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Electro Voice ELX112p My next bass amp

gmarcus

gmarcus

Apr 4, 2003
1,980
1,550
soundcloud.com
#1
So I've been struggling with the boomy low end on my GK MB212 combo. Great amp, light powerful enough for an out door gig (sounds perfect outside), over-all great tone, but I've been playing a lot of smaller theater gigs and the low end is just too much. I bought an FDeck HPF pedal which allows me to roll off the lows at anywhere from 35hz to 140 hz and I'm finding that inside I have the lows rolled off at 12 db/octave from about 130Hz down. This did the trick, but its Christmas and daddy needed a new toy so I pulled the trigger on an Electro Voice ELX112p cabinet (with Mrs gmarcus's blessing)

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I played in a band that used the 115 version as mains and my bass sounded great. These are only 37 lbs ( according to the EV manual) and pretty compact, plus they are kind of like a powered AK Thunder child (not as much bass, but I don't need that much deep bass). It's supposed to show up on Thursday. I'll let you know how it sounds and I might have an MB212 for sale......or a lightly used ELX112p if it doesn't work out.

advertised specs:

Freq. Response (-3dB): 60Hz-18kHz
Freq. Response (-10dB): 50Hz-20kHz
Max. Measured SPL: 132dB
Coverage (Horiz. x Vert.): 90° x 50°
Power Handling: 1000W
LF Transducer: (1) EVS-12K, 305mm (12") Woofer
HF Transducer: DH-1K, 39mm (1.5") Titanium Diaphragm Compression Driver
Crossover Frequency: 1.7kHz
Connectors: (2) XLR/TRS Combo Jacks, (1) Stereo RCA, (1) XLR Link Output
Enclosure Material: 9-ply, 15mm Plywood, Internally Braced, with Textured Paint

I get all of my tone from my pedal board (VTbass, Pork Loin HPF + some fuzz) so I really just need an accurate monitor. This particular model has 3 vents on the front so I'm keeping my fingers crossed that it doesn't chuff. Its a plywood box so I can put some big rubber feet on the bottom and on the monitor position side.
 
#2
Powered speakers have 50Hz high pass filters as part of the speaker processing, a little high for a bass amp, hope you're not playing a 5-string. As long as you're playing rooms with subwoofers it can work well, but I'd hate to try to drive a room bigger than a cafe, and you'll never feel it in the chest like a bass rig.
 
#3
Tuned said:
Powered speakers have 50Hz high pass filters as part of the speaker processing, a little high for a bass amp, hope you're not playing a 5-string. As long as you're playing rooms with subwoofers it can work well, but I'd hate to try to drive a room bigger than a cafe, and you'll never feel it in the chest like a bass rig.
Click to expand...

Relevance of 2nd Harmonic?
 
#4
I'm playing an Ernie Ball SR5

Here is a recording from one of our shows. I had the HPF set at ~130Hz. We are not super loud. The theater held about 170 people and was round and pretty boomy. I was amazed at how high I had that filter set. I play with a really dirty tone, but there was plenty of thump. We have another gig lined up there in March.

https://soundcloud.com/slpcalamus/revelations-closing-set

This was recorded with a sony PCM-M10 using the internal mics located in front of the sound man who was about 30 feet from the band.
 
#6
I have always loved EV speakers. We use the older SX112 (powered) with the Sb120a powered subs in my main band and they have worked great for over 10 years.

I will be curious how the ELX112 works out for you.

One of my favorite amps of all time was a GK head with two Mesa EV loaded cabs (210 & 115). Too bad I got lazy and went with a lighter rig.

Are you planning on using a preamp at all, or just plugging straight into the EV?
 
#8
Tuned said:
What was doing the HP filtering? The mics on Sony portable recorders have a 75Hz HPF so the recording isn't useful as evidence. Cool tune though!
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Glad you liked the music....that is what its all about anyways.

I didn't have the High Pass engaged on the recorder. Its actually 200Hz on this recorder. Without the filter this one has a very low cut off frequency. See measurements here:

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I was using an HPF-pre series 3 by fellow TBer fDeck. He is a really smart thorough guy and designed a very useful little box that will probably always be on my board. It was the only way I was able to clean up my sound in that theater with my combo. fDeck is a straight shooter and great to do business with, his posts are always right on the money too.

https://sites.google.com/site/hpftechllc/home/hpf-pre
 
#9
1954bassman said:
I have always loved EV speakers. We use the older SX112 (powered) with the Sb120a powered subs in my main band and they have worked great for over 10 years.

I will be curious how the ELX112 works out for you.

One of my favorite amps of all time was a GK head with two Mesa EV loaded cabs (210 & 115). Too bad I got lazy and went with a lighter rig.

Are you planning on using a preamp at all, or just plugging straight into the EV?
Click to expand...

I use a Tech21 VTbass pedal for a preamp and it works very well. Plugging straight in sounds pretty thin and lifeless. I've been testing it out with an 8" EV ZXA1-90, which has a similar frequency response, but a much lower SPL. It sounds great in the studio with recorded music. I'm hoping that scaling up to the 12 speaker will make it usable with the band.

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#10
I have ELX-215's for PA, but sometimes I plug my bass in for practice when I want to thump my chest a little. It sounds great standing at least at 6 feet away. Usually I practice on a 20w (eminence alpha 8a loaded) cheap combo, but i tend to get hungry for a little shirt-shaking low-B action. That's when I call my EV's in. Love them.
 
#11
gmarcus said:
Glad you liked the music....that is what its all about anyways.

I didn't have the High Pass engaged on the recorder. Its actually 200Hz on this recorder. Without the filter this one has a very low cut off frequency. See measurements here:

Invalid Link Removed

I was using an HPF-pre series 3 by fellow TBer fDeck. He is a really smart thorough guy and designed a very useful little box that will probably always be on my board. It was the only way I was able to clean up my sound in that theater with my combo. fDeck is a straight shooter and great to do business with, his posts are always right on the money too.

https://sites.google.com/site/hpftechllc/home/hpf-pre
Click to expand...

Interesting, back in my taper days portable audio recorders were poorly designed for taping live shows, now that I'm not recording anymore the gear finally works great :\

I've heard of those HPF units, very handy for maxing out bass rigs and tightening up tone, essential for upright.
 
#13
The speaker showed up today. It sounds really good, I can't get it to chuff, plenty of bass and its very loud. It definitely has that smooth mid response that requires you to bump up the mids a little bit to get it to sound like a bass amp, but once it is dialed in it sounds great.....at home playing to recorded music. It will be a couple of weeks before I get to play it live with the band. Our gig on Saturday comes complete with a sound man and back line:hyper: Here are a couple of pictures
 

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#14
So the engineer in me required me to take it apart. The grill comes off easy enough but it require a star driver (kind of like an allen wrench). The ports are 2.2" in diameter and 3.75" long. The woofer is stamped steel with a medium sized ceramic magnet...(I see a possible upgrade in the future) and held in with T-nuts and machine screws. The cabinet has some felt stuffing on the bottom and the top but nothing behind the woofer so I added a little bit of mattress topper for good measure.
 

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#19
Here is a little sound clip with my Sony PCM-m10 recorder about 1 foot from the center of the woofer. First I play with just a VTbass, then I kick on a phase 90, then phase 90 off and a pork loin on, then I add a Bass fuzz deluxe, then an Attack goat, then the phase 90. Some off the low notes sound like they are rattling, but I didn't hear that in the room, could have been built in the microphones giving up. Anyways, this tells you nothing about how this sounds in a mix, but does give you some idea of the sound of this thing with some effects. Oh yeah the HPF was set to ~60hz for the recording so you can get a sense of the bass extension.

Enjoy

https://soundcloud.com/gregg-marcus/112p-sound-check
 

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