Which Cabinets?

THREE THOUSAND WATTS !!!

That's a weighty punch you're packing there!

Thanks for the advice Guys

I recently saw a band whose bass player used the exact Peavey set up I've described above. I spoke to him after the gig and asked the ampage of his cabinets. His 1x15" is at 8 ohms and his 4x10" is at 4 ohms. I forgot to ask what his amp was set at though any ideas?

Most the cabs you'll come across will probably be 8ohms- if you're looking to push two seperate cabs you're gonna need some amps- minimum of 300 I'd say

I'd have to agree- the more headroom- the better! I've got 3000 watts to burn- of course they don't get used- but I got em'. I'm using an Aguilar pre-amp, a 3000 watt QSC power amp- and running into either a 4X10 Genz Benzamycin, a 1X15 Mesa Boogie, or both- depending on the situation. The more speaker surface you have, the more air you can push- bottom line. My opinion is that it always depends on the style and musical application. I don't take my 4X10 to a blues or country gig- just the 15. And at the rockin' shows I always play through the 4X10- with or without the 15. Just a matter of preference I guess!
Slade

Yeah,3000 is a lot but it's clean power, not rated the same as a conventional bass head- it's also cool cause it's a bi-amp- I can run the cabs off of seperate channels- run 1500 into each

Help!

Ok man, you want a good rig, I got one for you that will do some good damage. I use to play through a peavy 2x10 combo amp with a 15 cab that just wasnt cutting it for me, so I went out and shelled out some cash. I got an Ampeg 4x10 HLF cab with a nice ampeg svt3 pro head. It gives you all the lows and highs you need and control over all your sound. I would recommend this to anyone looking for some booty thumping sound of any style. I believe the head unit is 400 watts and the cab is 800 at 4 ohms, but I am not sitting next to it to be exact, i bought it ahwile ago so I forgot. Ampeg makes stuff that you could drop down the stairs and it'll still play fine. Plus the head is a tube amp so you get a real thick sound. My best advice is to go to a music store where there are different heads and cabs set up and just start mixing and matching until you get the sound you want.

I play through a Nitrobass with a 15" bottom cab, and a 2X10 top. I have 4 OHm cabs to get the most wattage out of the head. I'm finding that the cabs can't handle the head. I can only turn it to about 7 before the speaker protection kicks in on the really thumpy notes. If you are not worried about a real deep low end, i would get a 4X10 and a 2X10 in combination at 4 OHMs each making your resistance 2 OHMs and pushing 450 watts which is the max for a Nitrobass head. Make sure your cabinets can handle the wattage. The nitro bass is a really basic sounding head. You may find you'll want some effects like compression and an expanded EQ to tighten the sound. I'm moving that direction myself.

I use a Firebass 700 and 4x10 and 1x15

For smaller venues i drop the 1x15

For a head you want to check the specs. See what the wattage is at certain ohms. Checking the peavey site and looking at the Max 700, it delivers 700 watts IF you are at 2 ohms, then goes to 475 @ 4ohms then 275 @ 8 ohms. So basicly the cabs that you pick have to be able to able to handle the wattage. Also, it's important not to have cabs that are at a lower ohm rating under the head, then you can fry it.

How you set up the rig can make difference on the ohms and usage of watts. Most cabs have an input and output to go to another cab in parallel*. Then if your head has two outs it's usually in series*, i'm not 100% sure on it, but check with the manufacture.

Series: connecting a speaker/cab at opposite polarities. ie (+ O - + O -)
In this case if your use series, you just plain add the ohms together. 2 cabs at 8ohms 8+8=16ohms
Parallel: connections to same polarity.
+===+===+
in O O
-===-===- This can be more tricky in calulation if you use different rated ohms.
1
------------ = 4 ohms
1 1
- + -
8 8 -> ohms of each speaker, add a 1/Sp(n)

So your best bet is to use a 4ohm and an 8ohm cab in parallel to get your almost max potental of the head and in series to for smaller venues. Or just use one cab. Also if you can get cabs that have sellectable crossovers, use them. Example: the peavey pro 115 has a x-over of 250Hz then use a 4x10 as a full range cab.
I'm sure i've confused the heack out of you, just send me a msg or e-mail and I can explain more.

to get the most out of an amp, you want to run the lowest impedance load the mfgr recommends. that load can be any combination of cabinets wired in parallel or series.........

additionally if you are running 2 cabs in parallel, the total power applied to the will be split across them. so say you have a 400W (@4 ohms) amp driving a load of two, 8 ohm cabs (4 ohm total load), each one would get 200W of the 400W. this is fine if the cabs are rated to handle ~200W, but if they are say 400W or more capable cabs, you will be severely underpowering them and could damage them.

personally i tend to like a full range sound, so i use an avatar b212, 2x12 cabinet........i drive it with a carvin r1000. with a 4 ohm cabinet(s) and a dual poweramp head that can bridge the two power sections, there are many possibilities on how to run your rig.

i think 4 ohm cabs are a good way to go vs 8 ohm ones (for identical power handling characteristics). first, amps produce more power with a smaller load. as i mentioned earlier, the power going to a parallel load is distributed across that load. so for a 4 ohm load, you could use one, high power handling cabinet, or two 8ohm, lower powerhandling cabinets. if you used two 8 ohm, high power handling cabs, you could underpower them and damage them.

hopefully i didn't screw anything up and confuse you (or anyone else)......correct me if i did, its early.

Tanks for mentioning that Jackie, I also was up late and forgot some important info for power handling.

As for running a 400watt cab with a 200watt head can damage the cab if you try to run at higher levels, usually at half volume (5) wouldn't be as much stress on the speakers.

Interesting post revival...

I think i need a more powerful head. I'm running 1600 watts worth of cabs with a 450 watt head @ 4 ohms (Avatar SB115 & B212, Ampeg SVT-3 Pro respectively). OTO, I hardly ever turn my head past 9 o'clock - with master dimed & using gain as the main volume - Ampeg actually recaommends running the amp this way (I get a cleaner tone this way too). So, my question is: am I walking a fine line or will everything be ok considering my levels. I think I'll be ok as long as I don't try to run everything at 11

I have thought about going pre/power, but I figure I'll get some use out of my 3-Pro first.

I think you'll be fine as long as you R not pushing your head for super power because you don't have the head room. Eventually I would recommend getting a separate power amp if you like the 3Pros tone shaping.

My only suggestion would be to make sure if you are going to be using multiple cabinets that they are rated at 8 ohms. Most bass amps will only function properly down to 4 ohms, anything lower and you may be in trouble. Also, if you run an 8 ohm and 4 ohm cabinet you get a rating of about 2.7 ohms. This is an unbalanced load and can wreak havoc on some bass amps. To quote Demon just my dos pesos.

This is actually the same boat I'm in at the moment. Hell me and demon we're talking about it on Sunday. I've also got the 3PRO/PR-410HLF Setup and after my recent issues it's time to start looking power amp. Too bad i have no clue what exactly I need to be looking for. As of late I've been doing some research and reading everything I can get my hands on, but I still feel a little lost.

I would probably go with a QSC RMX1850, Peavey PV2600 Crown CE1000 or something similar. But again, I'll cross that bridge when I get there.

your pro410hlf handles 600W RMS (4 ohm).
your svt3pro pushes 450W @ 4 ohms, 275W @ 8 ohms

i'd say you're proly right on the edge as long as you don't run the amp at max........

i vote for getting a carvin poweramp and slaving it off your ampeg head.

you need a poweramp that can push at least 600W into 4 ohms............the more headroom the better (600W+)

Hey Chris, either way you decide to go. I think in your situation, you need to add a power amp to your rig, or go with the 4 pro head. At the volumes you R playing at, you need the head room. Rob is playing at a very low volume, and really doesn't push for the head room. If you were to add 1600w to 2000w power amp to your rig you'd be fine. I know that Ampeg now makes a power amp specifically for this situation. The only down side is that it costs about 1,500 bones. Pretty steep when you can get a Mackie, Crown, QSC, and the like for less. Give me a call if you'd like some help with the math in regards to your 4x10, my 8x10 or others. I'll be happy to lend my brain to the equation.

Here's another $.02...
I've got a Walter Woods head, bridged mono at 1,000 watts into a 4 ohm Epifani cab with 2x12.
I usually run the amp half way up. Pleanty of headroom for my low B.
Sure it's pricey, but what the hell.
It sounds great!!

Peace
~Rat>