speaker literacy

[fdeck]

Why so? Is it because producing low frequencies the human ear can easily hear requires more knowledge?

A couple of reasons. First, even aside from human hearing, producing the same acoustic pressures at lower frequencies requires more power and bigger cones. Yet we want to produce that power *efficiently* so we're not burdened with size and cost, so the design of a bass speaker is as much of an engineering problem as an artistic one.

Second, thanks to some early work by pioneers in acoustics (Thiele, etc), that engineering has come to involve tailoring the woofer and the box to work together, so the box is more than just a holder, but a participant in how the speaker works. And because the driver and box are designed to work together, swapping drivers for different sound is much less of a thing among bassists. Done wrong, it can lead to speakers that don't work or even self destruct.

Well, nothing really *self* destructs, but that's what we say after it happened.

I have a bit of a compulsion to learn how gear works, so I've written a little blurb about speakers for casual reading...

https://bassisttech.github.io/SpeakerTheory/speakerTheorySympy.pdf

 

[Goatrope]

At least in guitar combos, cabinets are less of a "system" than bass combo cabinets. Maybe that's why guitarists swap speakers like we roll tubes.

Guitarists I've spoken with are generally using open back combos. The "cabinet" seems nothing more than a stand to hold the speakers.

Indiscriminately swapping speakers is done without thinking about cabinet design and tuning.

In a way I'm kinda jealous. The physics involved in bass cab systems do not reward a guessing game.

 

[Turnaround]

Part of this is because there's way less physics involved in designing guitar speakers.

Bass speakers, especially well designed bass speakers involve a lot of science and good design chops to insure a good sounding, efficient and especially reliable product. It's less about woo-woo and way more about science. (cue Thomas Dolby here...)

I agree. And also many guitar amps are open-backed. Speaker-to-cabinet design is far less critical so you can mix and match speakers with fewer consequences.

 

[mikecd1]

Speakers are all about the woo-woo! Recorded this live with my friend Joe Najmy who played awhile with Average White Band and we always called it "the woo-woo" song. Clarence Henry's "Aint Got no Home". Listen to chorus at 01:36 sophisticated lyrics! I think I was playing thru a fridge.

 

[logdrum]

One thing to note that the Roland JC series, although open back combos mostly sound crap with just random speakers like greenbacks. Also I have never been wowed by random substitutions on Vox AC-30s as well as some Mesa Boogie combos. I have Champ XD and supposedly the Italian Jensen's in it were bad. 180 later and wasting money on Eminence drivers as recommended on TGP when the Italian Jensen's are the right kind of speakers all along as designed by engineers at Fender

Now bass cabinets are more unforgiving. Nothing is random. It's not like cooking spaghetti and throwing a noodle on the wall and hoping it sticks and if does you can assume it will make a good carbonara.

And I may be flamed for this but Avatar made crap bass cabinets in the beginning which probably was the result of just slapping bass drivers on a copy of an Eden box and promising more wattage . that's my experience They did make good guitar cabinets. I was an early user and they may have improved after that. Around that time , got my first EA cabinet was much better than even Eden cabinets and that cab which I still have set the standard for me.

BUT do not be discouraged.. It can be learned. For a while there were bass building threads here and there still probably is.
This article list the electromechanical concepts you have to know and learn how to measure and calculate,

Also carpentry is a required skill to build or modify bass cabinets. If you want that 115 to handle 100 more watts, you will probably have to brace it differently and then bracing it affects how the sound travels inside. It can all be calculated of course. Oh and then now you have to tune the port and find out that you have to change the baffle thickness also.

So while your friends in the guitar side are showing off this walnut tweed cab , you are tearing your hair out because there is a rattle you can't figure out, your are damping some frequencies and some are peaking so bad, you are hearing whoosh out of the ports.

Then the next day you just tore the cone out and there is a burnt smell. Of course you were using your tube amp to test and that speaker damage meant a zero load condition that lasted just a minute too long and you just took out the output transformer of that SVT. This unfortunately is the cost of making or improving bass cabinets.

 

[Thumpin6string]

I'm glad guitarists believe what they hear. I bought some miscellaneous electronic parts and there was a bag of orange drop caps as well as a few bumblebee caps. I sold them all and made a load of $$$.

 

[JimChjones]

Literate is an interesting choice of word... It seems to me that the requirement for bass guitar rigs is to be numerate rather than literate as there is science involved. As with, dare I say, much in the electric guitar world, their speaker setups are all about words and emotions, not cold science. Can many guitar players say how V30s or greenbacks or cream backs or G12T-75s are different from each other?

 

[Bar Band Bassman]

Why so? Is it because producing low frequencies the human ear can easily hear requires more knowledge?

Actually, to a large degree, yes. So many more challenges with bass reinforcement. Power requirements, far more attention to efficient speaker/enclosure design, just so we bassists can keep up signal level-wise with your buddy's 22W Deluxe Reverb... Logarithmic scales are a b***h!

BBB