can i swap speakers for more power??
 

I know this may be a stupid question but I'm not as educated as most on here about amps and cabs. But im working on that with everyones help here. I was wondering, if I have a vx410 hartke and I'm pushing it with a GK 1001RB 2, and its obviously not going to take it very well, can I change the speakers out of the hartke cab with some from my fender bassman 410 and be able to turn up a little more/push more than 400 Watts through them?? The hartke cab is rated at 8 ohms @ 400 watts. The speakers form myfender were peak 600 watts at 8 ohms. I'm thinking this isn't going to make a difference considering all that power rating stuff is from the electronics board in the cab and not just from the speakers. If i swap speakers, can I push more through them with that head?

I know you did not intend this to be a trick question lol but you left out most of the equation. First the 1001 is only going to produce 460W @ 8ohm so no matter what speakers you use you only get that. . In order to get 700W you need to push 4ohm.
If your speakers can handle the wattage you could theoretically wire them in 4ohm but you would not really hear a substantial difference,at least not enough to make it worth while. Your best bet is to obtain a second cab say 410@ 8ohm [u]or[u] look into a 610 or maybe an 810 cab rated at more than 700watts and that is 4ohm.
If you get a second cab you can leave one at your rehearsal space and just move the head back and forth and use both out. or use the big 4ohm cab out and use the 410 for rehearsal. I hope I helped :cool:

I doubt if you'll gain anything at all. For that fact, the resulting franken-cab may sound like crap. OTOH, if you pursue the project and don't like the outcome, you can always swap 'em back. Drivers and enclosures are usually matched so as to complement one another.

Riis

You cannot wire an 8Ω 4x10 cab to 4Ω. CANNOT BE DONE.

Your fender speaker's 600 watt peak rating means nothing, probably means 250 watts rms, which is only a thermal rating, not the wattage where the speakers complain, which is much less.

Buy a better cab.

Yes I did know all the info above about the power and what it puts out through what. I guess the main reason why I'm asking all this is because I need to be louder for practice. The only reason I got the hartke was cause my GK 410 sbx is in for repair and I needed SOMETHING for practice in the meantime. But I got this cab home last night, and I already knew it wasn't gonna work, and there is no way this cab will stand up in practice. My drummer is very hard hitting so it makes the whole band come up to the point that its straight loud. And I am not going to be able to push this cab with that head without blowing it out. My fenders L pad is bad and don't know how to fix that and I'm not spending the money and time to get it fixed. I love that cab but she's old and I needed something NOW. That is why I was wondering if I could just switch speakers and push that cab all the harder without it blowing up on me. Does that make more sense??

Both cabs are 8 ohms mind you. That's why I don't get why the wattage on the hartke (400) is so dang low.

No need to swap speakers. You could just run both 8 ohm 410's to create an 810 @ 4 ohms. Just do the battery test to make sure the 2 cabs are in phase.

PS: if the L pad is bad on the Fender just leave it off. No harm no foul.

I'm on a budget of 2 to $300 mind you.

Back to Zooberwerx: LOL I have found that to be the case through trial and error going back to my childhood I built a guitar cab and put Celestions in it thinking Marshal, wow it sounded bad!! in a bad way lol hey I was around thirteen or fourteen yrs. but live and learn. I have had some good experiments & outcomes but mostly not so great. What do you think about 12" speakers vs the 10" for bass I play through two 2x12" Genz Benz and I have a good clear hi fi sound but I have heard a lot of players don't like that set up? please opine.

i really hate to be the old man here but if you can't hear a 410 in rehearsal, you don't need to be louder. everyone else needs to be less loud.

Come on fellas, work with me here. The fender is shot at the moment. The speakers are still good but the L pad is not. I just want to know if its worth swapping speakers so I can turn up louder and not blow the speakers out. Like do the speakers have anything to do with the wattage they put out? Or is that up to the circutry in the cab??

You should tell your drummer to chill a little for the time being while your regular rig is in for repair. If your band can't listen to you and play to your volume then screw them. It sounds like you already blew one cab trying to keep up and your on your way to blowing a second. Your ears are sure to follow.

I ask them to bump it down a notch and it never fails, it slowly rises again throughout the course of a song or two. It just won't happen.

also, when you disregard my comment above, please buy some earplugs. and use them. (my ears ring all day every day...)

OK loki, I get that. And its a good suggestion. Thanks.

Understanding SPL will help you greater than trying to make similar platforms sound louder.

No matter what 10's you use, you still have a 4X10, and the cone area being the same, moving the same amount of air, the output is going to be smilar with no real difference.

Power does not matter greatly at this point because you are constant no matter what speaker you use, and the efficiency of the speaker will dictate the db you achieve.

The suggestion of running the 8 ohm load into 2. Separate 8 ohm cabs in parallel is going to get you more volume. 8 - 10's will get you the volume you crave, 4 never will with what you have.

LOL Cannnot be done lol
two 8ohm speakers parallel=4ohm
the other two the same way.
output 1 to speaker set 1
output 2 to speaker set 2
One cab 4 8ohm speakers and 4ohm
or 4 16ohm speakers wired in parallel = 4ohm

My fender 410 did quite well on its own in practice actually. I was asked to turn down on occasion cause I was trying to get even with the drummer. All of you know how that is I'm sure. Now that this is being discussed I'm thinking the L pad went bad because I was pushing the fender too hard??

And what is the proper name(s) for the insides of the cabinet, the electronics?

Major +1 to this.