Double Bass Is your amp hugging the floor or suspended above?

[fdeck]

My experience is that in the absence of a midrange / tweeter system, a speaker is likely to be directional. This makes it hard to hear the harmonics if the speaker is on the floor pointing outward. Those harmonics are also involved in our perception of intonation. My habit is to tip my speaker upwards, to "split the difference" with the audience. At my band's venue, I keep a half of a brick under the piano for propping up my rig.

 

[Ric Vice]

There was a wonderful product called The Ampwedge which worked beautifully for just this purpose. The Ampeg B-15N had a tilt back aluminum rod.

 

[tinyd]

My experience is that in the absence of a midrange / tweeter system, a speaker is likely to be directional. This makes it hard to hear the harmonics if the speaker is on the floor pointing outward. Those harmonics are also involved in our perception of intonation. My habit is to tip my speaker upwards, to "split the difference" with the audience. At my band's venue, I keep a half of a brick under the piano for propping up my rig.

Managed to get a small foldable stand that works well for exactly this

 

[Endlesssolo]

I used to ALWAYS have my amp on the floor, but once I got used to not having that thickness in the low end I try to always raise it. One of my favorites is the little step stool sold by Harbor Freight. It's small and folds completely flat, but best for a 10 or 12" speaker. Holds 300 lbs, though. I think it's 7 bucks.

I bought something like that too, and in fact I just bought another one that's higher, around 15", which is pretty close to putting the cab on a chair.

 

[Ric Vice]

I used to just set my little GK 200MB combo (not to be confused with the MB 200 Head) up on a chair, or whatever could raise it off the floor, but all that accomplished was thinning out the low end in favor of the mids and highs, since the 200MB only has a single 12" Pyle speaker (mostly known for car stereo speakers) Once we got into the mid 2000's we had two and three way bass cabinets that solved most of that, provided you can lsolate the cab from the floor and use a HOF to cut some of the lows out when needed. These days with many high end bass amp/cab combinations costing between $1,000.00 $1,700.00 I'm not risking setting that big of an investment up on a stool or chair. Just my take however.

 

[Chris Fitzgerald]

My experience is that in the absence of a midrange / tweeter system, a speaker is likely to be directional. This makes it hard to hear the harmonics if the speaker is on the floor pointing outward. Those harmonics are also involved in our perception of intonation. My habit is to tip my speaker upwards, to "split the difference" with the audience. At my band's venue, I keep a half of a brick under the piano for propping up my rig.

This is interesting to me. When you speak of a midrange/tweeter system, I assume you are referring to a crossover system that diverts only higher frequencies to certain speakers. I've used two and three way speakers in the past that did this, but when I set them on the floor I still had trouble hearing those frequencies that carry the important intonation information. In those cases I would usually raise or tilt the speakers to help with this.

For the past 15 years or so, I've been using a PJB super Flightcase, which has two upfiring drivers. I set the amp to my left between me and the drums so that the main four drivers project past the body of the bass, but the two upfiring ones let me hear quickly and clearly (even though I don't believe that amp has a crossover).

The two things that have always astounded me about bass amp design are:
1) that the idea of upfiring drivers never caught on - especially when combined with forward firing ones. It's as if the designers believe we have ears on our ankles.
2) that more designers don't put a variable HPF on every bass amp. It's just such a no brainer, and it doesn't seem that it would be very hard or expensive to do.

 

[Don Hergert]

When we talk about "on the floor", it seems to me that the type of floor makes a huge difference.

When I'm playing at one particular outdoor venue, the floor means the ground covered with grass. In busking situations on a sidewalk, the situation is just about the same. Having an amp "on the flloor" in that situation most likely does not improve the sound situation, no resonance.

The venue on stage I played on a few weeks ago was literally a converted 18-wheeler truck trailer made into an easy-launch stage. The floor for that stage was very nicely elevated, probably at least 1" steel plates. Pretty good resonance there.

A few of the churches my band has played on has wooden platforms fitted together that make up the stage, some of them carpeted, some of them with some sort of hard flooring over them... They typically also have good resonance.

Some venues simply have cement formed stages, either brick or concrete block, literally attached to the foundation. Probably not much resonance there.

Just like with walls, corners and ceilings (or the lack thereof), conceptualizing the floor as part of your instrument really helps when considering sound projection, especially when amplifying. I consider myself lucky when playing acoustically if I'm in a corner, and especially so if I'm on some sort of elevated wooden floor. When amp'ed, the type of floor I'm on will help determine whether to elevate the amp or not.

Here's that "easy-launch stage":

 

[Ric Vice]

Infinite possibilities infinitely possible.