Raising Amp Off Of Floor

Maybe if by raising it up enough to be directly next to your head. I guess that would help the tone. I don't know.

 

By doing that you will posibly lose some of the lowest frequencies that are beign reinforced by the coupling of the cabinet to the floor.

You can run some tests by puting it alone in the floor and compare by puting it on the flor and against a wall.
You will hear the difference in the bass response.

Also, raising it will help you hear yourself a little more, due to the directiveness of the mid/high frequencies.

It is up to your own taste.

 

I agree with Luis. If there is a stage floor above the main floor, you get some bass vibration from it. You will lose this with a raised amp. On the other hand, guitars and steel guitars definitely sound best when the amp is off the floor. I saw a comment one time from Jim Webb, who makes one of the best steel guitar amps, that raising the amp off the floor was one of the best ways to improve the sound of the amp. I generally prefer a raised amp, but I think you should experiment.

 

kelvinf, welcome to Talkbass.

I prefer to have my amp raised off the floor. I use a 200 watt combo with 2x10 speakers and a tweeter, and to me it sounds dead on the floor.

I have one of the angled amp stands that you can get at Guitar Center for around $49.00, and my amp sounds better to me on the stand. Of course, it's aiming the tweeter and drivers at my ears, so I'm sure that is the main reason, the mids and highs are reaching my ears instead of the back of my knees.

The rest of the band prefers the way the amp sounds on the stand too.

 

Hi Kelvinf. And a warm welcome to TalkBass.

The various speaker buffs on TB will doubtless give you the definitive answer on this one. My own thoughts, for what they're worth, is that the results obtained from raising your cab are likely to be different with each different design of cab.

I suspect that if bass response suffers be removing the coupling that Luis spoke about, then it might be possible to get some back by turning the bass up just a little.

Hearing yourself playing with the band, on the other hand, definitely improves as the speakers are brought closer in line with your ears.

John

 

Ah, threads like this are really interesting. I used to raise my cabinet (peavey 15-16) up to table height. Exactly what's been said, I lost bass response, but gained some ability to hear myself (used to have underpowered head. Ampwise, that is) Now in practice, I use a Carvin 210. Sometimes I tilt it back to gain a little better hearability (made up word). I wonder what others comments are about the effect of tilting the cabinet back, so its still on the floor but aimed directly at you.

 

Luis' post is absolutely correct.

Putting a cab above the floor will mean you lose a some of the lower bass frequencies and the "thump" of the bass tone, but means you hear yourself better. It's up to the individual. I leave mine on the floor, and use monitor headphones to hear myself. I also plug into the PA.

 

I think it depends on what's underneath the floor. I practice in the basement, and my Peavey combo is NOT going to make the concrete floor vibrate sympathetically.

 

That´s not what im talking about.
Im not talking about more things vibrating on the floor. Im talking about coupling.

Bass frequencies when radiated from such a small radiator/speaker become omnidirectional because of the size of the wave.

If the cab is on the floor, the wave has no other place to go than Front. Left, Right and Up and back, and when it tries to go down it gets rebound by the floor hence helping it reinforce the FRONT and other sides.

If you apply that to the floor and a wall, then the bass becomes reinforced more because it doesnt propel to the back and down but to the front, sides and up.
Now, this reinforcement is a little on the muddy side and loses some clarity because it is not Directional pure reproduction but more a reflection and there are some phase issues there.

Of course the effect wont be the same if there is a lot of dampening happenning in the floor and walls, etc etc.

 

In addition to the directionality of the soundwave...having the cabinet on the floor does add to the dispertion of the lowest of frequencies as the floor will "vibrate", especially below the frequency range of the cabinet...thus the added "feel" of the bass in addition to the sound.

Something that will be lost if the cab is raised above the floor.

I usually have the cab raised up as I have the head (in a rack) on top of the cab, so tilting it is not an option, but I also do not have ears on the back of my knees, so I raise it to hear the higher frequncies better. I don't lose much in the way of feel as I can still feel it, not only from my cab (which is placed on a wooden cord case) but also from our PA.

 

I used to raise my 1x15 combo off the floor. I played on a hollowed out wooden stage and got way to much low end when it sat on the floor. It was real boomy and had no definition. Raising it off the floor helped out a lot.

 

Sorry, Luis. I should have included Aaron's quote. That's what the vibration comment referred to.

I still stand behind the statement that the type of floor is an important distinction, and I think you did as well when you referred to dampening.

 

My studio has a thin, wooden floor

so i bought 2 rubber doormats, and put my cab on those.. sounds like a killer