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Complaints about bass gear weight

#21
Muaguana said:
Good thing the OP's mindset wasn't common among engineers back in the day, else surface mount technology wouldn't exist and we'd be using DIP packages because "they're more manly."
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I do have a particular fondness for DIP packages however... manly or otherwise ;)
 
#23
theretheyare said:
Totally true-but if you live and gig in a place like NYC where everyone lives in small 4 story walkups, moves around by train because parking is a b*tch and the simplest car insurance is like $200 a month, and joints one plays have stages the size of a postage stamp- maybe some compromising might be in order....
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Also you don't have a car because a secure parking lot costs as much per month as your apartment does.
 
#25
To the OP: I see you're 47. Sounds about right. I still thought I was Superman at 47. I'm 60 now, and I love my 35 lb. LDS 1x15. Get back to us with an update in about 13 years. :)
 
#27
mrjim123 said:
To the OP: I see you're 47. Sounds about right. I still thought I was Superman at 47. I'm 60 now, and I love my 35 lb. LDS 1x15. Get back to us with an update in about 13 years. :)
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I can do that. I hope I make it that far. I'm not a small dude so the heavier stuff doesn't bother me. And I'm a bit of a traditionalist I guess.

Someone mentioned it looked better on stage. Correct, that is part of playing live I think. Part of looking like a band.
 
#28
Days of big rigs are numbered. Practice through a 4x12 Behringer that cannot hold a candle to my GK MB115 tone. 35lbs. Thinking I'll buy another and use a splitter or get a powered extension. Long term, lightweight modular cabinets with high capacity high performance speakers, likely 15s.

Yes, there are a couple of used 412 GK cabs in the house - kid with the drop D and drop B tuning has decided they don't have the low response. But I paid $55 each!

Both guitarists I work with have Twin Reverbs - a relic of way too long ago - I sold my 85 lb twin in the 70s. A sub brought his 40 lb Mesa Boogie and blew them away last Friday night. Plus they have back issues. Still, 30 year old technology beating 40 year old technology. Ho hum.

Saw a guy today playing through an Avatar 1-18 under a 2-10 w tweeter. Very nice, no boom, just beautiful clear low string sound. GK 700RB 450 watt head. Outdoors. I don't think I saw a piece in the 6 member band that weighed over 50 lbs.

When big cabinets were invented, the Apple II was a glimmer in Steve Jobs eye and real computer power took up a whole room in "big cabinets".
 
#29
themacinator said:
So I read alot of stories where people so "I love the sound but ohhhhh the weight." Personally I love having something I need help lifting on stage or loading in the vehicle. Makes me feel more like I am in a band.
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Getting great tone from a reasonable sized (read: smaller) rig and playing good notes makes me feel more like I am a professional
If you're playing a gig or two a month, I GUESS I understand the SVT
If you're playing 3+ a week then you find the smallest rig you can that still gets you the sound you need
30lbs of speaker is all I need, thank you very much
 
#30
People won't always help haul gear. I don't really want people touching my stuff anyways. I once fell down some stairs carrying a 100lbs bass cab. Let me tell ya, it wasn't fun. Even adding caster wheels doesn't help stairs, and they're everywhere. Heavy amps are simply annoying to me. That's why I go all neo. The neo prices are cheaper than they used to be too. I play 3-7 shows a week all year.
 
#31
themacinator said:
So I read alot of stories where people so "I love the sound but ohhhhh the weight." Personally I love having something I need help lifting on stage or loading in the vehicle. Makes me feel more like I am in a band.

And people can say it all they want but a 200 pound bass cab would pound a mudhole in someone's boutique 115.
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You won't feel that way at age 60 if you're still moving heavy gear and have injured your back once or twice. But that's OK, enjoy it while you're young and it's kind of fun to enjoy the physical (but unnecessary) challenges of moving cabs around.

Moreover, your assertion is poorly worded and incorrect.

Weight is irrelevant to speaker performance. A 200 pound ANYthing doesn't necessarily sound or perform better than a "boutique 115," whether that boutique cab uses a lightweight neo speaker or a conventional speaker. Chances are very great that, as compared to a heavy mid-price cab, an unnamed "boutique 115" is more efficient and also sounds precisely as the designer intended...which is also known as "better".

And by the way, a more efficient speaker will generate more sound from a given input than any less efficient heavier cab.

In short, the assertion is erroneous and rather sophomoric.
 
#32
The fact that people aren't saying this makes me wonder if I'm missing something. Regardless of what rig I'm playing, I am DI'd or mic'd into the mains... right? Ok, I'm willing to admit that tube purists CAN hear a qualitative difference, but... TONE isn't stomping a mudhole in anything... volume is. Right? My rig's volume is for ME... not the crowd. And it's plenty loud for that purpose (GB Shuttle Max 12.0 and two Fearful 12/6s).
 
#33
Love my all tube SVT IIpro in a shock mounted road case with casters into my SWR 6x10. Toured for years around the country with it, never had to move it alone and always loved the tone, got many compliments too.

Some of the places we played...I'd say a good amount...didn't offer effective FOH for the bass, so my rig had to play to the room. I couldn't have gotten it done without all the volume my gear was/is capable of!

That said, I still do use a lighter combo setup for goofing around with friends and whatnot.
 
#34
There are people posting that they'd rather bring their small or even micro amp and a 210 on stage and DI out to the PA to get their bass sound. I don't trust most sound guys to get my tone out of the PA.

I want them to mic my cab so I get the tone from the amp AND the cab. That being said I'm still waiting to see the show, small local band or biggest of touring bands, where their bassist hops up on stage, plugs into a 210 and blows me away with tone and "more sound"

It never happens. And if everybody is saying that neo and micro is better why don't we see Geddy Lee or P-nut or John Paul Jones bustin' out a neo and a micro.

It's because they simply cannot provide what a big amp and cab can.

And to each there own BTW, for me I want to sound, look, and feel the way a big cab and amp do for me.
 
#35
fdeck said:
What makes this comical is we're talking about playing an instrument that was originally designed to be a lightweight substitute for the real thing, and amplification which is a substitute for the physical effort of making sound.

The other comical thing is remembering from high school that the kid with the biggest, loudest pickup truck somehow imagined himself to be more masculine than the kid who drove his mom's Tercel.

I'm an engineer by day. In almost every field of engineering, we think about making things that are smaller, lighter, cheaper, more efficient, safer, more reliable, and so forth. The amp that I play today -- micro head and neo speaker -- is simply what any engineer would design if he didn't care about the historical legacy of bass gear.
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I can see your point on this, but I do think all the whining about weight is comical. In this modern age with all our modern conveninces thanks to engineering, we all drive cars to jobs where a lot of us sit at desks all day and jockey a mouse - we get far too little exercise. If this keeps up, at some point won't we all just be atrophied & and muscle-less? I am happy to lift some heavy gear on occasion. Hell, I pay money to lift weights at the gym - I usually get paid for gigs!

Just saying.
 
#36
themacinator said:
There are people posting that they'd rather bring their small or even micro amp and a 210 on stage and DI out to the PA to get their bass sound. I don't trust most sound guys to get my tone out of the PA.

I want them to mic my cab so I get the tone from the amp AND the cab. That being said I'm still waiting to see the show, small local band or biggest of touring bands, where their bassist hops up on stage, plugs into a 210 and blows me away with tone and "more sound"

It never happens. And if everybody is saying that neo and micro is better why don't we see Geddy Lee or P-nut or John Paul Jones bustin' out a neo and a micro.

It's because they simply cannot provide what a big amp and cab can.

And to each there own BTW, for me I want to sound, look, and feel the way a big cab and amp do for me.
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If you actually think you are hearing their onstage amp then you must be sitting in the front row.:confused:
 
#37
modulusman said:
If you actually think you are hearing their onstage amp then you must be sitting in the front row.:confused:
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I may be naive but I'm not that naive. Anyhow show me a premier bassist who gets is tone and sound from one of these neo/mirco rigs and I'll go quietly into the TB night.
 
#40
themacinator said:
It never happens. And if everybody is saying that neo and micro is better why don't we see Geddy Lee or P-nut or John Paul Jones bustin' out a neo and a micro.
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Geddy was using a Sansamp, an Avalon U5, and a Palmer speaker simulator for quite some time before signing on as an Orange endorsee. I don't think Geddy even sees his gear before it's loaded on stage for him. That's a little different story for guys who are gigging 4 or more nights a week.
 

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