i have an old ampeg rocketbass 100w, i have the gain on 10, nothing bad is happening, and i have a cliff burton esque tone is that a bad thing to have it up that high? nothing seems to be acting unusual or out of place, but i just wanna know if it will blow the speaker
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is putting the gain on 10 bad?
- Thread starter fotallica666
- Start date
Well, if the master volume is also cranked, maybe. But no, it's not doing anything worse than pushing your preamp really hard. It may shorten the amp's life, but that's about it. Those are great amps, btw, my favorite solid state Ampegs, ever. Use your ears, the speaker will tell you when it's had enough.
billfitzmaurice
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it may or may not hurt the amp...but I can't imagine that being a good tone...i'm not familiar with that particular amp though...
I had one, I did the same on occasion when needed, no harm done. No tweeter to blow, but be careful if you have the deep switch engaged.
As long as the amp is not clipping, it is no problem. If you had a very hot bass, you could clip the preamp with gain at max, and the clipped signal could damage the amp or drivers.
billfitzmaurice
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+1. If there was an inherent problem with turning it up to ten it would only go up to nine.
Ric5
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Your tone will be distorted and mid dominated ... but if that's what you like then go for it.
But... this one goes to 11.
Innit?
For the OP: You may also notice that cranking the gain introduces (or increases) noise in the signal - but if that's not an issue for you, have fun! Just understand that the gain and the volume are different beasts - gain controls the preamp, and volume controls the power amp. Cranking one, the other, or both can give you different tones, and obviously cranking both will make things way loud. Whether or not you amp can handle being at 110% all the time, or whether your speakers can handle it, is potentially a different story - but as was said, use your ears to tell.
Innit?
For the OP: You may also notice that cranking the gain introduces (or increases) noise in the signal - but if that's not an issue for you, have fun! Just understand that the gain and the volume are different beasts - gain controls the preamp, and volume controls the power amp. Cranking one, the other, or both can give you different tones, and obviously cranking both will make things way loud. Whether or not you amp can handle being at 110% all the time, or whether your speakers can handle it, is potentially a different story - but as was said, use your ears to tell.
