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finding right cabinet

B

bazz

Apr 9, 2006
46
0
England, Surrey, Merstham
www.chapter-13.co.uk
#1
heya, i desperatly need help finding a cabinet im a first time buyer i have a head it is a gallian kreuger backline 600, i have no idea what i am looking for it does 300 watts at 4 ohms, and id like a very versitile sound for all sorts of music including blues jazz and rock, with a very trebley cripsy sound, and a very low budgetaround £150 to £200 prefereably nearer £150. i have no idea what size i want to start with, could you help, and what Impedance do i want and what difference does it make all the ones i have looked at do 8ohms but my head does 4ohms, what difference does it make and should i settle for a cab that does 8ohms or look for a 4ohms one? please help

thankyou very much
 
#4
Looks like your amp will do 300 watts at 4 ohms. That means you want to be running at 4 Ohms, and you can get there two (easy) ways. Run two 8 ohm cabinets, or one 4 ohm cabinet. You say you want good trebble response, so you will want to make sure your cabinet(s) have tweeters. With the power handling of the GK, you'll want to make sure you find a cabinet that with good sensitivity (100db or so).

Besides that it is going to come down to portability and what sounds good to your ear. I don't know how much cabinets cost in England, so I can't comment on your budget. Try out some GK gear since you already have the head. If you can find it, the Yamaha BBT410s is also a good deal. I have never heard it, but I have two of the yamaha 1x10 that sound great.

Avatar might also be a good alternative: http://www.avatarspeakers.com
 
#5
Also, will you be playing with a full rock band or RnB outfit (something loud or with a dense mix)? Or is this for more quieter jazz or acoustic sets?

How much do you have to spend on a cab? How are you going to be transporting it (do you have a car or do you need to bum rides from bandmates go to and from shows)?

There's lots of different ways you can go. If you're not exactly sure what you'll end of needing, I think the best way to go is getting one 8 ohm cab... that way, if you need more volume later, you can add another 8 ohm cab at any time and move more air.

Configirations to be thinking about are 4x10's (which would work in most loud scenarios by itself), 2x12's (again, would be able to handle a lot of situations but would, in general, be a bit quieter than the 4x10), 1x15's or 2x10's (which are similar in volume to each other but probably won't do it for a loud situation, but would be fine if you and your bandmates are EQing a space for each other in the mix)... of course, if space, weight, and size aren't an issue, you could always get an Ampeg fridge (8x10) which is 4 ohms... and you'd never be wanting for volume :D
 
#6
Another thing to think about... ever manufacturer voices their cabs a little differently. A lot of times, people make generalizations about how this or that manufacturer's cabs sound. It useful to a degree, but sometimes it's not entirely true. For example, often times it will be noted that SWR's amps and cabs tend toward a clean, almost sterile, sound... but I got the impression that SWR's Son of Bertha (single 15" speaker and tweeter) had more compressed sound than some other single 15s that I've played... it was nice by itself (and I'm not a huge fan of SWR gear) but I didn't like it with my 2x10 (which I was trying to find a complimentary speaker for at the time).

I guess what I'm trying to say, pay attention to what people say in general about different brands and manufacturers, but also don't rule something out until you've let your ears be the judge... like, if you're looking for a real rock sound, check out Ampeg, Aguilar, Ashdown, Peavey, some Berg stuff... if you're looking for something cleaner in tone, there's GK, Eden, Epifani, SWR, plenty of others... but plenty of metal guys play stuff like Bergantino and GK... plenty of jazz guys like Ampeg or Trace Elliot. It's always an eye opening experience playing around with a bunch of different cabs and amps that you've never played before. Good luck.
 
#8
bazz said:
how would a 2x10 fare up in volume comparison to the other speaker sizes you have mentioned?
Click to expand...

Uh, well, most 2x10's won't be nearly as loud as a 4x10... nor will it be as loud as a 2x12... as I mentioned above, it'll be close to a 1x15 (they both have very similar surface areas)... there are other factors in play besides surface area (such as speaker sensitivity and what frequencies are bumped in the coloring of the cab by the manufacturer) but that's a generality for you.

Honestly, only you can figure out what's going to be sufficient for your needs. A 2x10 and 1x15 together is nice loud setup and it's modular making it easy to move. The GK should be enough amp to run two midsized cabs no problem (or one big mutha) so no worries there...
 
#12
bazz said:
what happens if for instance you but a bass cab of a a power of ai duno 600 watts through a head with a power of i duno like 300 or in other words a more powerfull cab into a less powerfull head, would it just nto reacvh its full potential#?
Click to expand...

You really have to be carefull when judgeing both cabs and amps by power rating alone. For one, is the wattage peak or rms? Secondly, what are the impedence ratings of each? I could go on and on with even more technical stuff, but I chose not too. Here's a little simpler way of answering this question:

Usually I perfer my head to have a higher wattage rating than my cabinet has rated at rms, but not above peak wattage rating. The logic behind this is that is that the closer I push an amp to it's limits, the less clean my signal becomes. So if my limit on my cab is 300 w rms and I'm (ideally) pushing 295 watts continuous, I should still sound relatively clear, with no unwanted distortion from the head. By the amp being rated lower at peak power, this is one fail safe way to protect the cab from unwanted damage caused by signal surges. This is not the perfect answer, but it has worked for me.

Since you are somewhat inexperienced at this, my suggestion to you is to get a combo amp that has the capability of adding extended cabinets.

But most of all...PLAY BEFORE YOU PAY!!!! take the time to visit a local shop and test drive as much as you can to find what is is that sounds good to YOU, regrdless of name brand, speaker configuration,etc.!!!
 
#13
In reply to someone further up Avatar do not ship out of the US, so you cant get them in the UK

If your buying new, a Peavey 2x10, Hartke 2x10 (check ebay, £170 new)

I however, recommend you buy second hand off ebay! I got my Peavey 2x15 for £75! on ebay, and it kicks ass, i also got my Marshall 8x10 on ebay for £275!

Also, look at things here:

www.thomann.de

Great prices :)
 

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