Bass rig is so important to getting the right sound!!

[edwin]

Well, after all that, my Mac just let its magic smoke out....

[elwoodblue]

Well, after all that, my Mac just let its magic smoke out....

Oh man...that sucks.
Is it toast?

[edwin]

Well, after all that, my Mac just let its magic smoke out....

Oh man...that sucks.
Is it toast?

Don't know yet. The guy who can fix it is up in the mountains and life has been to crazy to get up there. As long as the transformers are good, I think it's fine.

[jazzyvee]

Just got home from a gig where the backline didnt arrive before the festival started and as we were first on, the prospect of going DI into a stage monitor was looming. Then the tech from Go West offered us their bass rig which was a Mark bass head and eden 4x10 cab. Anyway since it wasn't a rental rig I decided not to change any of the settings and when I got on stage the settings were not really suitable for a reggae gig, very middly hardly any bottom end, but I thought i'd best live with it and trust the venue sound to the FOH guys. The gig was fine and as far as the audience told me afterwards everything sounded great. However it's quite a challenge getting the feel right when you play a genre of music that requires a dominant bass sound on stage and have very little of it to work with.
That said, I stayed to listen to Go West later in the day and the sound was bang on point for their style of music. Just enough bass out front to carry band's sound.
I'm sure though if I'd tweaked the rig I could have got just the right sound for reggae.  If it was a rental backline then I would have, but from experience all of the backline bass rigs I've had at gigs have  had some problem with the sound except one which was a Markbass 8x10 which I used with my rack head.

[hieronymous]

Just got home from a gig where the backline didnt arrive before the festival started and as we were first on, the prospect of going DI into a stage monitor was looming. Then the tech from Go West offered us their bass rig which was a Mark bass head and eden 4x10 cab. Anyway since it wasn't a rental rig I decided not to change any of the settings and when I got on stage the settings were not really suitable for a reggae gig, very middly hardly any bottom end, but I thought i'd best live with it and trust the venue sound to the FOH guys. The gig was fine and as far as the audience told me afterwards everything sounded great. However it's quite a challenge getting the feel right when you play a genre of music that requires a dominant bass sound on stage and have very little of it to work with.
That said, I stayed to listen to Go West later in the day and the sound was bang on point for their style of music. Just enough bass out front to carry band's sound.

Wow, I just played probably a totally different gig but with similar circumstances - bass rig that I wasn't able to adjust! It was interesting, I couldn't get off on the sound - my volume was low, (mostly-rhythm) guitarist next to me was a little too loud, couldn't hear the lead guitarist at all. I almost had to go on auto-pilot, but at the same time be really into the music ("play for my life" as Jerry Garcia put it?). Especially because this band is fairly improvisational - our set was only 20 minutes though so we had it pretty worked out, made it easier to roll with it and "just play the songs" even though that usually isn't my M.O.

I bet you played your gig like a complete professional and rocked the house!

[jazzyvee]

Hey Harry, good to know these are global issues. But yeah I gave the gig the same gutso as normal but as you no doubt know, if you are playing a phrase and you can hear the notes back and they sound like you expect it inspires you to play better. So whilst the FOH sound was good and i was happy with my playing the sound from the rig was not giving me the feedback I needed to play my best,..

[jazzyvee]

This was my setup at my gig on Sunday night.  My Barefaced Big Baby II (800w at 8 ohms), with my new Crown XLS1502 which replaced my QSC PLX2402 because of the weight. I am beginning to realise I might have been a tad too quick in selling the QSC as I think it sounds better to my ears than the Crown. Kind of has a thicker and more dense sound and the attack seems more instant. The Crown is no slouch and a great alternative.

Well we live and learn. The plus side is the reduced weight means I will take the rack out gigging more and always have my best sound. What I do like about these two amps is that I can turn the power amp up full and no hiss so doing that and playing quietly gives superb quality. I couldn't do that with my mesa boogie walkabout head.

Next gig I will have it sideways so my OCD about the amp being bigger than the cab doesn't stress me out. :-)
 

[cozmik_cowboy]

Next gig I will have it sideways so my OCD about the amp being bigger than the cab doesn't stress me out. :-)
 

Yeah - I gotta admit, that was the first thing I noticed.......

Peter

[lembic76450]

You know, I've never understood why companies like QSC  and Crown, or, insert
your own favorite, do not make single channel amps for bass players.  I giged for
a long time with stereo amps and used only one channel due to either using one
cabinet or two with a 4 ohm load. The only benefit I found with the Crown that I
used was the two amps were independent, if one failed, I could plug into the other.
Never had a failure to justify the weight, though.

[smokin_dave]

This was my setup at my gig on Sunday night.  My Barefaced Big Baby II (800w at 8 ohms), with my new Crown XLS1502 which replaced my QSC PLX2402 because of the weight. I am beginning to realise I might have been a tad too quick in selling the QSC as I think it sounds better to my ears than the Crown. Kind of has a thicker and more dense sound and the attack seems more instant. The Crown is no slouch and a great alternative.

Well we live and learn. The plus side is the reduced weight means I will take the rack out gigging more and always have my best sound. What I do like about these two amps is that I can turn the power amp up full and no hiss so doing that and playing quietly gives superb quality. I couldn't do that with my mesa boogie walkabout head.

Next gig I will have it sideways so my OCD about the amp being bigger than the cab doesn't stress me out. :-)
 

I just purchased the same Crown power amp and I'm very satisfied with the performance and sound it puts out.I did this to save weight also but still have everything housed in my ATA rack case which weighs a TON.


I gave up using SKB and Gator racks due to the latching system they use.Every one I have used the lid latches failed after a year of use.I gave up on them and went to a ATA flight case and although I don't have to worry about lid latch failure the trade off is the weight.

[edwin]

Next gig I will have it sideways so my OCD about the amp being bigger than the cab doesn't stress me out. :-)
 

What about putting the cab on top of the rack? Maybe with some material between them to keep it from moving. It would get the speaker closer to your ears.

[eddieg]

I've been fortunate; I found an old F2-B in a pawn shop By a local Air Force base, I had it sent back to the shop and they gave it a once over/ good to go and I've been using it ever since. I had to change the Caps in it once in 25 years (Old Blue face) but never the less.... I use two old Crown Micro-Tech 600's .....and  2 ,15/8 combo cabs ....BOOM!!!!

EddieG

Peace!!!

See ya down range

[willie]

Ken

If you are using a stereo power amp for your rig and only need one channel you should put it in Bridge Mono Mode or even Parallel Mon Mode if using 2 ohm load.
That combines both channels of the amp into one with more power.
I use 2 6000 Watt Crown amps in my rig. Have 5 altogether. 18000 Watts. Two of my rigs use a pair of Crown Touring Sound Stereo Power Amps.
In both rigs both amps are set in bridge mono mode. One amp gets separately compressed signal from low out of F-1X and drives 1X15 cabinets.
The other gets a separately compressed signal from High out of F-1X and drives cabinets with 4X10 Mid Bass Drivers and Super tweeters.
Try running your amp in bridge mono to on or two cabinets. 4 ohm load. You only use one input and one gain control on amp but have the power from both amplifier channels driving your cabinets. That's why they don't make mono amps. They make amps with mono modes.
Hope that helps
Will

[edwin]

Ken

If you are using a stereo power amp for your rig and only need one channel you should put it in Bridge Mono Mode or even Parallel Mon Mode if using 2 ohm load.
That combines both channels of the amp into one with more power.
I use 2 6000 Watt Crown amps in my rig. Have 5 altogether. 18000 Watts. Two of my rigs use a pair of Crown Touring Sound Stereo Power Amps.
In both rigs both amps are set in bridge mono mode. One amp gets separately compressed signal from low out of F-1X and drives 1X15 cabinets.
The other gets a separately compressed signal from High out of F-1X and drives cabinets with 4X10 Mid Bass Drivers and Super tweeters.
Try running your amp in bridge mono to on or two cabinets. 4 ohm load. You only use one input and one gain control on amp but have the power from both amplifier channels driving your cabinets. That's why they don't make mono amps. They make amps with mono modes.
Hope that helps
Will

That's a good idea, but you have to be careful. I've let the magic smoke out of many speakers this way. Not many bass cabinets are designed to handle the thousands of watts that can be produced in bridge mode. Also, in some cases, the sound quality can be reduced slightly. And, of course, make sure your amp can handle the load bridged. Not all amps can do a 4 ohm bridged load, if that's what your cabinet impedance is.

[willie]

Edwin
My Crown Macro Techs can handle a 4 ohm load in bridge mono mode. Which is what they are driving with two 8 ohm cabinets on each amplifier. And I'm not using store bought speakers. Built them my self and they have very high power handling capacity drivers in them. And I try to keep a 2 to 1 ratio of amplifier power to speaker handling specs. This way I never have to worry about clipping the power amp and putting square waves and DC current through the voice coils. Could I blow them up? Yeah. If I was stupid and wanted to throw away a lot of money. But I spent many years and a lot of $ putting together a systems this powerful. And a lot of research. So everything is safe. But good advice for anyone who doesn't have a good understanding of the subject.