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Power amp+preamp+cab=?

S

Spambusta

Guest
Jan 11, 2012
53
0
#1
So, awhile back my aunt tells me she has a 1200w power amp and some subs from her old car (she can't put them in her new car, it's brand new) that she'd give me if i wanted them. Now originally I was like hell yeah a system, but since the lead guitar in my band got a new Mesa head...my backline 600 can't exactly hold it's own without distorting ALOT. So this brings me to my question, if i got a good preamp and an 8x10 that can handle the wattage, can I run the car amp as a power amp for this setup and still get a good, clear, loud tone out of it?
 
#2
If you can't keep up with your guitarist, either he's too loud or you don't have enough speakers to get loud enough cleanly.

But to answer, yes it should work. A power amp is usually the same no matter what it is used for. Without knowing what power amp it is, we can't know that for definite though.
 
#4
Except that your "1200 watt" car amp is probalby more like 100....car audio is even more ridiculous than pro audio in inflating amp specs. Truth is, if you went to an 8x10, your backline 600 would probalby be crazy loud. If it's still not enough...find a new guitar player. Speaker surface area is way more important than wattage when dealing with loudness.
 
#5
I think by the time you went through all the nickels, dimes, time, and effort required to make it reasonably giggable (power conversion, housing, mounting, connectors, etc), a good higher-powered used head or even new power amp would start looking pretty attractive by comparison. And that's assuming that it'd actually be worth using, which is a huge assumption. (See above post.)

What cabs are the GK running now?
 
#7
Well thanks for all the quick replies dudes! I'm running my backline right now through a 4x10 with 4 eminence speakers in the GK cab, my head is about 5 years old and the cab the same, the original voice coils went in the GK speakers so I put the eminence speakers in about 9 months-a year ago. the inflating the specs is a good point I didn't consider, and powering it also, guess i'll wait and see. I was mainly looking for a fun project to take on so the time and effort would be part of the appeal, but if its not reasonable then it's not reasonable. The thing is i don't think my backline is running like it used to, the fans inside it start running loud and it usually gets pretty hot when we jam for longer than a setlist. My head peaks at 4ohms, and the 4x10 i'm running now is 8ohms, so would it be a better starting point to get another 4x10 8ohm cab and see where that gets me tonally?
 
#8
If you can get a second identical cab loaded with the identical drivers, then yes. Mixing drivers with different voicing is hit or miss.

Spambusta said:
Well thanks for all the quick replies dudes! I'm running my backline right now through a 4x10 with 4 eminence speakers in the GK cab, my head is about 5 years old and the cab the same, the original voice coils went in the GK speakers so I put the eminence speakers in about 9 months-a year ago. ... My head peaks at 4ohms, and the 4x10 i'm running now is 8ohms, so would it be a better starting point to get another 4x10 8ohm cab and see where that gets me tonally?
Click to expand...
 
#10
Right, I did read that around here...I started on this forum over in the Luthier's corner as I'm building a new bass as well and just started to explore all this info here. Would that just mean that the speakers would need to be the same? Or is the input to the cab important as well?
 
#11
Spambusta said:
Right, I did read that around here...I started on this forum over in the Luthier's corner as I'm building a new bass as well and just started to explore all this info here. Would that just mean that the speakers would need to be the same? Or is the input to the cab important as well?
Click to expand...

You should pair an 8 ohm 410 with a second 8 ohm 410. As far as the drivers go, there is no way to say if the mixed drivers will sound good in different settings. They may sound great together in one room and they may sound terrible in another. Matching cabs with matching drivers will be consistent.

If you do end up with a second 410 cab, make sure that the speakers with the new cab and the replaced speakers in your old cab are all in phase with each other. This can easily be done with a 9 volt battery across the tip of a 1/4" speaker cable plugged into the back of your cabs. If you touch the same leads to the sleeve/tip in both cabs then all the speakers should move in or out together. If one is different then you will run into problems.
 

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