Still hooked on Acme

[Michael Vee]

But this Low-B1 just keeps on delivering!
A fellow gear head saw me playing through this rig on Monday and was so impressed, he ordered up a new B-1 for himself, the very next day! He's been through a bunch of conventional cabs - and that Genzler with the little line array on the front. Something about that Acme low end just really spoke to him. I know exactly what he means.
My trusty old Series II has my go-to for most gigs and rehearsals, this winter..maybe I should just expand my Acme arsenal & go out with both guns blazing.

Jefenator, didn't know you had Acme. I also have a Bass Block 800 with not just one, but two B-1s. I'd definitely suggest a second B-1!

Like your friend, I have a Genzler 10-2 combo. I love the way it sounds, and it is less woofy than the Quiter/Acme pairing. I tend to use the combo in rooms that want to be boomy. But before the Genzler, I would roll off the low end on the Quilter and that did the same thing.. got rid of the boomy. It's a very refined sound, the Quilter/Acme.

 

[naetog]

I like seeing this Acme thread still going.

I recently got a couple new woofers for my B2, and Andy was a pleasure to deal with.
The cab is a series 1 from the late 90's and it definitely saw a TON of use over the years.

I gig my B2 instead of my Berg 212. I love this freaking thing. It always sounds good, and it always elicits so many questions and comments about the brand/size/sound.

 

[Michael Vee]

It always elicits so many questions and comments about the brand/size/sound.

A lot of times, I've gotten the "Wile E. Coyote" or "Roadrunner" crack from either other musicians or audience members who are unaware that it's an actual company name or of the products.

A lot of times, it's the same people or same kind of people who make jokes about my headless basses. Just people who aren't aware that these things exist or have been around for decades now.

Andy's story about using the name Acme Sound is that he wanted the attention to be on the cabs and not on him, or some such. Personally, I think it would have been fine if he'd called the company "Lewis Sound" or similar.

As an aside - There is an Acme cabinet company in Buffalo, NY. Kitchen cabinets, not bass cabinets.

 

[Michael Vee]

I did want to follow up on my July 2022 posts about the theatre gig in which I was using the Mesa D-350/B-1 combination and was being told by the sound tech that too much bass was coming from the pit. The keyboardist was doubling ALL the bass parts, running a lot more power than I was using, into two floor monitors. THAT was the issue. It wasn't that the B-1 was producing too much bass or that I was playing too loudly. And, as it turned out, the sound tech later conceded that she was the problem, not me. Unfortunately, she had a "queen bee" persona and refused to either not play the left hand parts or to turn down. I'd say she has a low-frequency hearing loss.

I personally thought the Mesa/Acme combination was perfect for that production. I used it again for a subsequent show and loved it.

 

[naetog]

I personally thought the Mesa/Acme combination was perfect for that production. I used it again for a subsequent show and loved it.

I bet it sounded fantastic!

My last 2 gigs were the B2 with a Demeter Bass800D & a GK Fusion 500.
The Demeter is my preference, but as long as there's adequate wattage, I don't think there's a wrong answer with Acme.

 

[james condino]

I like seeing this Acme thread still going.

I recently got a couple new woofers for my B2, and Andy was a pleasure to deal with.
The cab is a series 1 from the late 90's and it definitely saw a TON of use over the years.
....

Andy only charges about $100 for a new ACME woofer. After around 500+ gigs with my old B1 & B2 pairs, last year replaced all of the woofers. It made a huge difference for a modest cost and brought a lot of focus back into them. I recommend it to anyone who has a well used set. These days I tend to shop for old acme cabs with blown speakers (they are dirt cheap when you can find them, my last B2 was $85 in excellent condition, minus the blown drivers), and I buy new woofers from Andy for a very modest $285 total for essentially a brand new cab. Anybody with a dead set, message me!

 

[msb]

I recently bought the hoodie.

 

[msb]

There’s another ACME that makes high end preamps and direct boxes.
Acme Audio Manufacturing Company

 

[Michael Vee]

There’s another ACME that makes high end preamps and direct boxes

Acme Sound and Acme Audio!

 

[naetog]

Andy only charges about $100 for a new ACME woofer. After around 500+ gigs with my old B1 & B2 pairs, last year replaced all of the woofers. It made a huge difference for a modest cost and brought a lot of focus back into them. I recommend it to anyone who has a well used set. These days I tend to shop for old acme cabs with blown speakers (they are dirt cheap when you can find them, my last B2 was $85 in excellent condition, minus the blown drivers), and I buy new woofers from Andy for a very modest $285 total for essentially a brand new cab. Anybody with a dead set, message me!

View attachment 5399703

THAT looks fun to play through! Dang.

I'm installing the new speakers this weekend.

What would you recommend as far as a break-in technique/method for the speakers?

 

[Dollar2]

My band has gone ampless but I still through my B1 in the car in case something goes wrong. When we have to provide our own sound, I use one of my B2s as the subwoofer cabinet. It works surprisingly well.

 

[Aram]

Traded one of my Eich cabs for a B112FR and got to use it with my B1 stack on Saturday night at an outdoor show with maybe 250ppl. Sounded downright incredible, I honestly think the entire band played better hearing every bass note with so much clarity and fundamental….definitely still hooked on Acme!

 

[Michael Vee]

There has been some negativity expressed on Talkbass in the last couple of years about Acme cabinets. Anyone who buys them knows this upfront: They are not colored sounding, they are very full range, without a hyped midrange, and they are not efficient cabinets.

After owning and playing my B-1's for a number of years, there are certain gigs where they are just exactly right, not every gig and not the ones which need a lot of cut and volume.

Aram, thanks for reviving this thread, and I'm glad you enjoying the B-1 and B112FR combination!

In addition, I'm glad you had a gig where you could play an actual amplifier, and not have some kid soundman forbidding you from using a stage amp setup. "That's the way things are done nowadays, in-ears, headphones, but no stage amps."

Total BS. I could add that sentiment to just about every post I make on TB these days. I will have to add it to my sig.

 

[Aram]

Agreed on all points -- I think the Acmes were always a bit misunderstood and ill-utilized right out of the gate. When they launched in the 90s, most commonly available amp heads obviously didn't have sufficient power without going the power amp / preamp route. But some people over-indexed on the surplus power and would blow the drivers to smithereens, so it was admittedly kind of hard to dial these in without some experimentation.

Now there are far more powerful portable amp heads, so wattage is cheap and easy to come by, but having access to HPF -- ideally variable HPF -- is critical for optimal use of these cabs. I had the WD800 running with the HPF at about 9:00; the cabs could easily handled everything I threw at it with the filter off (though I believe there's also a baked-in HPF on those amps at like 30hz even with the knob set at zero), but bringing it up tightened the low end beautifully and had me sitting nicely above the kick drum.

The other thing about the Acmes (and really most bass cabs) that folks don't often consider is placement. I gigged with a Series 2 Low B1 for almost 20 years, and I was able to use it in most settings (admittedly not with any house-building drummers or JCM stacks)...elevating it would help with dispersion and reduced the low end by decoupling from the floor.

At any rate, this band does use IEMs (sometimes), but we do our own sound and the system is kind of weak, so while I do drop a line in the board, i rarely bother putting it on. I'm not opposed to going DI / IEM, but only with a proper FOH / soundman and subs.

Oh, one other thing about that 2x B1 / B112 setup was the dispersion. I went almost 90 degrees off axis in either direction, and while there was some volume drop-off versus standing in front, the sound was crystal clear and full no matter where I stood. Again, I think that clarity and robustness of tone really ended up helping the band play their best.

More to come!

 

[J Wilson]

The Acmes have always been on one side of the bass cabinet split, where some guys only want old school cabinets, and other guys prefer a more honest presentation where you get into full range bins with assorted drivers. 3-way bins as bass cabinets seems overkill to some.

Acmes are first rate, but typically work better with more experienced players who can hear a difference, if they're looking for a type of clarity these bins can produce. And some guys can't wrap their head around the relatively more power they need to feed on, as these have been biased towards their performance by the relatively small size of the bins and the accompanying loss of efficiency bigger bins with more cu in internally would provide.

I have a friend that gigs with four of the B1's in a line array, all four stacked vertically. Small footprint, BIG sound, driven by an Alembic preamp and Crown power. His rack is actually a bigger footprint than the cabinet !

 

[Dollar2]

I've had two shows recently where I brought one of my B2s. For the first show, the sandman asked that I bring an amp. I was happy to oblige. Back in the day, I powered a pair of them with a QSC PLX2200. For this show, I used a Jule Simone500 Class D power amp. I had absolutely no headroom issues. I'm not sure the Jule could handle both of them but I haven't had to use the full stack in a couple of years. The second show was when we were providing our own sound. I did the same thing and relied on the B2 rather than the sub in the PA. Still loving these cabinets

 

[Michael Vee]

I've had two shows recently where I brought one of my B2s. For the first show, the sandman asked that I bring an amp. I was happy to oblige. Back in the day, I powered a pair of them with a QSC PLX2200. For this show, I used a Jule Simone500 Class D power amp. I had absolutely no headroom issues. I'm not sure the Jule could handle both of them but I haven't had to use the full stack in a couple of years. The second show was when we were providing our own sound. I did the same thing and relied on the B2 rather than the sub in the PA. Still loving these cabinets

Good to hear it, Dollar2. I liked your use of "sandman" instead of "soundman". I think nowadays, most people running sound don't really have any idea of how to do things. They want to control every bit of the bass player's sound vs. trying to work with them. Sandman sounds about right. I'm glad you got to run (vs. what, they told you you not to use any onstage amplification?) your Acmes and you enjoyed the sound.

All of us bass players need to push back constantly against the screaming hordes of sound system contractors insisting we cannot use stage amps. It is going to be a battle from now until we're all gone, but we need to do it. There are still some sound guys out there who will work with us, but they are getting to be in a distinct minority.

 

[agedhorse]

May I suggest that you choose a better quality sound company? At the higher levels (above ankle biter), the experience is almost always much better than you describe.

The other possibility is that the sound guys are right and that you are out of touch with what’s needed within the mix.

 

[Aram]

last Saturday’s setup…band was to the left, so I aimed the B112 in their direction and used the B1 as my own monitor. had a line in the board but was barely on…the tone was absolutely thunderous. you can see the iem’s sitting on top of the WD…we never turned em on.

only other equipment was a Radial DI for a/b in the floor and tuner powered by the WD’s usb port.

 

[Bob Coldwell]

My hands down favorite rig playing in a prime country band was an Acme 4x10 with a Kern pre/Crest CA9 rack. Man I miss that rig. As close as I ever got to an SVT/fridge set up back in the day. Chest thumping lows. Made the logical progression to Acme B2s/class D or tube pre heads. I still use a B1 when I sub in with a couple local big bands but I finally disgorged of the B2s and it pained me to do so. I'm currently running a Subway 15 with a WD800 or a Rumble 800 and so far like the sound and the weight and it works without PA support in my 6pc wedding band.

I didn't know Acme made a 4X10. Or do you mean two B2s?