Bill Fitzmaurice

What cloth did you use? A proper grille cloth offers practically no resistance to the flow of either sound or air.

[quote name='Marty Forrer' timestamp='1481855735' post='3195782'] Most speakers will handle a pure signal many times their rating, but not if the signal is dirty. [/quote]Speakers can't tell the difference, and they're unfazed by clipped signals. Were that not the case guitar players would have to change drivers as often as they do strings. Tweeters can be toasted by clipped signals, because the high frequency power density is greater when the signal is clipped. Woofers, never.

On the issue of bridging: http://billfitzmaurice.info/forum/viewtopic.php?f=10&t=19292

[quote name='Phil-osopher10' timestamp='1481812543' post='3195366'] Is the only way to prevent damage a low pass filter of some description? [/quote]Most amps have HP filtering built in. If yours doesn't it will be obvious by excessive thump noise, which is cured with a rumble filter. [url="http://www.gollihurmusic.com/faq/38-HIGH_PASS_FILTERS_GETTING_RID_OF_THE_MUD_AND_RUMBLE.html"]http://www.gollihurm...AND_RUMBLE.html[/url] Ported cabs are no more prone to damage than sealed. If anything you're more likely to over-power a sealed cab, as they have less sensitivity in the lows than ported. Ported cabs also have minimum driver excursion at Fb, where the port is doing all the work. Finally, xmax is not where voice coil damage occurs. That would be xlim. [quote]I don't hear much about speaker failures these days, not at the rate they failed in the 60's and 70'[/quote]+1. If this was an issue reports of blown drivers would be rampant.

The rule of thumb in the US is that you're expected to provide PA. I doubt that one venue in fifty has a house system. When I was touring I played in better than average rooms, made a reasonable living, and as best I can recall over a three year period playing in perhaps a hundred different rooms a total of two had PA.

Wattage ratings mean next to nothing. Cab power ratings don't consider driver excursion, which is the primary limiting factor in output. An amp can't be too large, assuming that the volume control is functional, along with the brain of the user. And since sound levels are logarithmic, meaning it takes ten times the power to sound twice as loud, the audible difference between most amps is modest in any event. Other factors, especially speaker response and sensitivity, are far more significant than watts. And no, you can't under power a speaker.

I'd use something more than 1/8 inch thick. I imagine you have these on your side of the pond: https://www.walmart.com/ip/Ozark-Trial-Camping-Pad-Blue/16783660 Ask any Boy Scout.

[quote name='stingrayPete1977' timestamp='1481724564' post='3194568'] If it's small/medium functions I presume there will be a foh to go with the amp [/quote]One thing I learned long ago is that you can never assume that PA will be adequate, if there's any at all.

[quote name='LITTLEWING' timestamp='1481465832' post='3192450'] I know I'm going to sound old fashioned, but unless your entire set consists of every slap and pop tune in the world, there is no bleedin' point putting an HF horn of any description in a bass, yes BASS, cabinet. It's meant to reproduce low notes and low notes only. [/quote]Every low note consists of a fundamental plus harmonics that extend all the way up to at least 8kHz. There's nothing wrong with tweeters, the issue is that there's a big gap between where woofers, especially fifteens, drop off and tweeters kick in, on average at least an octave. Why? Because using tweeters that go no lower than 3.5kHz, if that, is the least expensive method of augmenting a woofer. The right way to do it is to either use a true midrange driver, or to use tweeters that can go to 2.5kHz or lower. But that jacks up the price.

[quote name='stingrayPete1977' timestamp='1481285650' post='3191198'] Plenty of good sounding bands out there where those pa tops will be what the audience hears. [/quote]If they're all the audience hears the lows will be weak. They're small, so they won't have much in the lows best case, and up on a pole where they need to be as PA mains is the worst case for lows, as they won't get boundary reinforcement from the floor. Used with subs handling the lows as they should be they'd be fine, but that scenario isn't what the OP is dealing with.

While it's loaded with a 15 bass extension is as much a property of the cab size as the driver size, and that's a very small cab. It might work, but I'd make sure of it before trying to gig with it.

Love mine. Oh wait, you said Bugera? Never mind.

[quote name='mikel' timestamp='1480777010' post='3187066'] Cheers mate, but it still seems from your post that a 100 watt valve amp and a 100 watt SS amp, played through the same cab, would produce vastly different DB levels. [/quote]With DSP processing the SS will deliver the same dB levels, at far less cost, size and weight than valves.

[quote name='mikel' timestamp='1480713976' post='3186733'] You seem well versed in amp and cab technology so perhaps you can explain to me the difference between valve watts and solid state watts? [/quote]A watt is a watt, 1 joule per second. What makes valve and SS amps different is how they process the signal. At the limits of their output capability valves naturally compress the signal, SS does not. 6dB of compression can subjectively sound the same as a 4x increase in power output. That's why they sound different. You can use processing with SS to emulate what valves do. That's what TC does with their RH 450 and RH 750 amps, which they falsely rated in output based not on how they measured, but how they were perceived. They were rather famously outed for having their thumb on the scale, and while they never quite admitted to the deed, they did put up this: http://service.tcgroup.tc/media/tc-electronic-power-rating-and-active-power-management.pdf

[quote name='mikel' timestamp='1480689792' post='3186454'] But they are pretty meaningless figures to the layman.[/quote]True, but if you're here you're not a layman, you're a bassplayer, probably semi-professional, if not a full fledged professional. That makes your gear tools of your trade, tools which you should have a pretty good understanding of. There's no shortage of resources that you can use to improve upon that understanding.

[quote name='markstuk' timestamp='1480679113' post='3186310'] I think most cab makers give an SPL @ 1watt @ 1m figure. It would be nice if they gave this to us with the source frequency or type of noise (pink/white) ...[/quote]That would constitute truth in advertising, which is an oxymoron of the first degree. Many manufacturers quote sensitivity either in the midrange or at the highest point, which isn't Kosher. Ampeg is one manufacturer that posts accurate sensitivity figures. Since the physics that apply to Ampeg apply to everyone it's a pretty safe assumption that any manufacturer making sensitivity claims substantially different from Ampeg for the same driver configuration are yanking your chain.

[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.

[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:

[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'.

[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.

[quote name='Beer of the Bass' timestamp='1478896193' post='3172612'] By "suitable" I meant "as good as it ever was". Twincam said that he was not equipped for woodworking [/quote]If 'as good as it ever was' is rubbish it's not a worthwhile goal IMO. It shouldn't be all that hard to find a mate that can cut a 15 inch circle of plywood with an 11 inch hole in it.

[quote name='Beer of the Bass' timestamp='1478887503' post='3172518'] perhaps they'd sell you a suitable replacement. [/quote]I doubt there is a 'suitable replacement'. The cab size was probably dictated by the marketing department, based on customer wishes for the cab to be as small as possible for portability, yet loaded with a fifteen, under the mistaken assumption that bigger is always better. The dichotomy is that where low frequency output is concerned bigger is usually better, but that applies to the cab size as well as the driver size. I agree that it's too small for a fifteen, and for best results should be re-configured to house a twelve.

[quote name='Graham' timestamp='1478796611' post='3171730'] I saw SikTh a couple of years ago, where James Leach was running these with what I think was a GK head. It sounded superb, far better than I thought it would when I saw what he had on stage. [/quote]If you heard them at all. Chances are what you heard was the PA.

This is one of those cases where the drivers used is known, so you can make valid comparisons. The 115 uses the Eminence Kappa 115. It displaces 343cc. The 410 uses Beta 10s. They displace 102cc each, for a total of 408cc. The Kappa 15 does have a lower frequency range than the Beta 10, but when you go lower in frequency the displacement requirement for equal output increases. If the 115 was going to be a good match with the 410 it would need considerably more displacement, not less. A 115 along with a 210 would make far more sense. As to the Beta 10 and Kappa 15 specifically, both are low end drivers, frankly not worthy of being used in cabs in the price range of Orange. There are many cabs with better drivers that sell for less. [quote]I have in the past ran an Ashdown 4x10 and 1x15, this sounded good but obviously I had the issue of the 1x15 being louder[/quote]Not that I doubt your experience, but it would be the exception to the rule, as the average 115 has less displacement and lower sensitivity than the average 410. The Orange example is hardly an isolated example. .

Ampeg uses proprietary OEM drivers, mainly sourced from Eminence. An 8 ohm cab cannot be rewired to 4 ohms. If your friend thinks that's possible don't let him touch your cab with a proverbial ten foot pole.