Rickresource Rickenbacker Forum

I agree that the PA "should" do the bulk of the bass sound and that you only need reasonable stage volume..BUT, I am finding that many of todays clubs don't have the nice PA systems I was use to from back in the 80's when I mostly played out... This becomes a problem when they can't provide good bass sound to the club, since bass reproduction requires GIRTH to handle a large room.. So, I take it upon myself to take care of the bass sound in the absence of full sized PA's nowadays... If you can mic a SVT cab, that is the way to go..but to me a SM-57 doesn't cut it.. I would only mic if they have a EV RE-20 mic....
If I do go direct... I do so from the speaker output of the SVT head and then convert that to balanced low-Z XLR for the board..that sounds pretty good.. If the sound man is being a major shmuck with my bass..I just go out to the truck on intermission and break out the V4B cab..with it's 2x15" reflex folded horn enlosure, it's sure to rumble the bar bottles and glassware onto the floor
Chris

When you mic an amp if you don't have a good sound out of your amp, you can't have a much better sound out of the PA, all they can do is mask rotten sound and I'm not trying to imply anyone here has rotten tone BTW. Most gigs I do nowadays there is no sound man anyway. I miss them for mostly for the kick drum, monitors and vocals. For my bass I couldn't care less as it fills any room I play in unless it's giantic, I play mostly small rooms nowadays. When I do use a soundman I have them throw a 58 in front of the cab and they're usually surprised by how clear and punchy it sounds through the system as many think and have been taught that you don't get enough bottom with a mic. I play a lot of blues and roots rock, soundmen are not common in those types of music at least around here, maybe it's because they want money?

Yes, as far as volume goes, I use what is needed, I like to hear everyone in the band, especially the kick drum, I'm not out to rattle anything, I use SVT's mainly for the tone, but.......it's also nice to have a 427 if you really need it though, the extra head room is nice for punctuation. 58's and 57's have always worked fine for me.

Our soundguy is an integral part of the band. He's also a fine singer & can strum a guitar.
We also travel with our own PA gear so the sound is pretty much our sound no matter where we go. It isn't big but it gets the job done (& the truck is full)!

Yes, having your own soundman who knows the band can be a very important asset to a band.

Interesting to know the wattage of the old SVT cabs... pairing them up makes so much more sense now. I was thinking they were 800W like the modern ones.

It is nice to have an amp at home that can be brought to gigs that lack proper PA support, but will still need a lot of bass. But then it is also nice to not have to lug that huge setup to every gig. For my band (students)... if it doesn't fit in a car... it is not going to the gig.

I agree that the svt is a good bass amp and I also prefer an sm57 to a direct line ... but no matter how you do it ... if you play a big room you need the help of a big PA ... if you play a small room then the PA on a stick solution can work if the whole band controls volume ...

That's a classic rig there!

While we're on the topic of SVT's. I have a 6-month rig I'm parting with. SVT-CL head, SVT410HE cab and SVT115E cab.

The old svt cabs were, 8-32 ohm cts alnico magnet with a slightly oversized voice coil gap rated at 35 watts ea. for a 280 watt cab., you can still get them reconed also.

They were all rated at 30 watts each for a 240 watt cab. I bought the schematics and tech stuff including all specs and a list of parts from Ampeg years ago and also have an original pamphlet from that era with the specs. The MTI cabs were 300 watt cabs I believe. I can write the specs tomorrow if anyone wants to see them. The heads are rated at 300 watts RMS @ 3% distortion into either 4 or 2 ohms.

I'd love to see the specs Bob, espeically if you have the MTI specs too.

Chris, I know you're excited by yer rig, and I'm happy for ya.

That said, there's now way you're going to convince me (and I suspect quite a few others) that the "typical" gigging musician is needs two 8x10 cabs on stage.

only if you are doing a big arena concert ...

No one needs 2 8X10 cabs, & if I expected my band mates to help me move such heavy artillery around on a regular basis I'd have to take a lot of heat over it.
That said, I realize I shouldn't dismiss a rig like that since I've never had the pleasure of hearing it in person. Maybe it actually is worth all the lugging!
At any rate, 10's are the way to go.

I can only imagine what my bandmates would say.