Re: [LAU] get on board the blues - D&B variant

On Sun, Jul 22, 2012 at 10:54:30PM -0400, Gene Heskett wrote:
> On Sunday 22 July 2012 22:14:58 Al Thompson did opine:
>
> > On 07/22/2012 06:12 PM, Chris Bannister wrote:
> > >> For good reasons most mixers have got a 80Hz EQ, so try to increase
> > >> it there. However, IMO there's no big difference, if people say bass
> > >> is from 50 to 300 or 60 to 250Hz. What notes are played and what are
> > >> their
> > >
> > > AIUI, you can't hear "proper" bass unless it comes from at least a 15
> > > inch speaker. So anything else is just a compromise, right?
> >
> > It is possible to build a properly designed cabinet that will get fairly
> > good response in the low end, just at a GREATLY reduced output. Having
> > said that, trying to design a usable cabinet with less than a 15"
> > speaker is kind of a waste of time and money, and will result in serious
> > compromises. If a cabinet isn't +/-3db down to at least 40HZ, it's not
> > a good idea to rely on it as your main monitor. The low E on a bass is
> > around 42Hz. The low B on a 5 string is 34Hz or something like that.
> > If you mix on a system than only goes down to 50Hz, for example, there
> > is nearly an octave of bass guitar that you will have no idea what is
> > doing. Same for kick drum.
>
> At which point I have to tell a story. In 1960, I worked for a bit at a
> HiFi store at 5150 El Cajon Blvd in San Diego, CA.
>
> At that time the newest pretender to the king of the hill was a box with a
> 10" driver & dual tweeters. About a 2 feet square face and about 14"
> deep, a ducted port bass reflex made by Bozak. The store owner was an
> experimenter, so he bought 2 of them, and took one of them apart. He added
> some cross bracing to help solidify the panels by coupling each with glued
> in bracing to its opposing face, then since it had lots of crepe paper for
> internal sound absorbsion, he added about 2x more of it. And he'd ordered
> the long throw version of that bass driver, the B10-AL to replace the more
> limited throw std speaker. The AL could be driven 3/4" in both directions.
> After giving the glue a day to set, a dynaco amp was hooked up along with
> the bench audio oscillator, and that puppy amazed us. Using a decent
> volume level at 100hz, the oscillator went down, clear to 10hz, without
> detecting any of the bass reflexes normal peaks and valleys below 60 hz.
> At 10hz, we could hear the air chuffing thru the port, but more
> importantly, the room seemed to be bouncing. Hooking up a turntable
> typical of then, a Weathers cartridge in a 16" fairchild arm on a 16"
> Battleship turntable, he got out the Command record of various instrument
> solo's with emphasis on orchestral drums. At the end of the kettle drum
> solo, we heard and felt something we had never heard or felt before,
> because in the std speaker that looked exactly like the rebuilt one, the
> end of the drum solo was when the drummer took his foot off the head
> tension pedal, you could hear the squeak of the linkage. Pick the needle
> up and move it back 20 seconds and switch the rebuilt speaker in. That
> kettle pair seemed to grow cajones with the switch, but the surprise was
> that after the squeak of the pedal release on the big one, the player had
> given the slack head another whack. The whole room bounced.
>
> So it can be done, if you are willing to pay the piper. That one went on
> the show floor that evening, beside the std one that sold for $245 each,
> with a $500 tag on it. He got to do it again, because the guy who gave him
> $500 for that one wanted another just like it for his stereo system, for
> obvious reasons.
>
> A walk down memory lane, to a different time & place.
I love your recollections, Gene. You have an absolutely amazing memory!
You really remember model designations 52 years later?

Cheers,
S.M.
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Received on Mon Jul 23 08:15:01 2012