to be big enough to space to create bass.

If on a budget... you're really describing a keyboard amp.

 

[Tuned]

Bass through PA means you need a subwoofer. Cheapest good subwoofer is the Yorkville LS608, which is not available powered, but power amps are pretty cheap since everyone's going class D and you actually don't want class D for subwoofers. Find a class AB amp (standard solid state) with built-in crossover and run the sub off one side and your PA speakers off the other side.