This is nuts! That is a lot of wattage. Not a good gig to take a new date for some quiet conversation!!!
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8x10 - Why?
- Thread starter alexit
- Start date
i have a 6X10 and think its perfect. 8X10 is fun too, but near impossible to transport. the 6 is a little bit lighter, and can fit much better (in SUV type cars). but when i hear a 4X10 compared to my 6?? its a world of difference, especially if there is a weak PA. the 60'' of speaker make a difference, not only for stage volume, but for the listeners as well.
well, when your playing a big arena with your little 4x10 you let me know how it goes
I find that my Ampeg B2RE (middle of the road 450W solid state head) and my Ampeg 2x10 and 1x15 cabs give me enough stage sound in any gig. I only play with one guitarist these days though, but my drummer is loud as hell.
Don't get me wrong, I used a fridge for 2 years but just got sick of lugging it around. I find that most amp heads these days have a DI so you can have some stage volume as well as PA support.
Amen! The big cabs are truly a holy experience and must
be experienced to be beleived.
Damn, your band has a nice collection of amps. I'm sure that Hiwatt gets rather loud.
Yeah, thats my rig. Bad news is that I just found out that we got stuck opening the show because of scheduling problems with the other bands and their jobs so I dont think its worth it to bring both rigs. The room is going to be too empty at that time so it would be overkill. The Ampeg alone gets to levels where I can get it pretty dirty with this band.Holy cow is that your rig behind the drummer??!!
Seriously I hope you guys have some hearing protection - I lost most of the hearing in my left ear after standing 3' in front of a really loud backline for five years - ten years ago.
Make sure you look after yourself or you will regret it later, looks like a hoot of a gig though
In all fairness, those guitar cabs are not ours, they belong to our buddies in Torche who we often play with.
We have a pretty nice collection of our own though.
We have a pretty nice collection of our own though.
Depending on what specific cabs, they probabally sound different, due to different internal volume and such. In any case, I find it easier to roll around an 810 than to carry 2-410s.
I'm always surprised at the number of people who say that 8x10 is overkill for most if not all situations. This goes so against my personal experiences.
My first amp was a SWR Workingman's 12 which was nowhere even remotely in the ballpark to play with a drummer. So... I saved up and got myself an SWR Super Redhead, which is a 350 watt combo with 2x10. I figured, hey, now i'll be good to go. It was a big improvement, but I had to crank everything to be heard, so my tone was just terrible. This is against a low to medium volume drummer and a guitar player with a 30 watt 1x12 fender combo!
Eventually, I bought an SWR Goliath 4x10 to go with the super redhead, giving me 450 watts through the 6x10 setup. This was the first time I felt comfortable but I was not satisified. I then bought an SWR SM-900 which gave me about 600 watts into the 4x10. This was nice, and I played with the same drummer and another (quieter) guitar player. I should mention that I was using a Warwick Thumb, so i'm pretty sure I had the kind of tone that could cut as well as any at a given wattage.
Anyway, I finally got around to getting another 4x10 cabinet, and hooked it up, giving me 900 watts into 8x10. For the first time ever, I was satisfied with my tone and my ability to sit in the mix with a good tone. I have to reiterate that this was with a medium at most volume drummer and a guitar player who had quite a rig but was very volume concious. Finally, with the 8x10, I had enough headroom to preserve my tone.
I also played a gig filling in for a band playing through a generic 1x18 cabinet. It got the job done but my tone was terrible and I was buried in the mix.
Those are my only experiences playing, but like I said, i'm always surprised by how much people downplay the need for lots of speakers/watts. When I hear people talk about getting through gigs with 1x12 and 2x10 cabinets i'm just amazed.
My first amp was a SWR Workingman's 12 which was nowhere even remotely in the ballpark to play with a drummer. So... I saved up and got myself an SWR Super Redhead, which is a 350 watt combo with 2x10. I figured, hey, now i'll be good to go. It was a big improvement, but I had to crank everything to be heard, so my tone was just terrible. This is against a low to medium volume drummer and a guitar player with a 30 watt 1x12 fender combo!
Eventually, I bought an SWR Goliath 4x10 to go with the super redhead, giving me 450 watts through the 6x10 setup. This was the first time I felt comfortable but I was not satisified. I then bought an SWR SM-900 which gave me about 600 watts into the 4x10. This was nice, and I played with the same drummer and another (quieter) guitar player. I should mention that I was using a Warwick Thumb, so i'm pretty sure I had the kind of tone that could cut as well as any at a given wattage.
Anyway, I finally got around to getting another 4x10 cabinet, and hooked it up, giving me 900 watts into 8x10. For the first time ever, I was satisfied with my tone and my ability to sit in the mix with a good tone. I have to reiterate that this was with a medium at most volume drummer and a guitar player who had quite a rig but was very volume concious. Finally, with the 8x10, I had enough headroom to preserve my tone.
I also played a gig filling in for a band playing through a generic 1x18 cabinet. It got the job done but my tone was terrible and I was buried in the mix.
Those are my only experiences playing, but like I said, i'm always surprised by how much people downplay the need for lots of speakers/watts. When I hear people talk about getting through gigs with 1x12 and 2x10 cabinets i'm just amazed.
While a 8x10 or any other big rig isn´t practical for me in my current band, I do think they are just the ticket in some situations. When you have a good, balanced rock trio in a good room with well tuned drums, a Marshall stack and an Ampeg fridge, it can sound amazing. It´s a marriage made in heaven.
As a soundman, when I see a band like this I know I´m in for an easy night. I just let the guys get find their balance on stage and then add vocals to taste. Simple and beautiful, a rock equivalent of a string quartet. It´s not just the loudness, it´s the projection and the size of the sound.
Then again, our cover band subscribes to the opposite ideology. We own a high quality, full range PA with two 1 kW subs, so we try to keep our stage volume as low as possible and let the soundman "build" the sound from a scratch. A 8x10 would be totally useless there. In fact, in the future I may ditch my bass rig altogether and rely completely on in-ear monitoring.
So in the end it comes to deciding which way you are going to take: are you relying on the backline or are you going to have full range PA support. In the former case you can never have too much headroom. In the latter, well, the less noise you make on stage the better. Now, if you will be doing both kinds of gigs, then a 8x10 is not a bad choice. After all, you can always turn the volume of a big rig down but a small rig cannot go past a certain point.
As a soundman, when I see a band like this I know I´m in for an easy night. I just let the guys get find their balance on stage and then add vocals to taste. Simple and beautiful, a rock equivalent of a string quartet. It´s not just the loudness, it´s the projection and the size of the sound.
Then again, our cover band subscribes to the opposite ideology. We own a high quality, full range PA with two 1 kW subs, so we try to keep our stage volume as low as possible and let the soundman "build" the sound from a scratch. A 8x10 would be totally useless there. In fact, in the future I may ditch my bass rig altogether and rely completely on in-ear monitoring.
So in the end it comes to deciding which way you are going to take: are you relying on the backline or are you going to have full range PA support. In the former case you can never have too much headroom. In the latter, well, the less noise you make on stage the better. Now, if you will be doing both kinds of gigs, then a 8x10 is not a bad choice. After all, you can always turn the volume of a big rig down but a small rig cannot go past a certain point.
While I don't play an 8x10 I could certainly use one, end of the day I'm faced with 2 situations.
A) I turn up to a gig and there is only a vocal PA inwhich case an 8x10 is great as I'm the bass in the room and there is no other support, currently though I have 2 EA CXL112's and an EA NM410 don't really use it all together but on a gig like that I would.
B) The room is big enough to justify a full PA setup and such inwhich case while I might not need huge backline it doesn't really matter if I do as it's just what I hear and the band hear onstage, I find that you can never really rely on a soundman for your monitors and its much better to be ABLE to hear yourself if he isn't doing the job.
I think the main arguement hear that people are missing is it's all the drummers fault I've had 4 drummers in my band over quite a few years and as the drummers styles have changed so has my rig, the first 2 drummers played quite lightly due to being quite young and I could keep up with an Ashdown C110 EVO300 which is a 320w 1x10 combo with tube pre and such but on it's own it's like 165w so not all that loud.
Then I upgraded my rig and could easily get away with a single CXL and an Iamp800 set on about 2 so again not so loud as it's 500w.
The we got my recent drummer who is a monster, now I have to gig with the 2 cxl's otherwise I can't hear anything, I used an EA VL210 at 500w and the iamp was at 7 and I could only just hear myself, so now I have the 2 cxl's for gigs and an NM410 for practice (As it's not flightcased like the 12's so is easier to move) and the iamp sits on about 4-5 and I take both when I just want to look more like a rockstar
I'd love an 8x10 but EA don't make one and I currently don't have transport for one.
Also after seeing Nickman with his shirt off I've decided I'm not hairy enough to own an 8x10
A) I turn up to a gig and there is only a vocal PA inwhich case an 8x10 is great as I'm the bass in the room and there is no other support, currently though I have 2 EA CXL112's and an EA NM410 don't really use it all together but on a gig like that I would.
B) The room is big enough to justify a full PA setup and such inwhich case while I might not need huge backline it doesn't really matter if I do as it's just what I hear and the band hear onstage, I find that you can never really rely on a soundman for your monitors and its much better to be ABLE to hear yourself if he isn't doing the job.
I think the main arguement hear that people are missing is it's all the drummers fault
I've had 4 drummers in my band over quite a few years and as the drummers styles have changed so has my rig, the first 2 drummers played quite lightly due to being quite young and I could keep up with an Ashdown C110 EVO300 which is a 320w 1x10 combo with tube pre and such but on it's own it's like 165w so not all that loud.Then I upgraded my rig and could easily get away with a single CXL and an Iamp800 set on about 2 so again not so loud as it's 500w.
The we got my recent drummer who is a monster, now I have to gig with the 2 cxl's otherwise I can't hear anything, I used an EA VL210 at 500w and the iamp was at 7 and I could only just hear myself, so now I have the 2 cxl's for gigs and an NM410 for practice (As it's not flightcased like the 12's so is easier to move) and the iamp sits on about 4-5 and I take both when I just want to look more like a rockstar
I'd love an 8x10 but EA don't make one
and I currently don't have transport for one.Also after seeing Nickman with his shirt off I've decided I'm not hairy enough to own an 8x10
What kind of vehicles do you guys have? I know I can fit two cabs in my car, plus head (115+410 sized)... but to carry a 810 you need that minivan...
I'd love to carry an 810, but it ain't feasible.
Jb
I'd love to carry an 810, but it ain't feasible.
Jb
I can get 2 8*10's, 2 Peavey Classic 400's, 2 basses in hardshell cases and a pedalboard in My Jeep Cherokee with room for a passenger (and probably some guitar players combo, too)
SM
I like the 8x10 design, but do find it impractial / overkill for most applications EXCEPT for outdoor gigs. I love the fridge on an outdoor stage.
