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What to look for in a bass bottom?


hamerhead

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I want to add a 15" to my 4x10 bass rig (powered by an SWR 400W head).  I'm not a bass player and don't know bass gear for anything, so what would be a good bang-for-the-buck 1x15 cabinet to look for?

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16 hours ago, hamerhead said:

I want to add a 15" to my 4x10 bass rig (powered by an SWR 400W head).  I'm not a bass player and don't know bass gear for anything, so what would be a good bang-for-the-buck 1x15 cabinet to look for?

Man, this is a bassist's rabbit hole...

Most people acknowledge that a 4x10 cabinet will go lower than a 1x15 - the speaker cone surface area is larger in a 4x10.
Also, the 4x10 / 1x15 combination is not well balanced. A better balanced pairing is 2x10 / 1x15.

My preference is 12" drivers. Brighter than 15" and meatier than a 10". I used a pair of 1x12 cabs (with tweeter) for nearly every gig I did in the last 7 years. And you can carry one in each hand!

Do you have a tone goal that requires a 15 or are you building a stack to look good? In which case get another 4x10...

By the way, which 4x10 do you have?

Now that I've peed on your parade, there's an Avatar 2x10 in your neighborhood that would make your rig a 6x10; a rig I wish I'd had a chance to try.
And there's a Schroeder cab in Kenosha- expensive, but the last cab you'd ever need.

If you are set on a 1x15, then Hartke, GK, Traynor are all good. Used Avatar would be okay too.
Eden is very good, I still covet their 4x10 cab.
Early SWR is probably OK but will likely be old and ugly. Same with Bag End.
The only Carvin I ever liked was a powered 1x12. The rest of their stuff was just underwhelming (I lived near their World Domination HQ in Escondido and tried a few rigs out).
There are some fabulous brands (Bergantino!) but you'll pay hard.

Finally, a word of advice from a guy who has lugged around bass amps for 45 years: big rigs are a young man's game. Yours is adequate to hear yourself at stage volumes. Use FOH support to fill the club (sound guys prefer that anyways). Put your cabinet on a stand if need be, if you are having trouble hearing. And tell the guitar player he's too fucking loud!

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What to look for in a bass bottom?

I am surprised that this is a topic on a Hamer forum but anyway, well I think that a bass bottom isn't for everyone, especially those that love carp or bream. But as long as your net is strong enough, then go for any fish I say.

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On 6/4/2019 at 2:51 AM, killerteddybear said:

Man, this is a bassist's rabbit hole...

Most people acknowledge that a 4x10 cabinet will go lower than a 1x15 - the speaker cone surface area is larger in a 4x10.
Also, the 4x10 / 1x15 combination is not well balanced. A better balanced pairing is 2x10 / 1x15.

My preference is 12" drivers. Brighter than 15" and meatier than a 10". I used a pair of 1x12 cabs (with tweeter) for nearly every gig I did in the last 7 years. And you can carry one in each hand!

I've thought about getting a 2x12 with a tweeter, but I've already got two 2x10 + 1x15 setups, and I do like how they sound.  One of my bass heads is "bi amp" capable, but honestly I don't find myself really using that functionality.

Usually I see things like a 4x10 and 1x15 used with biamped setups, where you can pretty much put all the bass to the 15, and then the higher frequencies to the 4x10. This also depends on how well the cabinets are tuned, and how low they are tuned to.

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On 6/3/2019 at 11:51 PM, killerteddybear said:

My preference is 12" drivers. Brighter than 15" and meatier than a 10".

Amen to that.  Been through the journey and landed in that same place.

Been happy with my present rig - Aguilar TH500 with a pair of DB 112 cabs. 

P5N2tjY.jpg

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20 minutes ago, killerteddybear said:

NICE BASS!

Is that an 80's Rich?

Thanks- yeah I love old BC Rich stuff.  If hindsight were 20/20, I'd have bought a guitar or two years ago.  Price of admission is steep these days.

That one is a '79, Tijuana era. Killer bass!

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You could always go cheap (>cough< Peavey >cough<), and install the 15" speaker of your choice.  This one's cheap (no affiliation), but I dunno how much shipping would be, a trip down to your local pawn shop might yield something similar without the shipping cost:

https://davesguitar.com/products/peavey/1-15-bass-cab-late-80s/

P.S., I just realized the OP lives in Madison, maybe DGS could arrange for it to get sent to their Madison store?

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16 minutes ago, crunchee said:

You could always go cheap (>cough< Peavey >cough<), and install the 15" speaker of your choice.  This one's cheap (no affiliation), but I dunno how much shipping would be, a trip down to your local pawn shop might yield something similar without the shipping cost:

https://davesguitar.com/products/peavey/1-15-bass-cab-late-80s/

P.S., I just realized the OP lives in Madison, maybe DGS could arrange for it to get sent to their Madison store?

Yes!
Those Black Widows were good speakers.  Probably no need to change.

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My first real bass amp as a kid was a Peavey TNT130, augmented by a Combo 300 when the bands started to play out.  Both had the same size cabs with Black Widow 15s.  After I outgrew the sound, I pulled the amp chassis out of both combos, flipped em over (so the 1U slot for the amp looked like a port), and ran a 2x15 stack for years with other heads (Fender BXR400 sounded nice with 'em).  Anyway - those drivers are indeed great.

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On 6/8/2019 at 1:09 AM, chromium said:

Amen to that.  Been through the journey and landed in that same place.

Been happy with my present rig - Aguilar TH500 with a pair of DB 112 cabs. 

P5N2tjY.jpg

That sure is not a folk gig. BC Rich mockingbird longhorn bass, badass.

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