Double Bass Fitzmaurice Omni 10.5 for URB

[mchildree]

Here's something I've not seen discussed here. Might be of interest to you guys who like DIY, and run lower-wattage rigs....

I've been on a cabinet-building jag since first of the year, using Bill Fitzmaurice speaker cab plans. Just finished a small Omni 10.5 to use for my upright rig, which is a horn-loaded design using an Eminence Deltalite II 2510 single 10" and a couple of piezos. Weight is very nice at around 20 lbs, 8-ohm impedance.

Did an A/B with my usual cab, which is an EA WizzyE, powered by my iAmp 800. I've been really happy with the Wizzy until I plugged the Omni in and noted right away that it sounded more natural and lacked the exaggerated lows that the Wizzy was producing (and I never noticed!). Without a doubt, the Omni is cleaner and clearer, with a more detailed midrange response. Hate to use the worn-expression "it sounds like my bass", but it applies here...at least more so than my Wizzy. Had my iAmp set on my usual URB setting, which is flat eq and the contour 2 switch engaged. What's great about the Fitzmaurice designs is their high sensitivity...this is an 8-ohm cab, and it'll produce the same volume as my 4-ohm Wizzy, with the same amp settings. Took it out for the weekend's gigs, and had a very clear and audible tone in a bad room (hard reflective surfaces everywhere). Miminal tweaking to get the sound I needed to be well-heard among two fairly loud acoustic guitars in the PA.

Here's the best part: adding up the cost of materials and drivers, it looks like the Omni 10.5s are going to cost me about $150 each (minus my labor, which I consider "R&R"..so no charge to myself). It won't replace my Wizzys because I like them better for a small electric bass rig, but there are other Fitzmaurice designs to be built....who knows.....

Here it is, next to the Wizzy for size comparison:

Link Removed

 

[bolo]

Very cool Mike. Nice work. And nice pic. Thanks for posting. I freely admit I am not very DIY capable. But what you've stated sounds pretty durn interesting all right.

If you ever make it up to Tobacco Road, please give me a holler.

 

[lhoward]

mchildree:

The Omni 10.5 looks like a nice project from what you describe and a 20 lb cab is right up my alley.

I've just been on Fitzmaurice's site and haven't been able to find a description of this design,
only the Omni 10. There's a thread started this morning on the 10.5 on his site:
http://tinyurl.com/2fpncf

I still can't find any link for this system. Do you have a bone (URL) to throw this searching dog
since I assume your ordered the plans and had a URL to order from?

Thanks,

Lloyd Howard

PS: Job on the Omni 10.5 cab looks nice

 

[mchildree]

Thanks Lloyd!

FYI - all of the Fitzmaurice plans that I've seen include options for different configurations of that particular cabinet design. The half-size Omni 10.5 is an option in the regular Omni 10 plans....so order those and you get both plans for the Omni 10 and 10.5, as well as some other versions with more tweeters for PA use.

[Invalid or Expired Link Removed]

If you want to see the various configurations, click the Frappr photo banner at the top of the forum pages...it's got photos of cabs built by lots of people.

 

[Thangfish]

Nice job.
Thanks for posting this. Been wanting to build one, and maybe this is what I needed to get me going.

Care to elaborate on your comment about liking the EAs better for electric bass?

thanks

 

[mchildree]

Care to elaborate on your comment about liking the EAs better for electric bass?

thanks

Sure...it's really due more to the types of electric gigs I get rather than any shortcoming of the Omnis. I need quite a bit of low-end from a small portable cab, and the Wizzys deliver that. That very same quality is why I like the Omni better for URB. I know some are thinking "why don't you just dial the lows out of the Wizzy for URB?". Well, I tried that, but never got a tone that sounded as natural as the Omni produces with relatively little eq. In all fairness, I've only done A/B tests at home and played two gigs, though. This is very much an intial impression.

Also, this cab costs $150, and I built it! I'll have a pair for less than the cost of a used Wizzy.

 

[lhoward]

Thanks Lloyd!

FYI - all of the Fitzmaurice plans that I've seen include options for different configurations of that particular cabinet design. The half-size Omni 10.5 is an option in the regular Omni 10 plans....so order those and you get both plans for the Omni 10 and 10.5, as well as some other versions with more tweeters for PA use.

[Invalid or Expired Link Removed]

If you want to see the various configurations, click the Frappr photo banner at the top of the forum pages...it's got photos of cabs built by lots of people.

Say, thanks for that info. Now I just have to decide whether to order just the Omni 10 plans
or order the whole kit and cabuddle (how many people use that phrase any more) on CD.

Thanks again,
Lloyd

 

[61pollmann]

Mike,

You did a great job--doesn't look homemade. Where do you get your building supplies? Did you use plywood or mdf? What kind of finish is on the cabinet? It looks sprayed.

Again--great job.

George

 

[mchildree]

Thanks George!

All the components are readily available stuff....1/2" baltic birch plywood from a lumber supply store that caters to cabinet makers. All the drivers and hardware are available from several different online dealers...I use Partsexpress.com and bltsound.com. The cabinet coating is the same stuff that's on the EA cabinets (and also on the new Rhino line that Schroeder has out now)...developed especially for speaker cabs, called Duratex. It can be rolled or sprayed on, and you can see the difference in the photo...the EA finish is sprayed and is quite a bit thicker. Mine is rolled. Great stuff...really tough, but if you get a scratch or ding, you just paint right over it.

Lots of details on the different plans available at http://www.billfitzmaurice.com

 

[drurb]

Wow! That is beautiful work you did! Congrats. I'm very curious about what is the frequency response and the efficiency of the 1/2-size 10.5. There's an old adage in speaker design that is quite true. You can have only two of the following:

1) Small cabinet size
2) Extended low-frequency response
3) Efficiency

Clearly, you have a small, relatively efficient cabinet that is providing you with a low end that is quite satisfying to you. Seems the trade-offs have been juggled quite well.

Again-- beautiful job!

 

[mchildree]

Bill has SPL charts up on his site for virtually every one of his designs, and a lot with comparisons to commonly used commercial cabs....but I haven't seen one for the 10.5.

What I'd say is missing out of the list above is the extended low end response, and to my ears, that's actually a plus in this situation. When I hear my bass played, I don't hear any sort of especially extended low end...just a nice warm, woody tone with a good set of overtones. This cab seems to produce those freqs well, where others masked that mid-range complexity with that exaggerated bass response.

Does that make any sense to anyone but me?

Now, on the other hand, I also built a pair of his large 3-way Omni 15 cabs for electric bass and PA use....THOSE things are like weapons! Designed specifically for situations where standalone full-range cabs are needed without subs. They sound absolutely massive.

 

[drurb]

Bill has SPL charts up on his site for virtually every one of his designs, and a lot with comparisons to commonly used commercial cabs....but I haven't seen one for the 10.5.

What I'd say is missing out of the list above is the extended low end response, and to my ears, that's actually a plus in this situation. When I hear my bass played, I don't hear any sort of especially extended low end...just a nice warm, woody tone with a good set of overtones. This cab seems to produce those freqs well, where others masked that mid-range complexity with that exaggerated bass response.

Does that make any sense to anyone but me?

Now, on the other hand, I also built a pair of his large 3-way Omni 15 cabs for electric bass and PA use....THOSE things are like weapons! Designed specifically for situations where standalone full-range cabs are needed without subs. They sound absolutely massive.

This serves as a useful reminder that a four-string DB does not produce frequencies below the fundamental of the E (about 40 Hz). There is actually no need for a cab that has response below that. Even cabs with usable response below that frequency will not actually mask with frequencies below 40 Hz because none are begin produced by the bass. Rather, I think what is going on is that many cabs may have a resonance or "hump" in their response that exaggerates the low frequencies that are transmitted and those can, indeed, mask the midrange.

Allow me to share a relevant anecdote. Perhaps the most famous and successful horn-loaded bass design for hi-fi use is the venerable Klipschorn. I used to have a pair. Many people, upon hearing them reproduce music with which they were familiar, found them to be bass-shy. What was really going on was that the K-horn was not producing the kind of exaggerated bass of other, more popular, systems. When there was actually substantial bass in the source (the music, that is), listeners would often change their minds when the wavefront hit their chests! If the bass was there, they reproduced it. If it was not, they did not produce fake boominess. Hey, for $8k, you can have a [Invalid or Expired Link Removed].

 

[bolo]

What I'd say is missing out of the list above is the extended low end response, and to my ears, that's actually a plus in this situation. When I hear my bass played, I don't hear any sort of especially extended low end...just a nice warm, woody tone with a good set of overtones. This cab seems to produce those freqs well, where others masked that mid-range complexity with that exaggerated bass response.

Does that make any sense to anyone but me?

Yup. It sure does.

I think the "exaggerated lows" from my setup are partly from (1) using a piezo pickup and also the specific way mine is mounted, (2) the "warm, vintage" voicing of the Wizzy cab. Combined they are pleasing in their own way, and effective on most of my gigs. (Just listen to how much bass boost you can hear on some "classic" jazz stations these days. Like they are trying to compensate for small home and auto stereo systems or something. So that's what a lot of people think a DB is supposed to sound like.)

That said, I will say that when I run a good mic through the Wizzy without any EQ on the iAMP, I get what I think is a very balanced tone. Definitely very much like the sound of my bass unamped, like you described - woody, mid-range complexity, without the whomping E string from the p/u.

I think maybe the Contour II button you mentioned makes for a darker tone too. I dig it for a trad fingerstyle tone w/ my Lakland Bob Glaub, but it makes the mids a little too dark and the overall sound a little too boomy w/ my DB.

I was curious about the finish too. Thanks for the details on that. I wish you lived closer Mike. I would really like to hear this cab in person based on everything you've said about it.

 

[klocwerk]

I started making sawdust last night on my own Omni 10.5 that I've had in the works for awhile now, I'll definitely share my thoughts when I'm done. I'm hoping to have it ready for a small gig/jam on thursday...

As for a response curve, Bill has said that the 10.5 has the exact same curve as the full O10, just -3db across the curve.

 

[stash49]

I am very fortunate to have a friend who's builds these, and he is building me one right now to use with my electric upright. I have been using a 1x10 GK combo with my regular upright, but it does not really do a good job with the eub. I was considering using a Superfly 300watt, 10lbs. head.

 

[RWP]

Really nice Mike. You did a great covering job, looks pro.

 

[klocwerk]

Just finished gluing mine up last night, got to fiddle with it a bit before it was too late to be playing bass at night. The sound is really good, it's a lot clearer than my goliath 4x10 and honestly doesn't seem all that much quieter when you're sitting right in front of it.

Playing outdoors tonight, busking as it were with my band (see sig), so we'll see how it performs! We're hoping to have power outlets... *crosses fingers*

 

[klocwerk]

ok, two outdoor street gigs with the Bill Fitz Omni 10.5 now, and I'm very impressed.
I built mine with an Eminence Deltalite 2510 driver, 10", 250w. Fs=56hz iirc. I didn't put in tweeters yet, and I'm starting to think that maybe I'll just leave them out completely. It sounds great for bass, and I'm not really going to be using it for PA purposes I don't think.

The tone is great, it's not boxy or boomy at all, just sounds like what you're putting into it, only louder. It's got a very flat response, which definitely threw me at first being used to a boxy 4x10 (SWR Goliath II). I wasn't getting bass boom out of it, and it took me a bit to realize that I was getting quite good bass, just no boom. It's clean and clear, all the way down to an open E. The rolloff of bass starts around 55hz iirc, so it needs just a touch of boost on the low end of the EQ to really fill out the low E, but I think that indoors the room gain would account for that.

I've only gigged it outdoors so far, and as we all know it's harder to get solid bass tone outdoors than indoors. The design is actually particularly well suited to outdoor usage due to the horn. You get a lot of directional output, and you don't waste power pushing noise out the back and sides of the cab. The downside is that you can't hear yourself well over 6 horns if you stand behind the cab. Made that mistake the first gig.
Today I put the cab on the opposite end of the band from me, and angled it back across everyone and towards the audience. The sound was great, everyone could hear it (I keep the tempo with the music we play), I got complements on the sound, and I had no feedback issues which my plywood Kay has been plagued with.

I'm underpowering it so far, and still getting plenty of volume for my needs with the knobs well under half-cranked. I'm really impressed with it's output, no trouble at all keeping up outdoors with a full kit drummer, three saxes, two trumpets, and a trombone all blowing their brains out, all out of a single under-amped 10" driver.

A++ rating from me. I'll probably be building another for more flexibility in my rig. I'd been considering a subwoofer down the road, but unless I go back to my fiver I'd have no need for it.

Minor details:
I'm driving it with a Crate Powerblock, which is technically a guitar amp, so it has a bit of intentional distortion in the circuit. I tested the O10.5 though my bigger bass head, and got a crystal clean tone, but didn't feel like lugging it around to street gigs. The powerblock is only like 5lbs, vs. 40+ for the Hartke 7000, and that's an easy trade-off for a tad of distortion for subway gigs. Being as I know the amp shortcomings, I can speak to the cab's quality with that in mind, but full-disclosure and all.