I’m curious what speaker setups people have in their bass amps/cabinets.
What size(s) of speakers do you have in your cabinet/amp, and how many?
What do you like/dislike about them?
I know you can get different tones from different speaker sizes and combinations, so I’d love to know if there’s one you like the best, or if you like different ones for different types of music, venues, etc.
I have a Rumble 100 with a 12" speaker, and I’m starting to think about what I might upgrade to when I need something more powerful.
I haven’t played on a lot of bass amps other than my own. I played one that had a 4x10 cabinet, and it was alright. Definitely loud and punchy, but a little lacking in the bottom end.
I had a friend who had two cabinets, one was a 2x10 and the other had a 15" speaker in it. He could use one or the other, or both. I thought it sounded great when he used both. I don’t remember what kind of amp it was though.
I’m really interested to hear everyone’s preferences and thoughts.
10s are not automatically low-end anemic, although I have not heard a fast and tight 15s. I have a 3 stacked Gentler 10-2 arrays that can possibly communicate with elephants.
I’m in the 10s camp for sure. I do occasionally enjoy some 12s. I’m definitely not cool enough to hang with 15s.
No big surprise, the 4x10" sounds more clear and punchy and also more linear, whereas the 1x15" sounds more fat, wide, “vintage”.
Hard to say that I really prefer one but I can do everything with the 4x10" with proper EQ settings, and it’s a little bit less true with the 1x15" because of the lack of agressive trebles and slower transcients.
If you want only one cab (or one speaker in a combo), 12" can probably be the best of both worlds.
That said, the good’ol 8x10" Ampeg doesn’t lack low end at all and sounds really fat with not so much trebles, so it’s definitly not all about the speaker diameter.
Not all 10"s speakers sound the same, not all 12"s sound the same, not all 15"s sound the same, and the cab dimensions are also quite important for the final result.
There’s more complications - cabinet porting and the tuning of the port(s), cabinet size and shape, etc.
That’s all the stuff that can make PJB systems with small speakers sound huge still. That’s also an explanation for the iconic Marshall guitar cab having 12" speakers vs the iconic ampeg fridge having 10" speakers.
I don’t think considering speaker size makes much sense for anything beyond single speaker combo amps. Even for those it seems as much about the cabinet being bigger and putting higher quality speakers in more expensive combos with larger speakers as it is about the speakers themselves getting bigger.
I’m basically saying the same things as @terb here - I have 4x10 cabinets, and then a single 1x15 cabinet.
They are by Eden and Ampeg, respectively.
The 4x10 is massive, clear, enormously loud, and crushing in weight, size, volume, and output. There is heaps of low end there, and tons of punch. And lots of big ports to push the air through.
I got this set up to play fancy bass-forward rock/prog/metal at massive volumes while holding low end and clarity, and it does this very well.
The Ampeg 15" I got with an Ampeg SVT amp to bring to gigs with my P bass so that I’d have a sound that could have been pulled straight out of the 70s.
It’s very classic, more vintage-y, and sounds great with the P bass.
I think this is my experience because of the focused use I was going for with each rig.
I have seen and heard very punchy aggressive 15s, and heard plenty of dub and reggae through 10s.
If you have the budget to choose what you get, have fun getting out and testing things.
Otherwise, find the loudest thing that is most affordable and go for it.
I’ve been going through the 900+ post thread on sharing your amp, and I’ve already learned a lot from that. I’m sure there’s even more info on this forum to find.
it’s really a matter of personal taste almost as much as configuration. if it sounds good to you, it’s good. and so much of a cab’s sound is dependent on what you’re feeding it, what amp and effects you’re using, THE ROOM (really big one there), etc. not to mention that a lot of situations these days are bypassing the amp/cab altogether and just going DI out. to me, the weight and size is equally as important as the sound and the configuration. oh yeah, and price is always a factor too
I have a 2 x 10’ Markbass combo that’s perfect for the classic rock I play with one band, then I have a 2 x 12" GR Bass cab/Genzler amp combo that I use for jamming only in a blues band I’m in. The 2x10" is punchier while the 2x12" is fatter and more vintage.
loudness is a whole other ball of wax. I’m not sure I exactly agree with his groupings as you need a whole ton of extra watts for only a little increase in perceived volume. we discussed it a while back here:
Oh wow, I’ve used about everything there is so far excluding anything below a 10".
I’ve played 1x12, 2x12, 1x15, 2x15, 1x10, 2x10, 4x10. My current preference is for 12" speakers. More bottom than 10"s and a little quicker to respond than 15"s. I currently have a Genzler MG350 Combo with a single 1x10 and 4x2" Bass Array Cab. I plan to add a BA 112 Bass Array cab later this year or early next year.
That will give me the tone I want now and the flexibility to use it with a single 10" a single 12" or both cabs together to get the full 350w output from the amp. The key for me is weight. I’d like every cab to weigh 30lbs or less and these two do.
