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Designing a bass guitar cab

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Old Croc
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    Posted: 18 April 2014 at 4:14pm
My father plays the bass in a couple of small bands. His gear consists of a Fender Jazzbass, a Dynacord Bassking(45w valve) and a Fender Showman cabinet(15" with JBL K140 driver). All of them are relics from the sixties and he has been playing them since well before i was born.

He usually mic's the basscab into the PA but recently he plugged it straight with a DI and found the tone much more pleasing, fuller(lower?) bass and a clearer midrange. He has been talking about changing the Showman for a different cabinet and asked me if we couldn't build something together.
Building something with him would be a nice way of thanking him for all the times he let me use his tools cover his shed in sawdust so many times in the past.

I know the sound of electric guitars is mainly influenced by the drivers and not by the cab. I have been looking at classic drivers such as the Eminence BP102, a few Celestions and newer ones like the 3012LF. Have been simming up all kinds of cabinets in BB and WinISD. There is no need for a 8x10 monster, ideally we would like to do something more compact as there seem to be a lot of smaller cabs around lately.

Can i just sim these cabinets the same way i would do with a PA cabinets? Any hints and tips to the subject would be appreciated.

I have been reading up on sites such as Talkbass etc. but i really don't want to get sucked into another forum at the moment.

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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote AJordan Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 18 April 2014 at 5:17pm
Most bass guitar cabs are ported reflex boxes apart from the 8 x 10s you mention which are usually sealed boxes. So you can sim them as you would any other reflex box.

You can use PA type drivers and that coupled with a clean sounding amp could give something similar to the DI sound he has heard through the PA, especially if you stick a high  freq driver in there also.

Bass guitar specific drivers will have their own voicing and as such it is a matter of reading up and better still hearing different ones characteristics so you can decide what you like.
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Earplug Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 18 April 2014 at 5:25pm
"he plugged it straight with a DI and found the tone much more pleasing"

Do you mean DI -> PA, or DI -> bass amp?

In any case, the K140 is a very nice little speaker and I doubt that you´ll find anything better sensitivity-wise. Unless you also upgrade the bass amp to something bigger, you´re going to be restricted by the 45W of the Dynacord. The only thing you could try is play around with the tuning of the cab, or just get another K140 and go for a double 15 cab. Not very compact, of course!  Smile


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Old Croc
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote all bass Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 18 April 2014 at 5:35pm
Thanks for the quick replies.

Originally posted by Earplug Earplug wrote:

"he plugged it straight with a DI and found the tone much more pleasing"

Do you mean DI -> PA, or DI -> bass amp?

I ment DI -> PA
Originally posted by Earplug Earplug wrote:

In any case, the K140 is a very nice little speaker and I doubt that you´ll find anything better sensitivity-wise. Unless you also upgrade the bass amp to something bigger, you´re going to be restricted by the 45W of the Dynacord. The only thing you could try is play around with the tuning of the cab, or just get another K140 and go for a double 15 cab. Not very compact, of course!  Smile
I know the K140 is much more sensitive than any current 15" speaker on the market. I don't want to touch the Showman but i could try to find the TS for the K140 and try to simulate another cabinet for it with a little lower tuning. Finding another K140 isn't going to be easy but this could be an option because the Dynacord has been modified to have a 16, 8, and a 4 Ohm output.

I am aware that the 45w amp is going to be a limiting factor for any new cab but volume wise there are no complaints. The cab is only used as backline or for practice purposes.
 




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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote shagnasty Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 19 April 2014 at 12:34am
I went thru all this when I played Bass...
 
Best bass rig I used Wireless receiver (pre-amp sorted) Dl-221 > Spx-90 > DL221 > PA, sorted...
 
When I mix bands I DI the bass (or grab the XLR out on the receiver) and take a Di from the cab, I don't mic bass rigs, they sound sh1t in a PA.
 
The issue with Bass, it is the hardest instrument to amplify and the hardest to hear on stage.
 
A project I am currently working on a is a 2x 10" bass wedge so the player can actually hear themselves, driven by disconnecting the bottom 2 10"s in a Marshal 8x10" cab.
 
A Di to the Pa is a must, but a nice 2x10" punchy box for stage monitoring would also help....
 
 
 
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote bitSmasher Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 19 April 2014 at 12:51am
Might be worth making a basic reflex box and playing around with porting to suit his preference. Keep in mind low E is 41hz and it's more about harmonics than pure bass. Also consider a piezo as well.
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote shagnasty Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 19 April 2014 at 1:18am
Prob is low E has a wavelength of about 8 f'ing metres which makes it not the best monitor frequency if you play bass...
 
I have to agree I was think, fast, punchy ported reflex box tuned no where near 40 or 80 hz
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote TONY.A.S.S. Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 19 April 2014 at 10:34am
It would be very hard to tune a Reflex cab to suit any instrument, because the Guitar or Bass produce sound effects as apposed to pure sound, and as some of us know there is more variation in a bass guitar sound than anything else. I have made various over the years and apart from a folded horn which was greatly influenced by the Acoustic 301 cab, and the 8x10's we did for Matt Snowball, the rest have been reflex. I think reflex cabs produce the most accurate sound whatever the Medium is, so I would stick to that and just tune it naturally, taking it down as low as you can to its -3db point.
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