Hello from KY

[miramadar]

Brand new to the forum. I'm a bass player in a local rock band. I haven't gigged any in a couple of years (built a house...) and I'm thinking of getting back to playing music. I used to use gear that the "band" owned, which was a Trace Elliot head and cheap homemade speaker. Even with the weak speaker (no-name 15" speaker and horn) the Trace sounded pretty decent. But that band broke up and the gear got sold...and I didn't end up with the Trace ...

Anyway, I've put together a new bass rig consisting of my trusty custom Warmoth 4-string (ash body, maple neck, ebony fingerboard, P-bass body/Jazz neck), a BBE B-Max preamp and a newly purchased (used) Crown 602 power amp (380W per ch. into 8 ohms). I hooked this up to the cheap-o speaker (that I did own in the first place) and man, what a bummer. It had been a couple of years, so I guess I just forgot how bad that speaker sounded. No bass response at all...even with the Bass knob turned all the way up on the B-Max. Very trebly (I hate trebly!!!) and weak mids. I ran it full range and and biamped, and both sucked hard. I tweaked with the B-Max for about 30 minutes and got to a sound that didn't make me nauseas.

So, never having looked inside that old homemade cabinet, I pulled the grill off, popped the 15" speaker out and looked inside. I saw pink insulation stapled to the back panel and I knew I was in trouble. Actually, that was the only sound absorbtion material in the cab. And just on the back panel. I inspected the speaker itself...no rips or anything. But I didn't see any manufacturer label on it. It actually only had a few numbers printed on it and nothing else. Not even the ohms rating. So I'm thinking, if I drop a decent speaker into this cab, maybe I'll have something.

Luckily, I always do research before spending money. I went over to the Talkbass forum in search of a good speaker to buy. I kept seeing a lot of folks saying stuff like "it doesn't matter how good your speaker is if your cabinet sucks". Made sense to me. Then I came across BFM.

Here I am.

[BrentEvans]

Welcome aboard. Bass players often like the Jack series, and the Omni 12 and 15 (not OmniTop) are old standbys.

BTW... pink insulation isn't bad in and of itself. It works decently, about as well as polyfill. It's just itchy... but typically you would find it loosely stuffed in the cab, not stapled to the walls... not a big deal.

The speaker has to be matched to the cab, and that's very likely your problem. If it is as it sounds (which is a cheap, no-name driver with very little Xmax and low sensitivity), your best bet is to put it together, sell it, and fund a Jack build. As to which one... that depends on what you want to achieve.

Good luck!

[miramadar]

Thanks for the reply Brent. If you don't mind, take a look at the last post I did and comment if you're inclined.

[DJPhatman]

miramadar, are you asking for a recommendation? If so, we need a little more information about your typical gig and crowd size. Are you playing indoors or out? Are you carrying the room with the backline, or do you have PA support? Is your mix even with the rest of the band, or are you dealing with a guitard/keyboard killer/drum assassin?

My uneducated guess would be a Jack 112 or 2. Make them with switchable tweeters (on,half, off) as it is very easy to do, and it is better to not need and have it, than to need it and not have it. I would also recommend you think about switching to a lighter weight amp, if you can. Makes playing out much more enjoyable.

[Tom Smit]

Welcome to the forum!

I have to give a +1 to what DJPhatman posted. If you put in the tweeters with switches, you could have a potent PA for yourself as well. Um, bass cab or PA, one at a time.

If you build just one J112, you'll find it way more potent than what you used before....two J112s will be awesome.