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fEARful™ Part Ten (10)

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#681
greenboy said:
Do any real crankin' yet? Hey I found one of the more versatile Demeters used at Bass Northwest today:

Demeter%20HBP1_599.jpg
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I used to have one of those-loved it.
 
#682
greenboy said:
Do any real crankin' yet? Hey I found one of the more versatile Demeters used at Bass Northwest today:

Demeter%20HBP1_599.jpg
Click to expand...

Yeah, that's one of the other pres I'm interested in...I saw that when you posted to their Peavey earlier. Unfortunately I'm tapped out after dropping the cash on the Kern, IPR, rack and odds and ends for new cords and connectors for it. I'll keep my eye out for one eventually.

Also unfortunate, I probably won't get to really crank until next week. I had the amp last night for practice but our singer was on African time, and didn't show up for me to drive to practice until and hour and a half after start time. Rather than futzing with setting up it was quicker to LMII it. I'm tied up for the rest of the week and headed out to Boston for the weekend to check in with my Mom, who's been in and out of the hospital and not progressing. Bah.
 
#686
greenboy said:
Any good lightweight plywoods coming to your attention?
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Not any plywoods (most of out PWs are hardwood faced) but I did come across a product we have made for a local shop called MDFUL. Its a light weight MDF. We have it in 3/4", and I have been unable to verify if it is available in 1/2" so far. But the 3/4" stuff is actually quite light. I can pull a sheet off the stack and carry it quite comfortably. I can actually carry a sheet of regular MDF, but its far from comfortable.

I have actually been thinking about doing a 12/6 cube out of the stuff, but I cant find my original plans that were drawn in 3/4"-actually, the 12/6 cube was never drawn in 3/4", so that may be why.....
 
#687
Actually the original plans were drawn in 1/2" but nobody but me and a guy who said he would build me a cab ever saw them until way later. Then he bought a unit of 5/8" because he was paranoid, so I had to redraw the plans to fit his choice. Thus, for awhile there were plans in two thicknesses of wood. But he led me on for about a year and then didn't even bother to make up excuses anymore.

Then out of disgust (there also had been set-backs with LDS and Doctor Bass even before that) I decided to publicly share the plans, in both material thicknesses... But it quickly became obvious that 1/2" was both easy to build with and could deal with the pummeling without the least problem. So then I decided that maintaining a heavier 5/8" version as well was just a confusing waste of effort.

There never was a 3/4" plan for anything.
 
#688
byoung said:
Greenboy, next time you're in the neighborhood, let me buy you lunch/a drink/dinner. I work 200 feet down the street. It kills me that you were at BassNW and I didn't have a chance to thank you in person for these great cabs.
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Appreciated offer my friend, greatly appreciated! But I haven't been there physically for a pilgrimage for a few years now - I was only at Bass Northwest virtually when I pointed at the preamps today... Alas, I used to regularly check their site after moving from Seattle back in late 94, and made many trips back. But eventually I lost that habit when fEARfuls sated my cab desires. Odd then, that recently a googlesearch for Peavey VB-3 pointed me back toward the old Mecca.

I wasn't even a bassist when I lived in Seattle, but had bassist friends I worked with, and always did love going down there to check out the wonders. And it's where I bought a lot of my gear when I first started playing bass, and continued to oder from them even after moving here to Unabomber territory.

Thanks for the good wishes though! Someday, perhaps.
 
#690
Foz said:
I have tried a lot of stuff with fearful stacks [from Mesa 400+ to GK 800RB to micro amps] and your goal is exactly what I have found suits me best.
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I think we've discussed the 400+ before, and while a great amp, it ended up not being for me. I could never quite get what I wanted out of it, when I got the lows I liked, the overall tone was too thick and undefined, I couldn't get it quite clean enough either.I found myself turning knobs all night on stage and never being fully satisfied.

What I noticed from testing out the Kern last week with a smaller power amp was that it has the harmonic richness that I associate with tubes, there's something really pretty in there that you don't get with solid state...but without a tube power section I don't get any 'grit' or 'grind' or dirtiness. Going back to a LMII this week I felt like it was clean and warm but didn't have the same depth.
 
#692
Crossover correction for 12/6/1 and 15/6/1 users with 18Sound mids and the ASD-1001 with my highpass filter:

When using the 18Sound mid, REVERSE the polarity of the tweeter. Normal polarity is fine if you're using the Alpha 6A midrange.

Credit to Robby Hoinsky for finding and correcting this problem, which results in a narrow dip in the crossover region. The dip is eliminated when the polarity of the tweeter is reversed.
 
#693
DukeLeJeune said:
Crossover correction for 12/6/1 and 15/6/1 users with 18Sound mids and the ASD-1001 with my highpass filter:

When using the 18Sound mid, REVERSE the polarity of the tweeter. Normal polarity is fine if you're using the Alpha 6A midrange.

Credit to Robby Hoinsky for finding and correcting this problem, which results in a narrow dip in the crossover region. The dip is eliminated when the polarity of the tweeter is reversed.
Click to expand...

So with the 18sound the tweeter is inline with the woofer not the mid? I know on my 12/6/1s all alpha you had told me inline with the 6a. just want to make sure because im building a 15/6/1 this weekend for another TBer
 
#695
mcapote said:
So with the 18sound the tweeter is inline with the woofer not the mid? I know on my 12/6/1s all alpha you had told me inline with the 6a. just want to make sure because im building a 15/6/1 this weekend for another TBer
Click to expand...

It's not what the tweeter is "in line" with; it's the polarity. Reverse one end of the + and - wires going to the tweeter if you have the 18Sound mid. I know it looks "wrong" but it's "right" in this case.

greenboy said:
I thought we'd had trouble with the ambiguity of this before re the Em compression driver, Duke? I don't feel like searching but I know it's come up at least twice.
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That may well be, I don't recall.
 
#696
After my gig last Saturday and a few days of playing at home, I've noticed a few things not readily apparent prior to or at the gig itself regarding my fEARful 15/6...

One of them is rather obvious to anyone with "new" speakers. The 3015LF is loosening up and giving deeper lows. Really, it's enough to need to cut the lows a tad bit to compensate. The lows as they were dialed in originally are really out front now, almost too much now.

You can really see the 3015LF dance at high volume. I've been able to turn it up to some seriously dangerous levels and it almost made me sick to my stomach. This is a single 15" speaker? I don't think I could ever have that much volume on stage, short of playing at an outdoor gig where there is more space between me and the cab and it's all open air around it. This is seriously a high output (in the low end) speaker.

Another thing I noticed is that while I am cutting back on the lows a bit, at the same time I am boosting some upper mids and highs. Now that is something I've never really cared for much, but it's just too rich of a sound to mask it with the EQ. I'm liking the extra sparkle and cut it gives. I think because the lows are so full and deep there is something underneath these mids and highs now that have been lacking in the past.

It's as if the cab is starting to wake up or come alive as I play it. It's no surprise really with new speakers, but this cab is more "alive" than other "new" cabs I've played through. I noticed that I can even hear the mid driver's output even standing somewhat behind it to the side!

This fEARful 15/6 is so tonally accepting of my input that combined with the versatility of my Carvin BX1200, it is a tonal dream come true. It's everything I hoped it would be, expected it to be, yet even more so.
 
#697
Great review, Sundogue! Man, you've got me Jonesing for my own 15/6 now. That's what I'm planning on "building" in about two months. I put "building" in quotes b/c I'm going to go w/one of Leland's flat packs. Glue, clamps, nail gun...the only tools I'll need for "building" my future cab. :ninja:

Seriously, your choice of words in your review made me read it twice just to imagine I had one. My Avatar 212 seems pale in comparison...and I don't even have the parts for the fEARful yet.
 
#698
And now you know why I could report last fall when we played an outdoor show that not only was I taken out of the PA out front, but the soundman told me he had to push the front end the hardest he had all day to keep up. It's basically like having your own high power, high volume PA system just for your bass.
 
#699
Sundogue said:
......
It's as if the cab is starting to wake up or come alive as I play it. It's no surprise really with new speakers, but this cab is more "alive" than other "new" cabs I've played through......
Click to expand...

I had a similar experience with my BFM cabs that have 3012LF drivers. I did the driver break-in before they were installed, but after the cabs were completed, I was disappointed by the sound. I thought I was getting wolf tones, honkiness, lack of deepness, etc., etc. Kept going back to the BFM forums for all kinds of help in troubleshooting, opened them up a million times tightening drivers, checking the wiring, adding more dampening, etc, etc, but never an improvement. After about a month, they really opened up. Experiences as you mention. I think some drivers are just really tight, the spiders must be soaked in too much epoxy or something and need lots of break-in.
 
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