Best bass head and cab for drop A deathcore

[Mr. Foxen]

I think the fearul crosses over relatively high, the woofer is good to 800hz or something. And it would be two 6" mid drivers in the comparison, since we are talking big cabs.

 

[Scogman]

I think the fearul crosses over relatively high, the woofer is good to 800hz or something. And it would be two 6" mid drivers in the comparison, since we are talking big cabs.

I believe the crossover is right at 800 hz. Going from memory, and just got back from a gig and an after party so I reserve the right to change my answer later. I know, it's morning in the USA, but it's midnight where I am.

 

[Bassmec]

I think the fearul crosses over relatively high, the woofer is good to 800hz or something. And it would be two 6" mid drivers in the comparison, since we are talking big cabs.

Looking at the 3015LF response graphs I would have designed it to cross over lower at say 300 to 500, 300 to avoid some nasty lumpy bits of the response graph and to make best use of the 6" mid.
I bet greenboy did too, also he attenuates the mid to 99.6dB spl 1 watt 1 meter to make the cab run flat, I understood you need to fit a bypass switch to defeat this.
PS When I was 16 a bloke in my village had a Yamaha FS1E that he swore blind would burn off a fireblade with one or two drops of Paul Newman Vinigarette dressing in a full tank of four star.

PPS Get a grip chaps! "A mans gotta know his limitations" and what frequencies he can poke through the mix at.
Now if we all decide to join a reggae band then all we have to compete with in the mid, is a piano chord vamp + one ultra bright clean damped guitar chord chop per bar I will be recommending fearful's over 8X10's all day long.

 

[Mr. Foxen]

The ideal of the Fearfuls flatness is you can eq in a mid bump wherever is appropriate. They have a lot more scope for it.

 

[makohund]

I'm a fan of the fEarful design and a friend of Greenboy's, but don't be selling the 810 format short. It didn't get to be the number one most used pro bassist setup over the past 40 years or so because it wasn't any good. It's a great sound and a great performer.

You're right. The 810 is a beast, and everybody knows it. I know I'm not selling it short... it would do the job. It may very well be just the ticket for the OP, and might be a good match for what it delivers. Just responding to posts saying that a fEARful wouldn't, giving odd claims and/or myths as reasons.

Especially stuff like "moving air" and getting stupid loud. Everybody knows the 810 does that. And the biggest fEARful cab (or the stack equivalent) will do all of that and then some. Basically, both cab designs move plenty of air and get loud just fine, so it shouldn't really even be a point of discussion.

what makes the fEARful better then something like an ampeg 810e?

Better for you is a matter of what you want to hear. It can do some things better (low lows, dispersion, etc). It can match it almost everywhere else, given the right signal. You have to feed it what you want to hear, EQ'd the way you want it. The 810 has a particular voicing that the fEARful will not give you by itself, you have to get it with your signal. If you do, the fEARful can and will pump it out by the bucketful.

Not knocking the 810 at all. It's great at what it does. If that is what you want, there's nothing wrong with that. But it isn't the only suitable cab on the planet.

im not liking the design and i cant find anything good about them for death metal.

Not sure I follow... what is it you don't like? Is it visual? It's a rectangular box, you can make it look however you want it to look. And really... what makes a speaker good for death metal? What is it that is good for death metal, that you are finding to be missing?

But the last thing this bass player actually needs is flat extended frequency response, he needs nasty bright forward mid

Nasty bright forward mid? Definitely doable. (Remember those mids have to be padded by 3dB to keep them from overwhelming what a single 3015LF puts out. Just one of them keeps up with two woofers just fine.)

he just gets to poke through an area just above where the 3015LF is in fact being steeply crossed out by the Fearful dividing network.

Uh... 900-1000Hz?

What frequency is the passive inductor based low pass filter in the Fearful progressively switching off the 3015LF? I believe its 300Hz?

Oh, heck no.

I was under the impression we where comparing the ability of one 6" loudspeaker cone operating in a band of 400 Hz
to 800hz versus eight close coupled 10" loudspeakers with no crossover losses.

Now do your calculations again class.
Whats the X max of the 6 inch mid driver?.
If you bothered to build a 12dB per octave passive crossover as the Fearful design suggests why the **** are we talking about the output of a 3015LF.

I'm pretty sure the crossover is around 800Hz. In the range you're talking about, we're still mostly talking woofers. And you can bi-amp it if you really wanted to cross it over elsewhere.

Maybe the OP does want an 810, and it will do what he wants. But claims that a fEARful would be a poor choice are really kind of silly.

 

[Mr. Foxen]

Pretty sure Deathcore is young people music, so the OP has a healthy back, suitable for having an 8x10. All the older ones who had an 8x10 because they didn't have a choice don't have this any more.

 

[tdub0199]

ive seen brand new ampeg 810e cabs on ebay for 1.9k delivered so im thinking if i pair the gk 1001rb-II with an ampeg 810e then ill be set for just about any venue i could possibly want to play .

as far as spending money on other, more 'usefull' things, what would you consider to be more useful then the place of sound reproduction itself?

This is the same setup I use & love it, although I'm not in a "Deathcore" band....

 

[bolophonic]

thanks very much for the quick replies, as it stands right now im most likely leaning more towards the GK 1001rb-II, simply because i can pick one up brand new online for about 1k. from what ive read they seem to have a punchy mid range, which i think will be necessary to cut through the already bass oriented mix.
This being said, im still not sure what cab to put it on, i was thinking a 410 thats rated at like 800w or something would be easy to move to and from gigs, but would a 610 or 810 deliver a better 'tone' or move more air?
not sure whether to look at the lighter gk neo series cabs or to look at ampeg's 410,610 or 810. or perhaps a swr cab.

I also play finger style, hardly ever use a pick. im sure this will make quite abit of difference. so i really need something thats going to allow the softer touch of fingers to be propelled through the mix.

I think that GK can deliver exactly what you need.

 

[R Baer]

Im looking for a good head and cab, i play in a tech deathcore band that tunes to drop A....

Man, TB makes me feel really old sometimes. First, I learned there is something called "stoner/doom" music and now it looks like I have to add "deathcore" to the list of music I'm clueless on. Is that anything like Steely Dan?

 

[Bassmec]

Man, TB makes me feel really old sometimes. First, I learned there is something called "stoner/doom" music and now it looks like I have to add "deathcore" to the list of music I'm clueless on. Is that anything like Steely Dan?

Umm no!, in death core the ability to sing notes in melodies and
any vocal harmony used would be frowned upon and described as weakening and distinctly gay with the results of being bottled off the gig immediately.
Its about a different thing entirely, although some death metal bands like Cradle of Filth roar and scream in perfect 3 part harmony and have female opera singers in the band to do the proper singing and the budapest film orchestra to record the string parts rather than just use dodgy keyboard samples.
If you hear the keyboard tracks solo most sound like JS Bach
interlinking arpeggios with lots of swelling augmented minor chords in 3/4. The guitar players play with very fast fluttering
plectrums at such a gain and overdrive as to sound not unlike
violins violas and cello and even very distorted bowed bass.

 

[JimmyM]

Pretty sure Deathcore is young people music, so the OP has a healthy back, suitable for having an 8x10. All the older ones who had an 8x10 because they didn't have a choice don't have this any more.

NONSENSE! They'll pry my 73 810 out of my cold dead hands! *

* Of course, I don't use it as much as I used to.

 

[JimmyM]

Man, TB makes me feel really old sometimes. First, I learned there is something called "stoner/doom" music and now it looks like I have to add "deathcore" to the list of music I'm clueless on. Is that anything like Steely Dan?

It's more like Steely Dan played at half speed and run through a transistor radio from the 60's.

EDIT: Done at vomit-inducing volumes, though.

 

[AwkwardLoudness]

A Carvin B2000 amp and a quad of fEarful 15/6 cabs

 

[Stumbo]

... also he attenuates the mid to 99.6dB spl 1 watt 1 meter to make the cab run flat,...

Doesn't that mean you can e.q. whatever tone you want out of the cab? Why is that negative.

Put in your effects, active basses, e.q. pedals, VT's, pre-amp tube pedals and everything else. Seems to me tone shaping would be a plus.

Guess we'll have to wait for someone to do an A/B test and post the recordings on TB. Maybe a gig with alternating the cabs.

An 8x10 vs. GB fEARful 151566.

Seems to me that one 15/6 with a 15/sub with 2k watts/tube preamp/effects should be enough to fill most venues w/o PA support with any tone you like.

Or maybe two 151566's would do the job.

 

[Bassmec]

A Carvin B2000 amp and a quad of fEarful 15/6 cabs

Now we are finally getting somewhere, stacked vertically of course, midrange attenuators defeated with the JBL horn flares fitted to the 18 sound 6" midranges.
But I would still blow it to the weeds with my bad boy 3 way 408 cab based active rig:
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My midrange is 2 X JBL 2206 12" drivers powered from 1 side of a crown Ma3600Vz and above 1.2Khz its Bridged Calver PM 600 series powered 2380a's with 2445's at 111dB spl 1 watt 1 meter. JBL 260 DSC crossover.
What does it weigh? just enough to be approximately where I left it when I have finished playing through it.

 

[Bassmec]

Doesn't that mean you can e.q. whatever tone you want out of the cab? Why is that negative.

Yeah I only buy power amps so i can heat resistors with them to keep myself warm.... NOT!
Socially secure bass players with advanced active systems on the other hand, connect power amp speaker cables directly to the terminals of frightfully expensive loudspeaker voice coils, don'cha know old bean!

 

[Faultline]

Just my opinion:
I've been playing in metal bands tuned to drop A for about 6 yrs. I've been the SVT 810 route, the big 18" speaker route and I was impressed with neither.
I learned to tweak my EQ, Worried less about FREQ response of a given cab design and more about the midrange voice of the cab.

I watched a video on Alex Webster back when he was playing an Ampeg rig and his EQ was set flat except for a slight mid boost.
Drop A is 27hz, near the inaudible range, so I focus on the mids to cut through.

I've had good luck with my SVT 5 Pro head running in to a GK NEO 4/12 cab. It's not my dream rig but it handles my fingerstyle playing with a tightness akin to meshuggah riffs. I spent alot of time and money worrying about the low bass to compliment my bands sound but I figured out when playing live the FOH will do all of the heavy lifting. My rig is just an awesome sounding monitor. Now if only every FOH tech was worth a S#!t.

I also put more emphasis on string gauge selection and scale length of my bass. I play a 35" scale bass with a .145 for the low A. On my thumb bass (34" scale) I adjusted the awesome bridge setup and went with a .145 as well and I have a very heavy handed attack, my setups handle the abuse just fine.

You lose some of the string's dynamic response and flexibility but that's just the nature of the beast when tuning so low. I wish I could talk my guitarists in to tuning up to B or C.

 

[JimmyM]

Drop A can still be easily reproduced on an 810. I've done it many times. You hear those notes from the second harmonic way more from the fundamental anyway.

 

[Bassmec]

Drop A can still be easily reproduced on an 810. I've done it many times. You hear those notes from the second harmonic way more from the fundamental anyway.

Ain't that the truth, most places I've played indoors with an old ampeg 8x10 you just cant use all the low frequency its got without booming the shish kebab out of the place.
**** the boomy fundamentalists I say, I'm with Jimmy and the rich mix of harmonics posse here.
If you cant use it all, roll off the muddy bit at circa 100Hz and hope that enough low frequency below that disappears too, so it frees up the kick drum in the stage monitors a bit.
PS Scratch what me and Jimmy think if you happen to play in a German prog rock Oom-pah band, an Fearful is probably right up your street.

 

[JimmyM]

Ain't that the truth, most places I've played indoors with an old ampeg 8x10 you just cant use all the low frequency its got without booming the shish kebab out of the place.
**** the boomy fundamentalists I say, I'm with Jimmy and the rich mix of harmonics posse here.
If you cant use it all, roll off the muddy bit at circa 100Hz and hope that enough low frequency below that disappears too, so it frees up the kick drum in the stage monitors a bit.
PS Scratch what me and Jimmy think if you happen to play in a German prog rock Oom-pah band, an Fearful is probably right up your street.

LOL! No bro, I'm not going to go that far Actually I think th fEarful is a very sound design and the stuff people are saying about it is true. OK, a fEarful 15/6 isn't going to put out what an 810 does, but it does put out an awful lot of sound, more than a 410 for sure, and it can be EQ'd. So I'm not going to poop on the fEarful any more than I'd poop on the 810.

But I do enjoy your posts, so keep it up and I'll keep laughing