No. But you need extra headroom to power the transients. A speaker is generally good for twice its rated power for fleeting power demands.
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Rig for super deep lows.
- Thread starter theAntihero
- Start date
No. But you need extra headroom to power the transients. A speaker is generally good for twice its rated power for fleeting power demands.
it is? most bass cabs aren't good for anywhere near their rated power, even for fleeting power demands. you're lucky to get half a cab's rated power into most of them. power handling is one of the most bs specs out there.
Mr. Foxen
Commercial User
The ABM 8x10 is sealed and doesn't go very low, think they have a ported one too (looks like from the grill at the bottom) which might go lower, so look out for that.
Not sure of the context here. The bass he's using is the right one for super deep tone. Garry Lowe (Big Sugar, etc.) uses an EB-0 and a pair of SVT rigs for earth shaking lows. Of course, a DI with massive PA support helps ;-)
If that's not radical enough for him, he could run a preamp into a pair of powered PA subs. Regardless of how he goes about doing this, it's going to require a ton of power and big cabinets. Those long wave fundamentals require a great deal of power to create. Hopefully the room he's playing in has enough volume to allow those waves to propagate. If not, his efforts are kind of pointless.
If that's not radical enough for him, he could run a preamp into a pair of powered PA subs. Regardless of how he goes about doing this, it's going to require a ton of power and big cabinets. Those long wave fundamentals require a great deal of power to create. Hopefully the room he's playing in has enough volume to allow those waves to propagate. If not, his efforts are kind of pointless.
Sound waves do not need "room to propagate". You will hear 30 Hz through good headphones or in your car, given there is hardware to genrerate it.
Good, but older and heavier, PA cabinets are easy to come by. A dual 18" reflex box with deep tuning (long/deep reflex holes in the cabinet) will be good. JBL, Community; EV, Yorkville etc all make good gear. (Forget about "scoops" and other horns if you want to stay portable, or they will be too small to go much below 60Hz. One exception would be Tom Danleys tapped horns, but that is not a "true" horn.)
Get a proper PA amp to power it. Add a 15" to sprinkle in some shimmering highs...
Good, but older and heavier, PA cabinets are easy to come by. A dual 18" reflex box with deep tuning (long/deep reflex holes in the cabinet) will be good. JBL, Community; EV, Yorkville etc all make good gear. (Forget about "scoops" and other horns if you want to stay portable, or they will be too small to go much below 60Hz. One exception would be Tom Danleys tapped horns, but that is not a "true" horn.)
Get a proper PA amp to power it. Add a 15" to sprinkle in some shimmering highs...
At modest volumes (easily enough to hear yourself in a band or carry a small room), I find that the Carvin BX500 is capable of that. Using the parametric and graphic eq, you can make the amp essentially sound like a sub. My little 1x15 combo has the deepest lows out of any amp that I have owned actually (and it stays clean). I can only imagine what the larger Carvin amps are capable of.
check out PA heads like the crown XTi2000 or QSC PLX2502 and perhaps a couple 15/6 fearfuls and a couple fEarful 15subs, with a nice sansamp pre. he should have no problems meeting any of your criteria
billfitzmaurice
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- Sep 15, 2004
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He always ventures above 100Hz, no matter what notes he's playing. Read the waterfall plots thread in the FAQ. Electric bass, and for that matter every musical instrument including the human voice, is all about harmonics, not fundamentals. A full fat low B needs flat response to 62 Hz, not 31 Hz.
Probably not. Small speakers can go low, or they can go loud, but they can't do both. The characteristic response of large drivers in small boxes is a pronounced mid-bass hump. It's perceived as low, but the human ear is not the least bit accurate where it comes to correctly identifying how low a speaker actually goes; on average listener estimates run an octave lower than what's actually being heard.
Uhm... what? Watts (and Ohms) are part of SI (International System of Units). The only other real unit would be the decibel, which can commonly use either watts or voltage behind the math (which, both incidentally are international units).
Troll much?
I wonder whether you have an accurate view of your bassist's needs for this rig.
1500W is a LOT of juice. My current rig can put 1000 W into 8 ohms and I've NEVER come close to using all of that. My last rig was a GK 1001RB-II into a Neo212 which meant I was only putting 460 W into 8 ohms and I played a number of good sized rooms with no PA support.
But the second part of that is that if you are really needing to move that much air and aren't playing places without a FOH system then you'd be better served getting a PA system for your band.
As for the second condition, as Bill Fitzmaurice pointed out, you might be boosting the EQ below 100Hz and cutting elsewhere, but you certainly need frequencies about 100Hz if you want to be heard in the mix. I've played dub with a lowpass filter to only give me an extremely bassy tone and I only hard cut frequencies above 500 Hz or so.
And you've said nothing about the actual tone your bassist wants or the music you play.
All that taken into consideration, if you really want what you're asking for, I'd say a Carvin B2000 (or a used B1500 which is now discontinued), two 4 ohm Acme Low B4s and a Moog Low Pass Filter would give you 1000 W into each cab (wired for 2 ohm operation) and more deep lows than anyone could ask for.
His 450w amp basically is always limiting out and not at super loud levels either. Its not the amp, its just the tone he goes for, lots of lows need lots of power. He also plays with a felt pick so the intial attack eats up headroom.
I didnt really mention what style of music because he really doesnt go for the standard rock and metal tone. Most of the time this is mentioned it seems like SVTs or something, for lack of a better word, grindy sounding is recommended. He doesnt like grind. He doesnt like grit. He doesnt slap nor does he like sparkle or tweeters in general. He wants a super deep tone that is basically like a huge pillow and would probably be happy if he hit a note and the walls shook and his pants flapped.
Anyone listen to Electric Wizard on here? Mountains of Mars is a very good idea of the tone he is looking for. As for what we play go to Link Removed if you'd like to get an idea of his sound, or if you dont want to go to myspace Link Removed has a song load as soon as the site comes up but unfortunatly thats the only song thats working at the moment.
Based on the tone you're describing I'd still stick with my suggestion of a Carvin B1500 (I haven't tried the new B2000 and can't vouch for it) and to Acme Low B4's.
Actually, I'd go with ONE Acme B4 and see if that does it for him before going nuts with 1900 W of power.
I think the biggest issue is that he has a cheap cab that isn't capable of pumping out lots of lows.
The Carvin/Acme combo (and I know this from experience) is not grindy or clanky - just clean, muscular and huge. Tons of lows, but clear and powerful not mushy or indistinct.
Actually, I'd go with ONE Acme B4 and see if that does it for him before going nuts with 1900 W of power.
I think the biggest issue is that he has a cheap cab that isn't capable of pumping out lots of lows.
The Carvin/Acme combo (and I know this from experience) is not grindy or clanky - just clean, muscular and huge. Tons of lows, but clear and powerful not mushy or indistinct.
It could be the cab i agree and the Acme B4s look great. Its a little disconcerning that the site hasnt been updated in years though.
I emailed Carvin and apparently they will load the BRx10.4 Neo with 8 ohm speakers so that cab looks like a good option as well. How rooted in the real world are their specs though? 104db sensitivity and able to go as low as 26hz sounds improbable IMO.
No to anything except custom or Acme if you're tuning to Eb0. Nothing on the market will touch a fEarful or Acme below 60hz.
Tuned to Eb0 I would consider a fEarB very strongly.
Carvin's Brx10.4 neo is a joke for this application. It's probably -20db by 26hz, -10db by 50hz, and displacement limited to 25-50 watts per driver at those frequencies (probably more like 10 watts per driver at 26hz).
Tuned to Eb0 I would consider a fEarB very strongly.
Carvin's Brx10.4 neo is a joke for this application. It's probably -20db by 26hz, -10db by 50hz, and displacement limited to 25-50 watts per driver at those frequencies (probably more like 10 watts per driver at 26hz).
LOL to "tuned to EB-0".
Hmm -20db at 26hz is pretty much not audible. So would an Acme B4 and a Carvin 1x18 be overkill for lowend? He was thinking of getting something 15 or 18 as a second cab to round out the response a bit.
Ric5
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There's no need for the 18". The Acme can handle all the lows you need. It will give bigger AND tighter lows than the Carvin 1x18 and much better top end.
If anything I'd consider a second B4 if you really need a ton of volume and you have an amp with enough juice to really move some air.
A fEarful 15/15/6 is another option worth exploring.
