So my band finally starts playing live music over speakers after been practicing through headphones with electric drums and all. So I finally get to use my 70's Ampeg SVT 810 cab with my rack I just put together for it, which would be a Crest VS900 power amp and a SansAmp RBI. Our guitarist doesnt have his stage amp yet so he said he will just use his little marshall combo. I think it is 15 or 20 watt maybe but anyways that little thing seems to be even louder than my rig. Im running the power amp bridged up at about half way which would be around 450 watts. I dont want to push the amp anymore becuase I dont want to damage the drivers since I know these older cabs are not rated high for power. All drivers are original but one was reconed in the 80's and that one now has been rattling a lot now. So that one must be reconed again..... So how does a 400-500 watt 810 be equal with a 15 watt 12??
Enjoy the benefits of a premium membership!
Upgrade Account
-
TalkBass has been independent since 1998. Add your voice.
Create a free account to reply to discussions, view embedded media, and browse with fewer display ads.
Join free Log in
Want zero display ads or expanded classifieds tools? Compare plans.
My big rig blown away by lil combo?!
- Thread starter MusicMan810
- Start date
how much juice are you giving the power amp from the rbi? and are you sure its 15 watts that not alot at all. maybe he is miced and its the pa not his little combo.
the bass shouldnt blow out the guitar anyway the guitar should be above the bass but does your bass sit well in the mix or no?
how many watts is your poweramp 900? maybe run it mono.
the bass shouldnt blow out the guitar anyway the guitar should be above the bass but does your bass sit well in the mix or no?
how many watts is your poweramp 900? maybe run it mono.
15 tube watts from certain amps can get pretty nasty. the guitarist in my band runs an vox ac15 that can f'n scream. Of course we dont let him play that loud...it becomes ridiculuous.
Hi.
Welcome to the wonderful world of bass reproduction
.
As mentioned, the reason is in the frequencies and the human hearing.
Regards
Sam
Welcome to the wonderful world of bass reproduction
.As mentioned, the reason is in the frequencies and the human hearing.
Regards
Sam
- May 9, 2008
- 4,081
- 1,236
- Disclosures
- Proprietor Springvale Studios
How are you measuring half power exactly? if you are going by the knobs on the front panel of the power amp thats got nothing to do with it.
Turn them flat out and then try again starting at low volume on your pre's input with all bells wistles eq' limiter' and **** turned firmly off or centerd as in eq and turning up the input progressivly untill it starts to sound like the good speakers are beginning to fart. Turn it down till it sounds good again. If you use an overdrive sound never have it apparantly louder than the amp sounds clean.
Sensitive musicians never blow speakers as speakers don't sound good at the level they usually blow at.
If you find it is quite noise'y hiss wise then start reducing the Power amp volume controls and turning up your pre amp untill you see a clip light on the pre when you hit the bass hard, back off a bit and turn the power amp control's up till the speakers start to complain.
Then turn on the eq (tone controls centered) and ajust to tase if the pre starts showing clip lights you are obviously turning the control the wrong way (remember you are already at full power) as the first thing you need to think about with parametric eq is what frequency do I have too much at. If you need to boost the Low end lots change your pre amp, your bass or your ears and expectation's. Get the damaged speaker replaced with an original part it may have intermittent shorts due to rubbing in the voice coil gap and it sounds **** anyway. It may also be 32 Ohms so equivalents should be treated with extreme caution.
Remember that Bass Wave Forms are a hell of a lot taller and take more room to form. Thats why you have to crank it so much in a practice space. But at the gig everybody 15ft. back craps their pants on the first note.
Remember that Bass Wave Forms are a hell of a lot taller and take more room to form. Thats why you have to crank it so much in a practice space. But at the gig everybody 15ft. back craps their pants on the first note.
This is an oft repeated myth. While a bass frequency may have a longer period and take longer to propogate, you DO NOT have to let it "fully develop" in order to hear it. For those who insist otherwise, try a pair of headphones on sometimes. I guarantee that the space in your ear canal is far too "short" for anything but high mids and highs to "develop."
To the op, the knobs on your amp are NO indication of its power output. I'll echo/paraphrase what Bassmec said: Set your levels by ear. You can hear speaker distortion from overpowering fairly easily when you are solo. As you've demonstrated, the supposed lower rating of old SVT 8x10 cabs is a MYTH, so trust it to hang with your needs when you get that crappy replacement speaker fixed.
Thangfish
...overly qualified for janitorical deployment...
Amazing ain't it?
My guitarist just sold a 1x12 Goodsell 17w (Marshall clone) and it was capable of inflicting pain.
He now uses a ToneKing that is (foot)switchable from 20w/1x12
to 40w/2x12. Neither of us can envision a setting when the 40w side would be needed.
When a little amp is pushed to overdrive (even to cone breakup), with the input saturated by a couple boost pedals, it can generally walk all over a big bass rig that usually needs to be played somewhat clean.
I have a 200 watt Yorkie 1x15. Our guitarist uses an older Peavy - watts I don't know.
I was always pushing my amp to get the right balance - sometimes just so I could hear myself. I picked up a Hartke 2x10 ex cab and man, what a dif.
Now I hear myself no prob at all. As a matter of fact I'm loving the tone & thickness I'm getting - very sexy.
My rig does look a bit weird if you can imagine the Yorkie with the big grill & the Hartke sitting on top looking like two eyeballs. But the sound IS very cool.
Love it.
I was always pushing my amp to get the right balance - sometimes just so I could hear myself. I picked up a Hartke 2x10 ex cab and man, what a dif.
Now I hear myself no prob at all. As a matter of fact I'm loving the tone & thickness I'm getting - very sexy.
My rig does look a bit weird if you can imagine the Yorkie with the big grill & the Hartke sitting on top looking like two eyeballs. But the sound IS very cool.
Love it.
Once I get the bum driver reconed ill try a little harder using the pre and power amp at different levels to test. I was pretty careful before with applying power to it but now i will rely on my ears to tell me if its good or not. This is my first rack setup and Ive only been able to use it a few times so far, so im still learning how to use my gear just right.
Now we are practicing in a big circular chapel with really tall ceiling. All the amps and drums are not mic'd just the vocals. I think the guitar amp is a 15 watt tube marshall, it definitely screams. But once we start to play gigs the guitarist will have a stack, we will be in a whole different room, and we will have PA support so its going to be a whole different situation then.
Now we are practicing in a big circular chapel with really tall ceiling. All the amps and drums are not mic'd just the vocals. I think the guitar amp is a 15 watt tube marshall, it definitely screams. But once we start to play gigs the guitarist will have a stack, we will be in a whole different room, and we will have PA support so its going to be a whole different situation then.
human hearing...it sucks.
could also just be bad positioning in the room/space. try moving cabinets around, putting them up on milk crates, keyboard stands, amp stands, whatever, get it near ear level. thats you're only fighting chance.
how do you think i feel, in a band with one marshall 4x12 and a fender deville 4x10, both 100 tube watts. gotta get your rig up high, so it hits your ears.
could also just be bad positioning in the room/space. try moving cabinets around, putting them up on milk crates, keyboard stands, amp stands, whatever, get it near ear level. thats you're only fighting chance.
how do you think i feel, in a band with one marshall 4x12 and a fender deville 4x10, both 100 tube watts. gotta get your rig up high, so it hits your ears.
+1 to Bass Mec.
BTW, in relation to the vocals, is your rig too quiet, or is the guitarist too loud (burying the vocals)? If the guitar is too loud, pumping the volume of *your* stage rig will just hurt the band's overall sound by obscuring the vocals even more.
Cool that your first gigs will be stadium shows
.
BTW, in relation to the vocals, is your rig too quiet, or is the guitarist too loud (burying the vocals)? If the guitar is too loud, pumping the volume of *your* stage rig will just hurt the band's overall sound by obscuring the vocals even more.
Cool that your first gigs will be stadium shows
.you need to pick up a 70s SVT head to match the cab...then we will see who gets blown away! I play with mine on 2-3. and it still thumps!
If I had the money for a SVT head, I wouldnt have built the rack. My ultimate plan is to have two rigs. Keep my rack for a SS new rig, and buy maybe a 1 15 and a 2 10, then buy a SVT head and have the vintage ampeg rig.
+1 to Bass Mec.
BTW, in relation to the vocals, is your rig too quiet, or is the guitarist too loud (burying the vocals)? If the guitar is too loud, pumping the volume of *your* stage rig will just hurt the band's overall sound by obscuring the vocals even more.
Cool that your first gigs will be stadium shows
Arena tour is the only way to do it! But anyways, we all are at the about the same volume. Nothing is overpowering anything else, we turn down or up to get a decent balance. I was just trying to say that the little combo was very capable to cut right through my bass. Im going to work a little harder on settings for our next practice.
