Why are my speakers blowing?/Should I start over?

You're gonna keep blowing 15's running them up against a 410. I take it the 410 now has different speakers in it all sharing the same space. They'll interfere with each other too. Some of your effects could also have hot output or enhanced low frequencies, the volume settings on the amp don't mean much.

I say stop throwing good money after bad and get a decent cab you like, and suss out your gain structure/signal path and see where all the extra is coming from.

 

In bold: Feedback and heavy bass, cheap cabs with the cries of the 15" under the 410 where you can't hear it. Lots of effects with too hot of a signal going into the amp so you keeping the volume on the amp low means nothing as the amp is putting out a lot of wattage with the low setting.
You need to learn how to setup your gain before the amp head and scrap the idea of using cheap cabs. you will need good professional grade cabs to hold up with the sound you have chosen.

 

+1000!

 

Stop putting cheapish speakers in a cheapish speaker cab. For your use you are wasting money. Find a good used Peavey 410 and a Peavey BW equipped 115 if you must. A 115 will never handle the punishment a 410 will and will always be the weak link.

If you are pretty loud with the amp head at 2 1/2 then the amount of signal boost from all the pedals and stuff is WAY too high. Someone with greater patience will have to take over from there.

 

You'll need more excursion than pretty much ANY "mainstream" speaker box tends to deliver. Investigate the Eminence 3015, among others.

 

Perhaps implementing "Unity Gain" would be a good start.

 

Output that equals the input. To a degree, the output volume should be close to equal with effects engaged or not.

 

Case in point, I have a Peavey MINX110 with an MX110 extension cab for [email protected] I would run my bass into a Tech21 SansAmp BDDI. It sounded GREAT! I cranked it well above the volume of running bass alone. After a few months I ended up with what sounded like a blown speaker. I replaced the speaker but still sounded like [email protected] I fried the amp. Not a big deal, I'd been eyeing a GK MB200 for awhile. I got one, slipped it in where the MINX chassis was and all I can say is "WOW!" I should've fried that puppy months ago!

 

Dude, you killed a Peavey? That's got to be some kind of record or something

 

If you want to cause people's heads to explode with volume, you need big cabs that can take it and move as much air as possible. The stuff you want to do isn't always cheap, and it doesn't come small. It doesn't have to be super expensive...410's that take decent power grow on trees and are always turning up used for good prices. So are 810's...sometimes even better deals on them than 410's. For now, though, you have to live within your means, and that means stop turning everything up so loud. You can't do it. Period. Know your gear's limits and live with them. That's all you have to do. Once your cabs start farting they won't put out any more volume with extra wattage anyway, so why push it?

 

You're just asking more volume from your cabs than they can give. A couple decent 410s will cure your ills. You don't need a 15.

It reminds me of an old friend (then ex-friend, now dead) who had a Jeep CJ5 with a V8 in it. He was 20 years old and didn't understand the consequences of putting the pedal to the wood and keeping it there. We'd be out 4-wheeling, and he'd take off up the hill with the throttle wide open, and I could hear the valves floating. I kept telling him it would kill his engine, but he was too smart (he always reminded me that he took honors physics in high school). Then one day, it happened ... aaaaaaaaaAAAAAA CLUNK!

"What was that?", he exclaimed as the engine went silent up there on the side of the hill. "Uhhhh - you sucked a valve, dude." Same thing with speakers.

 

Try plugging your bass directly into the amp, bass guitar at full volume,amp at 2.5 and give a listen.

Then do the same with all your effects on line but turn down the gain in each to nearly zero. Then adjust the gain just enough to acheive the same overall volume you got with your bass straight into the amp.

Also consider using a rumble filter/high pass filter to cut out any stray lows below about 40Hz. Fdeck's Hpf/pre or the efx's micro-thumpinator should work.

Add some insulation to your cabs to get about 2 inches all the way around inside except for the ports.

 

I would also go easy on the feedback. The only speakers I have ever blown was caused by letting my bass feedback.