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Pushing a head too hard?

2 half stacks is a massive red flag on a gig unless you are doing large stages and I'd bet the soundman would then have a few choices things to say.

I'd be hard pushed to recall a gtr who uses one around here and certainly not on our gigs, which are loud enough.

I'm not sure at what point of dial is the sweet spot on Marshalls but i thinking pretty loud.
 
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Hi guys,

I'm just curious... I have a 1000watt head and a 1200watt cab both @4ohm and sometimes I find myself pushing the master vol up to 8/10 to cut through a live set with 2x guitarists using 4x12 marshall cabs...

I've asked them countless times to turn down as I'm afraid of pushing my head too hard. I've had a hartke head crap out on me before pushing it up to 8 also... Am I being paranoid or is it a legit concern?

Appreciate any info!

What? What's that you say? Speak louder. I can't hear anymore.
 
Usually, unless you want preamp distortion, turn the master up all the way. Control the overall level with a gain control.

Depending on your cab, a cranked 1000W amp can blow a 1200W cab. Peaks in the amp can be a lot higher than the 1000W rating.

More speakers will give you more volume for a given tone setting. If your amp can’t do 2 ohms, a second 4 ohm cab won’t work.

Yeah that's what I was thinking but not 100% on man... I've been debating about getting a 20hm head and another cab... Some open air gigs the lads get very loud... And use the monitors on stage ... It's such a pain in the arse.

Now also I don't have my gain pushing as hard as normal... I've been turning back before the clip kicks in quite a bit more than usual.

So yeah as I thought... Don't push my luck, get some ear protection... Either turn down or get more amp + cabs
 
2 half stacks is a massive red flag on a gig unless you are doing large stages and I'd bet the soundman would then have a few choices things to say.

I'd be hard pushed to recall a gtr who uses one around here and certainly not on our gigs, which are loud enough.

I'm not sure at what point of dial is the sweet spot on Marshalls but i thinking pretty loud.

Yeah we're playing open air festivals, semi outdoor and large indoor venues ( large for Ireland) lol

I've been onto the lads so much about using attenuators (or whatever you call them) so I'm not getting blasted as much. Think I'm going to just try put the foot down and tell the lads to cop on.

Or I'll buy 4cabs and get each of them to drive my gear to the shows lol
 
Yeah I'm using hpf + my mids are well boosted :)

It's a barefaced big twin 2 + markbass little Marcus limited edition 1000watt.

I think you have it covered...I wouldn’t throw any addt’l resources into the mix although you may want to consider heaving a couple bricks at the guitarists’ heads.

Riis
 
Yeah, that rig is capable of killing small wildlife.
The band’s too loud. No question.
It is man... It's so fecking loud... Like I went from an ampeg 4x10 hlf to this setup and it was like that scene in back to the future when I turned it up... I nearly had to pull my balls off my face

I didn't want to be giving out until I had heard from other bassists about this lol
 
I think you have it covered...I wouldn’t throw any addt’l resources into the mix although you may want to consider heaving a couple bricks at the guitarists’ heads.

Riis
Hahahaha I was near about to at our last gig man... They had the amps up that loud and then kept asking for more in the monitors... I was screaming saying to turn the whole shaging thing down and only put vocals through the front monitors with a bit of lead... Tumbleweed, heads down noodling lol
 
Hahahaha I was near about to at our last gig man... They had the amps up that loud and then kept asking for more in the monitors... I was screaming saying to turn the whole shaging thing down and only put vocals through the front monitors with a bit of lead... Tumbleweed, heads down noodling lol

Yep. I have the monitors balanced to perfection and the whole thing disappears when they fire-up the back line.

Riis
 
How are the amp and cabinet ratings specified? Are they using RMS metrics, or perhaps are the words “burst”, “program”, or “peak” being used?

Hey man, yeah it's a barefaced big twin 2 (1200 RMS) not sure about the other specs to be honest. Heads the markbass little mark 1000watt limited edition...

This last gig was in one of Ireland's decent sized indoor venues, full house was 650 people.

I've a hpf, ultra bass is less than 1, bass is around 3.5, high mids 5.1 l, low mids 5.9, highs 5.9

And I have an active johneast preamp with custo3 way toggle for my mm pickup. That's set flat most of the time bar a few tunes.

It was an exceptionally loud gig, not normal at all but after asking the lads to turn down a number of times I was curious if I should be pushing the head that hard.

Thanks for the reply :)
 

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