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Question regarding slight overpowering of cabinet

Hi there.
Considering purchasing either an Ampeg PF350 or a PF 500. Currently run an 80s GK 400 RB into a newish 4X8” Celestion loaded Warwick cabinet 450watts at 8ohms and a 11 year old celestion loaded Laney RB115 250 watts @ 8ohms. The PF500 supposedly runs 300 watts at 8ohms. Would this be too much for the 250 watt laney?
If you run both cabs at once, you shouldn't have to worry with either the 350 or 500. With one 8Ω cab hooked up to the P350, it will deliver up to 250-watts rms. If you hook up two 8Ω cabs that will put a 4Ω load on the amp and you'll get all 350-watts out of it. That 350-watts is NOT 350-watts each but 350-watts total split 50/50 between your two cabs, which is 175-watts into each. So using even the Laney cab by itself you should be fine because it won't be more than its 250-watts rated handling power.

If price isn't too big of a difference the 500 will give you more options. It puts out 300-watts into 8Ω or 500-watts into 4Ω. You could safely run the Warwick with that 300-watts into 8 ohms but it is "possible" to blow your Laney cab if you turn the amp all the way up to get all 300-watts out of it. If you run both cabs from the PF500, then the cabs will each get 250-watts and you'll be fine. Personally I'd get the 500-watt version and just be a little careful about not maxing out the master if I'm only running the Laney Cab. Actually, what I would suggest doing is just running your Warwick cab whenever you are going to just use one cab and add the Laney on whenever the Warwick cab by itself is not enough and you need to run two.

I personally ran a couple of Eden 112 cabs that handled 300-watts rms each with an amp capable of putting 400-watts into each of them. I used those for my medium sized venues for about a year with no problem. Now, I run a really clean and clear sound and I don't boost the bass. Nor do I run any distortion. I boost the low-mids up to about 1:30 and otherwise I run them flat - got complimented on that sound a lot during that year and never came close to maxing out those speakers. I think 10 o'clock was the highest I ever ran the master on them. I used my DNS-410 cab on the large venues.

Reason I mention the bass EQ is that if you boost that a lot, you can blow a speaker without ever coming close to its maximum power-handling. That shouldn't happen but real-world, it can and does. That can make the speaker exceed its XMax rating (farthest it can move without distorting) and in a worst case situation exceed its XLim, which is the extreme limit the speaker can move without damage. Go past that and things crease first and then they tear. So don't be too heavy handed with your bass EQ.

If you ever hear your cabs make farting noises, immediately drop the bass EQ and if that doesn't clear it up drop your master until it goes away. And when you hear that, you have to make the change NOW! If you wait until the end of the song to make your changes, you will have already blown the speaker(s). If you are using distortion, it's all but impossible to hear that before the speaker is ruined. If you run a clean signal, you at least have a chance to save it.
 
If you run both cabs at once, you shouldn't have to worry with either the 350 or 500. With one 8Ω cab hooked up to the P350, it will deliver up to 250-watts rms. If you hook up two 8Ω cabs that will put a 4Ω load on the amp and you'll get all 350-watts out of it. That 350-watts is NOT 350-watts each but 350-watts total split 50/50 between your two cabs, which is 175-watts into each. So using even the Laney cab by itself you should be fine because it won't be more than its 250-watts rated handling power.

If price isn't too big of a difference the 500 will give you more options. It puts out 300-watts into 8Ω or 500-watts into 4Ω. You could safely run the Warwick with that 300-watts into 8 ohms but it is "possible" to blow your Laney cab if you turn the amp all the way up to get all 300-watts out of it. If you run both cabs from the PF500, then the cabs will each get 250-watts and you'll be fine. Personally I'd get the 500-watt version and just be a little careful about not maxing out the master if I'm only running the Laney Cab. Actually, what I would suggest doing is just running your Warwick cab whenever you are going to just use one cab and add the Laney on whenever the Warwick cab by itself is not enough and you need to run two.

I personally ran a couple of Eden 112 cabs that handled 300-watts rms each with an amp capable of putting 400-watts into each of them. I used those for my medium sized venues for about a year with no problem. Now, I run a really clean and clear sound and I don't boost the bass. Nor do I run any distortion. I boost the low-mids up to about 1:30 and otherwise I run them flat - got complimented on that sound a lot during that year and never came close to maxing out those speakers. I think 10 o'clock was the highest I ever ran the master on them. I used my DNS-410 cab on the large venues.

Reason I mention the bass EQ is that if you boost that a lot, you can blow a speaker without ever coming close to its maximum power-handling. That shouldn't happen but real-world, it can and does. That can make the speaker exceed its XMax rating (farthest it can move without distorting) and in a worst case situation exceed its XLim, which is the extreme limit the speaker can move without damage. Go past that and things crease first and then they tear. So don't be too heavy handed with your bass EQ.

If you ever hear your cabs make farting noises, immediately drop the bass EQ and if that doesn't clear it up drop your master until it goes away. And when you hear that, you have to make the change NOW! If you wait until the end of the song to make your changes, you will have already blown the speaker(s). If you are using distortion, it's all but impossible to hear that before the speaker is ruined. If you run a clean signal, you at least have a chance to save it.

cheers for the info. Was planning on running both cabs at the same time. Have my 150watt gk which can always use aswell. The PF500 also has a mosfet pre-amp plus a few extra dials. Have you personally used either amp?
 
No I haven't. I did use a GK amp twice thought. One was a GK guitar amp that I got for the price of a repair - was all of $50. I used it in 1997 along with a couple of JBL 112 PA speakers that my son was no longer using in his DJ gear. Sounded great. Hardly anyone remembers them making Guitar amps but they did back in the 80's. My brother in law gave it to me in a non-working order and I got it fixed.

Based on that good experience that I had with GK in '97 I bought one of their Brat Pack set ups in about 2005 or 2006. It was the worst thing I ever bought. It was the absolute bottom of their line and I'm surprised they put their name on it. It consisted of the GK Backline 250 amp with the GK115bpx. The amp was 125-watts rms but had a minimum ohms load of 8Ω. I thought it was 4Ω when I ordered it. Problem was they didn't want you to run it with any other cab.

Worse problem was that the 115bpx cab was really boomy. I did run it with another cab, which is what I had planned to do anyhow. I had a Sunn B202, which is a 4Ω 212 cab. It was an old cab that only handled 100-watts, but the good news was that it had both parallel and series outputs. So I hooked it up to that amp, ran a speaker cord out of the series output and into the GK115 cab.

Parallel connections are the industry standard and always lower the ohms load on an amp. A 4Ω plus 8Ω connection in parallel results in a 2.67 ohms load, which would have melted that GK Backline250 amp. HOWEVER using a series connection it adds the ohms together instead of lowering them. So 8Ω + 4Ω = 12Ω. That higher impedance means not as much power can come through and it dropped that 125-watts rms of power down to about 85-watts. But adding the two extra 12" speakers more than made up for the drop in power and sounded a whole lot better than the 115 by itself.

Got an Eden Nemesis RS400 amp next in 2008 and all of a sudden my sound was nice and clear and loud. In fact it was too much power for my Sunn cab and it started farting out. Had to retire it and then got a 410 cab. I ran an acoustic b410 and that GK 115 for about the next 9 or 10-years. Changed the amp to an Eden WT500/800 dual power-channel amp in 2010, which I still have and sometimes use. in 2015 I bought a DNS-410 cab by DNA that was far better sounding and far louder than my 410+115 stack. I actually donated that stack to a local church just a few months ago.

From my experiences with GK I 'll still tell folks to get any of the GK gear except the Backline 250 and 115bpx cab. I honestly warn them away from that set up, which is GK's lowest price set-up and tell them to save up a bit and get the next level of GK gear. I personally run all DNA and some Eden gear now and couldn't be happier. It's not cheap and I didn't buy it all at once, but I absolutely consider it money well-spent.