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What's your volume dial setting?

#23
KickingBass said:
Pretty loud even with a loud drummer (with a massive china) and 2 very loud guitarists.
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A drummer that really lays into a China is the grand daddy of volume! I've looked for a volume knob on the underside. Sadly, they don't exist :-(
 
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#25
blubass said:
Remarkably not very high. 300 watts into an Ampeg 610- volume at 12-1 o'clock, bass and treble at 11. Drive anywhere from 1-4 depending on the overdrive i need. This is the first time in 15 years my 2 guitarists have half-stacks at sensible volumes. They've actually turned DOWN! They're also considering moving from 412's to 212's! I'm living in the Twilight Zone every practice.
For the longest time I thought guitar amp volume knobs were 1-directional, and could only be reset by powering down.
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That's great. If I gigged even at lower volumes I think Id were ear plugs. As it is, I play loud for a song or two and stop for at least as long as I've played. Same with listening. Keep it quiet or keep it short.

Eyes ears and hands are most important tools, 2nd only to one tool which shall remain unamed in order to comply with forum rules and for the sake of the ladies and any youngsters who may read my ramblings.
 
#27
MrCash said:
This is not supposed to by scientific at all. I'm just asking out of pure curiousness, what amp you have and what is your CLEAN gigging volume dial position? And at what point does it run out of steam. Assuming the gain is set right (before clipping).
And this is not linked to any other questions I've asked before. Like I say not scientific just out of geeky curiosity.

I know some amps can sound loud soon as you touch the volume, then run out of steam getting past half way. I've had amps that there volume pot need to be cranked but the volume has been very linear.
But most amps volume pots seem to be loud from 10 o'clock - 2 o'clock before they run out of steam to me.
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Theres no consistency on this topic from one rig to the next. On my SWR amp I can turn the master volume up to like 3 o'clock and if the limiter is set high it's actually not as loud as having lower volume and with a much more subtle limiter setting. On my rack (sans amp RBI crown xls 1500... I run the crown into an ampeg 410 with eminence bp102 200w speakers. the volume on the crown is all the way up, the volume on my RBI is what I actually control the level with and I can't get it passed 11 o'clock without soundguys telling me to turn down but in all honesty I think if I put it at noon or higher it is too damn loud and Id probably destroy something pretty quickly anyways.
 
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#28
MrCash said:
This is not supposed to be scientific at all. I'm just asking out of pure curiousness, what amp you have and what is your CLEAN gigging volume dial position? And at what point does it run out of steam.
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1) My own homemade amps.
2) Somewhere in the middle.
3) Don't know, never needed to find out so far. Somewhere past the middle, I guess. I'd just add another cab or three if that ever happened though. Link Removed
 
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#29
Nephilymbass said:
Theres no consistency on this topic from one rig to the next. On my SWR amp I can turn the master volume up to like 3 o'clock and if the limiter is set high it's actually not as loud as having lower volume and with a much more subtle limiter setting. On my rack (sans amp RBI crown xls 1500... I run the crown into an ampeg 410 with eminence bp102 200w speakers. the volume on the crown is all the way up, the volume on my RBI is what I actually control the level with and I can't get it passed 11 o'clock without soundguys telling me to turn down but in all honesty I think if I put it at noon or higher it is too damn loud and Id probably destroy something pretty quickly anyways.
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I think that first sentance says it all. Even if two fellas have the same amp, with different basses, bassists, pedals, cabs and desires, I expect both the settings and adjustability of the spl to be wildly different between the two systems. In addition there could be night and day differences in foh, sound man, the room itself and badmates... Not to mention how well the crazy glue holds.

This is an interesting topic, but definately no cut and dry answer. Not to say OP asked for a solid answer. It seems he is more curious, which is a good thing.
 
#31
Passinwind said:
1) My own homemade amps.
2) Somewhere in the middle.
3) Don't know, never needed to find out so far. Somewhere past the middle, I guess. I'd just add another cab or three if that ever happened though. Link Removed
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I believe Mr. PW plays in his home, so in my mind that also implies he has good control of the volume. I'm in the same boat on #2 and #3, but I did crank it once, briefly with a 4 ohm load on each channel, and it was very loud.

20160317_185830.jpg

That was on my refrigerator cab and cardboard 1 x 15 cab, biamped.
 
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#33
I thought this was going to be about volume on the bass, not the amp.

Amp is set based on the room and how loud the rest of the band is (not to mention watts and cone area).

I normally have the volume on my bass at 70-80% so that I have a little room to turn up, and lots of room to turn down, if needed.
 
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#34
MrCash said:
But most amps volume pots seem to be loud from 10 o'clock - 2 o'clock before they run out of steam to me.
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I tend to figure that 2 o'clock-ish is where clipping and ugly distortion typically starts on a solid state amp but that depends on what you are feeding it off of the input gain control and whatever pedals are in front of that, etc, etc, not to mention the output level of the bass itself.
 
#40
It depends on *if* I'm using my amp or not(or if the venue will even let me use mine)

But if I use an amp with both "gain" and "master" levels I usually crank the master all the way and use the gain as my volume. If I'm using anything 4x10 and up for a cab I rarely have to go above noon, and that just depends on the amp....
 

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