NEED HELP setting up gear. NO exp!

[CCtop]

let me explain, i play drums but always used to have people come over and jam. all i had of my own was a small peavey minx amp.

i bought a peavey mark iv a LONG time ago and never got around to buying my own cab. i just found a peavey 1820 cab in mint condition for $100.

i would like to start playing bass a little and i searched the forums for some info, but i'm pretty much at a loss withh all the tech stuff.

i'll probably be going out to buy myself a bass today, but in the meantime i'd appreciate some of you guys helping me out with some basic setup info.

like i said, i have a mark IV head and the 1820 cab. trouble is, i never figured out why i have 2 outputs on the head. from what i can tell, it's for 2 cabs? one cab will give me 210 watts while using 2 will give me 300?

the cab has 2 plugs for normal and full range and plugs for bi-amp hi and low. what the heck are they??? i can't tell which plug is normal and which is full range. and what the heck IS full range in a bass cab anyway? bi-amp? bi-amp what? i only have the one head and the one cab! also, do i need a special cable to plug the head into the cab? do i use both outputs from the mark IV into the one cab?



i'm sure you can see i'm at a loss here.

ANY and ALL help will be VERY much appreciated!

[pudgychef]

Using a speaker cable (not a guitar cable) line one of the speaker outs to the full-range input on your cab = done

No need to worry about the bi-amp in this situation (multiple cabs...)

That set-up will give you plenty of volume and will work great imho - ROCK IT!!

[RickenBoogie]

+1 all you need is ONE speaker cable, (not instrument cable), plugged from ONE output on the head to the full range input on the cab. Forget everything else, you're good to go.

[miguel master]

Si!!
Have fun with your new toys!!!!

[CCtop]

thanks! JUST what i wanted to hear. one more question: how can i tell which is the normal and which is the full range input?? the back is just two 1/4" inputs side by side with normal written across the top and full range written on the bottom. i'm guessing that just means both inputs are for that range? maybe?

i found this picture in another thread. here you can see what i mean.

[funkinbottom]

Originally Posted by CCtop

thanks! JUST what i wanted to hear. one more question: how can i tell which is the normal and which is the full range input?? the back is just two 1/4" inputs side by side with normal written across the top and full range written on the bottom. i'm guessing that just means both inputs are for that range?

Yes, that is correct.

[RickenBoogie]

Plug into either of the 2 full range inputs. The other one would be used to daisy chain a 2nd cab.

[B-string]

Originally Posted by CCtop

thanks! JUST what i wanted to hear. one more question: how can i tell which is the normal and which is the full range input?? the back is just two 1/4" inputs side by side with normal written across the top and full range written on the bottom. i'm guessing that just means both inputs are for that range? maybe?

i found this picture in another thread. here you can see what i mean.

From the amp to either "Normal" jack, the other "Normal" jack can be looped to another cab. The "Bi-amp" inputs allow you to power the 18" and 10"s from separate amps.

[MuzikMan]

Normal IS full range. The two tags are interchangeable and are being used to describe the two left-most plugs. Those two plugs are parallel, meaning you can use either one as an input, while making the other one available as an output to daisy chain into another cab.

[CCtop]

i'm sorry people, i GOOFED! i actually have the 1810, NOT the 1820.

what i'm now worried about is that my Peavey Mark IV head has an output of 210 watts and the max for the 1810 seems to be 200. will this be a problem and damage the cab?

the head manual says "210W RMS into 4 ohms; 300W RMS into 2 ohms"

am i gonna blow my house up or burn something out this way?

here is a picture of the correct backplate:

[schecter5string]

nope no problems, don't crank the amp, listen to the speaker if they are in distress, turn down.

[pudgychef]

Originally Posted by RickenBoogie

Plug into either of the 2 full range inputs. The other one would be used to daisy chain a 2nd cab.

+1

Originally Posted by CCtop

i'm sorry people, i GOOFED! i actually have the 1810, NOT the 1820.

what i'm now worried about is that my Peavey Mark IV head has an output of 210 watts and the max for the 1810 seems to be 200. will this be a problem and damage the cab?

here is a picture of the correct backplate:

I can't imagine it will be an issue. 200 vs 210...maybe if you dimed everything and tried to mess with it??

Also, I haven't used a Mark series head in a long time, but many of those older Peavey heads deliver their max power at 2ohm....so you could very well just sending 160w into the cab - which also isn't an issue. My bet is that cab would be fine in normal playing situation with any cab from 100-300W....ymmv

[Munjibunga]

I had that identical rig in 1980. You will dominate, even if you don't wear Abercrombie.

[Randall]

Like others say play your bass and see where your speaker cab starts to fart out. You will know. Cranking the bass control will also fart out your cab at lower volume settings. It is very easy to crank up in the heat of battle and blow your cab so best to find out where the limits are when you are alone

[mofeezy]

I used my mark iv and 1810 cab to jam in the basement. You can plug into the bi-amp (hi) jack to just use the 2 10" speakers, or into the bi-amp (low) jack to just use the 18. Or of course into the full-range input to use them all. Just plug one speaker cable between amp and cab (never more than 1) and you will be great. It's a great combo of speakers.

[CCtop]

thanks for all the info guys! i'm off to jam!