Using an amp head as a power amp

[Born 2B Mild]

I've been curiously wondering about outboard pre-amps, which then led me to wondering if there were any light weight power amps that I could couple up with. Then I thought that maybe my Genz Benz Shuttle 6.0 could act as a power amp by plugging the lead coming out of an outboard pre-amp in to the 'receive' of the effects loop on the amp, thus bypassing the Shuttle's EQ.

Or am I talking twaddle?

[Born 2B Mild]

[size=1]Is it a secret then?[/size]

[obbm]

[quote name='Born 2B Mild' post='632772' date='Oct 21 2009, 08:29 PM']I've been curiously wondering about outboard pre-amps, which then led me to wondering if there were any light weight power amps that I could couple up with. Then I thought that maybe my Genz Benz Shuttle 6.0 could act as a power amp by plugging the lead coming out of an outboard pre-amp in to the 'receive' of the effects loop on the amp, thus bypassing the Shuttle's EQ.

Or am I talking twaddle?[/quote]

Perfectly acceptable. The only thing you have to careful with is levels. Does the outboard pre-amp have enough oomph to drive the power stage of the Shuttle.

[stevie]

I'm doing it with my newly acquired TC Electronics preamp into my Trace 200W head. Works fine and will do until I get my power amp connected at the weekend.

[Sean]

Yes, it's perfectly fine if you get the levels right. I ran an Aguilar Tone Hammer through the Return of my LMK and it was really nice.

I'm going to be running a DHA unit into the LMK soon too.

[Earbrass]

A question for those using outboard pre-amps / mult-fx units plugged into the power-amp stage of their bass heads: why use a bass head? Wouldn't an ordinary PA power amp do the same job cheaper? Not trying to criticize anyone's choices, but genuinely wanting to know. I always thought the pre-amp in a bass head was the bit that gave the "character" to the sound, and was the bit you were paying the extra for. Is that nonsense?

[bassicinstinct]

[quote name='Earbrass' post='761610' date='Mar 2 2010, 10:47 AM']A question for those using outboard pre-amps / mult-fx units plugged into the power-amp stage of their bass heads: why use a bass head? Wouldn't an ordinary PA power amp do the same job cheaper? Not trying to criticize anyone's choices, but genuinely wanting to know. I always thought the pre-amp in a bass head was the bit that gave the "character" to the sound, and was the bit you were paying the extra for. Is that nonsense?[/quote]

Sound logical to me, but maybe we're both wrong?

[thumperbob 2002]

I am using a Sansamp into the fx return of either an LM2 or Little giant- depending upon the cabs I am using.

It would be a great idea to find a 1000W amp that will do 2 X 4ohms that is light and cheap!!

Dont know if they exist though- the lightness of it I think will be the problem.

Bob

[bassicinstinct]

Wonder how much this is?

[url="http://www.dv247.com/pa-systems-and-live-sound/peavey-ipr-3000-1000-watt-power-amplifier--62061"]Peavey Power Amp[/url]

More to the point, being a Peavey, would any of us be able to lift it?

[Earbrass]

They do a smaller one too:

[url="http://www.dv247.com/pa-systems-and-live-sound/peavey-ipr-1600-530-watt-power-amplifier--62060"]http://www.dv247.com/pa-systems-and-live-s...mplifier--62060[/url]

Someone on the net said the lightest one was 6.2lb - that should be this one I think??

[bassicinstinct]

[quote name='Earbrass' post='761899' date='Mar 2 2010, 03:28 PM']They do a smaller one too:

[url="http://www.dv247.com/pa-systems-and-live-sound/peavey-ipr-1600-530-watt-power-amplifier--62060"]http://www.dv247.com/pa-systems-and-live-s...mplifier--62060[/url]

Someone on the net said the lightest one was 6.2lb - that should be this one I think??[/quote]

Mmm.

Interesting indeed!

[thumperbob 2002]

looks pretty good

bob

[GremlinAndy]

Just got my 2x IPR-1600 today. These things are silly light. The boxes feel like they could be empty.
They seem to have lots of power too. But that was just playing regular music through. Mine aren't really intended for bass use, but for monitor amplification. I'll give it a whirl on the bass rig though and let you know how they compare to my current Powersoft Digam 3002 power amp for bass.

BTW... paid £339 for each and that's a LOT of watts per pound. (I think Dolphin have them at £299.) And at such a light weight its even more watts per lb.

[bassicinstinct]

[quote name='GremlinAndy' post='816233' date='Apr 23 2010, 02:06 PM']Just got my 2x IPR-1600 today. These things are silly light. The boxes feel like they could be empty.
They seem to have lots of power too. But that was just playing regular music through. Mine aren't really intended for bass use, but for monitor amplification. I'll give it a whirl on the bass rig though and let you know how they compare to my current Powersoft Digam 3002 power amp for bass.

BTW... paid £339 for each and that's a LOT of watts per pound. (I think Dolphin have them at £299.) And at such a light weight its even more watts per lb.[/quote]

Looking forward to hearing how they shape up.

Sounds really promising!!

[GremlinAndy]

Well I gave it a go on the bass and to be honest there was no discernable difference between the peavey (£339) and my powersoft (£1200)
The main difference is that the Peavey weighs a third or less... but is 2 units high (rather than the Powersoft's 1U.) however the price difference means I could buy extra racks with the savings, I guess.

The only really irritating thing about the Peavey is that they put some really [b]insanely[/b] bright LEDs on the front. These things were so bright as to be distracting from offstage. They seem ok when you're stood by the amp but from down in the audience these things look brighter than the lightshow! So I put gaffer tape over them.

I'm sure those LEDs would be appreciated more by our DJ bretheren than us musos... aw bless!

So in summary, I think that you can't get much more bang for bucks than this! (I gather that Peavey have been having trouble getting these to the UK and there have only been about 100 distributed here. ...and that the next earliest delivery will be August. So if you are considering getting one it may be an idea to get one while it's possible. On the other hand it could be a load of bollock spoken by a salesman. I dunno.)

Good luck if you decide to get one.
Andy

[bassicinstinct]

[quote name='GremlinAndy' post='818339' date='Apr 25 2010, 07:11 PM']Well I gave it a go on the bass and to be honest there was no discernable difference between the peavey (£339) and my powersoft (£1200)
The main difference is that the Peavey weighs a third or less... but is 2 units high (rather than the Powersoft's 1U.) however the price difference means I could buy extra racks with the savings, I guess.

The only really irritating thing about the Peavey is that they put some really [b]insanely[/b] bright LEDs on the front. These things were so bright as to be distracting from offstage. They seem ok when you're stood by the amp but from down in the audience these things look brighter than the lightshow! So I put gaffer tape over them.

I'm sure those LEDs would be appreciated more by our DJ bretheren than us musos... aw bless!

So in summary, I think that you can't get much more bang for bucks than this! (I gather that Peavey have been having trouble getting these to the UK and there have only been about 100 distributed here. ...and that the next earliest delivery will be August. So if you are considering getting one it may be an idea to get one while it's possible. On the other hand it could be a load of bollock spoken by a salesman. I dunno.)

Good luck if you decide to get one.
Andy[/quote]

Good to know Andy.

Thanks for posting.

[franzbassist]

[quote name='GremlinAndy' post='818339' date='Apr 25 2010, 07:11 PM']Well I gave it a go on the bass and to be honest there was no discernable difference between the peavey (£339) and my powersoft (£1200)
The main difference is that the Peavey weighs a third or less... but is 2 units high (rather than the Powersoft's 1U.) however the price difference means I could buy extra racks with the savings, I guess.

The only really irritating thing about the Peavey is that they put some really [b]insanely[/b] bright LEDs on the front. These things were so bright as to be distracting from offstage. They seem ok when you're stood by the amp but from down in the audience these things look brighter than the lightshow! So I put gaffer tape over them.

I'm sure those LEDs would be appreciated more by our DJ bretheren than us musos... aw bless!

So in summary, I think that you can't get much more bang for bucks than this! (I gather that Peavey have been having trouble getting these to the UK and there have only been about 100 distributed here. ...and that the next earliest delivery will be August. So if you are considering getting one it may be an idea to get one while it's possible. On the other hand it could be a load of bollock spoken by a salesman. I dunno.)

Good luck if you decide to get one.
Andy[/quote]

I'm thinking of getting one of these, but I have seen some concerns on the PV forums about reliability. Are yours running okay Andy?

[GremlinAndy]

[quote name='walbassist' post='829015' date='May 5 2010, 09:40 PM']I'm thinking of getting one of these, but I have seen some concerns on the PV forums about reliability. Are yours running okay Andy?[/quote]

I can't really help on the question of reliability, and won't be able to for a long time. I only just got mine, and they are only being used for monitor amplification. We only gig about 1 a month at the moment, so it would be another year before I could safely say that they're looking reliable.
All I [i]can[/i] say is that mine are still ok after 1 gig... Not much help at all, I'm afraid.

[franzbassist]

[quote name='GremlinAndy' post='829262' date='May 6 2010, 07:25 AM']I can't really help on the question of reliability, and won't be able to for a long time. I only just got mine, and they are only being used for monitor amplification. We only gig about 1 a month at the moment, so it would be another year before I could safely say that they're looking reliable.
All I [i]can[/i] say is that mine are still ok after 1 gig... Not much help at all, I'm afraid.[/quote]

Hey no worries. It's good to hear yours is running well.

Cheers

Gareth

[Bottle]

Just thought I'd throw in my tuppence-worth!

I'm looking at running my full rig using my SansAmp Para-Driver - it's currently sitting in the effects loop (SA parallel output goes to the FX Return) of my GK head - the GK powers my EBS 4x10, running 'clean', and the Line output of the GK goes into my ProSound (Maplin special) PA amp (2x 400w into 4Ohms), which drives the EBS 1x15. For my 'grit' rig I'm using the [i]second[/i] channel on the PA amp fed from the SA's effected output. This then drives a couple of 12" 8Ohm ProSound full-range PA cabs running in parallel.

Clean output to the PA desk courtesy of the GK's DI out, and the grit is sent direct from the SansAmp.

And the grand total is: 1,300w!!! Doom?

Sounds pretty good in my living room - rattled the windows a couple of times (when I know the neighbours are out!!)

HTH, Ian


PS, here's a rough sketch-up of the rig - looking for a 4 Ohm cab to run the 'grit' side of things - any ideas (sorry for the hijack)