great have another freakin problom now
great have another freakin problom now
hello again i got another issue now regarding my head for my cabinet. recently been playing through my new cabinet and noticed my clip led light has been coming on but the gain is turned all the way down so what could be the problom its a gallien krueger 115 cab with a bp 250 head has a normal level a knob which is set at 1 oclock treble set at 2oclock,hi mid set to 10 oclock, low mid set to3 oclock bass set to 2 oclock only thing i can think of is maybe the ground is off or the post eq is set wrong or the 10db button is in wrong position or could it be due to me raising the pickups on my bass to get louder volume stupid thing to do probally. any help would be appreciated.
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lonewolf
- Diamond Member
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Assuming everything is in working order...
1st of all, if its a tube head, make sure the cabinet impedance matches the amp's output impedance. If its solid state, make sure the cabinet impedance is equal to or higher than the amp's minimum impedance.
Its a funny thing with master volume amps. The cleaner you have them, the quicker the amp will clip as you turn the volume up.
When you turn the gain up higher, this causes a desired kind of harmonic controlled clipping with reduced dynamics in the preamp and it makes it harder to make the power amp clip.
Try turning the master volume down and turning up the gain. If you want it super clean, you may not have enough clean power to attain the volume you desire.
1st of all, if its a tube head, make sure the cabinet impedance matches the amp's output impedance. If its solid state, make sure the cabinet impedance is equal to or higher than the amp's minimum impedance.
Its a funny thing with master volume amps. The cleaner you have them, the quicker the amp will clip as you turn the volume up.
When you turn the gain up higher, this causes a desired kind of harmonic controlled clipping with reduced dynamics in the preamp and it makes it harder to make the power amp clip.
Try turning the master volume down and turning up the gain. If you want it super clean, you may not have enough clean power to attain the volume you desire.
...Oh, the freedom of the day that yielded to no rule or time...
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bassist_25
- Senior Member
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- Joined: Monday Dec 09, 2002
- Location: Indiana
Though may guess that his clipping problem is due to how he currently has his gain structure set up, I can't echo Jeff's statement enough. Bass requires much more headroom than a guitar because the lower frequencies take more wattage to accuratley produce. I did the whole underpowered amp thing, but now I wouldn't gig with anything less than 1000 (solid state) watts. The irony is that I use to make fun of the guys who had these mega-watt rigs, thinking that they were just overcompensating for a lack of something else.lonewolf wrote:If you want it super clean, you may not have enough clean power to attain the volume you desire.
"He's the electric horseman, you better back off!" - old sKool making a reference to the culturally relevant 1979 film.
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bassist_25
- Senior Member
- Posts: 6815
- Joined: Monday Dec 09, 2002
- Location: Indiana
*LOL*
Well, every situation's different. My father use to gig with a 100 watt Sunn Beta combo and never had any problems with having enough power. In my situation, I have two Mesa 2x12's powered by a Mesa Class 2:90 power amp pointed at me every night, so even though we have pretty tame stage volume (IMO), power is still my friend. *LOL* I use to clip an 800 watt QSC.
But it has less to do with volume and more to do with tone and headroom. Running a solid state amp close to its maximum output is one of the worst things you can do. I'm obsessed with clean and uncolored tone. You can drive a tube amp into the clipping zone and it won't matter much - in fact, a lot of guys llike that. That's why you never see any 1200 watt tube amps (not that I would want to haul anything around so heavy
). I never dug the harmonic distortion of a clipping tube amp. One guy's holy grail of an SVT or Sunn Sceptre driven into the red is the bane of my tonal euphoria. I'd really like to go with a tube front end, but I always see myself using a solid state power section for lots of clean power.
Well, every situation's different. My father use to gig with a 100 watt Sunn Beta combo and never had any problems with having enough power. In my situation, I have two Mesa 2x12's powered by a Mesa Class 2:90 power amp pointed at me every night, so even though we have pretty tame stage volume (IMO), power is still my friend. *LOL* I use to clip an 800 watt QSC.
But it has less to do with volume and more to do with tone and headroom. Running a solid state amp close to its maximum output is one of the worst things you can do. I'm obsessed with clean and uncolored tone. You can drive a tube amp into the clipping zone and it won't matter much - in fact, a lot of guys llike that. That's why you never see any 1200 watt tube amps (not that I would want to haul anything around so heavy
). I never dug the harmonic distortion of a clipping tube amp. One guy's holy grail of an SVT or Sunn Sceptre driven into the red is the bane of my tonal euphoria. I'd really like to go with a tube front end, but I always see myself using a solid state power section for lots of clean power."He's the electric horseman, you better back off!" - old sKool making a reference to the culturally relevant 1979 film.