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Double Bass Looking for suggestions for small rigs (very small)

#41
The Jazz Lawyer said:
I'm at the IAJE conference in NYC and just saw a GK combo 2x8. Never saw this before, but it sounded good and was smaller than the GK combo 1x12. Might want to check that one out.
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hmm. this is very interesting. i was considering picking up a raezer's edge twin 8 tower, but if gk now has a 2x8 combo, well... could you please give me a little bit more information on what you saw? did you play through it? get to hear it? how big was it? how many watts? how much was it? etc. btw, i live in nyc; which conference was that you went to?
thanks,
james
 
#42
If you are intrigued by 2x8's, fellow TBer Larry Kaye was posting very positive remarks regarding two 2x8's that were custom made by Low Down Sound in Detroit (www.lowdownsound.com). I have had an opportunity to play through some of their cabs, and they really do make a fine product at a great price.

Tom.
 
#43
tombowlus said:
If you are intrigued by 2x8's, fellow TBer Larry Kaye was posting very positive remarks regarding two 2x8's that were custom made by Low Down Sound in Detroit (www.lowdownsound.com). I have had an opportunity to play through some of their cabs, and they really do make a fine product at a great price.

Tom.
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Hi Tom

Me again in a different thread! And did you think they were pretty transparent? Don was certainly very helpful on the phone. It did seem however from things he said that most of their customers were slab players.

Adrian
 
#44
Adrian Cho said:
Hi Tom

Me again in a different thread! And did you think they were pretty transparent? Don was certainly very helpful on the phone. It did seem however from things he said that most of their customers were slab players.

Adrian
Click to expand...
The cabs that I played through were two 1x12's (one of which was designed to compete in the GS112 market for sure, and the other was a spell-binding coaxial cab that sounded great, but unfortunately couldn't handle a lot of power - or else I would have snagged it for sure) and the best sounding 1x15 I have heard this side of the older Mesa Boogie cabs. Each cab was obviously designed with a different goal, and of the three the coax 1x12 was the most transparent, while the 1x15 was full, with punch for days. The non-coaxial 1x12 was quite mid-scooped (intentionally), and could take boatloads of power.

Larry would be the person to ask about the 2x8's. Give him a PM. He and I have had numerous discussions. In fact, I'm the one who put him in contact with Low Down Sound in the first place. He picked up a used Epifani T-212, as I recall.

As for having mostly slab players for clients, I don't doubt that at all. It seems to take the doghouse players a little longer to find gems like Low Down Sound.;) I get the impression that Don himself is more of an electric player, but he seems to be able to meet a desired design point in his products, so I have no doubt that he could build a good upright cab.

Tom.
 
#45
Little bit of an update here:

I did end up playing through those Opera speakers and was disappointed to find that while the sound was good, the back of both units (the 110 and the Twin 128) rattled when I would play pizz. I was tempted to open them up to find the problem but basically I concluded that a 19 lb plastic cabinet is just not up to handling the strong attack transient at low frequencies.

Vunz previously mentioned the Jam Combos manufactured by SR Technology (http://www.sr-tech.net/ - site was down for me when I check at the time of posting this but has been up every other time I checked). The Jam Combos weigh in at about 35.5 lbs which includes the 2 way speakers plus bi-amps plus preamp. Note: I had previously reported this weighed 17.5 lbs. It turns out when I spoke to SR that this was a mistake on their web site!

This team appears to be the same company that developed the Pub, Unico, and Side speakers for Schertler. You might notice I mentioned the Side. This appears to be a new speaker (basically the Unico without the preamp) that is being released here in March. I have also heard by the way that the Pub will no longer be sold in the US after the existing inventory is exhausted. Anyway, the Jam Combos are for reasons unknown, not distributed in North America but I contacted Schertler and SR Technology told me that could sell me a Jam Combo 150 for 560 Euros including delivery to me in Canada. That was quite interesting to hear. The

One interesting thing about the Pub, Side, Unico and Jam Combo systems is that they all have a single 8" woofer. Monte (not to mention Rufus Reid and Dan Greenspan's) raving about the sound is enough convince me that Schertler (or SR) are onto something here and that a well-built cabinet can indeed be suitable for guys like us even if it "only" has a single 8" driver for the bass. To this end I have also asked the local Schertler dealer to get me a Pub for evaluation (even though it's the opposite way I want to go at 44 lbs - although it is small).
 
#48
You are correct,the GK preamp has it's own sound(coloured), whereas the Clarus sounds like your bass, more natural. I personally can not think of a better combination for a lightweight rig than the GK 112MBX and AI Clarus, at least in the 17 lb category.
 
#53
iloveloosey said:
...but if gk now has a 2x8 combo, well... could you please give me a little bit more information on what you saw? ...
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Sorry guys No GK 2x8 combos currently. We did have one many years ago, but it was shortlived. Availability of parts dried up shortly after production began.

The MB150 head is being re-released and we have a new cab coming out that I think would suite the hi-fi tone fans better than the 112MBX.
 
#54
Daniel Elliott said:
Sorry guys No GK 2x8 combos currently. We did have one many years ago, but it was shortlived. Availability of parts dried up shortly after production began.
Click to expand...

I'm sure it's all just coincidental but it's really odd how every major vendor that ever had a 2 x 8 combo has dropped it. Accugroove and Euphonic Audio both did the same.

The MB150 head is being re-released and we have a new cab coming out that I think would suite the hi-fi tone fans better than the 112MBX.
Click to expand...

Daniel, any specs or any idea of when this might be? I've never considered the GK products before because I always figured the tone was not what I was looking for but the weight of 112MBX has definitely piqued my interest. In fact I asked a local shop yesterday to order one in for me. BTW, what is the frequency response of the 112MBX. It's not listed on the GK website.

The weight saving of the aluminum cabinet seems to be substantial and it's a pity it's not more widespread although since I haven't heard one yet, I have no idea what the effect is on sound. I was interested to read this yesterday though:

http://www.digitalaudioguide.com/newstuff/newstuff_13.htm
 
#55
Adrian Cho said:
I'm sure it's all just coincidental but it's really odd how every major vendor that ever had a 2 x 8 combo has dropped it. Accugroove and Euphonic Audio both did the same.
Click to expand...

I'll bet it has more to do with marketing problems than the actual utiltity of an 8" cab. Bass players just have a hard time accepting the notion of an 8" speaker, no matter how well it works. Yet we'll buy garbage 15" speakers. ;-)
 
#56
mje said:
I'll bet it has more to do with marketing problems than the actual utiltity of an 8" cab. Bass players just have a hard time accepting the notion of an 8" speaker, no matter how well it works. Yet we'll buy garbage 15" speakers. ;-)
Click to expand...

When I asked the same question of the EA guys, they said it was all a matter of cost - it's a lot cheaper to produce a single 12" cab than one that contains two 8" woofers, two 5" mid drivers, and a tweeter. It's a shame really, because nothing I've ever seen touches that VL 208. Glad Sam gets hard for cash every now and again. I may see how he's doing this year around christmas time if I still want to find a second one. :)
 
#57
Since this discussion seems to be making its way back to GK, I thought I might add another suggestion that I use quite regularly. Although I do use it alone, I'm not in love with the GK Combo sound. What I have done to improve on the sound (when I don't mind carrying a few extra items) is to bypass the GK preamp and go right in through the effects return. But first, I run my Realist pickup through a Sadowsky outboard preamp and sometimes then through an Aguilar tube direct box. So the chain is: Realist, Sadowsky preamp, Aguilar DI, effects return on GK. Control the volume on the GK but nothing else. I usually run the bass on the Sadowsky all the way down and the treble all the way up. I get a very warm, pleasing sound (more so than the GK preamp), some nice punch and good cut-through.

Recently, I traded a cabinet for a Fishman Platinum Bass Preamp and substituted that for the Sadowsky thinking it has more EQ options. Oddly, I found the sound to be almost identical to the GK preamp sound even though there is one more band of EQ on the Fishman.

I haven't tried an AMT mic through this set-up yet, although, given the yearning for the "My Bass" sound on this thread, maybe I should. I'll have to think about what I would use as a buffer between the AMT preamp and the GK, though, as I think this is necessary. Maybe I'll try the Raven Labs bass blender which I haven't had the need to use in some time. That will also give me some EQ options. I don't think the Sadowsky would give the desired result here nor do I think the Fishman will either.

More food for thought.
 
#60
We just shipped our last production model (although really a custom) Tri 208 cabinet out on Friday. To test a new design, I turned it from a 3-way cab into a 4-Way cabinet.

All I can say is that adding the new prototype 8" to the other 8" woofer made for one sick cabinet. It's the loudest, most efficient cabinet I've heard for the size. However, it's still only 250 watts @ 4 Ohms.

We may consider doing custom orders, but there are no plans on having a production model at this point.

Lastly, the reason we've discontinued the Tri 208 was lack of sales, not sound or reliability issues. Already having two great cabinets about the same size & price range (Tri 110L & Tri 112L); it doesn’t make sense to continue this cabinet.

Mark
AccuGroove.com
 

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