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Double Bass Portaflex for DB?

Fat Steve

Fat Steve

The poodle bites, the poodle chews it.
Feb 4, 2013
1,979
2,254
The great tire fire known as Simi Valley
#1
I have a Shen SB80 with Belcat twin piezos in the heart shaped slots in my bridge, and will be getting my Series 3 FDeck next week. I use a Behringer ADI-21 currently as an impedance buffing preamp, and will continue to use it as a DI and EQ for FoH. I'm thinking about getting the Ampeg Portaflex 2-10 cabinet and either the 500 or 800 watt Ampeg head to go with it. Has anyone ran a similar setup for use with their DB? I play uptempo bluegrass/country with a dynamic drummer, so I don't need anything huge. The thing is that we'll be touring in about 2 months, so I'd like to have something loud enough to be heard without FoH support in the event we play smaller clubs on the road, and yet small enough so that the van doesn't get too full.

The reason I'm looking at the Portaflex setup is price primarily.

Thoughts?
 
#8
Fat Steve said:
. I'm thinking about getting the Ampeg Portaflex 2-10 cabinet and either the 500 or 800 watt Ampeg head to go with it. Has anyone ran a similar setup for use with their DB?

The reason I'm looking at the Portaflex setup is price primarily.

Thoughts?
Click to expand...

Fat Steve,
Well, I'd probably prefer the PF 115's for DB, but you can certainly use the PF 210. The Heads work well with a Double Bass. Once, I used a Walter Woods MI-100-8 with a pair of B-15N Double Baffle Reflex cabinets. It sounded great and those cabinets do not have a horn, like the the PF 115 or PF 210 does. Just from playing through the PF 350 and PF 500 into the PF 115 and 2x10 I liked 115 cabinets better for Double Bass. Just my take though, there's certainly nothing wrong with the 210's. It's just a brighter cabinet than the 115.

Ric
 
#12
I picked up an Ampeg B328 12 years ago for $100, used it for several years, blew the head, cut the head off and made it a 2x8 cab, and it's still my go-to cab for low-medium volume gigs (since I sold my Crazy8). I power it with an EA Doubler (I used an Aguilar TH500, and imagine a TH350 would be great with it), and it can handle gigs with drummers if it's not crazy loud.
 
#14
So, for $600, I got a PF350 and the Eden 4X10" (4 ohm), and it's exactly what I was looking for. I had a gig this last Saturday night with my "country" band, and I had no FoH support for the bass (the board was maxed out, but that's a discussion for another thread). Had the sucker turned up all the way on the master volume with the gain at about 12 o' clock, and it was just right. The people in the back (120 capacity, about 3/4 full) could hear it fine, and received good feedback on the tone. Granted, the stage volume was a bit loud, but not overbearing. I like the tight attack of the Eden, and the Ampeg has a great EQ for the DB. I had the HPF set at about 100 hz to keep the boom to a minimum. All in all, for the price, this rig is perfect. I can't wait to plug it in to the FoH one of these days so I can really use it as a monitor, as was the original intention.

The only issue I was having all in all was feedback from the bass, which was alleviated by pointing the cab away from me and at the drummer. He was wearing IEM's so the volume wasn't killing him luckily.
 
#15
Fat Steve said:
I have a Shen SB80 with Belcat twin piezos in the heart shaped slots in my bridge, and will be getting my Series 3 FDeck next week. I use a Behringer ADI-21 currently as an impedance buffing preamp, and will continue to use it as a DI and EQ for FoH. I'm thinking about getting the Ampeg Portaflex 2-10 cabinet and either the 500 or 800 watt Ampeg head to go with it. Has anyone ran a similar setup for use with their DB? I play uptempo bluegrass/country with a dynamic drummer, so I don't need anything huge. The thing is that we'll be touring in about 2 months, so I'd like to have something loud enough to be heard without FoH support in the event we play smaller clubs on the road, and yet small enough so that the van doesn't get too full.

The reason I'm looking at the Portaflex setup is price primarily.

Thoughts?
Click to expand...
I was watching TV just before Xmas, and I saw an ad for an Allan Jackson religious album. Their was a guy playing a DB and he was using a B15. I could not tell from the footage the model. But definitely a Portaflex B15. Maybe the re-issue, I don't know but cool as hell. You could see the tube cage on it. Kind of reminded me of my old B15N. I told my wife that's my Ampeg looked like.:)

I really don't think you will have a problem with a PF350. I use a 350 with a full blown orchestra.
 

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