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Noob Amp question.

T

ThomasMiller

Mar 5, 2012
11
0
#1
I've recently switched from playing on combo bass amps to actually having a stack. I currently own an Eden WTX500 and a 4x10 1000W cabinet. However, someone is offering me a really good deal on an SVT-4 Pro head, which they say is 1200W mono-bridged at 4 ohms, or "2x600W". I don't know what "mono-bridged" means, or when I'd use it. Can anyone explain it to me? And if I run a 1200W amp through a 1000W cabinet, it will do damage to the cabinet, right? I don't want to pass up a good opportunity, but I also would like to be able to use the head if I get it.

Any help is appreciated.
 
#2
The stickies have a lot of info about this.

That said you dont have to turn the amp all the way up. In fact your cab rated at 1000w probably cant do anything with anything more than 500 or so watts. If you need to be loud to the point of needing 1,200 watts of power you are going to need more speakers at which point bridging becomes a moot point as you can run two cabs, one off each side of the power section.
 
#3
It's like having 2 power amps in one, like a PA style poweramp. Consider each side it's own independent 600 watt amp. Bridging is like putting the 2 amps together to make a single big 1200 watt amp.

The 600 is enough to drive your cab to full output and beyond, no matter what the wattage rating says. You could play it at the 1200 watt setting too if you're careful. Use your ears, if the speaker gets distorted, turn down. The amp isn't putting out all that power unless you have it turned up to full output. That doesn't necessarily mean 10 on the dial, but you're not using all the power all the time.
 
#5
What's the impedance of your 410? If it's an 8 ohm cabinet that transistor SVT will output +/- 300 watts a side, not 600.
With a cab rated to 1000watts, I think I would run strapped regardless of the cab's impedance.
With an additional cab I'd go dual mono.
 
#14
ThomasMiller said:
I currently don't have access to the cabinet, but when I get home I'll be sure to check. What exactly does impedance matter? All I understand is that I should match amp and cabinet impedance, but I don't know why.
Click to expand...

Go to low and it will fry your head, as it will draw more current than its designed for. An 8 ohm cab will receive less power than a 4 Ohm cab if all the other physical specs are similar, but you wont actually hear the difference. That said two 8 Ohm cabs will be about 6 dB louder than just one of those same 8 Ohm cabs with a SS head.
 
#16
According to the Ampeg spec sheet for the SVT 4 Pro the amp outputs about half the power at 8 ohms than it does at 4 ohms in dual mono, so if you run one side of the amp you will experience a -3 dB difference with an 8 ohm cab vs. a 4 ohm cab.
I think most people can hear that.

You should get a multimeter, then you'll know for sure what your cab is. They come in handy for a lot of things, every gigging player should probably have one, especially those that gig tube amps.
You can get one for $5, it's certainly worth the money IMO.
 

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