Moog Music Forum

an interesting point i thought in the rhodes thread was the question of how well certain loudspeaker designs reproduce low frequencies. important when dealing with an electric piano, but even more so when one factors in the kind of low frequency/resonance capabilities of some of our moog gear. i do sometimes run my lowpass filter output through a small guitar combo amp (albeit at rather low volumes), although a fender twin w/ JBL's works better, but i'm still concerned about frying components. what are most of us using as amp/speakers, and how well is that working?

i remember (way back) in high school, having the opportunity to play a white panel arp oddysey thru a scaled-down version of an altec lansing A7 ("voice of the theatre") system. there were no worries at all about those speakers handling extreme low frequencies, but i can't imagine spending the bucks (or dealing with the logistics) to replicate something like that now days...it sure was a great sound though!

One thing about guitar amps: they are voiced to be very mid-rangey. You would not get the same kind of sound as you would through a PA or bass amp. As far as blowing speakers with extra low bass: that is a possiblity. A limiter might be of some value, but if you keep the volume at a minimum, I think you should be ok.

I use a couple of Barbettas (made for keyboard/pa use) for sound amplification. They are light weight and sound decent.

In recording studios guitar amplifiers are often used with electric bass to get a great sounding bass track, lots of bite and presence. Won't compete in a live situation very well.
But you're correct that there is a potential to ruin the speaker. Bass requires a lot more power to reproduce low frequencies, so most small guitar amps aren't in danger.

I know that my MicroMoog has ruined at least 1 pair of headphones. My partner always wants to record that sub bass stuff and frankly I don't have the stereo system to be able to hear it.
I read in Bass Player magazine years ago about low volumes still being capable of ruining guitar amps.

I think the best KBD amp i saw were the ones by roland...even the smaller ones.

EricK

do bass amps reproduce goo mids/highs
i was thinking about getting a bass amp for my synths/theremin but i'm not sure
i they can go higher than the MF-104 SD then that would be awesome

Godzilla, they're called "bass amps" for a reason. They're designed to produce lows to low-mids, not high mids and highs.

If you want full range you need something that will produce full range. Some keyboard amps will do that, although the specs I've seen indicate a lot of roll-off at the top and/or the bottom.

IMO, the optimum solution is a stereo PA with a subwoofer. Currently, there are several available with small "satellite" cabs for the mids and highs that work very, very well. Some PAs, however, really have problems with bass and highs (they're focused toward vocals), so pay attention to the specs.

Some people enjoy the Bose system that looks like a stick, however it is monophonic, many people claim that it doesn't do well outside, and is quite pricey.

EricK wrote:I know that my MicroMoog has ruined at least 1 pair of headphones. My partner always wants to record that sub bass stuff and frankly I don't have the stereo system to be able to hear it.
I read in Bass Player magazine years ago about low volumes still being capable of ruining guitar amps.EricK

maybe drifting off topic here, but i remember reading that it was really common in early '60's bands that the bass player would swap his 4x10 jensen bassman with the guitarist's 1x15 or 2x15 jbl showman. guess it took a while for leo to figure that one out

You can always bi-amp too - send the lows through a bass amp and the highs through something else. You wouldn't even need a professional crossover - just stick an EQ on the high freq. signal and cut the lows so you don't blow up your speakers.

lg wrote:

EricK wrote:I know that my MicroMoog has ruined at least 1 pair of headphones. My partner always wants to record that sub bass stuff and frankly I don't have the stereo system to be able to hear it.
I read in Bass Player magazine years ago about low volumes still being capable of ruining guitar amps.EricK

maybe drifting off topic here, but i remember reading that it was really common in early '60's bands that the bass player would swap his 4x10 jensen bassman with the guitarist's 1x15 or 2x15 jbl showman. guess it took a while for leo to figure that one out

Hey I think that woudl probably be a god testament to JBL speakers too over Jensen.
I got my musical start playing the bass. Now a 15 or 2x15's are going to give you increadible rumble and mud whereas a 4 10 woudl be great for punch and mids.
But i think that since then technology has increased exponentially as well as the actual role of the electric bass player overall. Back in the 60's the electric bassists weren't doing a whole lot of slapping (requiring more mids and treble) and I don't think that there was even a bass front man for a long time until what Rush? (the exception being jazz)
But yea you are right.

There are some bass speaker cabinets that have tweeters for better high-frequency response, but sometimes they sound harsh or brittle, and it also depends on the amplifier.

And I'd put Jack Bruce up there as one of the early rock bass frontmen, but amp/speaker technology hadn't caught up yet. I think it was Phil Lesh, the Grateful Dead, and what would become Alembic that really pushed PA and bass amplification technology in the late-'60s/early-'70s...

A solid PA system can put out a surprisingly loud low frequencies, especially if coming from overhead. If you are mic-ing a bass amp to run through the PAs, I would imagine you could tweak it to get a rumbling low from the amp (and through the floor), but keep a lot of the high frequencies coming through the PA system, which I'd think would be more designed to handle them.

Saw this up for sale on musiciansfriend.com:

http://www.musiciansfriend.com/product?sku=481728

looks like a pretty sweet deal, but another hypothesis would be that you could ideally have a cabinet/head setup with a tweakable head (i.e. more range in adjusting highs) if you wanted to get more punch. The one above concentrates on the mid range by using an "ultra-mid" knob. I'd think it would be trickier to get "ultra lows" unless you upgraded to an 8x10 cabinet, but chances are better if the sound is spread through a few speakers.