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Carvin BX500: Part II

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#201
basss said:
You might want to try your Kappalite 3015 in that cab. I recently picked up a pb100 combo and bx500 after seeing what you did with yours (thanks for the installation advice btw). I've been running numbers through win isd and the 3015 will give a much flatter response in a box this small than the stock driver. I don't have the specs for the carvin neo driver but the kappalite works well in a small box - it's not ideal but about as good as it gets. I may pick one up for mine. I have 3 gigs this weekend and want to see how mine does with the stock driver. I can hear the low mid bump already though just practicing in my apartment.
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I would expect that low mid bump to be even more apparent with a 10" and that teeny box of the PB100. What kind of music is at the three upcoming gigs? Let us know how it performs.

The KappaLite 3015 is AFAIK only available 8ohm which cuts the BX-500 power to 300w, so I probably won't do that. And, the KappaLite nearly perfectly suits the R600 I drive it with.

I had never intended to run the BX-500 through the PB-200 stock driver which is a 200W 8ohm -- my philosophy is always for the speaker to have at least the power handling capability of the amp I'm hitting it with. Plenty of opinions to the contrary here and elsewhere, but it's my story and I'm sticking to it.
 
#202
eli said:
I would expect that low mid bump to be even more apparent with a 10" and that teeny box of the PB100. What kind of music is at the three upcoming gigs? Let us know how it performs.

The KappaLite 3015 is AFAIK only available 8ohm which cuts the BX-500 power to 300w, so I probably won't do that. And, the KappaLite nearly perfectly suits the R600 I drive it with.

I had never intended to run the BX-500 through the PB-200 stock driver which is a 200W 8ohm -- my philosophy is always for the speaker to have at least the power handling capability of the amp I'm hitting it with. Plenty of opinions to the contrary here and elsewhere, but it's my story and I'm sticking to it.
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I have the 15" version of the pb-100. In a small cab like this there will be a low mid bump no matter what. The 3015 just does a better job of smoothing it out. There isn't much of a difference in low end response with either driver.

I doubt you gain much by adding the additional 200 watts with a 4 ohm driver as power compression will be a factor in a box this small. At a certain point you can turn up your amp but the small box will limit the amount of volume you can get. I'm sure the 3015 would perform better in this combo. It certainly looks better on paper and I've had it in a similar sized small cab and it did great.

2 of the gigs this weekend are jazz gigs that I don't expect to get very loud. The third is a variety of rock, rnb jazzy stuff in a medium sized bar where I will need to turn it up a bit - I'll let you know how it does.
 
#203
eli said:
One of the few things I don't appreciate about this otherwise fairly adorable head is that the direct out is pre-EQ -- meaning I have next to no say into what goes to FOH. I use lots of effects and I take solos and change my tone frequently through a gig, and not to have given me any boost or tone manipulation is kind of... well, mean (to my view). That design decision relegates all of this fabulous tone-shaping capability to a mere stage monitor.
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Though I rarely use the post-EQ DI option myself, since what it takes to sound good in the house is not always the same as what it takes to sound good on stage, I agree that it would be better to have the post/pre option already included in the built-in DI, as it is on my B1500.

That said, I wonder if you could get what you want by putting a DI in the BX500's effects loop.
 
#204
Richard Lindsey said:
Though I rarely use the post-EQ DI option myself, since what it takes to sound good in the house is not always the same as what it takes to sound good on stage, I agree that it would be better to have the post/pre option already included in the built-in DI, as it is on my B1500.

That said, I wonder if you could get what you want by putting a DI in the BX500's effects loop.
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Reading your post, I put that together with the fact that I have to CRANK the EQ to sound good through the little cab... and frankly that would probably NOT send a decent signal to the board. I suppose this combo will just be a standalone, used only where it is big enough to drive the whole room without going through the PA.
 
#205
eli said:
I finally have a gig report on my "PBX" -- a BX-500 in a PB-200 cab with the old tweeter and L-pad but a new 15" 4ohm Neo speaker, creating a 500W combo in a 42-lb package. (Looks pretty much like bass4worship's above except with a black tweeter.) Nice thought, but...

My original basement findings on the new combo -- that the speaker doesn't seem to care all that much for its confines -- were borne out at volume. In a classic rock band (Aerosmith, Zeppelin, Nugent, Steppenwolf, and the like -- read, "bottom") I had to boost the bass all the way to 4:00 and cut both mid bands (at 300 HZ and 900 Hz) rather severely to get the combo to sound sort of like a bass amp. It was plenty loud, but still with that low-mid crowdedness that annoys the guitar player and doesn't really go "boom" like a real bass amp should. Didn't leave much room for tone tweaking after that.

To be fair, I will probably take it to the next gig and run the BX through my regular cab -- an old Sonic Micromini 115 with a KappaLite 3015 in it. This won't be until the end of the month, so I'll just have to wait...

That having been said, it will be lovely for my soft-jazz group that doesn't require a ton of volume and likes a lighter tone, so I'll be able to use more of the abundant mids. It will also suit the acoustic-rock band with a conga player as I won't need to go quite so deep.

One of the few things I don't appreciate about this otherwise fairly adorable head is that the direct out is pre-EQ -- meaning I have next to no say into what goes to FOH. I use lots of effects and I take solos and change my tone frequently through a gig, and not to have given me any boost or tone manipulation is kind of... well, mean (to my view). That design decision relegates all of this fabulous tone-shaping capability to a mere stage monitor.

Be sure to take this review more as a critique of my combo design skills than as a strike against the BX-500. Once I get it through my "real" cab, then we'll talk turkey about the BX-500 itself.
Click to expand...

To make the BP200 cab work with the new NEO 15" I added two new 2" ports on the back of the cab to allow for more air movement in the cab. My PB200 cab is already ported at the bottom rear but it sounded to muddy. By adding the port the speaker can move faster and it now produce a tighter sound. The cab have to be retuned.
 
#206
Richard Lindsey said:
Though I rarely use the post-EQ DI option myself, since what it takes to sound good in the house is not always the same as what it takes to sound good on stage, I agree that it would be better to have the post/pre option already included in the built-in DI, as it is on my B1500.

That said, I wonder if you could get what you want by putting a DI in the BX500's effects loop.
Click to expand...

I thought I read way back in series I of this post that somebody had been shown by Carvin how to make the pre/post DI setting. It might be as simple as it was in the Little Mark II I used to have which was just a jumper switch inside the amp. Does anybody recall that post?

Chris P.
 
#215
So far I'm only running a 4ohm BRX 2.10, but I have a backup 4ohm 2x10 in case I need it (which I highly doubt, for my current purposes). I think it's pretty swell, though I'm still trying to dial out some of the 'honkyness' (aside from my own inherent "honkyness" ;) ). Actually, I think I'm going to post a pic of how I set up my EQ to see if anyone has suggestions...
 
#217
nboyer941 said:
Are the guys that were using eq and compressor pedals no longer using them because of the built in features?

I plan on getting rid of mine to free up some space.
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I never used any compressors, ever. Well, only on drum tracks. I'm a pretty heavy slapper, too...but I like the peaks and uneveness that I get without compression. No eq pedals either. Just lots and lots of envelope filters...oh yeah, some chorus.
 
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