looking for all in one FRFR Solution.

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scottop1972

Member
hello amps and cabs forum.... i am a fractal newb... i bought an ax8 and am loving it so far but i have the same issue i had years ago when trying to find a way to amp up my modeling/ preamp units...

Long story started years ago, but with the way that the industry is approaching these products it is a breath of fresh air. when i started looking for a solution to the amp/ cab coloration problem not one manufacturer made such things as a guitar centric FRFR solution.

I am now playing bass as well as guitar. i would like to have one FRFR solution to meet both the needs of my guitar playing and bass duties. 90% guitar (played mostly at home) and bass duties played mostly at practices and the rare gigs. the cab would need to be my monitor for stage.

i built a couple of speaker cabs using the london power design of the detuned 2x12. here is a pic.

 
that was the best option at the time and i enjoy wood working so i built them.... they have 1 12 inch eminence legend modeling 12 inch speaker with 150 w handing. ... supposedly fairly flat. however it is a guitar speaker so i know that this is not totally ideal..
 
what i am after is an all in one solution. i would like to talk to someone who could help me repurpose these cabinets into either a passive or active FRFR cab. that will cover the whole spectrum.... 30h to 30kh. so i can use them for both bass and guitar.

i have no issue with either using 12 inch or 15 inch drivers... i think i could redo the inside for whatever porting is required... for any bass reflex etc... i don't care if they are 2 way or 3 way, or coaxial or horned... don't care just want them to sound good with both of my purposes....
 
is there anyone out there who could help me? i can measure all the internal spaces... i can dis assemble to take pictures....

i am just a bit frustrated as i continue to search for a solution... its either a PA speaker which will not cover the lows of a drop tuned bass without frequency cutoff or needing a sub... (not a good solution for my office) or recreate the whole thing one for bass and one for guitar.... prefer to run stereo since I have 2....
 
You will want a power amp and cab... PA speakers will cut off a lot of the low end (unless you add a sub). I would talk with Matrix or Xitone on a 2x10 cab, or two 1x10 cabs and an amp.
 
For what it's worth, I regularly cover small pub gigs (100+/- customer capacity) going direct to the "vocal" PA on tripods, which consists of nothing but a pair of 10" based JBL Eon 610, and with no stage amp. These are 4 piece rock band format, 2 guitars, bass, drums (not mic'd) and 3 vocals. It's not ear-crushing volume, but the drummer does play loud and hard, so it's not dinner-listening level either. PA is located high, and back line, to double as vocal monitors. Not ideal positioning. Makes feedback issues a bit of a challenge, but it does work no problem.

Obviously, the Eon 610 is no powerhouse of a bass speaker.

Just throwing this out there, that if you're only doing a few live shows on bass, you don't necessarily need to make this a DIY project unless you really, really, really like burning time and money experimenting. Musicians always seem to have a need for a powered PA speaker/monitor, so it is worth considering one of these as a practical matter beyond just amplifying guitar and bass with a modeler.

There are tons of viable choices out there. My preferred weapon is the passive Atomic CLR (and sometimes the Active CLR), but it all depends on your budget. For both guitar and bass, I'd recommend something with at least a 12" speaker and extended bass response. IMHO, active speakers with 15" drivers tend to get lower, but are bigger and heavier. I prefer discrete power amp and passive cabinets, and have had success with 10", 12", and 15" coaxial drive speaker systems.
 
scottop1972 said:
its either a PA speaker which will not cover the lows of a drop tuned bass without frequency cutoff or needing a sub...
Click to expand...

Again, JMO, but I think there is some debate as to how necessary these sub frequencies are (below 80hz or 60hz) for bass guitar in the larger context of things. Many bass guitar traditional cabinets roll off naturally in the sub-range. I've gone about this both ways - adding a subwoofer or just doubling up on my 12" or 15" single cabinets - and find that I don't really miss what the subs are doing, and thus rarely use a subwoofer anymore for my stage rig.

Commonly, I'll do a lot of rooms up to 400 capacity with just a couple cabinets and no subwoofer. It is assumed that the PA will do much of the heavy lifting at that point. Stage is easily covered by my FR cabinets. Again, JMHO, YMMV, yadda yadda.
 
Jim is very much on the right track here. Your FRFR is meant for stage/small club duties. When you get into larger venues, your PA should be pushing the room. If you are really stuck on the idea of the DIT project (BTW, that looks awesome!), keep in mind that it takes more than just the single 10", 12" or even 15" to get true full range. You will need to add smaller for your mid range and highs. This means also adding a crossover to make sure the right range is sent to the right speakers. If you have tons of $$$ to throw at it, you might purchase an already built system and use the guts...just a thought.
 
These remind me of my Daedalus cabinets. Beautiful work! The Daedalus are one of the best sounding acoustic instrument/pa 3 way with crossover I have heard, but passive.
 
awesome build there. You could email Mick at Xitone he will respond pretty quick with some answers for you . I'm building FRFR cab and using Eminence 12CX LF driver with ASD1001 HF driver and 2K5CX crossover. Only issue is getting the cab with correct internal size for the speakers used. I think the cabinet needs to be much deeper than a normal cabinet though maybe 14 to 16 inches deep 17 to 30 wide 17 to 20 inches high, somewhere around those numbers. It would be best ported for more bass too. hope that helps some :)
 
You might check out Accugroove. They are a high-end bass cab manufacturer that has recently entered the guitar FRFR market.
I haven't heard their guitar stuff but their bass cabs are great. Large and heavy though.
 
Very nice build work there. I always wanted to take my Axe Fx II and RCF NX12SMA and build a combo amp with them, just to see how it would work. I don't know about enclosure sizes and how to make all that work properly so I never did it, but can see through your pics it could be done with the right knowledge and tools.
 
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