Eden EN400 clipping with gain at 11 o'clock?

[Sublab]

I have an Eden EN400 going through an Ampeg SVT 410 classic and it sounds great! The only thing is, I can't seem to push it loud enough before the blue led next to the gain starts flashing while only at 11 o'clock. My volume knob is at 3o' clock, and the volume knob on my bass (active) is almost completely open. Also, when my band records jams I seem to be 'there somewhere' in the mix but not quite cutting through - you can feel the bass behind a curtain of two guitars and drums, pondering below, but just not cutting through. I'm sure the mixing (which is done by a Behringer and our amateuristic hands!) doesn't help there either, but I feel it's more than that. So how do I get my bass louder while still sounding good? Will I kill my amp by turning the gain open to say 2 o'clock?

Any suggestions welcome!

[KJung]

Input gain is NOT a volume knob. The absolute knob setting on the input gain is meaningless. On a solid state preamp like on your Nemesis, the input gain is meant to allow you to match the output of a given bass to the input requirements of the preamp. You should set that input gain just below where the input clip light comes on for 'optimum performance' (i.e., feeding your preamp the strongest signal before clip). For some basses and players, this might be at 9 o'clock, for others, it might be 1 o'clock... doesn't matter... that is what it is for.

The master volume is your 'loudness' control.

If you have your input gain set appropriately, and the amp isn't loud enough prior to the power amp safety limiting kicking in (i.e., prior to the amp not getting any louder at some point with the master, or starting to distort), you probably need more drivers, or a more powerful amp if you are driving a large 8ohm cab.


Edit: If your cab is 8ohms, that amp is producing around 225 watts, which is probably not getting the most out of that cab. Even at 4ohms, the 400 watts might not be enough to get the job done you are trying to do, or you might need a larger cab.... don't know. Also, remember that if you are playing in a relatively small rehearsal space, your entire rig will sound a bit louder and deeper in a larger room.... so hard to tell what is going on.

[Sublab]

The cab is 8 Ohms. So I'm not getting a full 400watts out of my rigg no matter what I do besides adding more speakers?

[fenderhutz]

Originally Posted by Sublab

The cab is 8 Ohms. So I'm not getting a full 400watts out of my rigg no matter what I do besides adding more speakers?

Get a new 4 ohm cab and ditch the 8 ohm one.

[shadow_FIX]

To get your 400W, you need to either add another 8ohm cab or get a 4ohm cab.

[KJung]

Originally Posted by Sublab

The cab is 8 Ohms. So I'm not getting a full 400watts out of my rigg no matter what I do besides adding more speakers?

Correct. You amp is putting out a little over half its rated power (probably around 225 watts). And, that particular Ampeg cab has 'average' sensitivity from what I remember about it, meaning it is not overly loud per watt.

So, you have two options (besides just keeping things the same... you might have plenty of volume for many of your gigs anyway).

1) Add another 8ohm cab... this will result in a significant increase in power, due to more drivers, and also more power (since your amp will put out more wattage at 4ohms). The bad news is, now you are hauling around more stuff.

2) Get a more powerful head (or swap you cab for a 4ohm version).... as many have posted on this site in the past, there is a very low corrrelation between increased power an volume. However, in your case, where you have a very low wattage head (into 8ohms anyway), and a large cab that can easily handle more power (either from a more powerful head, or getting a 4ohm version of the cab if you like the tone), doubling power from a very low level will get you a noticable increase in low end and absolute volume.. not as much as adding a second cab, but maybe enough to get the job done.


It is difficult to find a relatively low priced head that will put out significant power into 8ohms. One option is the Hartke LH1000, which can be bridged to put out a nice wump of power into 8ohms. If you have a bit more cash (and again want to keep the cab you have), a Genz Benz Shuttle 9 would probably do the trick. On the used side, an EdenWT800 (which again puts out a wump of power when bridged into 8ohms will keep you in that Eden tone family). Finally, Carvin makes sound very nice, lightweight but very powerful heads that put out a nice amount of power into an 8ohm cab.

Good luck!

[duff2]

What are the EQ settings on your amp and bass? What is the enhance control set at?

Cheers,
Duff2

Originally Posted by Sublab

I have an Eden EN400 going through an Ampeg SVT 410 classic and it sounds great! The only thing is, I can't seem to push it loud enough before the blue led next to the gain starts flashing while only at 11 o'clock. My volume knob is at 3o' clock, and the volume knob on my bass (active) is almost completely open. Also, when my band records jams I seem to be 'there somewhere' in the mix but not quite cutting through - you can feel the bass behind a curtain of two guitars and drums, pondering below, but just not cutting through. I'm sure the mixing (which is done by a Behringer and our amateuristic hands!) doesn't help there either, but I feel it's more than that. So how do I get my bass louder while still sounding good? Will I kill my amp by turning the gain open to say 2 o'clock?

Any suggestions welcome!

[okcrum]

Good advice from KJung. Also if you have the bass tone control way up, you're eating up what head room you do have with that cab. Still, 225 watts into 4x10 of average sensitivity should get pretty loud.

[Sublab]

What are the EQ settings on your amp and bass? What is the enhance control set at?

The Enhance knob is set off on the amp. Bass and treble are set to 1 o'clock and mids are at 10 o'clock. On my bass I tend to use more lows than highs, just is more of my sound when my bass sounds round and balsy.

[Sublab]

Well, I'm keeping things as is. Yesterday we recorded again and I used a little less bass on the eq, a little more treble and a little more mids. Strange thing happened: my bass on the recording still had good bottom end, but anything not played on the E string was barely audible. My channel on the mixing board is set flat on the eq. Then I turned the bass knob on the amp even further down, recorded again and the result being only that you could hear and feel 'bass', but could not hear notes being played. I could make out from the recording that I didn't play any bad notes, but couldn't really hear my bass cut through. This kind of puzzles me. Guess it's up to getting to know the amp?

[Hugh9191]

try setting everything glat and making minor adjustments. If you're struggling to cut through perhaps cranking the mids a bit might help.

[Sublab]

Thanks for all the input!

I just learned that the gain knob can be pulled outward for playing an active bass, which I do, so I'll try this next week at rehearsal and see what happens. I was playing a Laney 75Watt amp before, nearly 20 years old and has a really bad sound. But the little combo was so worn out and badly maintained, and I played it so loud!, that it produced a farty kinda overdrive that made it sound kinda 'badass'. And now I have this big bottom end and clean highs, but no overdriven dirty down low goodness. Gonna get me a Sansamp/Tech 21 pedal one of these days and get rough on the guitar players in my band!

[RickenBoogie]

Pulling the "active" input will not help, it will only cut your input gain. Boost your mids some, and back off the low end. Only other option, (and what would totally solve your problem), is adding an identical Ampeg SVT410he, for the 8 10's and full power.