I just finished 2 gigs yesterday with an Epifani UL310, Upright (w/full circle), a 1400 watt power amp and a Demeter HBP1.
One of the best, most versatile rigs I've ever used. One of the gigs was outside, maybe 2,000 people. LOUD. I was pretty loud both on stage and in the house system. I played through 2 Epi 3x10 cabs for this one, Playing URB while standing maybe 10 feet in front of a very 'rock'-looking stack of speakers was always intimidating for me. So much so that I stopped bringing the upright to these kinds of gigs. Yesterday was the first time I've dared to do this in a few years and I'm really happy that it worked so well.
Sound was very, very good. Very little EQ was necesssary in the house or on stage.
The other gig was a late night bar gig playing Jazz and then Funk- maybe "Free Funk" is a deserved moniker for our 3rd set- as the crowd gets drunker, we play both louder and more outside (sorry, but that's the truth!). Loud-ass drummer. In the past I usually used a 1x12 and a 'woods Ultra for this gig and complained that I ran out of head-room. Tonight I "had to" (heh-heh) bring the 3x10 rig (just one of the cabs) because I was coming directly from the first, outdoor gig. I was so happy with my sound tonight in this very challenging environment. Not so happy with my playing because my hands were just plain old tired! In a little cramped bar we bassists always end up standing directly in front of the amp and 1/2 the reason we can't turn our volume up is becuase of feed back. This might be very similar to the situation you are playing in, Chris. But tonight, standing 2 feet from the speaker cab I could be as loud -or as soft- as I wanted. Head room- gotta love it.
Epifani's cabinets aren't the flattest response out there, but they are much closer than most of the other 'Rock' manufacturers like Eden, Ampeg, Ashdown, etc. The UL3x10 has got some magic to it's design- I like the sound better than any other Epifani configuration. And at 42 LBS I carry it with one hand. It's a big box, but very,very light and easy to move. I bet the UL210 is a little smaller and lighter, but I would recommend a 4 ohm load. Give it lots of juice. You can expect to drive these cabs with twice as much power as the rated RMS power handling. Especially if you want a clean sound (most URB players do)
I haven't tried the new E.A. nl210, but I like what people are saying. What I HAVE played through is the old Vl210 (hated it),
cxl110 (hated it- blew two speakers), VL108 (LLLLLlllllllovvvvvve it, but not nearly enough for this kind of volume). I would really like to hear the results of an A/B comparison of the Epifani UL210 and the E.A. NL210.
One other thing worth noting here is about power amps- they are not all created equal! The amp I used last night is my heavy weight rack rig (actually not too heavy compared to other amps) with 2 pres and a <ahem> Peavey <ahem> DPC 1400x single space power amp. I also own a Walter Woods Ultra and though these two amps have very similar RMS ratings- guess what- the peavey is much, much Much louder and clearer at high volumes. The rack rig (with two peramps) is proably 24-30 Lbs and the 'woods is 6 Lbs- so please understand that I'm not complaining about the Woods- just saying that sometimes bigger does mean louder.
My point is that if the Acoustic Image amp you use is anything like the 'Woods then you might just not have enough amp to push the speakers- and I don't care what RMS output rating the amp has.
Other, more tech-savy, TB-ers can probably tell us why this is true, but one listening comparison is all your ears would need to realize that this is the case.
That's my 2 (or 200) cents. Sorry this was such a long post. I've spent a lot of time and thought recently on making URB work in loud situations and I hope my experiences and recent solutions are useful to you.
-Greg
), but that would surely be a great option if it were possible - I'd love to see the new digs as well, and they certainly have enough nice basses around to keep things interesting when the amps and speakers start to lose their charm. Maybe the fact that the TB blog about the event with accompanying pics and soundclips would be good advertising?
