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Volume Help

D

DavisP

Jun 28, 2008
15
0
#1
I need some help with raising the volume of my set up. Im currently using:

Schecter C-4 XXX
Ampeg B2RE Head
Ampeg SVT410HE (8 ohm)
Ampeg SVT115E (8 ohm)
MXR M-181 Bass Blowtorch Pedal (Through Effects Loop)
dbx 266XL Compressor/Gate (Through Effects Loop)
Furman M-8 Power Conditioner
Monster Bass Instrument Cables
Plantwave Speaker Cables
Sennheiser FreePORT Wireless

I play with two other Guitarists that are using 6505+ and pretty much get drowned out even though they are using 16 ohm cabs.

I know that my head is only pushing out 450 watts of power but im wondering if there is settings I can use like Making the volume lower on the head and turn it up on The DBX. I dont know if anyone can help me without saying I need a better head.
 
#3
DavisP said:
I need some help with raising the volume of my set up. Im currently using:

Schecter C-4 XXX
Ampeg B2RE Head
Ampeg SVT410HE (8 ohm)
Ampeg SVT115E (8 ohm)
MXR M-181 Bass Blowtorch Pedal (Through Effects Loop)
dbx 266XL Compressor/Gate (Through Effects Loop)
Furman M-8 Power Conditioner
Monster Bass Instrument Cables
Plantwave Speaker Cables
Sennheiser FreePORT Wireless

I play with two other Guitarists that are using 6505+ and pretty much get drowned out even though they are using 16 ohm cabs.

I know that my head is only pushing out 450 watts of power but im wondering if there is settings I can use like Making the volume lower on the head and turn it up on The DBX. I dont know if anyone can help me without saying I need a better head.
Click to expand...

Your lower bass frequencies eat up power in a heartbeat.

If those guys are turned up really loud and you are trying to get a good deep bass tone (heard and felt) I think you are out of luck.

Turn your bass down and your mids up so that you can be heard.

You may not like that answer but at least you will be heard until you get enough power to be felt.

Know what I mean?

Joe.
 
#4
Try to tilt the 410 slightly on the 115 and stand about 4-5 ft in front of it. That might help you hear yourself better. That probably won't help your house volume if the guitarists are drowning you out. I had a B2RE and it definately lacks in power.
 
#5
Take the MXR pedal out of the fx loop, it belongs between the bass and the amp input. You're probably losing some signal level there.

Temporarily remove the wireless, just until you have solved your volume problems. It might be part of the problem, and the best way to find out is to pull it out for now.

With the MXR out of the loop, re-do your gain staging on the dbx. You should be able to get a lot more clean signal into it now, allowing you to put a lot more clean signal out. Push the gain staging just to the point where you're starting to get clipping at each stage, and then back off just enough to stop the clipping.

Use the EQ on the amp to cut your lows a bit and boost your mids. If you have your lows boosted they are just robbing your wattage and creating mud in the mix; whereas boosting the mids gives you the most efficient use of your wattage in terms of projection and cutting through the mix. On a graphic EQ think "frown", not "smile".

Make sure your amp is seeing a 4 ohm load from the two cabs. It should be, with normal connections, but some amps have weird connection possibilities that might allow for a mistake. Just double-check your connections against the recommendations in the amp's manual.

As an experiment, leave the MXR switched off while testing for loudness; distortion is great, but it can actually make you seem a lot less loud if the guitars are also distorted. Clean mid-focused bass cuts right through distorted guitars, and seems louder because of that. I'm not saying leave the MXR out entirely, just that it might not be helping you.

All of this should help get you louder. If you do all this and still have problems, then it's time to buy a more powerful head, and/or replace the 115 with another 410.
 
#6
Thanks guys, Its mainly a problem for shows, But for practices Ill just Boost my mids, and shows boost em if they dont do a direct line. I only use the wireless at shows. I plan on geting the SVT 6 soon so that should fix the problem.
 
#10
DavisP said:
I need some help with raising the volume of my set up. Im currently using:

Schecter C-4 XXX
Ampeg B2RE Head
Ampeg SVT410HE (8 ohm)
Ampeg SVT115E (8 ohm)
MXR M-181 Bass Blowtorch Pedal (Through Effects Loop)
dbx 266XL Compressor/Gate (Through Effects Loop)
Furman M-8 Power Conditioner
Monster Bass Instrument Cables
Plantwave Speaker Cables
Sennheiser FreePORT Wireless

I play with two other Guitarists that are using 6505+ and pretty much get drowned out even though they are using 16 ohm cabs.

I know that my head is only pushing out 450 watts of power but im wondering if there is settings I can use like Making the volume lower on the head and turn it up on The DBX. I dont know if anyone can help me without saying I need a better head.
Click to expand...
All tube amps deliver their rated wattage at whatever the windings in the output transformer are arainged as 4/8/16 its all the same output
about 100 watts for each of your guitarists.
I think you need to re find a bass eq that is more apparent in order to do that the best way is dis associate your self from one part you know well, so borrow an old SVT head for a rehearsal dial in a tone that sounds fat and full and does not distort unevenly or get boomy at any frequency.
A tube amp will soon let you know what's wrong with your EQ
Then see if you can use that experience to try to get as apparent a tone out of the amp you have. Then re connect the pedals compressor wireless etc.
Only use the compressor to stop the power amp clipping never more than 4 db of gain reduction.
:ninja:
 

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