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Can buying advice

Hi all, hope you’re keeping well.

im in the market for a cab and was looking for some sage advice.
I’m newish to bass, drumming and gigging 20 years and want to get out gigging on bass now.

I trust my ears more than anything else when buying gear but where I am there aren’t many cabs to try out.

in terms of buying a cab, what specs do people consider to be important?

I was thinking of a 2 x 10 but looking for info to help make the decision

cheers
I like 12s.

210 is alright though

If you're just getting one cab though, get a 15, or a 212
 
Hi all, hope you’re keeping well.

im in the market for a cab and was looking for some sage advice.
I’m newish to bass, drumming and gigging 20 years and want to get out gigging on bass now.

I trust my ears more than anything else when buying gear but where I am there aren’t many cabs to try out.

in terms of buying a cab, what specs do people consider to be important?

I was thinking of a 2 x 10 but looking for info to help make the decision

cheers
Schroeder 2/12.
 
Can buying advice

sesame-street-oscar.gif


:)
 
Thanks for the reply. Cant edit the title I'm afraid but I'm sure some of you have bought your share of 6 packs over the years so could probably give more advice than ya think

At the moment Im still in my house, practising away BUT Im in the process of putting a band together. Hopefully the band will be putting together a list of covers, pub covers so the fairly typical range of pub covers from rock to pop to a few soul/ Motown tunes.

Venues? Small to start with. Hopefully go on to some slightly bigger venues.
Bandmates? Im touching 40 so hopefully egos will have exercised their demons and things will be loud but not tooooo crazy.

Amps? I know I will never get it right first time gear wise (20 years of drumming taught me that). But I would like to future proof as much as possible. I was looking at these options:

https://www.thomann.de/ie/tc_electronic_bq500_bass_head.htm

[Invalid or Expired Link Removed]

[This invalid link has been removed]

My plan (rightly or wrongly) is too get a very nice cab that in the future I can add a second one too. Regarding the amp, I guess the more I learn about sound/ tone etc Im gonna wanna change/ swap amps etc but having a nice cab as a foundation.
I like these, although I've never tried one.
Those are good choices, imho, and we get an idea of your price range.

:)
 
Last edited:
Thanks for the reply. Cant edit the title I'm afraid but I'm sure some of you have bought your share of 6 packs over the years so could probably give more advice than ya think

At the moment Im still in my house, practising away BUT Im in the process of putting a band together. Hopefully the band will be putting together a list of covers, pub covers so the fairly typical range of pub covers from rock to pop to a few soul/ Motown tunes.

Venues? Small to start with. Hopefully go on to some slightly bigger venues.
Bandmates? Im touching 40 so hopefully egos will have exercised their demons and things will be loud but not tooooo crazy.

Amps? I know I will never get it right first time gear wise (20 years of drumming taught me that). But I would like to future proof as much as possible. I was looking at these options:

https://www.thomann.de/ie/tc_electronic_bq500_bass_head.htm

[Invalid or Expired Link Removed]

[This invalid link has been removed]

My plan (rightly or wrongly) is too get a very nice cab that in the future I can add a second one too. Regarding the amp, I guess the more I learn about sound/ tone etc Im gonna wanna change/ swap amps etc but having a nice cab as a foundation.

If I had to choose from your links it would be between the Harley Benton 800w (1st choice) and the TC BQ500 (2nd choice).

I would suggest getting 8 Ohm rated cabs, that way you can hook up 2 of them (the amp heads you linked can handle 4 Ohm load). If you decide to get 3 cabs, you would need to buy an amp head that can handle 2.67 or 2 Ohms.
 
Thanks all so much for your input.

here’s a few things I’ve learned since posting:

1) I’ve been spending waaaay too much time perving on gear when I should be actually playing and developing technique!!

2) size of speaker seems to be personal preference through years of playing experience.

3) size of cone is one aspect but there are a myriad of others that affect the sound quality of caB not least my own bass and ever developing technique and feel.

4) I’ll never nail the rig 1st time. If I’ve learned anything from renovating a house and listening to my wife make decisions at some point just make a choice and go with it!! Gear porn is fun but tooo addictive!

5) there will always be selling, swapping and upgrading. I think I’ll buy this and get started. Invalid Link Removed

6) I need to get out there and get a gig!
 
Also wanted to add, I’m currently playing through a Warwick blue 20. Great little practice amp. I recently purchased ( second hand) an Eden WTDI pre amp, and the improvement in sound with that alone is amazing.

I’ve a lot to learn about time control and getting a good sound and enjoying the process
 
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Cheers for that. Thats reassuring that I don't necessarily need to go enormous. What kind of cab was it?

A Carvin RL-210T, they called them the "Redline Series" because the horn was red LOL.

Here in the states you can buy them all day long for like $200 used (the are no longer made, Carvin got out of the guitar and bass amp business). There are tons of choices in cheap used 2 x 10" cabs with ferrite speakers, I wound up with the Carvins because they did very well in a 19 cab shootout in a Bass Gear mag and they were very light for the era (42 pounds) since they used poplar plywood.

If you are looking at stuff from Thomann I take it you are in Europe? Might be worth it to check out GR Bass, Ashdown and some other Eurocentric brands then.

If you think you might add another cab later, I would only look at 8 ohm cabinets; most heads don't go below four ohms, which you would do if you have two four ohm cabinets (this would be a 2 ohm load).

The Carvins are four ohm cabinets, which was my preference. When I wanted to use more than one I used a rig with a preamp and a poweramp that would use one channel per cab.

Analogeezer
 
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Let's try to narrow it down some. What kind of music? What sized venues? How loud? Loud drummer? Egomaniacal guitarist? Do you already have an amp? If so, what... or at least, how much power? Having more info will lead to more useful suggestions.

Edit: Also, see if you can edit the title of this thread -- most of us here have very little to advise about can buying.
What's the best can for "Metal" ;)
 
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Thanks all so much for your input.

here’s a few things I’ve learned since posting:

1) I’ve been spending waaaay too much time perving on gear when I should be actually playing and developing technique!!

2) size of speaker seems to be personal preference through years of playing experience.

3) size of cone is one aspect but there are a myriad of others that affect the sound quality of caB not least my own bass and ever developing technique and feel.

4) I’ll never nail the rig 1st time. If I’ve learned anything from renovating a house and listening to my wife make decisions at some point just make a choice and go with it!! Gear porn is fun but tooo addictive!

5) there will always be selling, swapping and upgrading. I think I’ll buy this and get started. Invalid Link Removed

6) I need to get out there and get a gig!


Just want to say that this cab you are choosing to get is a 4 ohm cab, rated at 450w RMS handling. You cannot add another cab to a 4 ohm rated amp head, and probably should not hook it up to an 800w head (you can, but you can damage the cab if you are not careful).

I would recommend getting an 8 Ohm cab if possible. Or get a lower wattage head (300 - 500), but you will need to upgrade the head if you decide to add another cab.
 
As far as size/usefulness for a wide variety of gigs i'd go with a 2x12 or a pair of 1x12s.

All other things being equal, the extra speaker cone area will yield a lot more available volume for not much larger of a footprint/weight and you get your amp up a few more inches off the floor.

And before folks start chiming in about speaker cone sizes not meaning much, I'm talking about models from the same brand/line.

I just think 2x12s are a kind of sweet spot form factor wise. IMO and YMMV
 
Thanks again for all the advice.

After reading all the advice ye all have given Im gonna take my time, keep saving my money and do my best to try out as many different cabs as possible. Might even head up to Dublin to try out a bunch.

Like all things its not as simple as these do this thing and those do that thing.
 
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