Advice Needed!

[rockinbassman]

Right, I am currently playing for a pop artist doing a lot of large stage gigs. I have been using my Little Mark Tube along with Classic 104 Cab, but due to the cab being 8ohms I am not getting much welly from my head!

Can anyone suggest/recommend another Mark head that has a bit more power, even possibly to drive 2 Cabs in the future. I am endorsed by them so can get anything I want really, got some advice from them, but want some 3rd party advice too.

P

[skychaserhigh]

Why not just get another 8 ohm cab and run the head at 4 ohms ?

[rockinbassman]

Ahhh so that would mean I am getting the full load out of my amp?

[skychaserhigh]

Indeed

[rockinbassman]

Thanks for that, I will check it out, will be a lot of gear though!

[rockinbassman]

Does it not mean that it wont drive the 2 cabs fully though as it will be powering 2 cabs!?

[bumnote]

[quote name='rockinbassman' post='962813' date='Sep 20 2010, 10:39 PM']Does it not mean that it wont drive the 2 cabs fully though as it will be powering 2 cabs!?[/quote]

No

According to the specs the little mark tube gives 500w into an 8 ohm load and 800w into a 4 ohm load

Therefore with a single 8 ohm cabinet, you will not see the amps full potential

BUT if you replaced the single 8 ohm cab with a 4 ohm cab, although you would develop more watts, it wont make a huge difference to your volume as the speakers will be unable to make use of the available power, although the cabinet would probably take it.

If you have a second cab, your amp will see a 4 ohm load, therefore allowing the extra wattage to be developed, but far more importantly the extra area of the speakers will give you more volume

[Musky]

If you mean will it drive the cabs to their maximum thermal rating (ie the rated wattage) the answer is no. Not that it makes much difference as the maximum the speaker is likely to handle at the bottom end probably won't be much more than a third of the cab's rated RMS anyway.

If you really want to push as much power into the cabs as they'll handle you'll need to buy a more powerful head, but it's not really necessary to drive cabs to their maximum rating. Adding a second 104 will give you an extra 60-70% more power, and doubling the number of speakers will give an extra 3db of the volume - the extra power and speakers together will give a useful 5-6db boost in volume.

[chris_b]

If you are playing "large stage gigs" why isn't the fold back giving you all the volume you need?

[niceguyhomer]

I can't believe you need more volume - I use a LM Tube (500) with a single cab (Accugroove Whappo jnr) in a loud six piece band - we only play theatres / big stages and the volume on my head never gets past 11 o clock. Any higher than that and the building shakes uncontrollably.

[JTUK]

Get MB to lend you another cab so run two, and see if the amp is loud enough...and at 800w, it sure should be..!!!!
But I agree, that you will not be wanting to flood the stage as you should have monitor mixes for that....no...??

[rockinbassman]

Yes of course I have monitor mixes, but at some of the festivals, with quick changeovers etc it has been hard to rely on monitor engineers.

Its not that I am looking to have loads more volume all the time, and its not an immediate thing, I was just looking into Ohmage/Wattage and making sure that I was getting the full potential from mine before I went and spent some money on another.

Getting another 4x10 was a future plan anyway as it the same as having an 8x10 but without the hassle of an 8x10 and I can use one of the 4x10's on smaller gigs.

Thanks for the help guys!!

[xgsjx]

Why not use your 2x10 sat on top of your 4x10?
This would pull the full power from your amp and increase the speaker height, meaning you'd hear yourself clearer as well.

[BottomE]

The MarkBass amps (to me) sound richer when being run in two cabs. Probably totally my imagination - its not a volume thing its more like a quality/density thing.