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Carvin BX500: Part II
- Thread starter Kelly Lee
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I got my bx500 yesterday.
I plugged it into my 4x10 sonic cabinet at practice. I ran it on 4 ohms, It worked great, only prob is that it was not as loud as I expected. I had the drive up and the master volume around 8 or 9. I was expecting do be around 4?
I'm still new to all this, but could this mean that my cab is wired for 8 ohms?
The cabinet does not say the ohms or watts. I am going to bring a meter to check it next time.
Any help is appreciated.
I plugged it into my 4x10 sonic cabinet at practice. I ran it on 4 ohms, It worked great, only prob is that it was not as loud as I expected. I had the drive up and the master volume around 8 or 9. I was expecting do be around 4?
I'm still new to all this, but could this mean that my cab is wired for 8 ohms?
The cabinet does not say the ohms or watts. I am going to bring a meter to check it next time.
Any help is appreciated.
My pretty loud on my 8 ohms cab. My drive is 5. and my master is 4. I use the passive setting on the a/p switch. Volume on bass about 40%.
It's got to be your cab. I'm running my drive at 2.5 and my master at 3.5 and it's hella loud. My cab is a Carvin BRX10.4 Neo with 1,200 watt handling capacity. I get told to turn down at that volume frequently.
I'm playing a schecter Stilleto. I'm using the active switch on the head, but I should still have plenty of volume. The volume on my bass is all the way up.
I mean, I'm still "pretty loud"....but I have no headroom.
I've been told my cab is probably wired for 8 ohms and I need to rewire it for 4 ohms. (or get another 8 ohm cabinet.)
I mean, I'm still "pretty loud"....but I have no headroom.
I've been told my cab is probably wired for 8 ohms and I need to rewire it for 4 ohms. (or get another 8 ohm cabinet.)
I've ran that head 2, 4 and 8 ohms and never had the volume beyond 5, with chest rattling loudness. Interesting...something doesn't seem right here. Volume at 5, my amp is not "pretty loud" it's damn loud. But, my idea of loud may be different from yours.
It is plenty loud for rehearsal. I just don't have much headroom with my controls close to being maxed out, and that is something I was looking forward too. This is frustrating.
I can't rewire my 8ohm 4x10 to 4 ohms correct?
But, I could rewire it to 2 ohms?
I can't rewire my 8ohm 4x10 to 4 ohms correct?
But, I could rewire it to 2 ohms?
You definitely need to be in passive mode on the head, that's where you're probably loosing a lot of volume. I beleive that's a -15db pad in active.
Your PU's are passive. Don't go by the writing on the head, use your ears. Why use a -15db pad on a bass that most likely dose not have enough signal to send it in to clipping.
Your bass is 18 volts correct? If you're boosting the bass almost all the way then maybe you need the active switch on.
With bass boosted all the way on my Aggie pre and the drive at noon my b1500 still dosen't clip. When I do engage the active switch the volume drops way down and becomes too polite losing treble definition.
Correct me if I am wrong, but using the active input/switch is really only necessary if you are clipping (you may hear some buzz saw unusable distortion that only goes away when you turn down at the guitar). It is there to negate a hot preamp. It may not be necessary.
Taking a cue from Eli I've mounted a BX500 in a PB 100 cab. The amp uses the same chassis as the original power section of the combo so it was a simple matter of unscrewing four bolts and bolting the new head in. For some reason my head shipped with the mounting grommets already installed so I didn't even have to take off the top or switch the old grommets over. See pic below. I'm wondering if this is normal or if I just got lucky???
I've had it out on several gigs - 2 small jazz gigs and 2 louder ones - the loudest being a wedding gig with an 8 piece dance band. This band isn't screaming loud but we do the standard mix of r'n'b funk disco rock & pop with loud unmiked drums. So far I haven't had to move the master past 4! This amp is freaking loud. It sounds pretty good with upright as well.
I'm suprised at how much bass this little combo puts out. With the small cab size I was expecting to have to boost the lows a bunch but that hasn't been the case. It's not putting out a wall of low bass but it is punchy fat and round sounding. I'm using the original speaker which is pretty beefy - so far it hasn't broke a sweat.
I've had it out on several gigs - 2 small jazz gigs and 2 louder ones - the loudest being a wedding gig with an 8 piece dance band. This band isn't screaming loud but we do the standard mix of r'n'b funk disco rock & pop with loud unmiked drums. So far I haven't had to move the master past 4! This amp is freaking loud. It sounds pretty good with upright as well.
I'm suprised at how much bass this little combo puts out. With the small cab size I was expecting to have to boost the lows a bunch but that hasn't been the case. It's not putting out a wall of low bass but it is punchy fat and round sounding. I'm using the original speaker which is pretty beefy - so far it hasn't broke a sweat.
Clearly an upgrade -- mine did not come with that. Apparently Carvin has gotten the air that people are doing this -- enough so to add the plastic nuts AND the cutouts to the top cover. Kudos to them for being so responsive!
I ordered mine about three weeks ago and was told they were in stock. Never got a confirmation email so I called--they then told me they were back ordered and would probably ship 1st or 2nd week of June. I got tired of waiting; I now want to check out some other things--so I called on Friday and cancelled my order. They should have been upfront with me in the first place.
If I wanted to put an 18" cabinet under my 4x10 cabinet, would I need another preamp with crossover for biamping so that I can separate the lows and highs?
**also, is this even a good idea? Does the bx500 even have enough power for all that? It seems like most of the guys here are doing like 2x10 or 1x12 etc.
**also, is this even a good idea? Does the bx500 even have enough power for all that? It seems like most of the guys here are doing like 2x10 or 1x12 etc.
Yes, you would.
I'm currently running the BX500 w/BRX10.4 neo and want to add a BRX10.2 neo cab. I'm not going to be able to separate the highs and lows, but because the 10.2 is 4ohms I would need to run the amp at 2 ohms, it'll be louder.
I've got a BX1200 head that has matching BR410 and BR118 cabs and it does have a crossover and was able to get the highs and lows that I needed. I never bridged it till I got the BRX10.4 cab then I had 1,200 watts @ 4ohms. Sounds great, though.
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