How do I know if my combo is loud enough to gig with...

[MacDaddy]

Peavey Vypyr VIP 3 - 100-watt 1x12" Modeling Guitar/Bass/Acoustic Combo Amp

And the gig? 'Usual' pub gig.

[Al Krow]

34 minutes ago, MacDaddy said:

Peavey Vypyr VIP 3 - 100-watt 1x12" Modeling Guitar/Bass/Acoustic Combo Amp

And the gig? 'Usual' pub gig.

Unfortunately in my books that's not going to cut it (well it certainly wouldn't with my band in a pub).

If it had been 100 "tube watts" of power, I might have hesitated, but this isn't an all tube amp.

Sorry! 

[Bill Fitzmaurice]

2 hours ago, MacDaddy said:

Peavey Vypyr VIP 3 - 100-watt 1x12" Modeling Guitar/Bass/Acoustic Combo Amp

That's probably not going to cut it, not because it's 'only' 100 watts, but because the speaker is not well suited for bass. The cabinet is too small, and the port configuration shows that it's tuned much too high.

[MacDaddy]

27 minutes ago, Bill Fitzmaurice said:

snip ***  and the port configuration shows that it's tuned much too high.*** snip

Bill, I don't doubt you, but I have no idea what that means  

[Bill Fitzmaurice]

10 minutes ago, MacDaddy said:

Bill, I don't doubt you, but I have no idea what that means  

You don't have to know what it means, so long as I know what it means. 😎

In layman's terms that speaker probably can't go either low or loud enough for gigging at more than what we refer to as coffee house levels on my side of the pond. I'd say it's much better suited to low level studio work than gigging.

Edited October 29, 2018 by Bill Fitzmaurice

[dave_bass5]

When i got back in to playing bass i gigged a Ashdown EB-180 1x15, and then a MAG300 C115 for about two years. Just social clubs and a few pubs. It was always loud enough but after a while i realised just being heard wasn't good enough. No one complained about the bass, but being heard and being felt were two different things. There was no real thickness to the tone at the back of the rooms. Not that i had to fill the room, but even though i could always be heard, i couldn't always be felt.

[Ghost_Bass]

4 hours ago, MacDaddy said:

 

Sorry but no, that won't cut it, that's good for bedroom practice. Even in rehearsall i would be affraid to blow the driver as this is clearly a Guitar combo that stated it can also handle bass (it won't, at least with the sound/tone a bass is suposed to have). It can have all sorts of HPF to prevent over-excursion but that will come at expense of low frequencies.

Just looking at the "porting" (i wouldn't even call it that) we can see its made for guitar not bass:

[Teebs]

On 26/10/2018 at 17:16, Bridgehouse said:

I’ve done better??

I didn’t realise my comedy was being rated! 

8/10

[Bill Fitzmaurice]

35 minutes ago, Ghost_Bass said:

Just looking at the "porting" (i wouldn't even call it that)

All porting used to look like that, being a hole cut in the baffle, or as in this case in the back, with no duct. The common use of ducts dates to circa 1965, more or less coming into use at the same time as Theile/Small specs. What's usually referred to today as a port is more properly called a ducted port. 

[fleabag]

Yup, my old Peavey BVX 1x15 was exactly that. It had a big hole in the baffle and no ducting. That cab has gone to the great cab graveyard in the sky, apart from the grill, handles and back plate/speakon mount. Oh, and the badge

* COUGH * 

 

[Ghost_Bass]

23 minutes ago, Bill Fitzmaurice said:

All porting used to look like that, being a hole cut in the baffle, or as in this case in the back, with no duct. The common use of ducts dates to circa 1965, more or less coming into use at the same time as Theile/Small specs. What's usually referred to today as a port is more properly called a ducted port. 

Fair enough but i said i wouldn't call it a port because the size of it makes it look closer to an open back cab, IMO

[Bridgehouse]

36 minutes ago, Teebs said:

8/10

Better than it could have been!

[Bill Fitzmaurice]

10 minutes ago, Ghost_Bass said:

Fair enough but i said i wouldn't call it a port because the size of it makes it look closer to an open back cab, IMO

No doubt it's too large to provide a low enough tuning to work well with bass, but again at gig levels. Even open back, a misnomer as they're not totally open, can sound good in the studio, they just lack the output for gigging. The '59 Bassman for instance, or one of Carol Kaye's preferred studio amps, the Fender Concert, with reverb, which she often used. You can hear it on many of her Beach Boys tracks.

[Woodinblack]

Usual pub gig:

TC250 1x12 - fine

TC-RH450 - 2x 1x12 - fine

Ashdown - CTM 100 - 2x 1x12 - fine (although getting high on the volume).

Ashdown -MiBass 220 - 1x12 - not fine

[jacko]

On 27/10/2018 at 13:59, Delberthot said:

 if it was a Trace 1210 4x10" or an Ashdown King Combo 8x10" then yes it probably would be.

When I first joined the band you followed me into I had a trace 1210 hsmx 410 combo.  That wasn't loud enough to keep up with the other three in the band. 

[uk_lefty]

Some good info in here... In theory, if the OP wanted to gig this amp would a speaker upgrade and some carefully placed holes cut out the cab help, if done by someone who knows their stuff? Or is there more going on than that making it a costly but pointless exercise. 

I genuinely don't know much about Amps. I just need an on button, rotary knobs for volume and a big speaker that goes louder than the drummer.

[Defo]

On 25/10/2018 at 16:24, Bill Fitzmaurice said:

Don't be so sure about that. Most rehearsal spaces are small enough that you'll get a lot of boundary sourced phase cancellations, which can make your amp sound not as loud as it will in a large room. Guitars and drums don't have this issue, as the wavelengths they produce are much shorter and are relatively immune to phase cancellations.

Yep, funny how I have my volume on 4 at Practice and have to dial it down to 2 when I play a Gig

[Chienmortbb]

On 29/10/2018 at 17:42, Woodinblack said:

Usual pub gig:

TC250 1x12 - fine

TC-RH450 - 2x 1x12 - fine

Ashdown - CTM 100 - 2x 1x12 - fine (although getting high on the volume).

Ashdown -MiBass 220 - 1x12 - not fine

The TC 250 probably puts out about 130 watts with compression into 8 ohms. The MiBass outputs 100W into 8 ohms without  compression. The CTM will also put out 140 watts but the extra cab will make more noise due to mutual coupling. The RH450 is much more powerful than the other amps and with two cabs will have the added advantage of mutual coupling. 

I

[operative451]

I have a Harley Benton HBW80 and was asked to turn it down at the recent gig i did! So, er. Don't know. It might have just been my playing though...

[Woodinblack]

39 minutes ago, operative451 said:

I have a Harley Benton HBW80 and was asked to turn it down at the recent gig i did! So, er. Don't know. It might have just been my playing though...

first gig I took the ctm100 to, when i was listening to it and setting it up, someone said I should turn it down. I pointed out why would I listen to a crazy man?

[stingrayPete1977]

Placed up high pointing towards you it should be fine if the bass can go via the pa? 

[Bill Fitzmaurice]

If you lift the cab more than 20cm or so off the floor you'll introduce floor bounce phase sourced cancellation in the mid bass. That can be beneficial on a boomy stage, so in that instance it's a good idea. But otherwise it's best to leave the cab on the floor, tilted back to aim the drivers at your head, the better for you to hear your mids and highs.

[fleabag]

Oh  hell.

My cab in pic above is 40cm off the floor.  Dammit. I bought those supports especially for that cab

[Bill Fitzmaurice]

This calculates the effect of lifting the cab:

http://www.tonestack.net/software/floor-reflection-simulator.html

The higher it's lifted the lower the frequency of the floor bounce induced cancellation.

 

[fleabag]

Thinks Bill - just downloading to see what's happening