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Distorted bass through a 2x15? Bad idea??

Yok

Yok

Oct 14, 2011
80
34
Sydney, AU
#1
Yo, I like my bass overdriven and distorted, but someone commented recently that doing so with a 2x15 was a bad idea, now I am afraid to drive it because, well, you know.

Is it a bad idea? Why?

Do I need to get another speaker that I cannot currently afford?
 
#2
Overdrive distortion will not damage your woofers unless you overheat the voice coils, which is unlikely unless you're pushing them to the limit already.

However overdrive distortion can sound harsh through tweeters and/or cook them, because it can put a lot more energy and therefore heat into them, and their little voice coils can't dissipate that heat fast enough to keep from exceeding their thermal limits.

If your 2x15 is tweeterless, I wouldn't worry about it.
 
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#3
Oh cool!
From what I understand about my cab, it runs Etones which are known to be very efficient so it could handle more abuse.
It doesn't have a tweeter, so it looks like I might be sweet!
Thanks for the advice!
 
#4
The trick here is to never run dirty apparently louder than you can play it running clean.
While I don't know the tone of your Etone drivers, if they are the bright agile type of fifteen inch
and as you say without tweeters, they should sound better than just about any other speaker size combination out there,
being run filty dirty anyway.:-)
 
#5
The real "trick" is to never run distorted through an amp rated at more that 1/2 your cab's rating. OTOH I do run an Aquliar TH350 into my GK 212MBE cab that is only rated at 600w but I know I'm chancing it. I'm a whole lot happier running one of my 800w 8x10's with that head - but those are ~140lbs vs the 212MBE at 34 lbs :( .
 
#6
Back in my local rock star days, I would run an active 5 string through an Acoustic 370 head into a Peavey 2x15 cab, with distortion and other fx, and never had any problems. Later, I did the same through a 1x15 and a 4x10 rig. Again, no problems. No tweeters, though.

As stated above, if you ain't got tweeters, you (probably) won't get problems.
 
#7
like other ... back in the 70's ... Sunn Concert bass head into Yamaha 2-15 cab ( w/JBL k-120 ? ) that head had a distortion knob right on the front ... ! then added another home made 2-15 similar to Yamaha cab w/Altecs ... never blew up anything while playing Grand Funk , Led Zep , Deep Purple , Uriah Heep type stuff ...
that is ... as far as I can remember ...
 
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#10
Lots of interesting but factually incorrect ideas in this thread. Speaker size is irrelevant. Distortion is fine through 18", 15", 8", 5", or any other size. If you have your tweeters on, it may sound a bit harsh to you, which you may or may not like. When I play blues and classic rock, I turn off my tweeters to get a smoother sound to my fuzz and drive tones. When I'm playing in my punk band, I bring my tweeters up to about 50% because I want more of that gritty edge to my tone. If you don't run your entire set with distortion on and can't tweak your tweeters in between songs, look for a drive pedal that has a tone control or something like that.
 
#12
RoadRanger said:
The real "trick" is to never run distorted through an amp rated at more that 1/2 your cab's rating. OTOH I do run an Aquliar TH350 into my GK 212MBE cab that is only rated at 600w but I know I'm chancing it. I'm a whole lot happier running one of my 800w 8x10's with that head - but those are ~140lbs vs the 212MBE at 34 lbs :( .
Click to expand...
Uh oh ...
 
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#14
RoadRanger said:
The real "trick" is to never run distorted through an amp rated at more that 1/2 your cab's rating.
Click to expand...
Munjibunga said:
Uh oh ...
Click to expand...
yeah, "uh oh" is right;

i hope he meant to never turn up until the amp itself is full-on clipping with an amp that was more than half what the speakers were rated for, because at that point said amp could be putting out twice as much power as it was rated for. that sort of makes sense.

that's got nothing to do with running overdrive sounds into the front of your regular rig at regular volumes. tweeterless 15s are awesome for that!
 
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#16
My experience with 15" with distortion wasn't bad, but I felt that the driver could sometimes not be quick enough for some of the faster riffs we were playing, especially with distortion. I also felt that the 15" didn't have as much punch as a 10". IMO I think a 10" driver would be ideal for distorted bass but it isn't like 15 wouldn't work at all for it.
 
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#18
KioMetalFan said:
My experience with 15" with distortion wasn't bad, but I felt that the driver could sometimes not be quick enough for some of the more technical riffs we were playing, especially with distortion. I also felt that the 15" didn't have as much punch as a 10". IMO I think a 10" driver would be ideal for distorted bass but it isn't like 15 wouldn't work at all for it.
Click to expand...

Ah, the old wives tales...
 
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#19
My 2 cents.
Years ago I played in a heavy rock / classic metal band using a 2x15 cab with 2 EV 15 L, great (!) sounding cab, albeit pretty heavy.
Every now and then I used quite a bit distortion and the tone was just amazing. From mild overdrive to full-mega-Motörhead-like distortion the cab always sounded great.
 

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