Speaker Cab for Upright Bass

[blown240]

I am looking for input / ideas for a smallish speaker cab design that will sound good with an upright bass.  I need something that is small enough to tuck into the corner of the room without having my wife complain about the look of it.  I was thinking of building a 2x?? speaker cab, roughly 16-18 inches deep.  That way I can stick it behind my couch.

I have noticed that bass cabs usually use 10inch or 15 inch speakers.  Why not 12s?  It seems to me that a 2x12 cabinet would produce a lower tone than a 2x10 and possible have more output from a small package.

When I play shows I use a copy of a Mesa 4x10 cab that I made, with a Fender PS300 head.  Its the perfect blend of volume vs. tone.  But it too big to keep in the house for practice.

Any thoughts on this?  I have built a couple cabs before with great results, but this one has me a little stumped.

[bigsbybender]

Upright player for hire here....(I play with Rockabilly, Psychobilly, Folk, singer/songwriter, and occasionally bluegrass artists.)

I use a 2x10. 30" wide X 16.5" deep by 13.5" tall.  It's shelf ported loaded with Eminence Beta 10 speakers. The Shelf ports are on either end of the cabinet, not along the bottom as is traditional.  I did this to keep it short and wide (as the Fender style head the amp is in is very wide.)  It's tuned fairly low with those dimensions, and gives a nice sound. I also added a piezo tweeter to get some of the string "clack" when slapping fingerboard for the Rockabilly/Psychobilly stuff. I use either my 200w tube bass amp that I built out of a dead Super Twin or a Trace Elliot Solid State head. (I also use a little 50w Ampeg Bass Rocket for coffee shops and small gigs)

I have a Hartke 4x10 metal cone cab that sounds good... and when building the 2x10 cabinet mentioned above I tried to get the same frequency range...I really didn't use a lot of math, just some trial and error, but I think I got close with this 2x10. I liked that so much that I built a 1x10 that I cut the width to about half. I use it at home with a small 50w solid state head for practice, with great results either upright or Fender Bass. 

These may not be the dimensions you're seeking but I thought I'd share my experience.  I wanted something that I could dress up like a Vintage American amp to pass on the Rockabilly stage, but with some modern Bass kick.  I prefer 10" drivers over 12" models. I think (opinion, not necessarily fact) the 12"s have too much midrange. That is great for guitar but less so for Bass. 

I thought about doing a 15" and 10" +tweeter in a single cab instead, but I found the 2x10 to be more than adequate and much more portable in dimension.

j.

[blown240]

Thanks for the info.  I have a couple different projects.  One is a rockabilly blues thing with some buddies that isnt very serious.  The other is a rock/jazz thing that is more serious.

I have a Slap King with a K&K and a 51 reissue P bass.


I am surprised that a 12 would have more mids than a 10, but I guess thats why there arent many bass amps with 12s and guitar amps with 10s.

The dimensions you have are perfect for what I am looking for.  Do you have any pics of that 200w head you built?

[bigsbybender]

Here's a Pic from a couple years back sitting on top of my Hartke cabs.  I left a the Super Twin faceplate intact.  Internally, I changed the Preamp, and retuned the graphic EQ to more bass friendly frequencies. I also changed the Bias circuit, but I've been having trouble with redplating with Russian 6L6GCs so that may change once again. It's 6-6L6 running in Ultra-linear.

I don't have a pic of my 2x10 right now.. it's in pieces waiting for my Blond Tolex to go on.


j.

[G._Hoffman]

All the best upright sounds I've heard have come from 1X15 Portoflex cabinets - well, and the amp of course.  But 1X15, at any rate.


Gabriel

[bigsbybender]

All the best upright sounds I've heard have come from 1X15 Portoflex cabinets - well, and the amp of course.  But 1X15, at any rate.

Well all the best bass sounds are through a Portaflex.....  They are unfortunately not loud enough to keep up with some of the drummers that I have to put up with.

j.

[blown240]

What made the Portoflex so special?  Dimensions, Speaker?

[bigsbybender]

I'll say the amp itself.  It was the first really good sounding bass amp made.  Ampeg as a company actually began finding solutions to amplify upright bass instruments.

Sourced from Wikipedia:

History

Ampeg first existed under the name "Michaels-Hull Electronic Labs", as a partnership between Everett Hull, an accomplished pianist and bassist, and Stanley Michaels. The original goal of the company was to produce both a new microphone pickup that Hull designed, and to produce instrument amplifiers with a minimum of output distortion. In general, tube amplifiers will break up into a distorted sound when overdriven, an effect that was disliked by both Hull and jazz musicians. The pickup was intended to fit onto the end of an upright bass, and was dubbed the "Amplified Peg" or "Ampeg" for short. After gaining sole proprietorship of the company, Hull changed the company’s name to "Ampeg Bassamp Company".

j.

[blown240]

WOW, Thats pretty cool!

[G._Hoffman]

All the best upright sounds I've heard have come from 1X15 Portoflex cabinets - well, and the amp of course.  But 1X15, at any rate.

Well all the best bass sounds are through a Portaflex.....  They are unfortunately not loud enough to keep up with some of the drummers that I have to put up with.

j.

Or an SVT.


Gabriel

[HotBluePlates]

What made the Portoflex so special?  Dimensions, Speaker?

The Portaflex amps were all either a 15" speaker or an 18" speaker.  The amp is just a simple clean amp with a 2x6L6 output section, and with some usable tone controls.

But good bass amps/cabs generally need either big speakers, or many small speakers that act same-as a large speaker. Note the Hartke cab (4x10, to move a big wavefront) and SVT (8x10, to move an even bigger wavefront) were mentioned.

With the bass players I knew that used each of those, the bass sound was "punch-you-in-the-chest" bass, rather than smooth and soft low end. The impression I got was that there might not even be good reproduction of the fundamental bass note, but all the harmonics were there so it sounded like solid bass.

[G._Hoffman]

With the bass players I knew that used each of those, the bass sound was "punch-you-in-the-chest" bass, rather than smooth and soft low end. The impression I got was that there might not even be good reproduction of the fundamental bass note, but all the harmonics were there so it sounded like solid bass.

It's not so much that it isn't there, as that no bass player or recording ever heard it.

The low E on a bass has a frequency of about 40hz.  That gives a wavelength of about 20 feet.  In order to really hear that frequency, you have be standing half that distance away.  But who has ever seen a bass player stand 10 feet from their amp?  Or a microphone that was ten feet away?  Which is why DI's are so popular amongst sound engineers. 


Gabriel

[bigsbybender]

It's not so much that it isn't there, as that no bass player or recording ever heard it.

The low E on a bass has a frequency of about 40hz.  That gives a wavelength of about 20 feet.  In order to really hear that frequency, you have be standing half that distance away.  But who has ever seen a bass player stand 10 feet from their amp?  Or a microphone that was ten feet away?  Which is why DI's are so popular amongst sound engineers. 


Gabriel

I DI if the show is big enough.  I played an outdoor show this summer where I was running through 32 JBL 18" drivers on the Front of House..... now that was BASS!

My preference for the 2x10 has been mainly for convenience and portability. I get the upper frequencies which are crucial for the clicking from slapping the strings against the fingerboard. I get a good tone for what I do that way....and my upright takes up the front passenger seat and half the back seat in my VW. This leaves me with just half the back seat left for putting an amplifier. 


j.

[blown240]

...and my upright takes up the front passenger seat and half the back seat in my VW. This leaves me with just half the back seat left for putting an amplifier. 


j.

I used to have a Geo Metro 2 door hatch back.  My upright would touch the dash and the back hatch.  I still had both front seats though!