Dummy Load?

[redbandit599]

Hi all

I have an EBS HD350 - great amp, lucky me . It's 350w and runs down to 2 ohms.

I sometimes use with two 500w 4 ohm cabs, EBs Neo 212 and 210 - sounds sweet. Still good with just one but just loses a little extra chutzpah.

So, school me Basschat - I've heard of dummy loads but know little. Is it possible to plug something in that would give that full 350w 2ohm goodness into just one cab?

Cheers

Jason

P.S. Apologies is this is an electronically daft question.

[Kev]

[quote name='redbandit599' timestamp='1480028973' post='3181219']
Hi all

I have an EBS HD350 - great amp, lucky me . It's 350w and runs down to 2 ohms.

I sometimes use with two 500w 4 ohm cabs, EBs Neo 212 and 210 - sounds sweet. Still good with just one but just loses a little extra chutzpah.

So, school me Basschat - I've heard of dummy loads but know little. Is it possible to plug something in that would give that full 350w 2ohm goodness into just one cab?

Cheers

Jason

P.S. Apologies is this is an electronically daft question.
[/quote]

I can't help with your query, however what I would say is you will likely notice very little difference if you did manage to get those extra few watts out at 4ohms. Chutzpah that you lose is the lack of speaker drivers as opposed to the lack of power really.

[mcnach]

but if you end up dividing the output between your cab and the "4ohm dummy load", you still won't be using the full 350W as half of it will be dissipated by it and half would go to your speaker... or am I missing something?

[Bill Fitzmaurice]

[quote name='redbandit599' timestamp='1480028973' post='3181219']
Is it possible to plug something in that would give that full 350w 2ohm goodness into just one cab?
[/quote]Use a 2 ohm cab. It won't make any difference, though.

[redbandit599]

Fair enough! Thanks for the input - stops me going off on another tangent at least

[BigRedX]

Dummy loads are for guitarists who want to make the power amp valves in their amp work hard without producing ear-splitting volume.

[Dan Dare]

[quote name='BigRedX' timestamp='1480067439' post='3181376']
Dummy loads are for guitarists who want to make the power amp valves in their amp work hard without producing ear-splitting volume.
[/quote]

They also prevent you from destroying the output trannie if you want to run the amp without a cab - in a studio setting for example.

[Bill Fitzmaurice]

[quote name='BigRedX' timestamp='1480067439' post='3181376']
Dummy loads are for guitarists who want to make the power amp valves in their amp work hard without producing ear-splitting volume.
[/quote]Of course they'll do so while using a full stack, whereas they would accomplish the same effect using a sensible 50w 1x12 combo, giving an entirely new meaning to the term 'dummy load'.

[BigRedX]

[quote name='Bill Fitzmaurice' timestamp='1480081397' post='3181521']
Of course they'll do so while using a full stack, whereas they would accomplish the same effect using a sensible 50w 1x12 combo, giving an entirely new meaning to the term 'dummy load'.
[/quote]

But there are some genres where playing with anything other than a full stack behind you, just doesn't look right, and when it takes up the same floor space on stage as a combo on a tilt-back stand, what's the harm?

[Bill Fitzmaurice]

[quote name='BigRedX' timestamp='1480081710' post='3181525']
But there are some genres where playing with anything other than a full stack behind you, just doesn't look right[/quote]For those there's this:

[Beer of the Bass]

That picture has become the amp forum equivalent of the "drummer at the wrong gig" video...

[Phil Starr]

The reason it pounds better is the extra speaker, for all sorts of reasons. Cone area, speaker placement and sound reflections off the room. It almost certainly isn't anything to do with the amp as you now know.

[JapanAxe]

I always thought 'dummy load' referred to the trips made by a guitarist carrying a 100W head and two 4x12 cabs...

[Guest bassman7755]

[quote name='Bill Fitzmaurice' timestamp='1480081397' post='3181521']
Of course they'll do so while using a full stack, whereas they would accomplish the same effect using a sensible 50w 1x12 combo, giving an entirely new meaning to the term 'dummy load'.
[/quote]

50w is still way too much for many guitar amps. I had a marshall JCM800 50w head into a 2x12 cab, if turned up loud enough to get the power amp section into the sweet spot it was way too loud for 1000+ person theatre/concert venue let alone a pub, basically unusable without the power break thingie I had for it. If you want to really crank a valve guitar amp you probably only need 10/15 watts or thereabouts.

These day though youd just use a good amp sim - get the fully cranked sound at any volume, last guitar rig I used was a digitech GNX modeller pedal board into a mosfet power amp, fantastic sound.

Edited November 26, 2016 by bassman7755

[chris_b]

Surely the reason the OP is loosing some oomph when using one cab has nothing to do with the amp, but is the result of running fewer speakers.

[Bill Fitzmaurice]

[quote name='bassman7755' timestamp='1480159626' post='3182070']
I had a marshall JCM800 50w head into a 2x12 cab, if turned up loud enough to get the power amp section into the sweet spot it was way too loud for 1000+ person theatre/concert venue let alone a pub
[/quote]The same is true of a Vox AC30. That's why the 6dB lower sensitivity of a 1x12 is better, although even that will take heads off if it's an EVM 12L.

[Chienmortbb]

All right of course but the AC30 just has something. As does a Marshall stack. The Who at Glastonbury is a case in point. Townsend was using a wall of Fender Combos, think Brian May's AC30 wall. It sounded thin and wispy washy on the broadcast coverage, in contrast to the usual Townsend Marshall sound and May's AC30 sound.

As for the little 15/17 watt combos, most sound like strangled budgies.

[Beer of the Bass]

[quote name='Chienmortbb' timestamp='1480276750' post='3183049']
All right of course but the AC30 just has something. As does a Marshall stack. The Who at Glastonbury is a case in point. Townsend was using a wall of Fender Combos, think Brian May's AC30 wall. It sounded thin and wispy washy on the broadcast coverage, in contrast to the usual Townsend Marshall sound and May's AC30 sound.

As for the little 15/17 watt combos, most sound like strangled budgies.
[/quote]

Drifting wildly off-topic, but I wonder how much of that was the Fender amp voicing, with that big mid dip that most of them have. It's a cool sound in a lot of contexts but I could imagine it having less authority in a rock band than a Marshall or Vox does.
I'm a fan of small single speaker guitar combos of 15 watts or so, but in a larger room they do need good PA to avoid sounding a bit strained. I've compared my own amp which is based on a Fender Princeton Reverb to the larger Twin reverb, (same preamp, but 2x12" and 80w compared to 1x10" and 15w) playing in the same band. At the same apparent volume, the Twin does have a lot more fullness in the low end when standing in the room with it, but close-miked the way most of us gig these days, the differences are less apparent, and if you want to get a touch of breakup out of it the smaller amp may even have the edge. For anyone in the habit of playing unmiked, or doing a louder rock thing, the larger amps do still have their place even if a 100-watt full stack is rarely called for these days.