Wedgehorn debut and question

[psjon]

I am no longer a BFM virgin. I finished my first project (Wedgehorn) and took it on its maiden voyage last Friday night at a coffeehouse gig playing bluegrass. It's loaded with an Eminence Alpha 6 sans melded array. I opted for carpeting rather than splurge on a $50 can of Duratex (wish it came in smaller sizes).

The layout of the band is three forward (guitar, dobro, fiddle and all sing) and one back (bass). I placed the wedgehorn squarely in front of the middle front person. I had it hooked up to a QSC amp and Rane EQ.

It ran like a champ. All three of us could hear it well. The high end was way better than typical cheap and muddy monitors. It's the best experience we've had supplying our own monitors (still doesn't beat our experience playing festival shows with pros running the sound - I'm just a musician handy with a tablesaw). I thought it was a real success.

The rest of the band was rather mute on the experience, but you see, my job is to buy the gear, maintain it, set in up, run it, and their job is to kvetch about it when it's less than perfect, so I interpret it as tacit approval.

A couple of things: I use almost all condenser mics since they sound so much better for acoustic music. I run them fairly hot so that I can "work the mic" (lean in for lead, back off for harmonies). The person in the middle commented that there was some muddiness when I was in close to the mic usually talking between tunes probably from maxing out (I didn't hear it off more to the side). I need to balance things out better with levels and such.

I need to learn more about EQ. I ran flat except I canceled everything out below 80 per BFM suggestions. I am a rookie at EQing. It's also tough to think about music and engineer the sound at the same time.

Wish I would have read more posts on here before I finished the cab; I think I would have done the melded array and put a Beta 8 in it (maybe less likely to max out?).

I am hooked on speaker-building. I cannot decide what to build next. I may build another wedgehorn just to totally bath us in sound, but then I think a pair of SLAs with a auto tuba would be nice for the home, and I am also considering a pair of DR200s and a Tuba24.

Question: I have a pair of 15" JBL EONS which so far I've been pretty fond of. Will I be happier with a pair of DR200s with a Tuba24 or is it 6 of one and a half dozen of the other? Part of it is I just like to build stuff.

Paul

[LelandCrooks]

Question: I have a pair of 15" JBL EONS which so far I've been pretty fond of.

Somebody on Ebay will be very happy with them also.

Will I be happier with a pair of DR200s with a Tuba24

[DJPhatman]

Try 2 DR200s with a single BP102 loaded T39 for your acoustic, and yes, the 8 and the melded arrays make a huge difference in clarity for the Wedgehorns.

YMMV

[gdougherty]

The 8 will have more bottom end, but otherwise I'd expect the Eminence 6 will sound just about as good in the upper mids. For accoustic stuff, the 6 should be plenty fine.

I've been very happy with my wedgehorns with the "old style" horn mounted tweets rather than the melded array.
With the Dayton 6 I was giving a little boost around 160Hz, cutting 300-600Hz a little and giving a little boost again in the 5-10K upper ranges. It's a starting point, something t play with.

I kind of doubt you were bottoming out the driver playing bluegrass in a coffe shop.

There's not really a BFD cab that wouldn't walk all over the Eons, especially with a sub involved. DR200's or OT12's and a moderate T39 would stomp the Eons in all regards.