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Am I maxing out my cab?

B

Bad Seed

Inactive
Dec 5, 2007
120
0
Richmond, VA
#1
I recently got a BBE sonic maximizer to go with my SVT3 Pro head, which I highly recommmend BTW. I've been fooling with the EQ on the 3 Pro and I've been using the graphic EQ to dial my tone in. The BBE really made the frequencies come alive, I love it, but when I play in drop D, I'm getting almost a farting sound when I hit the E string (or D string I guess), am I maxing out my cab? I rolled back my low's and it still comes through. I'm playing my room so it's not like I got the amp cranked.

Also, it's an old Ampeg B-40 4x10 8 ohm cab
 
#7
Does it do it if you are not in Drop D?

Just a hunch, but you may be overdriving the input to the BBE. What kind of bass are you playing? I am betting it is an active bass.

The BBE-BMax had problems with input clipping until they revised the design. There was a mod to fix it documented on their web pages, IIRC. This MIGHT also apply to the sonic maximizer.
 
#8
Does your amp have a master volume?

If the farting is the same at any volume setting, it's likely to be the BBE pushing the input stages of the amp too hard or struggling itself with your bass's input.

If on the other hand the distortion only comes at high overall volume levels, you can assume the distortion is creeping in at a later stage such as the power amp or speakers.
 
#9
Jim Carr said:
Does it do it if you are not in Drop D?

Just a hunch, but you may be overdriving the input to the BBE. What kind of bass are you playing? I am betting it is an active bass.

The BBE-BMax had problems with input clipping until they revised the design. There was a mod to fix it documented on their web pages, IIRC. This MIGHT also apply to the sonic maximizer.
Click to expand...

I play a Fender Jazz with stock pickups, I guess I need to research that.

It doesn't do it if it's in drop d, standard e it doesn't do it at all.


David1234 said:
Does your amp have a master volume?

If the farting is the same at any volume setting, it's likely to be the BBE pushing the input stages of the amp too hard or struggling itself with your bass's input.

If on the other hand the distortion only comes at high overall volume levels, you can assume the distortion is creeping in at a later stage such as the power amp or speakers.
Click to expand...

It's all at the same volume, but depending my dynamics, it will make the sound or not, usually when I'm playing harder, it does it more, if I back off and play softly, it won't do it.

So what should I do to get rid of this problem? I mean I love everything sounds now, I don't want to start changing stuff.
 
#12
I associate the term 'farting-out" with bass speakers that are being driven beyond their excusion limits, and drivers that have already been damaged in this way.

What do you see when you look closely at your speakers and their surrounds while they're being driven? Does the farting-out stop when you change your EQ settings to significantly reduce bass frequencies?

Are your speakers farting-out at low volume levels, or only when being driven hard?
 

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