Safetyman

Chris b, Distortion of the signal ( clipping )means ,effectively, that the speaker cone gets not one, but two commands from the amp at nearly the same time. This causes heat to build-up as the cone ends up not moving in either direction, due to the two opposing signals it receives all the time it's in clipping mode. As the cone is a piston, moving vast amounts of air which keep it cool, it loses the ability to move air. This makes it overheat, leading to it's destruction. If you like, effectively like a short-circuit in electrical wiring. Cheers

I hope I can be of help here, though I am a newby to bass guitars , cabs etc. In the pa area that I deal in,'Gain' means the input level volume of the channel on the mixer and 'Volume' means the level of output from the mixer to the amp/power amp etc. Some mixers have fixed input gain to each channel, which are not adjustable, which can lead to a lack of sufficient signal strength to the mixer if the source has a low output ( such as guitars/basses etc ). In the pa world, anyway, you can use any amplifier into any speaker. So, 1,000 watt amp into 100 watt speaker will go. However, 100 watt amp into 1,000 watt speaker might ( if you do not know the rule of thumb ) lead to both'blowing'. The rule of thumb, assuming that both amp and cab are of good quality, is to increase the output of the amp into the speaker(s) until the sound starts to distort or under stress. Then back-off the amp by a couple of clicks/notches or ,say, 1 hour on the clock. That should bring the sound back to'sweet' and allow both to play for the whole gig without blowing either. If it still sounds distorted or stressed, then back-off a bit more until it sounds sweet again. The reason for this is that the soundwaves go into'clipping', or 'distortion'. A clipped or distorted signal to the cab means that ,say, the woofer ( driver) in a bass cab gets a signal to move the cone forward & another signal to move it back before the cone has had a chance to reach it's maximum excursion. The result is that the cone heats-up( very rapidly) and melts or distorts so much that it starts to litterally break-up, and eventually fails. In this scenario, the amp will fail too, as the cone draws more and more power out of the amp which eventually melts or one of the components fails, resulting in failure of the amp. Ok, so you can shoot me down now ! Not trying to teach anyone to 'suck eggs', though. Cheers

Hi, I am in the Brighton area( someone had to be ! ). If anyone is in the vicinity of Worthing this Sunday, I am doing the pa for The South Coast Blues Jam at it's new venue The Alexandra Pub, 28 Lyndhurst Road, Worthing BN11 2DF. See the event on Facebook, which happens 2-5pm every third Sunday each month. We get some fab musicians from all over the South, and pa & backline supplied. Just turn-up and play or spectate, it is all free and the food is great ,too.

Hi, I am from Sussex and joined just today. Not ( yet ) a bass player, more of a percussionist, though my passion at present is for all things band -related including the pa. My aim is to take-up bass at some point, in conjunction with my pa activities. I do already have the front -of-house gear for pa & other duties, including a bass/guitar power amp which is in need of some sort of pre-amp to go with it. While this particular power amp ( Matrix GT800FX ) is solid state analogue it will do all three types of guitar ( bass, rhythm & lead ) quite happily, with the cleanest clearest sound reproduction that I have yet heard. Almost valve-like, though it does not contain any valves. Recently, tested on bass duties by a friend who is a rock bass player, it powered two Crate 4x12 cabs, one per channel, with ease....... As for me, I am an MU member , fully trained in H & S and currently one of the MU's Roving Safety reps for the South East. I also have 10 years experience in H & S matters for office-related H & S outside of the MU. Also, I am a qualified pat-tester, doing mostly bands, solos/duos/trios and DJ pat testing of their equipment. More and more music venues now require equipment to have a valid pat test before being allowed in to their premises, especially hotels, so it makes sense to have all equipment regularly tested for that purpose but, more importantly, for the safety of the individual using it . Cheers