Hey guys, looking for a lil help...I've pieced together a new rig and I'm trying to figure out the best way to patch it together. I've got four 8 ohm cabs. 2 single 15" enclosures and one single 12" and a 4x10. I've got a standard 2 channel power amplifier (PA etc.) 550x2 at 4 ohms, along with a korg tuner and a BBE 482i in a rack. On the floor I've got a sansamp di/preamp, a bass chorus pedal and a fuzz pedal. How can I make all this work together? I would like to have a clean bass tone and a fuzz tone at the same time. I've heard I need a Boss LS-2 to make this work.... Any help is appreciated!!!
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1st post... Need help with new rig
- Thread starter J-Dubs
- Start date
IMO you have too many cabs. A 115;+ 410 stack is probably all you need. The cabling is simple parallell cabling, and the overall stack will have 4 ohm, perfect for utilizing the power of the amp.
Bass -> Tuner -> Fuzz -> Chorus -> DI -> amp -> cabs
Bass -> Tuner -> Fuzz -> Chorus -> DI -> amp -> cabs
You need to feed the power amp from your preamp. Different power amps want to see a certain signal strength fed to it. Not sure about your setup. And that's just for one signal - you're talking *I think* about running one side of the amp clean and the other with fuzz?
Do you want all your speakers to have both clean and fuzz tones, or half your speakers clean and half with fuzz with the ability to mix the volume levels of each? That's what I would do - feed each side of your amp separately.
I gotta run - will stop by later but likely someone else will quickly chime in. My solution would require 2 preamps.
Do you want all your speakers to have both clean and fuzz tones, or half your speakers clean and half with fuzz with the ability to mix the volume levels of each? That's what I would do - feed each side of your amp separately.
I gotta run - will stop by later but likely someone else will quickly chime in. My solution would require 2 preamps.
Wow! With that many cabs, I hope you have a two roadies and a truck. A good roadie would know how hook it all up.
Assuming that a 2 ch power amp actually has two seperate amps (aka stereo or dual amp) as opposed to a single amp with two parallel outputs, and each output does 4 ohms each, then you can connect two of each 8 ohm cabs to each amp output. Unless you're playing The Super Bowl half-time, using everything at the same time seems to be a minor case of overkill. You should try different combinations of cabs and see what sounds best with the other cabs.
If you do this, leave out all of the pedals and such and just use the preamp with the power amp. That way the effects won't color the sound for the speaker comparisons. The PA amp is solid state, and not tubes, right? One possibility is to use the two 15's, one on each channel, (assuming one cab will handle the power). This gives you more power to each cab than having the two cabs on one amp. And it should also give you more headroom.
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As far as the cabs go I would go with the 2 15" cabs. A 15 and 410 combo is going to feed both cabs they same amount of power which could put some strain on that single 15.
215 off one channel...keep clean
410 off other channel add fuzz
410 off other channel add fuzz
Does your power amp happen to have pass-through inputs? Like for linking multiple amps?
None of the ones I've owned ever did, but I've seen ones that do. That would make it easy.
None of the ones I've owned ever did, but I've seen ones that do. That would make it easy.
Not if he goes stereo which is how he's going to have to do the clean and fuzz combination. He's going to have to figure out how to split his bass signal to the 2 separate inputs.
Perhaps he can split after the pre, before the power amp. At that point, you might get away with using a simple Y cable. If I had this setup, I convert a two pickup bass to stereo. Feed one pickup to ch 1 and the other to the other.
But that' another thread.
8ohms tells little about a cab. What are the power handling capabilities of the cabs is more useful.
You have too many "types" of cabs to make a truly "balanced" rig. It can be made to "work" but not work well. Multi driver cabs (410) will move more air and handle more watts (as a general rule)
Are the 15's matching? Start there. Use that as one side if so. Get EITHER a 410 or a 112 to and dump one or the other of the other cabs.
One side of the power amp attach the 2x15 cabs, (4 ohm load)
Other side the 4x10 X2 or 112x2 (suggest 2x410 matched) and through ecperimentation decide which gets the best fuzz sound for you, and make the other the clean.
Do you intend on putting one stack on either side of the stage or one ginormous cube?
You have too many "types" of cabs to make a truly "balanced" rig. It can be made to "work" but not work well. Multi driver cabs (410) will move more air and handle more watts (as a general rule)
Are the 15's matching? Start there. Use that as one side if so. Get EITHER a 410 or a 112 to and dump one or the other of the other cabs.
One side of the power amp attach the 2x15 cabs, (4 ohm load)
Other side the 4x10 X2 or 112x2 (suggest 2x410 matched) and through ecperimentation decide which gets the best fuzz sound for you, and make the other the clean.
Do you intend on putting one stack on either side of the stage or one ginormous cube?
You might want to tell us the make and model of your power amp, as well as your cabinets, which will result in a more comprehensive answer to your questions.
Sorry guys, I didn't give any specifics... None of this gear would be considered high end by any means.... The 15" cabs are some older Peavey bass cabs(non BW equipped) and the 4x10 is an older Ampeg B410... I wanna say all three of those cabs are rated at 200 watts max rms.
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You may think that the collection looks cool but it's how it sounds that matters more. In your place I'd try the two 15s together and see how they respond. Try the 4x10 by itself to see if it gives you what you need. Putting the 4x10 and a 1x15 together somehow became some sort of "standard" that has been rightly left behind by a goodly bunch of players. I suspect that the pairing originally came from manufacturers adverts trying to show as many of their offerings in a single space.
The 12 I'd leave at home for practice purposes..
Assume now that each cab is rated at 200 watts each. (Best scenario under your description.)
Each amp output is 550 watts into 4 ohms. Into 8 ohms, the output will be less, but not half, probably around 65 percent of the of the 4 ohm power. With one 8 ohm cab the amp will make, let's say 350 watts. But the cab is rated for 200... bad news, speaker go poof! With two 8 ohm cabs in parallel on one amp you are now pushing 550 watts into speakers capable of handling only 400 watts. Poof!
Ok, as has been said, your "heap o' cabs" may look cool, but the blending of that hodgepodge mix of cabs, more than likely, will be mediocre at best. If you want clean & fuzz at the same time, you're gonna need a few more pieces of gear. Here's the set up:
For the clean bass part, you should probably get the best results from the 2x15 cabs. Hook your effects up, whatever way sounds good to you, and run them into your Sansamp. Then run that into one side of your power amp, and out to the 2x15's. Here's where it gets interesting and may require another piece of gear or two, if you want clean AND fuzz simultaneously, you're gonna want a good ABY box like an EHX Switchblade+ or the Morley ABY splitter. So it might look like this: bass->tuner->chorus->Sansamp->ABY Splitter-> from there, you will have two outputs, side A and side B. You can then make side A the clean side and run it into one side of your power amp into the 2x15's. Side B will run into your fuzz pedal, then into the other side of your power amp, then into the 410 or the 112(but not both). With the ABY switcher, you can have just side A(clean bass), just side B(dirty bass), or A & B together and blend to taste with the attenuators on the power amp.
If you just want to use one side of your power amp, you can use an LS-2 instead of the ABY switcher, but you'll hafta have the clean or the dirty all the time. It's just not as flexible, and LS-2 costs more than most of the ABY switchers...
I use the Switchblade+ and run a line to a small guitar combo. Got the idea from Royal Blood(great band, btw! If you've never seem them, check 'em out. It's just a bass player and a drummer, and they sound huge! Loose Change is a jam!). Throw in a POG2 or a Micro POG, and You can, literally, play bass and rhythm guitar parts at the same time without losing any low end!
Good luck, my man! Let us know how it turns out...
For the clean bass part, you should probably get the best results from the 2x15 cabs. Hook your effects up, whatever way sounds good to you, and run them into your Sansamp. Then run that into one side of your power amp, and out to the 2x15's. Here's where it gets interesting and may require another piece of gear or two, if you want clean AND fuzz simultaneously, you're gonna want a good ABY box like an EHX Switchblade+ or the Morley ABY splitter. So it might look like this: bass->tuner->chorus->Sansamp->ABY Splitter-> from there, you will have two outputs, side A and side B. You can then make side A the clean side and run it into one side of your power amp into the 2x15's. Side B will run into your fuzz pedal, then into the other side of your power amp, then into the 410 or the 112(but not both). With the ABY switcher, you can have just side A(clean bass), just side B(dirty bass), or A & B together and blend to taste with the attenuators on the power amp.
If you just want to use one side of your power amp, you can use an LS-2 instead of the ABY switcher, but you'll hafta have the clean or the dirty all the time. It's just not as flexible, and LS-2 costs more than most of the ABY switchers...
I use the Switchblade+ and run a line to a small guitar combo. Got the idea from Royal Blood(great band, btw! If you've never seem them, check 'em out. It's just a bass player and a drummer, and they sound huge! Loose Change is a jam!). Throw in a POG2 or a Micro POG, and You can, literally, play bass and rhythm guitar parts at the same time without losing any low end!
Good luck, my man! Let us know how it turns out...
Still no amp info?
This is hit and miss at best, but besides the fact that I have nothing to say about using all to cabs (already been said), and Pbass6811 is closer to hit, than miss (in addition to others) with the info given. The A/B/Y is what you're looking for, IMHO.
For some reason, I'm thinking you need another pre. Sorry, I don't use effects, but I was under the impression that the last thing before the amp is the pre, and everything else is either before, or looped in.
This is hit and miss at best, but besides the fact that I have nothing to say about using all to cabs (already been said), and Pbass6811 is closer to hit, than miss (in addition to others) with the info given. The A/B/Y is what you're looking for, IMHO.
For some reason, I'm thinking you need another pre. Sorry, I don't use effects, but I was under the impression that the last thing before the amp is the pre, and everything else is either before, or looped in.
Sweet Jebus, you must be under thirty. If you're ok with heaving stuff, simplify: one Ampeg 410-HLF.
What! What? Not necessarily? Or not at all? Which one?
Please help me understand how 550 watts of power hooked to 400 watts of speaker isn't a potential for trouble.
And please don't say to not turn the amp volume past 6.
