Double Bass Cab impedance question

[Roger Davis]

Hi Guys, I’ve got a double bass gig on Sat with very little prep time - gear is in the van. I usually get by with a Genzler 10-2 cab with great results. But I might need something extra. So I propose to put a 10” Wizzy under the Genzler. Genzler is 8 ohm, Wizzy is 4 ohm and they will come in parallel from a 2.6 ohm tap, so that’s ok. But is one likely to overwhelm the other? And which one?
Grateful for your opinions.

 

[Ric Vice]

Hi Guys, I’ve got a double bass gig on Sat with very little prep time - gear is in the van. I usually get by with a Genzler 10-2 cab with great results. But I might need something extra. So I propose to put a 10” Wizzy under the Genzler. Genzler is 8 ohm, Wizzy is 4 ohm and they will come in parallel from a 2.6 ohm tap, so that’s ok. But is one likely to overwhelm the other? And which one?
Grateful for your opinions.

Roger,
IME,
Putting two cabinets that have different voicings doesn't always work. I've done it with a Euphonic Audio VL-208 and the VL-110 but I was playing Bass Guitar. That linear array in the
10-2 gives it an edge that may indeed overwhelm the Wizzy 10. I also never liked the heat difference or the sound difference, running at 2.0 ohms. I'm assuming your amp will run at 2.0 ohms.
You'd want to try it at home first. Different cabinets will often cause feedback and sometimes their out of phase. Personally I only use a single cabinet on stage and let
the FOH do the heavy lifting, provided there is one.

 

[Happy Steve]

Hi Guys, I’ve got a double bass gig on Sat with very little prep time - gear is in the van. I usually get by with a Genzler 10-2 cab with great results. But I might need something extra. So I propose to put a 10” Wizzy under the Genzler. Genzler is 8 ohm, Wizzy is 4 ohm and they will come in parallel from a 2.6 ohm tap, so that’s ok. But is one likely to overwhelm the other? And which one?
Grateful for your opinions.

A back-of-the-envelope calculation tells me that 2/3 of the current from the amplifier will pass through the coil of the 4 ohm speaker. Electrical power is proportional to the current. From there on, which speaker sounds louder will depend on the efficiency and voicing of each one.

 

[Roger Davis]

Ric and Steve, thanks for your helpful and well considered replies.
My proposal goes against all the general wisdom re mixing cabs and without the opportunity to try out the set up before I play I will probably abandon the idea and depend on just the 10-2 array which has served me well. Just one point on mixing cabs, Ric. My most successful rig ever was a Clarus on top of a 10” Wizzy, sitting on a 12” Wizzy. That combination seemed to bring out even more bottom from the 12”. But a Genzler and EA together will probably prove just too disparate. Desperate even.

 

[two fingers]

All you can do is give it a quick try during soundcheck.

Put the Wizzy on top. It will be getting more "power" than the other cab. By putting it on top you'll be in a better position to hear if it is straining to keep up.

The whole voicing/phase cancellation thing is a crapshoot. It doesn't always fail. Sometimes you get a glorious surprise combination.

 

[Roger Davis]

Well, in the end I loaded my car with two extra tens - the Wizzy and a Genz Benz 10T which I liberated from its amp/cradle - ‘just in case’. But I needn’t have bothered because the single Genzler 10-2 coped perfectly. Which reminded me why I offloaded the second 10-2 more than a year ago. Not bad to keep up with a quite loud seven piece.
We have been ‘enjoying’ the European heatwave (43 degrees in Spain) but the church we played in was comfortably cool, if slightly clammy towards the end of our gig.

PS I must give the 12” Genzler 123 a try before long. Anybody used one?

 

[Ric Vice]

Well, in the end I loaded my car with two extra tens - the Wizzy and a Genz Benz 10T which I liberated from its amp/cradle - ‘just in case’. But I needn’t have bothered because the single Genzler 10-2 coped perfectly. Which reminded me why I offloaded the second 10-2 more than a year ago. Not bad to keep up with a quite loud seven piece.
We have been ‘enjoying’ the European heatwave (43 degrees in Spain) but the church we played in was comfortably cool, if slightly clammy towards the end of our gig.

PS I must give the 12” Genzler 123 a try before long. Anybody used one?

Sure it's great, that array in the middle of the 10-2 goes a long way to help with louder gigs. My MAS 4x5.5 has one. Those 4 2.5's give the midrange and high frequencies a lot
of definiton that they wouldn't have otherwise. They work with the driver to make the transition from low to high very smooth. Just my take.