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Double Bass Cab questions

T

Thelowestoflow

Nov 9, 2010
42
0
Commerce, MI
#1
I just recently purchased a GK MB500 head. I was wondering what would be a good cab for under $700 that I could pair with that. I was thinking of buying a Ten2 extension cab and just running my head through that, but I'm not sure if I can run a head through an extension cab (I know you probably can, I just don't want to be wrong.) Any thoughts/ suggestions?
It needs to be portable.
 
#7
tstone said:
Just make sure whatever extension cab you choose can handle the amp's power.

If it's a 4 ohm cab, it should be rated at 500W or higher.
If it's an 8 ohm cab, it should be rated at 350W or higher.
Click to expand...

This is not quite true. There is nothing wrong with having a speaker cab with a continuous power handling capacity lower than the continuous power output rating of the amp. One simply has to be careful about not pushing the cab too far and, especially if there are not tweeters involved, your ears will alert you to overdrive conditions. Where tweeters are involved, they are more often damaged by overdriving the amp (having an amp with insufficient power) than by using an amp with too high a power rating.

All of this aside, power handling specs of musical instrument cabs are hardly standardized. Furthermore, even when the specs are objective and the testing conditions are specified, one can still run into trouble. For example, holding constant the amount of acoustic radiated power from a speaker cone, its excursion will increase as frequency is decreased. The result is that one can be well within the nominal power handling specs of the cab and still seriously overdrive (and damage) the cone.

The best defense is good sense-- and, if you're concerned, a properly-sized in-line fuse. :)
 
#8
I use a GK MB500 with a GK 112MBX extension cabinet. It's all I need. Sounds good and the entire rig weighs under 20 lbs. Very compact and an easy schlep. While the 112MBX power handling is only rated for 100 watts, I don't worry about it. The MB500 is a clean machine, and I've never heard the speaker complain. Most speakers can handle far more power than they are rated for as long as there is no appreciable distortion involved. Just use a little common sense. If you hear distortion, back off a bit.

BTW the voicing of the MB500 is a little bottom heavy. A high-pass filter like fdeck's HPF-Pre is a particularly useful addition with this amp.
 
#9
robgrow said:
I use a GK MB500 with a GK 112MBX extension cabinet. It's all I need. Sounds good and the entire rig weighs under 20 lbs. Very compact and an easy schlep. While the 112MBX power handling is only rated for 100 watts, I don't worry about it. The MB500 is a clean machine, and I've never heard the speaker complain. Most speakers can handle far more power than they are rated for as long as there is no appreciable distortion involved. Just use a little common sense. If you hear distortion, back off a bit.

BTW the voicing of the MB500 is a little bottom heavy. A high-pass filter like fdeck's HPF-Pre is a particularly useful addition with this amp.
Click to expand...

I've been using a GK 112MBX cab with an AI Clarus a bunch lately. I've cranked it pretty good and have never had a problem. Like you say, if the cab starts sounding funny just back off.
 

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