Distorted bass through a 2x15? Bad idea??

[AMJBASS]

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.

All you need to do is read Duke's post and you're set One of the best speaker cabinet designers out there.

 

[jbybj]

It's NEVER a bad idea to run distorted bass.

 

[Yok]

Wow, this has cleared up everything pretty much.

The 'reason' it was said to be a bad idea was efficiency, it would freeze the cones with the square waves which would overheat them. So that's crap, good!

The tone I am using is from a Digitech Bass Driver, set to be more a ProCo sound but with a little more snarl and low end. But I also enjoy my MXR Overdrive if I am using a brighter bass setting or the DT gets a little too much.
Also recently picked up a BASS ME50B and I am playing with the effects there.

Essentially I am greedy and want ALL the choice.

 

[iualum]

Ah, the old wives tales...

Yepper .

 

[mpdd]

that's my sound, L2k into a harshly overdriven mesa d180 into two orange 115s, never had a problem, the head is probably around 150-180 watts and each cab is rated at 400 watts

 

[Yok]

I am running and 500w head split into the two 250w drivers. Maybe I should go back to my 300w head though, eh?

 

[Johnny Crab]

Just buy about 3 or 4 Seismic 2x15's and let'er rip!

 

[Yok]

Sounds like a great idea, but I don't have money and I am unsure whether you can even get Seismic speakers in Australia...

I'd rather run a few more ROAD cabs

 

[strictlybass_ic]

I'm not sure what everyone else is so fired up about, but IME the big reason not to run heavy distortion through 15's is because it doesn't sound very good. Don't get me wrong, I love a good 15" cab. But IMO they are so much more prone to going all muddy with fuzz/dist/OD. 10's always seem to come off quite a bit better in that regard.

Of course that's not to say there aren't exceptions.

 

[Yok]

It's surprising how bright and responsive my rig is, a lot of other players have commented that it has the high end of the 4x10 but the lows of a double 15, I think it has a pretty scooped sound though, which I am ok with.

 

[Dave W]

Of course that's not to say there aren't exceptions.

That's why. Laying down a blanket statement that 15's are muddy, slow, yatta yatta just doesn't make sense. Maybe in 1968 is was semi true but these days the only thing the size of the speaker tells you is...the size of the speaker.