WOAH THERE!?!?

Yes.

 

Hey man, If your cab is 8 ohm and you plan on getting another cab later, then you should definatly get more wattage. Its ok to run about 1.5X the wattage of your cab respectivly. Youll never be able to get full volume out of that though since it will distort way up. If you get an amp and decide its not loud enough, just buy another 8 ohm cab and it will work fine. I seriously doubt you will have that problem with a PR410....

Joe

 

1. There are a couple of schools of thought on it, but it depends on how judicious you are. Twice as much as the cab's RMS (continuous) rating is perfectly acceptable for most situations as long as you're not pushing the amp real hard. Because of the dynamic nature of music, even if you're hitting the clip lights on the amp every once in a while you're not putting anywhere near the full power of the amp into the cab on an average basis. The extra power makes for nice clean transients and lots of headroom before distortion.

There isn't really any wrong way to do it as long as the combination of amp and cab works for your situation. For example, it's not a problem to run an amp that is less powerful than the cab as long as it's loud enough for your situation. If you have to drive the amp into audible distortion to be heard you need a bigger amp, etc...

2. No. If you actually put 750W continuous into a cab rated for 600W you will blow the speakers.

I think the 5-Pro in bridge mode would be a good match for that cab.

 

It will be plenty loud for you, if its not sell that cab and get something else. Either way look for about 1000 watts if you want the max. You probally wont need all that, but its worth it if you do!

Joe

 

Yep, that ampeg would make for one hell of a bass rig...

Joe

 

you can put 4000 watts to that cab and not have a problem....to a point...
you can put 1000 to that cab and as long as it itsn't turned all the way up there isn't going to be a problem. just remember to take care of your gear and it will last.

go get a poweramp and preamp setup. that way you can pump in alomst 2000 watts...

steve

 

Obsolex,

I checked out your profile to see what type of music you're into playing,and the gear you currently have.
Since you're a rock/metal guy like myself,I highly recommend buying a 2x12 cab,and a 4x10 cab from www.avatarspeakers.com .You can get either of these cabs in an 8 or 4 ohm impedance,and you can't beat their prices with a stick.
I've owned the Ampeg cab you're considering,and it's a great cabinet in it's own right,but avatar's 4x10 handles 1400 watts RMS.It's what I'm using now,and I couldn't be happier with it.
I've also got a 2x12 cab that I use in conjunction with it when I play large venues or outdoor gigs,and these two cabs together just KILL!!!
As far as power is concerned,I recommend getting a power amp that's rated to put out 800 watts into 4 ohms when it's in bridged mode.(If you do this,make sure you order 8 ohm cabs from avatar.)Trust me,800 watts is all anyone really needs if they're skilled in the art of compression and equalization.Read up on both of these tone factors through links on the bass page of www.harmony-central.com
The biggest upside to using a power amp/preamp combination vs. a "head" is,if you decide the preamp's tone isn't what you're looking for,then you can sell it,and get a different one without having to sell your power along with it.The impedance match of your poweramp and cabs will remain intact.
The downside to running everything as I've stated is,all this gear is heavy and somewhat bulky,and you'll probably need a truck,station wagon,or mini-van to haul it all around.But you'll have a HUGE,badass bass tone as long as you know how to tweak your gear.
Check out all the preamps and their tonal characteristics at www.basstasters.com to get a ballpark idea of what each one has to offer.

 

First of all, the rating on your cab is for continuous power. Meaning your cabinet has been tested with a signal ( probably 1K) at 600 watts for a certain period of time and it didn't melt down. How does this translate to the real world of bass playing? Music is an up and down thing power wise. You might clip a 1000-watt amp from time to time but the average power you're giving the cab will be usually less than 100 watts. So here is the reason people buy 1000+ amps. When a SS amp is driven into clipping (distortion) it sounds real bad. So people get an amp that is say 2X the cabs rated power so that the peaks won't clip and give them a bad sound. How can you blow your speakers with this bigger amp? By playing so loud that the average power exceeds the rating of the cabinet. This happens when you ask a 4x10 cab to compete with 2 Marshal 1/2 stacks and a real loud drummer. You have to use some common sense.

Second question, you don't put the cab into bridge mode, you put a stereo amp into bridge mode. This means that both channels are combined into one output, which doubles your output power. (more or less) So you can have one cab use both sides of the power amp at the same time. Why do this? So you have the extra head room to avoid clipping (bad sounds)You can even hook 2 cabinets to a bridged amp but that's for another thread....

 

maybe you thinkin to much about it.....

everything will be fine... just let it happen..

steve

 

There isn't really any way to know. But, because of dynamics, sometimes the amp will be putting out full power (like on a loud pop) and sometimes it won't be putting out any (like if you're not playing ). Or anything in between. The average of this over time is what's referred to as 'continuous average' power. So it's always going to be some fraction of the full power of the amp. How much that fraction is depends on your playing style and if you're using compression. Even at a level where the clip light comes on occasionally you'll probably be only putting out less than 1/4 power on average... This is why you can use amps with more power than the cab is rated for. It gives you more headroom for clean transient peaks and can make better use of maximum power ratings of the cab if you need to. It's really difficult to measure because of the constantly varying nature of musical instruments.
My philosophy for solid state amps is: Get as much power as you can afford, because even if you don't use all of it now, you might well in the future.

I still think the the 5-Pro with that cab would be a killer combo.

 

Music usually consists of a lot of transient pulses of sound.

Continuous is like a signal generator putting out a steady signal with no breaks in the sound.

If you're bashing all your strings as fast as you can for half a song just at clipping level then you're definitely pushing the amp beyond it's rating (and your speaker's).

On a regular song, even if the clip lights briefly blink a few times, you (and your speakers) should be OK.
[I wouldn't run 4x the power your speakers are rated for that way, but you should be OK up to 2x.]