- I bet that sounds great. I love how music sounds through my 46, let alone something like this tweaked by Duke for high end audio. I think the BigE founders are lovers of Peace through strength. (JMHO)
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Big E Speakers Part 4 - Quadraphenia
- Thread starter kesslari
- Start date
I am waiting on a 46/26, How are you connecting this bad boy to yr music? No stereo things happening, but I am sure it is Amazing!
Just a heads up for any Nashville talkbass folks.......
John Scott of Bluesman Vintage guitars and Chopper Anderson of Alien Audio are hosting a Bass hang at 4922 Port Royal Rd., Springhill, Tn. On October 28th Starting at 3 P.M.
On hand will be Boutique love from Mike Arnopol from MAS soundworks who will be there some of his amazing bass cabinets as well as the Fabulous Alien Audio basses and Bluesman Vintage Guitars (basses). I will be there with the Monique 700 from Jule amps is any Nashville bassists are curious.
See y'all at Bluesman Vintage guitars.....
John Scott of Bluesman Vintage guitars and Chopper Anderson of Alien Audio are hosting a Bass hang at 4922 Port Royal Rd., Springhill, Tn. On October 28th Starting at 3 P.M.
On hand will be Boutique love from Mike Arnopol from MAS soundworks who will be there some of his amazing bass cabinets as well as the Fabulous Alien Audio basses and Bluesman Vintage Guitars (basses). I will be there with the Monique 700 from Jule amps is any Nashville bassists are curious.
See y'all at Bluesman Vintage guitars.....
w00t! My MAS112 arrived this morning.
Got gigs this weekend, but I'm gonna keep it home to play around in my music room. I know there's disagreement about whether speakers need a break-in period, but I always like to put a little low-volume time in on 'em before I open 'em up on a gig.
First impressions, based on carrying it upstairs and playing a little bit:
Very easy to move around. The side handles are positioned perfectly, so the cab balances nicely. Haven't weighed it, but it's easy for an old cat like me (with a bad right shoulder, even) to take it up a staircase and through a door. Guessing it feels lighter than it actually is, 'cause it feels lighter than my other 50 pound cab. Heck, it feels lighter than my 40 pound cab, on that schlep.
I know what my room sounds like with other cabs (wall-to-wall carpet on the floor, the rest hard surfaces, no acoustic treatment at all), and the dispersion is markedly improved--low end and mids both. Mids fall off just a teeny bit (edit) 90 off-axis (that's what I meant to say), but this is by far the best I've experienced...and I've used a ton of different cabs over the years. Haven't found any spot in the room where they're beam-y. The lows? Fugedabboudit! Like no change, wherever I moved in the room. Both these things are in contrast with other cabs I've had in there--and I'm fortunate to have owned (and still own) some very good ones. With the MAS112, there's no sweet spot in particular.
Staccato notes cut off immediately. A marked improvement in that regard, as well.
Very evenly balanced, tonewise, through all the registers on my fiver (a Metro Will Lee). Low register doesn't seem exaggerated, and the high register doesn't seem thin.
Mids are clear and crisp, without being overbearing or spiky anywhere. The crossover switch gives a bit more bite, but it's not harsh.
There's a delightful clarity and articulate quality to the tone. When I played around with the bass's EQ and pickup blend, the response was just what I'd expect. And that gain in articulation made it comfortable to execute slap or fingerstyle passages faster. (Kinda reminded me of that famous quip from a target shooter, "If I can see it, I can hit it." In this case, it's "When I can hear what my fingers are doing at the moment they do it, I can play it faster.")
I think you hit a home run on this one, Mike.
Got gigs this weekend, but I'm gonna keep it home to play around in my music room. I know there's disagreement about whether speakers need a break-in period, but I always like to put a little low-volume time in on 'em before I open 'em up on a gig.
First impressions, based on carrying it upstairs and playing a little bit:
Very easy to move around. The side handles are positioned perfectly, so the cab balances nicely. Haven't weighed it, but it's easy for an old cat like me (with a bad right shoulder, even) to take it up a staircase and through a door. Guessing it feels lighter than it actually is, 'cause it feels lighter than my other 50 pound cab. Heck, it feels lighter than my 40 pound cab, on that schlep.
I know what my room sounds like with other cabs (wall-to-wall carpet on the floor, the rest hard surfaces, no acoustic treatment at all), and the dispersion is markedly improved--low end and mids both. Mids fall off just a teeny bit (edit) 90 off-axis (that's what I meant to say), but this is by far the best I've experienced...and I've used a ton of different cabs over the years. Haven't found any spot in the room where they're beam-y. The lows? Fugedabboudit! Like no change, wherever I moved in the room. Both these things are in contrast with other cabs I've had in there--and I'm fortunate to have owned (and still own) some very good ones. With the MAS112, there's no sweet spot in particular.
Staccato notes cut off immediately. A marked improvement in that regard, as well.
Very evenly balanced, tonewise, through all the registers on my fiver (a Metro Will Lee). Low register doesn't seem exaggerated, and the high register doesn't seem thin.
Mids are clear and crisp, without being overbearing or spiky anywhere. The crossover switch gives a bit more bite, but it's not harsh.
There's a delightful clarity and articulate quality to the tone. When I played around with the bass's EQ and pickup blend, the response was just what I'd expect. And that gain in articulation made it comfortable to execute slap or fingerstyle passages faster. (Kinda reminded me of that famous quip from a target shooter, "If I can see it, I can hit it." In this case, it's "When I can hear what my fingers are doing at the moment they do it, I can play it faster.")
I think you hit a home run on this one, Mike.
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Have fun on your gigs!
- Apr 29, 2003
- 9,078
- 9,800
- Disclosures
- Contributor- Bass Musician Magazine | Marketing Manager- Trickfish Amplification
great report EWO. that 112 is really something.
I had the unfortunate luck last night of playing a one off with a group I normally don't play with, where the stage volume was probably the loudest thing I can remember playing in the last 10 years. Painfully loud on stage, just atrociously insanely loud.. One of those 'never again' moments. Luckily musically it was fun enough, it just beat me up sonically. However....... Silver lining: it did show me what the flex 210 can do. With the Puma 900, it just roared. No problem at all putting out what I needed to keep up with this band. Whats more is that it didn't sound stressed or harsh doing it. It just kept on coming, and sounding relatively composed at that output level. Pretty amazing really.
I had the unfortunate luck last night of playing a one off with a group I normally don't play with, where the stage volume was probably the loudest thing I can remember playing in the last 10 years. Painfully loud on stage, just atrociously insanely loud.. One of those 'never again' moments. Luckily musically it was fun enough, it just beat me up sonically. However....... Silver lining: it did show me what the flex 210 can do. With the Puma 900, it just roared. No problem at all putting out what I needed to keep up with this band. Whats more is that it didn't sound stressed or harsh doing it. It just kept on coming, and sounding relatively composed at that output level. Pretty amazing really.
I hope you had ear protection!
I had another enjoyable and educational conversation with Mike this morning. My flexible speaker now has the state-of the art filter installed and a replacement switch should arrive today. Looking forward to rocking it again next week. My backup cab (E140 loaded tone ring) did a fine job, but these musical cabs
spoil a guy's ears in the best ways.
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- Apr 29, 2003
- 9,078
- 9,800
- Disclosures
- Contributor- Bass Musician Magazine | Marketing Manager- Trickfish Amplification
- Apr 29, 2003
- 9,078
- 9,800
- Disclosures
- Contributor- Bass Musician Magazine | Marketing Manager- Trickfish Amplification
Dude was beating his ride cymbal like it owed him money. Jesus....
I'm sorry for the aural abuse you endured from the drummer, but your (signature-worthy!) comment made me laugh out loud. I needed that, thank you.
+1
ACS Pro17 customs for this boy. He recently left the band, but our last guitar player always had to get his "sound"... The replacement, fortunately, has better control over his volume level.
Know what yer talkin' 'bout, yep. Somebody oughtta make a passive tone control knob for cymbals, I swear...
- Apr 29, 2003
- 9,078
- 9,800
- Disclosures
- Contributor- Bass Musician Magazine | Marketing Manager- Trickfish Amplification
That's a good line!
So had another flex 110 gig last night. I think I'm picking up on a trend. It's possible that the puma 900 is too clean and polite In the upper midrange to get the flex to really sing. I've had a hard time getting enough mid/upper mid articulation out of that cab (relative to the lows and lower mids). The kind of makes sense, given how uncolored the cabinet is, and how neutral and polite the puma sounds in that specific frequency range. Makes me think that the Demeter head or the HBP 1 per would be just perfect for this cabinet, as they seem to have stronger upper mids. Perhaps there's something else I can do to my signal to bring that stuff out, but the EQ on the Amp didn't seem to get there. Don't get me wrong, either way the tone was still fabulous, I just was wanting the upper mids to be as satisfying as the low-end was
Try pushing the taste ccw, bring the treble down a touch and the bass up a touch. Maybe a slight cut in the low mids. That's where I'm finding more aggressive in the Puma. Unfortunately, I don't have my Big E cabs yet, so this is with Bag Ends. Working on it!
- Apr 29, 2003
- 9,078
- 9,800
- Disclosures
- Contributor- Bass Musician Magazine | Marketing Manager- Trickfish Amplification
+1 that is roughly the setting that I was getting the best balance with. Nudging the taste ccw is really effective with the flex, and It's not an adjustment I'm used to making with other cabs. Getting the 110 off the floor is dramatically helpful too. I've ordered a nice adjustable amp stand but is hasn't come in yet
Jake, any chance you can borrow an Aggie TH500 to try with the cab? (If you were driving distance, I'd lend you my backup.) That head's got a lot of color in the mids, if you bump up the gain and drive controls a bit. Might be what you're looking for.
- Apr 29, 2003
- 9,078
- 9,800
- Disclosures
- Contributor- Bass Musician Magazine | Marketing Manager- Trickfish Amplification
I had wondered about that amp, for that reason. I've played around on one before, not with the flex though. I wasn't crazy about the power section, and I wonder if it would be enough output to make the flex210 happy, especially after being used to the puma900.
Tonally though it would be an interesting experiment. I can totally see now why people love a good tube amp with the flex.
Tonally though it would be an interesting experiment. I can totally see now why people love a good tube amp with the flex.
If you've read the Bass Gear Magazine review of the Puma 900 you'll see that even in the "optimally flat" position the Puma has a -3db scoop centering at 700 hz.That was the best they could do. Don't get me wrong---I think that the Puma 900 is the best mini-amp. But it's weak point sonically is the mid dip.
I would ALWAYS have the taste control at 11 o'clock. As Chris said---cut the low mids a bit. They really aren't mids---more like upper bass. The aggressive position on the Flex really brings up the mids a lot. Also, putting the upper section out of phase can change things a lot. With the Puma it's nice to have that bass control so low. If you pull out too much lows with the Taste control---you can add the lows back with the bass control. The Aggie definitely has more mids but ---at leat to me---has trouble sounding "pretty" if you need that. The Demeter VTBP-800 has mids for days.
I'm so impatient for Sonic Farm to come out with the full amplifier that I might just buy one of the DI Box/ Preamp (2di4). The tonal balance is SO perfect on that and with the bass and treble boost on board (and with the East preamp on my bass) I really didn't have any need for additional eq to be honest. And with upright the Fishman Dual Parametric gave me whatever additional eq I needed for upright (and I use it with any amp I'm using anyway). I have two small amps built on the Ice modules--so I'm set. After using the Sonic Farm I'm spoiled. The only other amp that comes close is Jonathan's---similar quality---different vibe.
I would ALWAYS have the taste control at 11 o'clock. As Chris said---cut the low mids a bit. They really aren't mids---more like upper bass. The aggressive position on the Flex really brings up the mids a lot. Also, putting the upper section out of phase can change things a lot. With the Puma it's nice to have that bass control so low. If you pull out too much lows with the Taste control---you can add the lows back with the bass control. The Aggie definitely has more mids but ---at leat to me---has trouble sounding "pretty" if you need that. The Demeter VTBP-800 has mids for days.
I'm so impatient for Sonic Farm to come out with the full amplifier that I might just buy one of the DI Box/ Preamp (2di4). The tonal balance is SO perfect on that and with the bass and treble boost on board (and with the East preamp on my bass) I really didn't have any need for additional eq to be honest. And with upright the Fishman Dual Parametric gave me whatever additional eq I needed for upright (and I use it with any amp I'm using anyway). I have two small amps built on the Ice modules--so I'm set. After using the Sonic Farm I'm spoiled. The only other amp that comes close is Jonathan's---similar quality---different vibe.
Also--if you're using the Flex top and bottom---consider putting something like a milk crate between the sub and top---that'll bring up mids, too.
