alexclaber

I'd email Mercury Magnetics with the model and serial no. of the transformer, and ask what voltage it is or if it's dual voltage and if so how it should be wired for 230V. IIRC my old SWR Grand Prix which was a similar age had a 240V sticker on it and I bet the US voltage was printed underneath, hence if there once was a sticker and it's come off it's causing a storm in a tea cup. If the fuse is about 1.5A rather than 3A that would indicate it's already UK voltage.

There have been lots of different Ampeg amps and cabs over the years and they all sound different! There are some pretty big differences just between their sealed 8x10"s they've made, let alone the other stuff (they did isobaric before Orange, they made some of the first lightweight neo gear (which is best forgotten!), they made some amazing 'Extreme' cabs (18"+2x10"+2x6.5"+tweeter and a smaller version) and so on... Barefaced '69er should be ready relatively soon, waiting on a large shipment of custom plywood!

I'd be very surprised if it isn't just mislabelled and is actually a 230V version! It's not the type of gear that people are going to save money on by buying from the USA (due to the shipping costs vs saving on a cheap-ish combo). Opening up and looking at the transformer may enlighten you, or getting a tech to disconnect the transformer from the power supply and testing the voltage. Depending on what you paid you might just want to plug it in and see what happens (I take no responsibility if I'm wrong!)

That's a ported cab - funny shaped port but nevertheless it is. Use a sine wave generator to find the tuning frequency, calculate the internal volume, then you know where to go with drivers. It'll need a lot of bracing to handle high power drivers, it needs lining with damping throughout and it's not going to be terribly robust because of the chipboard...

I think it's more likely to be the first woofer blowing! Power compression is very gradual so I doubt you'd notice it happening.

Ouch! You normally get warning signs with modern bass cabs because their thermally limited power handling (exceed this and things melt/smoke/burn) tends to be higher than their excursion limited power handling (exceed this and things growl/distort/fart), especially once you figure in the crest factor. However if you're playing in a band that's loud enough that you can't hear the distortion or the thermal:excursion limited power handling ratio is low, or if your preferred bass sound is relatively distorted you may not hear the warning signs until it's too late. You can still get full power from an amp with it turned down as the volume knob is only a gain knob. Put enough voltage into the front and you'll still get full power out. As you also have a Goliath Sr my guess is that your band is pretty loud and you were expecting too much from a relatively low budget 2x10". Sorry! The upside is that the correct replacement drivers should be inexpensive.

The bottom you can get out of it is mostly dependent on the length of the horn and the size of the mouth, so unless that cab is huge (like bigger than an 8x10") you're never going to get deep lows.

[quote name='___---___' post='1154927' date='Mar 9 2011, 08:56 AM']Ok, cool. Surely it won't distort at low levels? I bought such a small cabinet solely for bedroom use you see.[/quote] No it won't, which is why I said it may distort when things are getting loud! For bedroom use or acoustic gigs it'll be perfect.

Minimum load means your amp isn't rated to drive a sub 4 ohms nominal load, so the 8 ohm load of the UL110 will be fine. The only problem you're likely to run into is loudness especially in the lows - if you have to keep up with a drummer expect to hear distortion if things are getting loud. This distortion serves as a warning that if you carry on like this you'll blow the speaker.

With all the EQ flat and the filters off the Markbass amps are pretty close to 'flat' frequency response (i.e. no humps and dips across the operating bandwidth). However, if you're used to amps which are boosted in the treble, or scooped in the mids (which sounds the same as boosted bass and treble) like many GK, Mesa Boogie, SWR, etc etc amps, this may sound comparatively dull. I've been doing some thinking about the whole 'compressed at 8 ohms thing'. For starters, until the amp runs out of power I don't believe there will be any audible difference in performance, except that into a 4 ohm nominal load you'll be getting twice as much power at equal settings. When the amp runs of out ability to deliver voltage (regardless of impedance) the built-in limiter will clamp down on the signal, which thus sounds like (and is) harsh compression. However, as the amp's minimum load is 4 ohms and these are pretty lightweight amps with Class AB power amps (so not super efficient) when approaching maximum voltage into 4 ohms they are also going to approach maximum current. Therefore the amp's power supply is likely to sag before the limiter kicks in, so you get a degree of softer compression before you get the harder limiting. If this is the case then the power supply's deficiency is covering up the limiter circuitry's deficiency! I haven't tested this but it makes theoretical sense and it tallies with user experiences. Anyway, the first thing I'd do is twist all the knobs, one at a time, on the bass, amp and cab, and see how they change the sound and if it's for the better. Make sure the VLE is all the way off (whichever way that is, I know they reversed it at some point in Markbass's history...)

This looks like it could be a perfect match with the Big Baby T that I'll be keeping for myself. Justifiable business expense, hmmm?...

Yes, it'll be fine. Use the specially wired speakon for the 2x10" so it sends the full-range signal (which you can roll the highs off on with the treble cut switch on the amp) to the 10"s and the high frequency signal to the tweeter. Then either run a normal speakon from the amp to the 15" or daisy chain the normal speakon from the 2x10" to the 1x15". That'll give you a rig with up to 700W into 4 ohms split between the 2x10" and 1x15" and 50W into 8 ohms into the 210's tweeter. If the 1x15" has a tweeter then I'd turn it down.

I do like these high power micro-amps!

My past articles from Bass Guitar Magazine are here: [url="http://barefacedbass.com/bgm-columns.htm"]http://barefacedbass.com/bgm-columns.htm[/url] Hopefully they may provide some enlightenment!

I wouldn't worry about thermal power handling differentials. I would put whichever cab distorts first when you crank the lows (usually the smaller or cheaper one) on top so you hear it complaining if you push it too hard.

It'll be fine. Impedances aren't what the specs imply - have a look at this post from Bill Fitzmaurice which shows three different impedance curves: [url="http://www.talkbass.com/forum/f15/2-65-ohms-tube-amp-204691/index2.html#post10430002"]http://www.talkbass.com/forum/f15/2-65-ohm...ml#post10430002[/url] What tap would you use for them?! All cabs are like this though!

You'll get a better result running the 8 ohm 15" and 4 ohm 4x10" on the SVT's 4 ohm tap than you will running a 4 ohm 15" and 4 ohm 4x10" on the 2 ohm tap. The reasons are complicated but centre around both varieties of power handling and the realities of actual impedance curves.

[quote name='Musky' post='1142165' date='Feb 26 2011, 10:50 AM']You can just swap the 8 ohm speaker for a 4 ohm one - AFAIK the tweeter can be disregarded as far as the overall impedance of the cab is concerned. If you're doing this to get an increase in volume by unleashing the extra wattage you're likely to be disappointed though. You'll probably see slightly under 2dB increase in volume, which is all but inaudible in the real world. Adding a second 8 ohm cab would be an entirely different kettle of fish though. Edit: I'm assuming you'd be swapping the speaker like-for like. Obviously using a far more efficient speaker would provide a greater increase in volume, though depending on the specs may change the sound of the cab.[/quote] That's essentially it. Unless your amp is very low on power your output will be being limited by your speaker's excursion limited power handling so you won't even get 2dB more, you might get nothing. Changing to a more efficient speaker won't really make any difference either because low frequency efficiency is dependent on the enclosure size and LF cutoff and changing the speaker won't change them. Adding a second similar cab will make a big difference but not due to the 4 ohm load, due to the doubling of rig size, cone area and excursion limited power handling.

[quote name='stingrayPete1977' post='1135899' date='Feb 21 2011, 05:57 PM']Im confused too?! So what you going to do then to find out how they played differently to you to adjust your playing style to get this improved sound?[/quote] Watch and listen to how they play. Then listen to and compare the two recordings. Note where (if) they sound better than you. Then experiment with your playing both when practising at home, in rehearsals and at gigs, record as much as possible, and find how different changes in your playing affect your tone. Also note how your respective bandmates affect your respective tones by listening to the space they leave for you both - you'll never sound great if you're fighting the rest of the band!

The cheapest thing you can do which may solve the problem is to retune the cab much higher. That will require shortening the ports, so the challenge is to find out if you can remove them relatively easily, cut them down and then glue them back in. The stock speakers are quite similar to these: [url="http://www.eminence.com/speakers/speaker-detail/?model=Legend_BP102"]http://www.eminence.com/speakers/speaker-d...el=Legend_BP102[/url] And you now have these: [url="http://www.eminence.com/speakers/speaker-detail/?model=Kappa_Pro_10A"]http://www.eminence.com/speakers/speaker-d...l=Kappa_Pro_10A[/url] What's killing your tone is a combination of the higher Fs and lower Qts reducing the sensitivity in the lows (so your amp is running out of power) and the lack of Xmax (so although the replacement speakers can handle far more power thermally they can only handle a quarter as much power mechanically - i.e. without distorting in the lows). Shortening the ports will increase the sensitivity where you need it in the lows and reduce the excursion (mechanical) demands on the speakers.

[quote name='stingrayPete1977' post='1133486' date='Feb 19 2011, 03:40 PM']That doesnt really make sense either though does it? Your drummer and the other bassists are still all different people to each other and I have played in bands that have drummers that are also possibly better bass players than the ones in the other bands that appeared that night.[/quote] Confused?! My point was that your sound onstage will differ from your sound FOH (even without a PA support). And that if you keep the rig the same but change the player and the bass, its changing the musician that will tend to have more effect upon sound than changing the instrument, when taken in the context of the whole mix. The most simplistic example of this is if one player inherently plucks a little harder and thus pops out of the mix more because they're slightly louder. Another example is where one player is more on top of the beat they'll cut through more - or conversely where a player sits back on the beat they'll get away with playing quite a lot louder without the rest of the band automatically playing louder and the volume level spiralling upwards, so they can be louder onstage and thus louder outfront. And with bass guitar louder is almost always better (if your tone, time and taste are right!) Or if your groove, feel and tone is absolutely dead on you can be hugely loud and the band will settle into your massive sound because subconciously they'll sink into your gloriously enveloping tone (check Wille Weeks on Donny Hathaway - Live, for a great example of this). Material for another article methinks... If on recording the FOH sound and finding your sound is worse than the other bassist's with a different rig, then my first reaction would not be to buy a new bass but to change what you're doing with the current bass and rig. I've had a long habit of recording gigs to see how the band sounded from the audience position and it tells you a huge amount, especially in smaller venues when the monitoring is rather sketchy.

I really rate Jim Bergantino as a cab designer, especially his work on crossovers. And as a company they have a history of innovating, launching new products and discontinuing old ones. If they didn't rationalise their product range regularly at some point it would become unprofitable to manufacture and stock so many different items. They're not exactly what I want from a cab but I've never heard a poor performing Bergantino product!

Your best indication is to record the gig with a single mic in the audience and then you can hear how your sound compares to the other bassists'. Listening to your drummer playing your rig won't really tell you anything - the player is a far larger variable than any of the equipment.

With the speakers you're using even a 300W SVT isn't going to play as loud as your Shuttle 9.0 - though one of those Peavey 400W valve amps might. Valve amps do get you more apparent loudness with lesser demands on the speakers. But many modern cabs aren't great for valve amps due to their impedance curves.