The less well known/publicized art of Bass amps...

[dave.king1]

Do they still make etone speakers? JBL was too dear and reckon most emerging pub rock bands from 70's & 80's can thank etone for providing well priced pa gear to use at the time.

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Mr Google says currently manufactured in Bankstown here in Sydney

[fender3x]

I don't gig much lately, but want to get back to it. Lately when I have, it's been outside which calls for the big guns. Growing up I had an old (even then) Sunn made in Portland Oregon, and all I wanted was a bigger one with a 2x15 cab rather than the 1x15 I had to lug around. When the Sunn head became unreliable I got a small G&K, that I have to this day. Very reliable. Small, but heavy. A few years ago I got a Carvin BX500 class D amp. I see that Carvin went out of the amp business last October. Dirty shame. I love this amp. I run it into a 8ohm system, so it's about 350W, which is plenty with my cabs. Graphic and parametric equalizer. Compression. Footswitching. It even has a 12AX7 preamp tube that I can switch in and out. Speakon or 1/4" connectors in the back. DI out. And it is light as a feather.

So for me the perfect amp would be one like the Carvin, but would have the lovely tube sound of those old valve Sunn amps. So, to get a bit of that, I run it through a Sansamp BDDI. That gives it a lovely crunch. BDDI and amp together are about 6 lbs. My back likes that much better than anything I saw as a kid. Huge transformers and valves sound great. But for my money I like class-D amps, and a BDDI or other contraption to give it a little tubey crunch. My ears are happy with it, and my back loves it.

With cabs I didn't care too much about the size but wanted them lighter than my old Sunn 1x15 with the JBL...or any 4x10 I have seen. I stumbled onto Bill Fitzmaurice cabs and have never looked back. When I play out it's parties or bars and one DR250 is plenty for that. Tuned for bass these are great cabs. To play outside I add a Titan 39 subwoofer.

These cabs are light for what they are. My DR250 is about as loud as a 4x10, but weighs about 45lbs. Contrast that with a G&K 4x10 with Neos that weighs in around 65lbs.

But I want lighter... So I have plans to build two of Billfitzmaurice's Jack12L (light cabs). These use aircraft bracing and neo drivers, and some builders have gotten them down to around 20 lbs. They are not tiny, and not quite as loud as the DR250. Still they are louder than the average 112, and two of them should be fine for anything I am likely to do. Would love to get my entire rig under 50lbs.

I put Eminence drivers into an old 2x10 cab I had long ago, and have been using Eminence drivers ever since. There are certainly drivers that are as good. But not many that are as good for the money. Lately I have been using the neos and they are amazing. It is just incredible to me that I can now build an entire cab that is louder and better than my old Sunn 1x15, but weighs less than the magnet alone in that old JBL.

[Simon Barden]

I had a Bill Fitzmaurice Jack 2x10" cab that a friend had made for him, but it was very over-engineered, large and heavy. It was very loud though, if very middley. It really needed to be run with the 1x 5" that my friend kept, to get a good low end. Otherwise you had to knock the mid control on the amp back and turn up the bass and treble to get a more normal bass sound. I bought it cheap, sight unseen as it was a 2x10" and all of those I'd seen were fairly compact and regretted it ever after.

[fender3x]

Bill publishes SPL charts for all his cabs, and you are right that the Jacks have a midrange bump. My DR250 has less of that, but it's not exactly scooped, either. More like flat across the mids, whereas the Jack 10s and 12s have a pronounced bump. I haven't built the my Jacks yet, so I can't really say how they'll sound yet. I mostly wanted them because they are loud and light, and I figured I could EQ to get a sound I like.

If you think the Jacks are "overengineered" you should take a look at the DRs. The Jacks are semi-horn loaded which is what makes them loud...but also part of what makes them not-small. The DRs are fully horn loaded, so the driver fires to the rear. BF Simplex cabs are more of a conventional reflex cab, and don't have the midrange bump.

The weight issue strikes me as odd. It could be that the builder used heavy ply and heavy drivers. I opted for the "light" option, which is actually a little different design. No less engineered, but much lighter. I also opted for the lightest drivers. We'll see when I get around to building it if it lives up to the hype.

[Simon Barden]

It was this particular cab that was 'over-engineered' with much thicker ply and more bracing that was recommended. It was certainly 'solid', and about the size of a small refrigerator, and double the weight, with two 250W 10" Eminence ceramic magnet speakers in.

[fender3x]

Well the published SPL curve on these says they should be a bit mid-rangy, but if the builder changed the internal volume that could eliminate some bass. They are designed with a cross over, a low pass filter and tweeters, so it's harder for me to explain why the highs weren't there. The drivers sound heavy, but not necessarily wrong for the cab. No BF design calls for anything heavier than 1/2" Baltic birch plywood, which is also the reason for a lot of internal bracing. So it sounds like the builder may have "innovated."

On my first cab I used heavy ply that I had around the house and some ceramic magnet Eminence drivers I picked up cheap. I sold it for what I paid for the drivers... $35 I think. It sounded OK, but was about the weight of a baby elephant. In retrospect I may have harmed the designer's rep. Maybe I should have burned the cab and used the drivers in something else...

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[Andyxlh]

Hmm I have had a couple of good and indifferent amps.
The worst was by far a 1980s solid state Marshall bass rig with 2x10 and 1x15 cabs. Not sure of the model, I think it was 200w.Expensive and rubbish.
50w Peavet Basic combo was a great cheap amp super clean with guitar too
1980s fender 30w open back combo was marginal, no bass response and way too quiet
Best was my '79 SVT AMPEG which was fantastic until it eventually fell apart. I had it repaired in Sydney in the early 2000s and it was never the same again. Run it through an ampeg 4x10 and a home build 1x15 with a Celestion bass speaker.
Now have a 300w ampeg solid state mini head with the same cabs, it does a really good job of copying the growl of the SVT. Bought it in the USA new 4 years ago for about 350aud and cheaper than the last repair on the SVT!
The huge downside is the ampeg cabs are heavier than a battleship. The bass player I currently play with has two fibreglass custom made 1x12 cabs and a micro head which is 1000w, the whole setup is about half the weight of the ampeg 4x 10 alone, and sounds great.

[Marcel]

Hmm I have had a couple of good and indifferent amps.
The worst was by far a 1980s solid state Marshall bass rig with 2x10 and 1x15 cabs. Not sure of the model, I think it was 200w.Expensive and rubbish.
50w Peavet Basic combo was a great cheap amp super clean with guitar too
1980s fender 30w open back combo was marginal, no bass response and way too quiet
Best was my '79 SVT AMPEG which was fantastic until it eventually fell apart. I had it repaired in Sydney in the early 2000s and it was never the same again. Run it through an ampeg 4x10 and a home build 1x15 with a Celestion bass speaker.
Now have a 300w ampeg solid state mini head with the same cabs, it does a really good job of copying the growl of the SVT. Bought it in the USA new 4 years ago for about 350aud and cheaper than the last repair on the SVT!
The huge downside is the ampeg cabs are heavier than a battleship. The bass player I currently play with has two fibreglass custom made 1x12 cabs and a micro head which is 1000w, the whole setup is about half the weight of the ampeg 4x 10 alone, and sounds great.

Was it a CL or VR version of the SVT Andy? Do you still have it?
The current SVT-7PRO that pumps out 1kW of bass grunt with tube front end goes for $1500... An all tube SVT that pushes 200W into 2 ohms starts at $3k... As desirable as either is both are out of my league...lol

[Andyxlh]

Err I'm not sure, in spite of living with it for 20+ years! Currently it sits in the garage at my sister in law's place for the last 6 years or so...
It is 350 watts I'm sure, and I never wound it right out to se how loud it would go

[Marcel]

Err I'm not sure, in spite of living with it for 20+ years! Currently it sits in the garage at my sister in law's place for the last 6 years or so...
It is 350 watts I'm sure, and I never wound it right out to se how loud it would go

Oh...my.... Sister in laws garage !?!
That's one valuable (and probably rare) amp to have sitting idle... If not using it I'd be putting it on Reverb or on consignment at a local music store, or are you hoping its value goes up...lol.