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Advice needed, which head to buy?


Luther Blissett
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Hello all,

I'm a newbie here, but I hope you can help me out on this one. :)

I have a used Trace Eliot 1048H cab from the mid nineties at home, and since I've grown more and more unsatisfied with the tone of my carlsbro stingray amp, I want to buy a new amp head for the trace eliot cab.

Price range is about 700€ max.

Now I wonder, which heads go with the Trace Eliot 1048H?

First, a small problem: somehow the specs got wiped from the backside of the box. So I don't know the RMS and Ohm from this cab. I know they have changed with the release of the new (gibson era) 1048H.
I believe my 1048H is 300 W rms and 8 Ohm. :huh: Can anyone verify that?


And then, these are the heads I'd like to try out:
Gallien & Krueger 700RB-II
Ashdown Mag 600
Markbass Little Mark II
and maybe also the Eden Nemesis 650 (if I can find one).

Or if I can find a used ampeg for under that price, I'll try it as well. (an svt III pro for example)?


Can anyone give me some advice? Does anyone have experience with any of these heads? Or can you recommend another Head I don't know about?

Oh, I play in a kind of experimental improv duo that plays alot with sound and structures. overall, I like a more of a warm sound to come out of my amp.

Thx!

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Prepare for a barrage of people telling you what they had running with the mighty 1048H cab.

I used TE for a long time until they went tits up. Now I use a GK700RB II with Schroeder 1212L. the Trace 1048H is one hell of a cab. i don't own one only because I used to hate lifting the bugger. the sound is big as a house as is the weight but I used to use my 800RB with mine and it was the dogs.

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U can work out the impedance-ohms- of the cab with a speaker lead & a didi. multimeter/voltmeter. Plug in the lead to the cab-setting the meter to 20 ohms or closest to that, touch the pins together to make sure they measure 0.00001 or O!! Then touch one pin to the tip of the lead, the other to the shaft of the lead-hold 'em firmly- the meter should then give U the 'pretty close' ohms reading/rating of the cab. eg. if its s'posed to be an 8 ohms cab it may read 8.74 or 7.23.....etc if its 4 ohm cab- 4.876/3.676, 5.00 etc.. Gives U the cabs impedance anyway.
re amps....if U can get a LMII for a good price-they are a great li'l amp! So is an SVT3PRO, but -even tho I'm a valve amp man fron WAYYYYY back.... I'd go the Little Mark II (LMII)over it! More power, more range of tones, lighter & smaller! It would rock with that cAB - IF the cab IS 8 ohms you would get 300w outta the LMII & it's a MUCH louder 300w than the 300w you'd get outta the SVT3PRO @ 8 ohms IME! I've owned both!

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I had a Trace rig - 300AH head and a 1048H cab and hated the awful sound that came out of it so I sold the head and bought a Little Mark II and it sounded much much better. I was happy with the sound I was getting but eventually got fed up risking my back every time I put it in, or took it out of the car so I sold the cab and bought 2 Aguilar 112s.

So - from my experience and, IMHO, the Little Mark will be a good choice as would the GK.

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[quote name='Ba55me15ter' post='37689' date='Jul 27 2007, 10:01 AM']Trace 4x10 will definitely be 8 ohms unless it's been buggered about with.[/quote]

And should hold 320w RMS

The driver complement was (4x) 32ohm 80w RMS Celestion units +/- an HF horn.

The drivers are wired in parallel if it's still original.

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thx guys,

you've been very helpfull.

I'm gonna take my cab out to the shop shortly, and try out different heads, I'll be sure to ask the store to have all your recommendations in stock!

small problem though, I discovered that my small niece punctured a hole in one of the speakers with a pencil. I'll have to replace it first (I hope they still used the same celestion bl 10-70 as in the original 1048h; TE doesn't reply to my mails!!!)

I'll keep you posted!

thx again,
L

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U can simply repair the hole! I had a tear in a Spkr a while ago... used some contact glue & a old pair of pantyhose-not mine- cuppla layers of 'hose on each side of the cone's hole, glue over it ALL...leave to dry-properly. Mine was good 2 go for another 10 yrs with NO percievable change in tone!
Or U can replace just the cone-cheaper than a new spkr. Up 2 U!

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If you measure the resistance of a cab with a multimeter it will read about 75% of the nominal impedance, so 3 ohms for 4 ohm cab, 6 ohms for 8 ohm cab, and so on. Impedance is the sum of the voice coil resistance and the inductive reactance of the voice coil within the magnetic field. Voice coil resistance is constant whilst inductive reactance varies with frequency.

The power handling rating of your cab isn't terribly important - any amp with from 50% to 200% of the power rating will get most of the SPL from the cab. Less than 50% of the rating and you're missing out on SPL because you're not really getting into the power compression area even at full power. More than 200% and you're so far into power compression that more power is unlikely to bring more output and will increase the risk of damage.

Alex

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euhm, unfurtunately the hole is right in the middle, in the bubble, and I don't know if I can fix that, and of how to replace the cone, I wish I could, but I'm afraid I'm not nearly technical enough for that!!! :)

In the mean time I got a nice but somewhat cryptical answer from Peavey (new owners of TE) about the speaker type and the rms/ohm ( 300 / 8ohmas allready guessed by Lfalex). But they did give me the name of someone who should know!


Apparently britishaudioservices.com would have the correct replacement speaker for me, but they won't ship to Europe.

the saga continues....
I'll probably try that glue/panthose thing...

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  • 2 weeks later...

Hey there, hope you are getting the cone problem sorted!!
just wanted to say (regarding the head situation) That until a year ago I had a TE combo (1990's 15" 12 band 300W....) I absolutley loves it...I was a die hard TE fan (pre gibson and peavey) but then came the great day that I heard a Mark bass amp!! within 2 weeks I had sold the entire combo for the LMII head and I will never look back!!!
Seriously if you looking for a quality head which I've never heard any bad reviews about then go for the LMII!! Going from the rediculous features of a TE (12 band eq, 3 band compressor, harmonic emphesisor(never did found out what that was meant to do!), the list goes on) moving to the simple eq and 2 filters of teh LMII i thought I would but restricted but quite teh opposite, I love it.

I'm not going to pretend to be an expert since I've never had the oppotunity to play the other heads which you have mentioned but you certainly wouldn't regret the Mark bass...I garantee it!

All the best let us know how it goes

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[quote name='Luther Blissett' post='40188' date='Aug 1 2007, 08:26 PM']euhm, unfurtunately the hole is right in the middle, in the bubble, and I don't know if I can fix that, and of how to replace the cone, I wish I could, but I'm afraid I'm not nearly technical enough for that!!! :)[/quote]


Sounds like the hole is in the dustcap rather than the cone proper, so it probably doesn't need fixing (but if I'm wrong I'm sure someone will correct me soon enough)

Regards,
Steve.

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Hi, I used a TE Series 6 AH 200 throughout the late 80s and 90s and still use it now - it's absolutely phenomenal and you can pick them up on ebay for around €400 in good condition (probably less). Paired with your cab it should sound wonderful. There's also the more powerful versions (AH300 and up) - these can be found readily for €500 or so. I have a particular liking for the Series 6 though others may disagree - go for the 12 band too. With all that change, you can invest in some lovely Belgian beer!

Edited by lozbass
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Yeah re-HOLE..... if it's in the 'dustcap' small dome in centre of speaker-U can either leave it, replace it- net search for speaker suppliers should carry dustcaps & they can be simply glued on with a small amout on either contact adhesive or even supaglue possibly... Either way simple, cheap fix. Def. doesn't require a new spkr. even a recone is usually cheaper than a new spkr!

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