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Firebass Problem

F

firebass 1

Dec 16, 2005
27
0
#1
Ok I run my firebass at 12:00 gain and 12:00 Volume for 2-3 hours twice a week, @ 2 ohms. The red protection light lights up only on hard hitting notes. and only for a short period. Ive ran it this way for about a year now with no problems. Last practice it cutt out during some really hard slapp'n. Is this common on firebass's ran this hard? I am considering biamping just to take the load off the firebass and run it at 4 ohms... insted of 2 ohms. :hmm: any input by anyone with a simular experiance.
 
#2
Running a 2 ohm load on this amp should not pose any problems

By cut out do you mean for over 20 or 30 seconds or for an instant? If it was for an instant, you may have triggered the DC protection triac. If it was longer, you may have triggered the themal breaker.
 
#3
Yes. it was for just a second or two. I guess I'm at the max output for this amp? I surely dont want it happening all the time really screws with the groove... I thought a firebass with 700 watts would always have plenty of head room. My guitar player likes to get loud from time to time and it could happen again. And I would hate to loose my amp because I'm pushing it too hard. What about biamping? by using a power amp?
 
#8
Playing against DDT won't cause the DC protect to come on, it's really low frequencies like 5 or 10 Hz. If you don't want it to happen again, try turning the lows down a bit.

I don't condone this, but personally, I would cut the triac out of the circuit, the amp will run just fine without it. This is because sometimes those triacs short when triggered, which shorts the power amp, causing significant damage to the amp.
 
#9
Thanks for the input. My 4 ten is rated at 1200 watts and the 1 fifteen is I beleive about 500's watt is that a problem.
Thats good input to know that I can turn off the ddt if I know were getting loud. Proceeding with caution... Your saying that the ddt can cause damage running against it to much. Maybe I should consider not even using it. After all isnt it only speaker protection? Not amp protection. I would rather blow a speaker than my amp.
 
#10
Its nothing to do with the wattage of the cabs, thats how much they can take on a regular basis

You might want to try what i do, which is turn the master volume all the way up to full, and use the pregain to control the volume, ive had my volume settings much higher than yours and with an active bass and sansamp BDDI infront of it still seldom light the DDT/clipping light

Not sure what the problem could be, get a tech to check it out
 
#14
Proceeding with caution... Your saying that the ddt can cause damage running against it to much. Maybe I should consider not even using it. After all isnt it only speaker protection? Not amp protection. I would rather blow a speaker than my amp.
Click to expand...

No...by all means use DDT, it's just a compressor. It won't hurt your speakers or your amp.

I'm talking about the DC protection circuit. That's what you triggered when you hit that hard slap. This circuit sometimes mistakes really low sustained notes for DC, which causes the amp to cut out. That cut out you heard is actually the triac shorting the speaker output to ground for a split second. Sometimes this can damage the amp, but save your speakers. There is no way to turn off the DC protection unless you cut the triac out of the circuit.
 
#15
lower the gain and raise the master about 4 o clock you are over driving it causing a sqaure wave also if you using an envelope filter make sure you run it through the effects loop theses amps do not like envelopes in the input. make sure if you are running you have that selected, and you may need to turn your brite off but start with the master at about 4 o clock then bring your gain up as needed, if you try to matrch them you square wave
 
#16
You guys are great! I'm learning some really great stuff here. I cant hardly wait till practice to blow my guitar players / "Iwantabeabassplayers Mind" I was thinking maybe 700 watts wasnt enough. I should researched this along time ago... Is it common for guys with there first rig to have simular problems or am I an exception? :hyper:
 
#17
You aint really pushing 700 watts, sounds to me like your clipping the pre section, so you wont be getting the fullest output of it

Seriously, 700 watts is enough unless you are playing stadiums, i guess it also depends on the sensitivity of the speakers

I only use 300 watts, and i dont think i'll need more than that for a while ;)
 
#18
Ok Now for the honest truth..... When I first got my firebass and stack I was having so much fun with the lows that I played a huge "E.....ah" Then with all the balls in the world I let it ring out and turned to my stack and grabbed the volume nob to keep in touch with that huge... wonderous sound of power.. And it did for quit a while untill... >scizzzlewatttttt.. silence....went my 15" but Untill then what a rush.... Didnt even no I blowed it till I started trying to turn up my lows cuz something was missing. Ya 700 watts is plenty. allthough I Would love to some day play with a wall of 18s and 12s and 10s and about 6000 gigawattts... ;) Ever watched back to the future.
 
#19
Ok I went to practice armed with all the tips you folks gave me about cranking my volume knob and using the gain for my overall output level.
Ran excellent till the last song we always get loud and jam out. Although now I dont ever see the ddt light flicker red It did cut out for a second so I eased up and it made it the rest of the tune... Dont get me wrong we were loud!!! Anyone think I need more wattage if I want to play at these insain levels.
 
#20
I'm still convinced you are triggering the DC protection. This is something we've addressed on newer amplifiers. Just to rule out other problems, can you crank it up and play really low notes using one of your cabs and see if you can reproduce the problem consistently that way? A good thump would probably do it.

I have activated the DC protection on some of our other amps, but never this one. I mean, I really abuse mine since I use the power amp for testing.
 

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