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^ This is really all that matters !!! ^
D
Deleted member 165050
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Obviously an indoors-only phenomenon and not directly related to the choice of speakers, so I guess my point was irrelevant
#2 is the best question you asked.
How will you know? Try them (preferably with your band) and see what sounds good.
How will you know? Try them (preferably with your band) and see what sounds good.
There is rarely any need to think "one cab per head." Almost all amps are designed to be used with either a single 4-ohm or 8-ohm cab or a pair of 8-ohm cabs. The vast majority of people using two cabs are powering them both with a single amp. With most amps, you just need to be sure that they are 8-ohm cabs and not 4-ohm cabs. (There are a few amps that can drive two 4-ohm cabs, but most can't.)
Fender Rumble 350 pushing an old 4x10 crate sounds pretty good to me .....i have no idea whats in the cab, ive never looked..but its pretty sweet...just had to tell someone..lol
I'm using a Darkglass head with a Mesa 212. Sounds incredible, but a little bright to my liking. May try and find an Orange 115, as I have owned one in the past and it was on the darker side, tone-wise.
Literally most any head will work with most any cab ... but, it will likely be different than the 'next' set-up you try ... unless you have unlimited funds, it is always a question of budget, especially since you asked, 'Is the price disparity worth it?' ...
You are asking good questions, and yes, some mfr's have a certain type of sound 'built in', but at the same time, features, portability, ease of use, weight, physical size, sealed/ported cabs, and of course price and availability (both to try and acquire) all come into play ...
... Brand is only one of the components to consider .... I happen to be liking GK heads, as for me they are a very simple head, with flat generally a point I can start at every time, and quite often adjust very little ... I also happen to be preferring the sound/response of sealed vs ported cabs .... at least that is what I own, but at the same time, I seldomly have a problem finding something useable with a supplied backline, unless it tends to be too 'boomy' and is hard to clean up ...
'How to do the research?' .... try anything and everything you can get your hands on ... it can easily get expensive, but many of us have done it over 30,40,+ years to spread the $$ hit out ... also, your final tonal results are synergistic, meaning a result of everything else that goes involved (bass selection, EQ choices, playing style, type of venue, other instrumentation, etc., etc.) ... and what sounds good to you playing alone , may not work well when playing with others ....
What is it that you like about your 300 watt, ported 115 Laney combo? ... what is it that you dont like? ... what is it that you are tryiing to accomplish with the change to head/cab? .... might be almost more important questions, at least to start with ...
JMHO's ... as always
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I have several GK amps that I use with an assortment of cabs. But lately my Fender Rumble 350 has been getting most of the love. I have used it with an Eden Ex112, Avatar B210, two Fender Rumble 115's and the beast: Carvin BR410. It sounds great with all of them.
I can't think of many amp or cab builders that have been so consistent that it's useful to make generalizations this broad. I guess with the exception of niche builders that follow a very specific design philosophy and haven't made many different designs over the years, like Acme maybe?
V30s have a pretty distinctive sound, but I don't know how consistent Orange guitar heads are. For bass, I know an AD200B is completely different from a Terror Bass, and both may be different from an OB1, and so on. Once you get into speakers that are less distinctive than V30s (i.e.: pretty much all other speakers), it may be more useful to look at the overall cab design rather than just the company that built the driver. That's if you're talking about bass cabs, at any rate.
If you're not pretty sure that these brands have a consistent signature tone, I think this question is kind of a non-starter. In most cases, you need to know the same stuff you always need to know when you're buying gear!
If you haven't actually played the cab and heads, I'd think about their design philosophy regardless of who builds them. Tube vs. solid state, clean vs. overdriven, horn vs. no horn, general wattage, and so on.
Haha, they're not stupid questions! But I think you're barking up the wrong tree thinking in terms of manufacturer. An Orange AD200B has more in common with a Mesa D-180 than it does with a Terror Bass or a D-800, for instance. An Ampeg V-4B has more in common with a Fender Bassman 135 than either does with an SVT or a Fender Rumble. And so on.
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Agreed. This is the basics of it. Start here and work your way into the more exotic aspects of it all as you go along.
Just to elaborate on the basics.
If a solid state amp is rated to operate into a minimum of 4 Ohms.
Don't let your combination of speakers go lower than 4.
Higher, like 8 is OK, you just get a little less power from the amp.
If a tube amp, you should try to match the combined impedance (measured in Ohms and called the load) to the same rating as the amp. Tube amps need the proper load.
Your speakers, ideally should be rated (RMS rating, not peak or music power) to be higher than what the amp will put out.
My rule of thumb is at least 50% higher and YMMV.
It is possible however, to blow a speaker that is rated to handle more power than the amp will provide.
This can be affected by a number of things like equalization settings or effects being used.
The key is to always listen to your speakers.
If you hear something that diesn't right then you need to back of on the amp volume.
There is nothing that says brand A cab not will work with brand B amp.
Likewise, there is nothing technically magic about using brand A cab with brand A amp.
As long as you keep the above guidelines in mind, the rest is pretty much up to how you like the way different combinations sound together.
You can mix and match at will. Just keep in mind the physics of the matter - keep the ohm load properly matched to the amp. The only advantage to matching amps and cabs as if they were garanimals is that you can be reasonably confident that, for example, GK tested their heads with their cabinets if they are contemporaries. And you can always spin the knobs on an amp to yield results to your liking. There is no reason to keep the amp flat, that's why the knobs spin. Besides overall impedance, the only thing to really look out for is matching cabs correctly, that is, don't pair an 8 ohm 100W cab with an 8 ohm 500W cab and then use an 800W amp. You'll be sending 400W to each speaker and will likely blow the less robust cab.
It's a crap shoot from a tone perspective. I currently have an old Gallien Krueger head with a Seismic Bass cab. Sounds awesome! Other combinations have sounded like Shuh. Test and retest until you find a tone you like. While paying attention to the technical aspects peeps have described above to prevent frying your equipment.
Actually 1 + 1 = 6, even outdoors. Everybody knows that.
You read about what people use, try stuff out in stores, spend money on the used market, and do that for a lot of years. Eventually you find what you like. As long as you don't mismatch your nominal total speaker impedance and what the amp can do, you'll be fine.
Once I had a complicated amp setup with an SWR SM-400 driving one cab and a Crown DC-300 driving another. At one gig I was in a rush to set up and I accidentally wired the outputs of both amps to each other instead of to the cabs. The SWR gave up the magic smoke. Don't experiment that way.
Tom
You read about what people use, try stuff out in stores, spend money on the used market, and do that for a lot of years. Eventually you find what you like. As long as you don't mismatch your nominal total speaker impedance and what the amp can do, you'll be fine.
Once I had a complicated amp setup with an SWR SM-400 driving one cab and a Crown DC-300 driving another. At one gig I was in a rush to set up and I accidentally wired the outputs of both amps to each other instead of to the cabs. The SWR gave up the magic smoke. Don't experiment that way.
Tom
What type of bass are you using, what style of music do you play, what technique do you use (fingers, pick, slap, or a combination), what effects are in your chain... All of those factor heavily into the equation. This is where actual hands on testing is crucial. Only you can be the judge as to what your ultimate choice of gear will be. Sorry if this muddies the water, but it's important to see the big picture. Welcome to TB.
buldog5151bass
Kibble, milkbones, and P Basses. And redheads.
Two questions here:
1. As long as there is an impedance match, there is nothing to stop you from mixing brands. What sounds good is entirely subjective - certainly different companies (or lines within companies) have their own voice in some cases. Best to try out different combinations until you find something you like.
2. Driver size. Mixing speakers of different sizes (or cabs of different brands) can lead to problems, since they were not designed to play nicely together. The safe thing is to find a cab you like, and if you need more, get a matching cab.
1. As long as there is an impedance match, there is nothing to stop you from mixing brands. What sounds good is entirely subjective - certainly different companies (or lines within companies) have their own voice in some cases. Best to try out different combinations until you find something you like.
2. Driver size. Mixing speakers of different sizes (or cabs of different brands) can lead to problems, since they were not designed to play nicely together. The safe thing is to find a cab you like, and if you need more, get a matching cab.
Never, EVER mix brands. The results can be catastrophic!
Invalid Link Removed
From the article:
But when Fender and Markbass come into contact, they annihilate – disappearing in a flash of energy.
Or something like that.
Invalid Link Removed
From the article:
But when Fender and Markbass come into contact, they annihilate – disappearing in a flash of energy.
Or something like that.
Basing my outcome on nothing I've read and relying on no advice, logic or meaningful evidence supporting or repudiating my opinion, I have decided that never mixing brands is my totally unsubstantiated and indefensible preference. It just bugs me. YMMV
D
Deleted member 165050
Guest
Got to admit I do like my logos to match... dammit I just realised I have an Ashdown head with an EBS cab. I'll take the logo off the cab.
