Lab12 GenII for bass guitar

[Shakuan]

I wanna build my own cabs for bass and guitar and I'm shopping for the best speakers to use.

The Lab12 GenII 12" looks very nice for the bass with a magnet of 160oz! My only concern is that it's not written anywhere that it's a good speaker for bass guit...

Lab12 GenII 12"
Legend CB15 15"

As you can see, the Legend is recommended for bass guitar and the Lab12 GenII isnt. Why is that? What's the difference btw a speaker recommended for bass guit and one that isnt?

Thanx!

[BAM]

The reason is that the LAB Subwoofer driver was designed for subwoofer use only. It has a very limited upper end, whereas bass guitar requires quite a bit. Also, it has relatively low sensitivity for a pro sound design (this is no trouble for use in the horn subwoofer design that the driver was designed for) but bass guitar requires a higher sensitivity. Also, the bass guitar won't really take advantage of the bass range since the lowest note on electric bass has its fundamental at 41 Hz. You are much better off using either the Legend driver you described or some other 15" pro sound woofer.

[Brett]

If you want to get a low happening, ie 30Hz, then a couple of them in a sealed box might be OK, if you crossed them to something else, OTTOMH, say 60-80. I tried my bass throught the Gen 1's on their own and it wasn't very good sounding, dull and thick. These are sub drivers, not widerange and they're as inefficient as hell.

The Legend would be better as it's more efficient and wider range.

[Shakuan]

Oh ok I understand now thank you! The sensitivity of the Lab12 is very low indeed.


Here's another Q:

Someone I know wants to get rid of a pair of JBL k151 18" used speakers.

Specs of JBL K151 18"

Those speakers are like 20+ years old I think, but they seem to be in good condition.

How would you compare the K151 and the Legend CB15?
Also, my room is pretty small so smaller cab is better in my case but if the 18" speakers are gonna sound better, I'm gonna deal with the space issue.

Both speakers would cost me approximately the same. (180$CAN) Which one would you choose for a single speaker bass guitar cab? Old k151 or new cb15?

Thanks alot! I gotta decide on the k151 offer soon!

[usekgb]

I would use the JBL. Those things sound great. Just make sure there are no tears in the cone or the surround and make sure that the voice coil is not rubbing. If everything checks out, you should be very happy with the JBL.

Cheers,
Zach

[John Sheerin]

Hi,
I know several people who use the Lab12 for bass guitar and really like it. They use it in vented boxes, but this can cause problems due to the Lab12's floppy suspension. The way to get more high end is to make a 2-way cabinet. Use a typical 10" or whatever to get the 'bass sound' you're used to, but have the Labs and a hefty amp to get some real bass.

[paulspencer]

If I'm not mistaken, the reason for using high efficiency pro audio drivers for guitar amps are more than efficiency and bandwidth, which you can overcome with more power and another driver. Considering these factors alone you might gain a little more low end and perhaps even more output in a smaller setup but with more expense directed to the amp. Still, isn't it true to say that the drivers commonly used for this application have specific tonal characteristics that are considered desirable? I suspect they have a certain sound that derives from harmonic distortion, which is considered undesirable in a subwoofer. I suspect using a subwoofer for some more low end ouput would give a cleaner sound with less distortion. This is probably the last thing you want. It might sound plain old boring!

Isn't this the reason some prefer valve amps in particular for guitars?

There are plenty others here who can speak with more authority on all of this, but from what I've heard, there are good reasons behind the conventional drivers used for bass guitars. To get the same output out of the sub, you need 10x the power - so 1kw instead of 100 watts! ... unless you use the Lab driver in its intended horn enclosure, then you need another driver, and now having gone that far you are virtually building full range speakers! ...

[phase_accurate]

I suspect they have a certain sound that derives from harmonic distortion, which is considered undesirable in a subwoofer.

This is in fact true for guitar, but even in this case very style dependant.

For bass this kind of sound is IMO only used by bass-players with bad taste.

And it is of course true that you would need a multiway system when you want to use any kind of "subwoofer" for bass.

A bass guitar has a frequency response (harmonics of course)reaching way above 10 kHz depending on instrument, strings and playing style. Whether you need all of it or not depends on taste, but you will definitely need more upper end extension than a sub-driver alone could give you.

Regards

Charles