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Advice needed on how to power a Trace Elliot BFC please


Urban Lions
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I have recently purchased a Trace Elliot BFC 1000 watt cab. Has anyone had much experience with these cabs?

I know the TE AH1000 will power it but I was looking at a Warwick 1kw 10.1 valve amp and wondered if this would work.

Im new here and don't know how to post photos.

Thanks.

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Might be worth reading up on old threads such as...
[url="http://basschat.co.uk/topic/71878-trace-elliot-bfc-cab/"]http://basschat.co.u...elliot-bfc-cab/[/url]
[url="http://basschat.co.uk/topic/170070-trace-elliot-ah1000-cab-connection-questiontherory/"]http://basschat.co.u...uestiontherory/[/url]

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If I recall you'll need a special Speakon cable made up, because of the way the cab is wired for the biamp options on the AH1000-12 for which it was designed.

Seek out OBBM of these shores and he may be able to help :)

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What, then, is your question..? The BFC cab has 3 separate cabs inside, each 4 ohms. All use a common ground. This poses no problem for the amp with which it was designed, but making the ground common from other amps can be problematic. For complete flexibility, it would be possible to open the cab and re-wire to 3 independent sockets; that would make it easier to connect any amps that can handle a 4 ohm load, but it wouldn't then work with the Trace AH1000 amp.
What, and how many, o/ps does your head have, and at what impedance..? What final result are you wanting to achieve..? Give a bit more info and I'm sure the answers will come flooding in.

Edited by Dad3353
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I was thinking a Hartke LH1000 would work with this. Run the two 2x10" parts into one side at 2ohms and the 15" into another at 4ohms. Alternatively if you wire it the other way and have the 2 2x10"s running at 8ohms. Assuming it could be rewired to work this way

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Thanks. I've just found this thread again sorry I'm not being notified when I get relies. I joined here last week.

I'm not entirely sure what everyone is talking about. I have no idea how to rewire the cab. I don't understand why a regular 1k head like the Warwick 10.1valve won't power the cab.

What does bi-amp mean?

Does the BFC not just distribute the watts to the speakers accordingly?

I want 1k of power delivered to the speakers. 500 to the 15 and 250 each side to the two sets of tens.

Is the ah1000 the only amp that can do this? If so is anyone selling one?

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The old AH1000-12 (not the current one available) was configured with 2x 250w and one 500w power stage which was designed to partner with the BFC. Neither are entirely conventional so to use the cab with a 'normal' amplifier like yours will require modification of the cab / connector panel or use of a different amp setup.

To make it simpler, really you need to think of the BFC as three separate cabs rather than a big single one. Think of how you would drive two 2x10s and one 1x15. Impedance (amplifier loading) must be considered so as not to damage your amp.

To answer your questiions:

Bi-amp: Using different ampliers operating individual speakers over a specific frequency range. This is commonly adopted in PA systems by using a crossover to split the full-range sound into 2, 3 or more bands. An example being the three-way system of subs, mids and tops. Each band has it's own amp and speaker.

BFC: No, it will not simply distribute the power the way you want it.

1kW: You'll have to reconfigure the cab.

The AH1000 is the only amp specifically designed for this cab however you could buy two power amplifiers, a pre-amp and an active crossover to use it in a stereo / bi-amp config.

I can't help but think the BFC isn't what you're looking or you haven't checked the spec / compatability with your Warwick amp. In a nutshell: It can be made to work but you can't simply 'plug and play'

Hope that helps. :D

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  • 2 weeks later...

No, the you're after a Gibson era amp made from around 2000 to 2002. It will have an electro-illuminescent (glowing) front panel and will be finished in a green furry/fuzzy carpet or black leatherette. Post '05 amps are Peavey. :D

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[quote name='Urban Lions' timestamp='1430085201' post='2757912']
Thank you. That narrows my search down a bit more now. Do you think there are any still in existence?
[/quote]

Yes, just about as rare to find as their magical V Type 4x8 cabinet though!

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[quote name='Merton' timestamp='1430167185' post='2758635']
Yes, just about as rare to find as their magical V Type 4x8 cabinet though!
[/quote]

Killer cab! My little 4808 combo was lovely..

Urban Lions: Keep looking, one will pop up eventually and probably won't be horribly expensive when it does as Trace stuff doesn't seem to be particularly fashionable at the min. Especially the SS / Hybrid graphic series, I sold my 600SMX for 250 notes a couple of years back.

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Yes I will keep looking. There are loads of old ah600s and 500s about. I have a couple of if gigs at the end of May and need something by then. Do you think a 600 will do the job until I can find the amp I need? I'm powering the BFC with my 1994 GP7sm130 at the minute and it's loud enough at home with that so I could only imagine what 1000 watts is going to be like.

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I had a BFC for a while and came to the conclusion that to make any sense of it with anything other than an AH1000 then I would have to change the speakers and rewire it.

For the OPs information the internal wiring is like this.



If you are using it with a mono amp and a normal Speakon (1+/1-) lead then you will just be driving the 15" section which is rated at 500-watts.

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[quote name='Urban Lions' timestamp='1430560690' post='2762566']
But when I plug my 150w amp into it all the speakers are working.
[/quote]

In that case it looks as if it, or your cable, been modified so without knowing what's been done it'll be impossible to suggest how to use it.

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I use photobucket, set an account up, upload your images then copy the 'IMG' code into here.. There's probably a 'how to' somewhere. I think you can upload images straight to the forum but I don't know how to do that, sorry.

As for your BFC, sounds like it's already setup how you need it altough I'd check it's overall impedance to make sure you're not gonna overheat your amplifier(s). If it's 4 ohms or greater then you'll probably be fine but if it's any less than three, make sure the amp can cope.

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