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Double Bass Powered PA Cabs?

jzucker

jzucker

Supporting Member
Feb 3, 2005
4,726
1,357
Cleveland, OH
www.jackzucker.com
#1
I'm currently using Epifani cabs. I have a 3x10, a NY112 and a UL112. I use either a markbass LMII head or an axe-fx preamp through a stewart for power. Both setups are fantastic for electric or upright.

Anyway, I went to a jam session last night and played through a behringer B215A (15" 400w built in power amp) and it sounded fantastic. Really complimented the bass well. Anyone else play through a powered PA cab ? If so, how about the 10s or 12s which should be a lot lighter than the 15" version.

How do they sound for electric? It'd be convenient to just have compact all-in-one one rig that's very portable.
 
#3
I know the topic of powered PA style cabs has popped up in this forum, sometimes in posts sprinkled throughout, and once in a while in a dedicated thread. Just can't pinpoint any references.

Wait ... here's one.

I guess the Schertler gear is a bit like a powered PA for bass too.

Then there's the Bose L1.

For the more trad stuff, maybe try searching this forum too for "JBL EON", "Yamaha", "Mackie", stuff like that.

Edit - Don't know how any of this stuff sounds personally. Or how well it could pull double duty w/ EB.
 
#5
It could work. It SHOULD work- especially for Acoustic upright- but when I tried using a Mackie HR350 it was just too much tweeter and not enough low end. And a pain in terms of connectivity. It is my all time favorite vocal monitor but somehow just not for bass. I was suprised at how much color it added- not the ruler-flat studio quality monitor that mackie advertizes. I used a JBL powered 15 PA speaker for a rehearsal once and thought it was better for bass but much less useful for vocals. That's all that I have tried.
The new bergantino ip cabinets are exactly what you are looking for- just 3 times more expenxive.
 
#8
jzucker said:
Anyone else play through a powered PA cab ? If so, how about the 10s or 12s which should be a lot lighter than the 15" version.

How do they sound for electric? It'd be convenient to just have compact all-in-one one rig that's very portable.
Click to expand...
Hey all,

This is the path I've gone down - I use one or two JBL EON 15G2's (400w, powered cabs, horn + 15" psuedo front vented) with my electric bass depending on the size of the gig. I figured that most of the gigs I do I go through the PA, so might as well have a rig for monitoring that let's me hear close to what's coming out of the PA so I can better control the tone, not the sound-guy.

Would recommend a good preamp for impedance matching / tone shaping - I currently have a Sansamp BDDI as a preamp (legacy), but since getting back to playing bass this year after a few years out with arm problems am looking to change to an EBS Microbass II (getting one on loan from local bass shop on Monday!). My taste has changed - BDDI sucks too much of the mids out (very noticable with my Lakland and some good "semi-scientific" evidence to confirm on the forum - but not starting that discussion again here :D)... and I like a pedal based preamp, but I read here there are plenty of good rack mount if you wanted to go that way...

15" + horn is typically better in my opinion than a 10" - not enough "oomph". Heavier, but better bass response IMHO. Like the JBL's as I can feed from XLR out on the preamp, and then use the parallel XLR on the JBL to send the same signal to the desk.

And, I play keys and rhythm guitar too, and can use the JBL's with the keys via a small mixer, and for guitar with a Vox Tonelab (yep, part of the consideration was not wanting to fork out for different amps for different instruments :rolleyes: )

Worth considering...
 
#9
bolo said:
Then there's the Bose L1.
Click to expand...

Hey bolo - the singer I work for every week just bought an L1 system. Now I plug my Beyer M88 in to it with nothing else and it's absolute nirvana (as long as you don't stand too close to it - give the sound some room to spread out and it's perfect).

I doubt a working bass player would be happy with one from a cartage standpoint. They advertise them like they are ultra portable, but the column sections are quite heavy and awkward to strap to a cart for one-trip schlepps. No one who is used to a GK/EA/Berg/etc mini-rig would dig the size.

The sound is gorgeous though...
 
#10
larry said:
Hey bolo - the singer I work for every week just bought an L1 system. Now I plug my Beyer M88 in to it with nothing else and it's absolute nirvana (as long as you don't stand too close to it - give the sound some room to spread out and it's perfect).
Click to expand...
Interesting. Like someone else said recently, if I were looking to replace a PA, I might check it out. But for a bass rig, probably not. I am still intrigued though because the design is so unique. And the reports about incredible dispersion throughout the room from all those iddy biddy drivers. Wild.

Did you find that it resisted feedback from the mic (the whiny high pitched mic kind) any better than your amp?
 
#11
Bassman71 said:
Hey all,

This is the path I've gone down - I use one or two JBL EON 15G2's (400w, powered cabs, horn + 15" psuedo front vented) with my electric bass depending on the size of the gig. I figured that most of the gigs I do I go through the PA, so might as well have a rig for monitoring that let's me hear close to what's coming out of the PA so I can better control the tone, not the sound-guy.

Would recommend a good preamp for impedance matching / tone shaping - I currently have a Sansamp BDDI as a preamp (legacy), but since getting back to playing bass this year after a few years out with arm problems am looking to change to an EBS Microbass II (getting one on loan from local bass shop on Monday!). My taste has changed - BDDI sucks too much of the mids out (very noticable with my Lakland and some good "semi-scientific" evidence to confirm on the forum - but not starting that discussion again here :D)... and I like a pedal based preamp, but I read here there are plenty of good rack mount if you wanted to go that way...

15" + horn is typically better in my opinion than a 10" - not enough "oomph". Heavier, but better bass response IMHO. Like the JBL's as I can feed from XLR out on the preamp, and then use the parallel XLR on the JBL to send the same signal to the desk.

And, I play keys and rhythm guitar too, and can use the JBL's with the keys via a small mixer, and for guitar with a Vox Tonelab (yep, part of the consideration was not wanting to fork out for different amps for different instruments :rolleyes: )

Worth considering...
Click to expand...
Bassman71, I didn't see upright bass listed in your profile, but still I thought this was very interesting and well thought out. Thanks for sharing.
 
#12
bolo said:
Interesting. Like someone else said recently, if I were looking to replace a PA, I might check it out. But for a bass rig, probably not. I am still intrigued though because the design is so unique. And the reports about incredible dispersion throughout the room from all those iddy biddy drivers. Wild.

Did you find that it resisted feedback from the mic (the whiny high pitched mic kind) any better than your amp?
Click to expand...

Yes, not only the high pitched kind - but IMO more importantly - the lower frequencies were tighter and less tubby from the additional headroom. It will still feed back, but you have to be pretty loud.
 
#14
bolo said:
Bassman71, I didn't see upright bass listed in your profile, but still I thought this was very interesting and well thought out. Thanks for sharing.
Click to expand...
Well spotted - nope, I'm not fortunate enough to play upright. Was really just answering answering
jzucker said:
anyone try them for electric?
Click to expand...
By the way, have been trialling the EBS Microbass II for the last couple of days, and it's a tasty piece of kit. Has a very good high impedance input for passive / piezo instruments so might work nicely for upright applications - tone shaping is very good and direct sound is very uncoloured.
 
#16
Barcza said:
In a jazz club I played with electric bass, and with my EBS valve drive I send the signal to the house PA, the Meyer-Sound speaker (not active) was very near to my head, and sound was incredible.
Click to expand...

It's really hard to go wrong with Meyer Sound. I have a pair of UPA-1's (unpowered)for my PA tops. They do make a powered version tho...
They make the best powered speakers I know of, but at a (very high) price. Ah well, like anything else in this world, ya get what ya pay for.

-mike
 
#17
I haven't used the super high-end Meyer stuff but I've found that decent PA cabs can work well for upright bass in acoustic situations, but that when things get a bit louder they lack the low end to really do the job. They're really not designed to produce low frequencies the way bass cabs are. This is particularly the case (in my experience) with electric rock gigs -- my attempts to do this with a BDDI into powered cab (Yorkville NX? Series) were not good; no cut. A bigger PA cab might do the trick, but at the end of the day I think you'd be best served by getting something that's designed for the task. I love my Genz Benz Shuttle 3.0-10T combo, and at $799 and 15lbs or something silly like that I can't imagine messing around with anything else at this point!
 

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