Building a new bass rig - need reccomendations!

[rictified]

Bob, I was using that as a "fer instance" that ported cabs do go lower than sealed, same driver. And the cab I used for my example was a 6 cu. ft. cab design.

John this probably isn't the place for this, but anyway I'm not following your reasoning. As I have always understood it, a ported cab cannot be ported lower than the resonant frequency of the driver and actually higher is more desirable as it evens out the response curve and a ported cab cannot be driven lower than the port frequency as the driver is unloaded below it which means that it is basically being driven in free air so it will drop off rapidly anyway even if the driver is not destroyed. So how can a ported cab go lower than a sealed cab with the same drivers in them?

[johnallg]

I have two different speaker design programs and they both show the same trend for the same driver in ported vs sealed. Ported have more output at lower frequencies than the sealed. And that's designing to a Q of .566 Ported and .707 sealed. No hump before rolloff in both designs. The ported (243 liters/8.59 cu. ft.) only ends up twice the air volume of the sealed (120 liters/4.2 cu. ft.).

[sloop_john_b]

Well it took me long enough, but I finally went ahead and got the Markbass LMKII. Chris happened to have a nice 4x10 SWR cab on consignment at POTR and I couldn't pass it up.

I'm now two gigs into my new setup and i'm still adjusting bigtime. It's been said that the Markbass amps bring out the true character of the instrument more, and i've absolutely found this to be the case thusfar. The old flats on my v68 now actually sound their age (not a bad thing!), whereas the Ampeg B200R I was using seemed to be muddling things up more. Ampeg's aren't known for their clarity, I suppose.

The Markbass isn't the clearest amp out there, but i'm getting tones out of it that I never got with the Ampeg. The "VLE" knob has been real useful for me, though the "VPF" knob, meant more for slap guys, I have not touched yet.

It's got a surprising amount of power, which is exactly what I had hoped for. For the last few months (coincidentally, since we got a new drummer), I have had no choice but to run the Ampeg's volume anywhere between 8 and 10. I have not gone above halfway with the LMKII yet and the drummer complained that I was too loud after our last gig!

I'm loving the sound and power of this amp - however, the cabinet has proved a bit heavy and too bulky for me. The fact that it doesn't fit in the boot of my car is also a problem. It kind of kills the whole portability kick I wanted to be on when I got the LMKII. I'm considering getting two 2x10 cabs, which I imagine would be easier to carry, easy to condense for small gigs, and better suited to play "band equipment Tetris" then the one huge 4x10.

For kicks, here's a quick cameraphone pic of the rig, with the Ampeg on top, LMKII to the side, and a Loooper a/b/y switch (no ROS setup here at the moment).

[sloop_john_b]

Oh yeah, and I want rack ears and a gigbag for this - where do I get 'em?

[86kubicki]

Great to see that you went with the Markbass John! As far as your cabinet situation goes, I think having two 2 X 10 cabs will give you the portability and expandability you're looking for. My current rig is a Markbass head paired with a Bergantino 2 X 10 cabinet, which is sufficient for most of the playing I do. I'd highly recommend checking out the Bergantino cabinets - they're a great match with Markbass amps!

I have been thinking of adding a second 1 X 12 Bergantino cabinet as that will give me a bit more volume if required, as well as providing a lighter option to the 2 X 10 (the 1 X 12 is around 35lbs, whereas the 2 X 10 is around 50lbs).