Not getting a good sound from Warwick 410

[TorturedSaints]

It's the old story, upgrade one part of the system and end up upgrading everything else - what would you do?

My first decent bass amp was a Laney Richter RB3, the older style 1x15 plus tweeter 165W. To make this louder, I purchased a Warwick 410, not the Pro, 8ohm 300W rating and used that as the extension speaker sat below the Laney. They are sat on the Gramma and were loud enough for gigs and the sound was OK I thought. Neither the combo or the cab have been played hard, nothing past 3 on the master volume of the laney. I play fingerstyle, mainly rock.

It's a whole separate topic, but sometimes I feel that when you read posts on here, it fans the flames of GAS, as it did with me. I saw a local ad for an Eden WT405 head, which I went to see, took my old 5 string and played through the owner's Peavey 410 cab, it sounded great, so I bought it. Took it home, connected it to the Warwick cab and . . . it's ok, nothing very exciting, a bit dull and lifeless (nothing to do with the lack of tweeter as my fingers are very 'toppy').

Today I thought I'd have a play. This time I connected the Eden Preamp out to the Laney Power amp in to use the Laney as a cab and the sound was far better, no difference switching in/out the tweeter and I A/B'd it with the Warwick cab. I far preferred the Laney (not a sentiment you see here often I don't suppose)

Have I got a duff Warwick 410? As it would appear I like the sound of a 1x15 better, would a 15in cab be better ? Do Eden amps prefer Eden cabs? Much as I would like some expensive cabs, funds are limited realistically to what I could get for the Laney and Warwick 410 secondhand.

Answers on a postcard please,

cheers

Ralph

[JTUK]

hmmm some cabs suit and match better than others...

Best thing I would do is try and match the Eden amp with an Eden cab pref 2x12...and I think there was one on here a short while ago for decent money.

15's are typically slow moving speakers compared to 10's, and 12's are a nice compromise between, IMO
I have no idea what Laney are like but Eden is decent kit.

On TB there are whole threads about what amps work or don't work with certain cabs.
If it were me..I'd sell everything for an Eden cab or maybe Aguilar and the usual better cabs. Not saying the Warwick isn't a decent cab in it own right but you say it doesn't combine well enough so discount them here.

[Wil]

All I can proffer is that I've owned/used various cabs over the years, including a few right munters, but the worst of the bunch was a Warwick 211. It sounded muffled and farted out a lot when it was pushed.

I don't know how well the 4x10s compare against the 2x10s, but... It might be the weak link in the chain here.

Edited July 12, 2010 by Wil

[Mr. Foxen]

Was the Peavey 4x10 vey deep front to back? I've found those 4x10s with a slot port (think they are TVX) go really low compared to most cabs. Usually the cab is the weak link, and those Peaveys might weigh a ton, but are surprisingly hard to beat.

[MythSte]

[quote name='Mr. Foxen' post='893349' date='Jul 13 2010, 01:12 AM']Was the Peavey 4x10 vey deep front to back? I've found those 4x10s with a slot port (think they are TVX) go really low compared to most cabs. Usually the cab is the weak link, and those Peaveys might weigh a ton, but are surprisingly hard to beat.[/quote]

+1 - I'm always surprised by those peaveys!

Unfortunately I too owned the warwick 410, and, well, I wouldn't recommend it

[jonny-lad]

For what it's worth, I own a Warwick WCA 411PRO (which is the more expensive Warwick 4x10 with a tweeter), and I really like it and would recommend it!...I have no idea how the 410 that the OP has compares to it though, but the speakers are completely different aswell as it not having a tweeter so I wouldn't be surprised to hear quite a difference, although I wouldn't expect it to sound completely rubbish.

If the 410 sounded alright when used as an extension cabinet to the Laney, I wouldn't rule it out altogether...or at least not without spending a lot of time playing with settings and getting used to the Eden head.

Hope this helps.

[TorturedSaints]

Dudes, lots of good things to think about. Thanks for the help

Points arising:

yes, I think the peavey cab I tried it with was a TVX one.

I couldn't separate out the sound of the Warwick cab from the Laney when it was used as an extension cab. As the laney is on top of the Warwick Cab, I suspect I was getting most of the sound at ear level from the Laney, thus I didn't really notice the sound from the Warwick.

Anyway, I think I will be selling the cab and laney amp to try to finance an eden cab. I'd just like to listen to one first. . . Of course, sod's law, if I put the cab on Basschat for sale, everyone will read this thread and think that it's a rubbish one!

cheers

Ralph