Raising bass cabs ?

[micguy]

The low E on a bass has a 27 foot wavelength. Until you get the woofer(s) in your cabinet about 6 feet off the floor, it’s acoustically coupled to the floor. Pointing the speaker towards your ears, so you hear the upper middle, is the most effective thing you can do to hear yourself better. Raising and angling the thing both help with that.

The way we usually set up is ideal if you’re a foot and a half tall, or your ears are on the backs of your legs. For us folks that don’t meet that description, we need to do things differently.

 

[dBChad]

There are reasons for doing both, many of which come down to the combination of the room you're playing in and the FOH provided. Coupling intentionally to floors and walls (corner loading) can be a good thing with a lower powered PA that doesn't include subs, but dial yourself in from the audience listening area: you will sound much louder and bassier in the room than you do up on stage.

In a larger venue or outdoors with a larger, high powered PA with dedicated subs, your bass amp is more of a personal monitor. Chances are, you're sending a direct out to the board. In this case, I find it better to aim your speakers towards your ears.

But there are reasons for doing both, kudos to you on thinking about the room you're playing. I would choose based on room+PA provided.

 

[Bushrod Johnson]

What about cabs on casters?

 

[msb]

A harp player I gig with brought some one inch wooden frames to elevate my bass cab . I don’t really hear any change , he’s convinced the difference is miraculous . I thought the thick rubber pads on the bottom of the cabs do the same job . The stage is hollow but only about five inches high , it is carpeted . And for the most part the room sound is excellent . It simply depends on who is playing .
I will try to slightly angle the cabs back .

 

[Danny C]

Gramma pad under cabs at all gigs.

 

[FunkHead]

What I get from op is that the hollow stage may be an issue.
With that in mind, yes hollow stages are a royal pain.
My solution has always been moving my cab until I find a sweet spot on the stage. The back corners are less boomy IME.

 

[agedhorse]

What about cabs on casters?

Generally not a problem provided the stage is level.

 

[Lesfunk]

Generally not a problem provided the stage is level.

Yes indeed… I’ve had a couple roll away and unplug my cable

 

[sokolasty]

Yes, the two walls plus the floor that form the corner form an ~1/8-space boundary which adds low frequency SPL due to the reduction from omnidirectional (360 degree spherical) to 1/4-hemispherical.

Thanks for good knowledge

 

[spatters]

Yes, the two walls plus the floor that form the corner form an ~1/8-space boundary which adds low frequency SPL due to the reduction from omnidirectional (360 degree spherical) to 1/4-hemispherical.

Thank you for helping me understand a complicated mathematical issue intuitively! Let me see if I've got this correct:

• Placing the speaker against a wall, or at the wall/floor junction, or in the corner of the room, decreases the amount of air that the bass speaker has to move, thus making the pressure waves stronger in the directions the air can move. It's like inflating a balloon that's stuck on a wall, or in a corner: the balloon sticks out more in the directions it can expand.
  
• However, since sound becomes more directional as frequency increases, this effect is proportionally reduced.
  
• Empirical result: wall/corner loading = increased bass.

 

[agedhorse]

Yes, more or less.