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AMP Cutting Out NEWB Please Help

G

greg728

May 30, 2013
3
0
#1
I've been playing guitar for a while and just recently started to really play bass for my friends band. I went out and bought a used Mesa powerhouse JR cab with 1x12, 4x8's (I would have bought a head first but I fell in love with the cab), and I'm using a friends Peavey Mark VI bass head until I can buy a decent head. I played through this cab several times for a total of several hours at the store I bought it from and I never had any problems... granted, I was NOT the one setting up the equipment, a store employee would do that. ANYWAY, I hooked up the the Peavey head the same way that my friend did with his Ampeg 6x10 monster cab to my mesa. It played fine and sounded great for about 15 minutes and the amp just cut out out of no where. I turned the amp back off and on and I got sound again, but 5 minutes later the same thing happened. I checked my cables and they're fine.

I hope it was just a ****** outlet or I set it up wrong, and that it's not my cab. (it is used but in very good condition)
I have no clue how to match a cab and head, I know nothing about the ohms, I'm so confused. I can play, I just don't know much about bass gear. The back of the cab says "power capacity 300 watts", and I'm almost certain that the Peavey head exceeds this. I discovered this after the fact. It also only has in and out jacks on the back, with the in jack @ 8 ohms. This is the ohmage I used on the back of the head when I hooked it up.

Anyway, I'm lost. Someone, please help me!!!:crying:
 
#3
I hope you used a SPEAKER CABLE and not a guitar cable to make the connection between the Peavey's output and the speaker cab.

A Peavey Mark IV is a solid-state head, so matching ohms is not critical like it is with a tube amp, so you're probably fine on that score.
 
#5
It's your amp. Too much Bass EQ? This makes a low-powered amp such as yours work very very hard. Reduce Bass, increase Mid--this will make it feel and sound a lot louder. No love?
Then you're either playing loud enough to make it thermal out, or it's got a problem.
 
#6
Crater said:
I hope you used a SPEAKER CABLE and not a guitar cable to make the connection between the Peavey's output and the speaker cab.

A Peavey Mark IV is a solid-state head, so matching ohms is not critical like it is with a tube amp, so you're probably fine on that score.
Click to expand...


No, it is definitely critical.

For this cab it will be fine since it is for 8 ohms, but I bet my bottom dollar a 2 ohm load kills that amp pretty quick. I am not familiar with the Mark VI though, it might be able to take a 2 ohm load but I doubt it.
 
#7
DiabolusInMusic said:
No, it is definitely critical.

For this cab it will be fine since it is for 8 ohms, but I bet my bottom dollar a 2 ohm load kills that amp pretty quick. I am not familiar with the Mark VI though, it might be able to take a 2 ohm load but I doubt it.
Click to expand...

Agreed. Moderb solid state amps have thermal and current protection circuits to protect against damage from mis-matched cab, under-rated cab and bad power. As I found with my own LMII head when it went into protection mode during a gig.

Mine actually went bad though and not through using bad cabs or bad power, and needed the main board replacing... not cheap!
 
#8
I had one of those amps before I gave it away. I remember that it is indeed capable of operation at 2Ω.

When I first go the amp it would cut out after a while which I chased down the the whole thing being blocked with crud. If you remove the back panel you should be able to see if yours has the same problem. A vacuum with a crevice tool and a soft paint brush should fix it up. Please wear a dust mask while doing this as you never know just what has gathered in there. Unplug the amp whilst you are doing this.
 

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