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Why don't the big boys make good cabs?
- Thread starter tubster
- Start date
So if recordings sound like crap on flat hifi systems then maybe we need those "regular" people to do the sound engineering and mixing....
I used to work at an up scale steak and wine spot. Almost everytime a guy would insist that his glass of wine was bad I would take it in the back, wait five minutes bring him the exact same glass and the boob would always say something along the lines of "much better".
I think on both sides of this discussion there would be folks who really enjoy the way a mass produced cab sounds as well as a boutique brand. It seems like players get so wrapped up in company loyalty and how they get "their" tone that they forget that anything could be musical. I'd like to think I could make any rig work if I absolutely had to. Because if I couldn't, how good of a bass player would I actually be.
That said, if given the choice, a dude wouldn't play a Black Sabbath cover set with a fEARful without the bass tone sounding a bit off. And another dude wouldn't play a Stanley Clarke song with an AD200 and 2 orange cabs. It would just sound wrong. But that rig would sound perfect in the Sabbath type band.
I love discussions like this and I always learn a little something. But folks are so quick to accuse others of having broken ears and forget that forums like this attract all different bass players, each with a unique tonal goal.
I think on both sides of this discussion there would be folks who really enjoy the way a mass produced cab sounds as well as a boutique brand. It seems like players get so wrapped up in company loyalty and how they get "their" tone that they forget that anything could be musical. I'd like to think I could make any rig work if I absolutely had to. Because if I couldn't, how good of a bass player would I actually be.
That said, if given the choice, a dude wouldn't play a Black Sabbath cover set with a fEARful without the bass tone sounding a bit off. And another dude wouldn't play a Stanley Clarke song with an AD200 and 2 orange cabs. It would just sound wrong. But that rig would sound perfect in the Sabbath type band.
I love discussions like this and I always learn a little something. But folks are so quick to accuse others of having broken ears and forget that forums like this attract all different bass players, each with a unique tonal goal.
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This is why everybody's results are different, even with similar equipment. Sometimes I don't even like my own sound, after being enamored by it just the other day, but then I talk myself down from the ledge and play my notes, and the world gets right again.
Some things you'll never be able to fully control, but you CAN determine how much you're willing to carry and how loud you want to be.
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lol. What he said. I don't know how anyone could possibly take the stance that it is ALL in the fingers (or pick if you're like me). This is just obviously not the case. Of course your hands play a role, but they are not the sole contributors.
Right. But the same can be said for one person moving from rig A to rig B. I was just merely stating that anyone who states it is ALL in the fingers is wrong. This seems rather obvious.
And what controls the amp, cab, bass, pickups, strings, pedals, and processors? That's right...fingers. I've had people pick up my bass and play into my rig, and they sound extremely close to what they normally sound like, and if they had moved the knobs, they would have sounded even more like themselves. People may have preferences for certain gear, but most of us will make anything we plug into sound like what we want to hear, and the differences seem to evaporate for the most part.
Not a relevant issue to the topic, though, and that's why nobody talked about it before now.
Not a relevant issue to the topic, though, and that's why nobody talked about it before now.
I would disagree. Having played a Black Sabbath cover or two through a fEARful. My tone was just what I wanted it to be.
Awesome! I love that. I tried to just pick to different ends of a tonal spectrum. And I totally said to myself, chance of the funk player usuing Orange is slim. But watch, one of these cats played Sabbath songs with a hi-fi cab. But thats super cool. Were you using a Peavey head? Thats probably why it sounded so good. I love the Mark heads.
Well, I did mention it as a joke actually.
I'll agree that a lot of players who go for a pretty straight ahead bass tone (myself included) can get their tone on pretty much any "good" rig, but others have a LOT of processing going on and will NOT sound like their signature tone through any amp. And "moving the knobs" making them sound more like themselves says to me that the amp EQ is important as is their fingers. Now playing style and nuance, yes that's the fingers, and definitely part of the combination. OK sorry for the derail, back to the thread.
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My point is that as long as 'the big boys' are selling enough cabinets by their own reckoning, their cabinets are good enough.
I used a Mark VIII XP, a Classic 400, Carvin B1500. Ampeg PF-500, and an assortment of pre/power components. I could get right in my tonal goal with all of those amps.
This is the electric bass side, but don't forget those of us who play upright too have a sound we want reproduced without coloration or distortion, and sometimes at the same gig we are playing slab on. Not to mention us freaks who play ABGs and want that reproduced as faithfully as possible too. This is almost getting to the point of guitar players having to have their amp turned up too loud because that is how they get "their" tone. I prefer to set my volume based on how loud I it want to be, not by how loud I need to be to get the tone I like. If you need certain gear to create your sound, fine and good for you that you found a sound that works well for you, some of us want something different and calling our sounds "sterile" is quite derogatory.
It takes time to get a clean sound from the fingers and some of us don't like the coloration presented by most stuff aimed at bass players - that is not our sound goal. I prefer gear that takes me in the direction I want to go so I am not fighting my equipment. If I have a complicated EQ scheme to get "my" tone, IMHO, my gear is not really right for my end game. I regularly let others play through my gear without worry because I have my settings memorized - everything to O - and it works for me. I have plenty of EQ left to adjust for the space I'm in and when I turn up it sounds the same, except louder (room conditions excepted).
Much respect for Greenboy, but they are off the shelf drivers.
