How much speaker for a doom two piece? Bass and drums

[lucas303]

Looking at getting a newfangled lightweight cab for my doom project.

• I'm running 500 watts
• I'm not competing with guitars
• Looking for a single cab setup at 4 ohm (non modular)
• Will have pa support on larger gigs
• Want enough volume to peel paint when needed.
• Absolutely Under 100 lbs, but under 60 is better

I am currently looking at
Barefaced Supertwin or 310
Mesa subway 212 or 215
Revsound 212xt

Please advise / offer up suggestions

Thank you.

If you haven't already you might want to ask the folks in the Stoner/Doom thread (I think it's in the bassists subforum).

 

[lucas303]

my epic doom/drone project

I want to hear this!

 

[IngloriousOz]

Recently I've been using an Accugroove El Whappo and/or a Barefaced Big Twin in several Doom/Metal projects and they've both excelled.

Not having to drag out a 125lb+ cab or two to every single dive bar around here has been real nice

 

[davedamage]

Recently I've been using an Accugroove El Whappo and/or a Barefaced Big Twin in several Doom/Metal projects and they've both excelled.

Not having to drag out a 125lb+ cab or two to every single dive bar around here has been real nice

This ^

If you think doom is just about the cabs you use and not what you play and how you play it you've already lost the battle. Any single dirt pedal is going to impart more character than any cabinet.

 

[Wasnex]

Wait, for real? I thought it was the opposite.

Isn't the higher impedance turning the wattage into more waste heat?

A slight correction:

This phenomena does not relate to the impedance of speaker system. It relates to the impedance of the drivers.

Assuming you have a driver then that comes in multiple impedances, the lower impedance driver will tend to be slightly less efficient on a Watt to Watt basis.

 

[InhumanResource]

Just get the cheapest 810 you can find on CL and be done, lol

 

[OnlyFlats]

Just chiming in to say I think all of the cabs OP posted are likely fine. I've been playing metal more or less in the sludge/doom/etc. vein for many years and I disagree with the suggestion from some posters that modern hi-fi stuff is bad for the genre. Personally I think they work great, particularly for someone who tends to play around with a bunch of pedals.

+1
I bought a Barefaced Super Compact and highly recommend you get a Super Twin if you get your tone from pedals and/or amp head. Buzz from the Melvins rig rundown with Elliott switched me on to that cab. I stopped hunting for cabs as soon as I bought my SC. Absolute game changer for my sludge tones. I can hear everything i put into it, good and bad.

I took the 'accurate rig to reflect my tone' approach as I'm relying on pedals and blending, using an ehx tri parallel mixer. The nuances of that need to be reflected through an accurate rig. Plus I can use it for all my other projects that are less doom.

I use my SC with an 18" JBL cab using a crossover. Clear, loud, low. I never allow speaker distortion in my rig. I'm using a PA power amp (like Buzz) and limiting the frequencies going to the cabs so they perform better. Alex designed his Barefaced cabs to not require that but it's how I like to do things.

I disagree strongly to the poster emphasising the character of speaker cabinets to get tone as the only way to doom nirvana. That's one way to go about it but the OP was clear up front what they need.

It's no longer the 00)))))s......

 

[Matt-J2]

Any examples of two piece doom bands like that? I'm planning to put together similar project just to do a few basement shows here and there.

Dread Spire is a cool 2 piece from California. He runs through a bass cab and a guitar cab. I think there's an interview with him somewhere and he mentions what he's using, but I don't know if it will meet OPs needs at all.

 

[fretless19]

IMHO:

So to get 130dB, you either need 1000 Watts or you need a cab with a 103dB 1W/1m sensitivity rating.

Calculated SPL [Log(1000) x 10] + 100 = 130dB

or​

Calculated SPL [Log(500) x 10] + 103 = 130dB

so, Revsound 212XT as example, which quotes "101db/1 watt/ 1meter"

would see log500 x 10+ 101 = 127.98 ish?

 

[Thumpin6string]

I'd suggest an Epifani UL410. Only 56 pounds, handles 1000 watts and can shake a house off its foundation. I prefer the series 1 with the B&C drivers.

 

[jonesn4bass]

Mesa Diesel with a pair of 3015's does the trick quite well

 

[crazyBassClown]

Uh yeah if you put 900w into two good 15's they are going to peel the paint off the walls. Good modern lightweight cabs are much better for doom than a lot of the old inefficient crap cabs people trot out to shows because they look "cool."

In my experience old cabs are far more efficient than modern cabs. What they aren't is voiced to produce low end so seem inneficient if you want to boost bass.
And no, 2 15's are not going to peel paint off the walls in the doom sense. They will be louder than anyone sensible will ever need but doom is not sensible.

 

[crazyBassClown]

Right, so since 4 ohms is less impedance( ac resistance)

Shouldn't it be allowing more current through, so less waste heat?

The waste heat is mostly related to the watts in. Speakers are very inefficient at converting electricity into sound and most of the power ends up as waste heat. I suspect what is actually happening is that a lower impedance speaker has less coils of wire in its voice coil so gets slighlty less efficient conversion of available electricity into magnetic field to move the voice coil.

 

[Surely_Bassy]

Dread Spire is a cool 2 piece from California. He runs through a bass cab and a guitar cab. I think there's an interview with him somewhere and he mentions what he's using, but I don't know if it will meet OPs needs at all.

Thank you for hipping me to this band!

 

[Auer]

Orange gear has good presence imo so I would try a OBC410, maybe on top of a OBC115.

 

[chris_b]

Are you running a pedal board? If so you should get all your sound from your bass, amp and board. I would chose Barefaced because it will just send that sound around the room without changing it.

 

[salmon256]

I love doomgaze, and lots of doom music.

Other than bedroom concerts never really played it, but I would like to share if you feel you are competing for sound then maybe research some bigger cabs, but if you feel all is somewhat working I think those cabs are awesome, and Bareface is really awesome! Alex is on here, and he is also an email away awesome guy to talk to and super friendly and lots of videos demoning his cabs and being honest and truthful on them. Now before you say... "Do you own one" not yet... money is tight but Bareace or a Markbass is on the list of my first cab upgrades! Don't let the size fool you though, those Bareface can get loud and they are compact!

But do you want to go compact for travel reasons? I have to agree if you have the room a little more room doesn't hurt . My Bloody Valentine is currently switching to Bareface and they are loud so IDK maybe they are onto something!

YMMV everyone amp and cab journey is a case by case thing people in loud bands may not need much depending on bandmates, venue and PA systems, some quiet bands may need more depending on same conditions etc. Best of luck keep us posted, I am also eyeing the Bareface cab or a Big Baby!

 

[Mike Caldwell]

The waste heat is mostly related to the watts in. Speakers are very inefficient at converting electricity into sound and most of the power ends up as waste heat. I suspect what is actually happening is that a lower impedance speaker has less coils of wire in its voice coil so gets slighlty less efficient conversion of available electricity into magnetic field to move the voice coil.

The "waste heat" leads to another issue called power compression, the resistance increases as the voice coil heats up resulting in less power being delivered to the speaker speaker as in the volume gets lower so them you turn up the amp heating up the voice coil even more. After a few rounds of that the voice coil burns up or at least deformed and is dragging in the voice coil gap.

 

[definenredefine]

Thought of another 2 piece doom/sludge/etc band - Om. But I think Al Cisneros uses way more cab than OP is interested in...

 

[fretless19]

I mean, if I had Cisneros money my roadies would do the moving