Cabs vs Amp: Burnt smell

Drop-the-One · #1 05-13-2011, 03:04 AM

Hey, so at the show tonight I let the other bands use my eden 4x10 700w 8ohm and markbass 4x10 800w 8ohm in their 300w SVT Classic.

By the end of the night I found a burnt smell coming out the input jacks on the eden cab and not sure what that's from. I didn't check if the burnt smell was coming from the markbass though.

By the sounds of it it's not possible to underpower cabs... but I'm not entirely sure how that could come to be. Is it possible? I was using basic speaker cables, nothing heavy duty... would it be a resistance thing from cheap cables?

They seem fine right now but if anyone has insight on this it would be greatly appreciated! Thank you.

Wes Whitmore · #2 05-13-2011, 05:35 AM

I wouldn't worry about the numbers game. They are all bogus, and usually not given for the full audio frequency. It will give you a false sense of security. Use your senses instead. If you are smelling voicecoils or hearing the speaker breakup, then one or both of those cabs is being asked to do too much. A 300 classic has enough juice to power two 8x10s well. If you are boosting bass on your bass guitar or on the amp's EQ at high volumes, you have to know the limits of the cab and keep an eye on it even more. If it stinks (voicecoils are getting really hot), then you need more cab. Better correct the issue before you toast a speaker.

chokeslam512 · #3 05-13-2011, 05:44 AM

Are any of the cabs or the amps new?

Smokin' Toaster · #4 05-13-2011, 08:14 AM

There's not much tolerance between the voicecoil and the gap in the magnet, and it doesn't take a lot of heat to warp the tube the voicecoil is wrapped around. If the voicecoil has become hot enough to smell, even if it's not rubbing now and still seems functional, it's probably well on the road to failure. Sorry to be the bearer of bad news.

Selta · #5 05-13-2011, 08:42 AM

Write this on the chalkboard 100 times please:
Underpowering a bass cab/speaker is a myth.

jeff7bass · #6 05-13-2011, 09:13 AM

That happened to me once when I had a power hungry cab paired with a very weak amp…

Bass_Pounder · #7 05-13-2011, 09:21 AM

Does the cab have a horn and attenuator ?

What was the position of the knob ?

You may be burning up components on the crossover/attenuator network

Drop-the-One · #8 05-13-2011, 06:25 PM

the horn was at about 7... but I think it's coming from either the horn or top left speaker