Phil Starr

Yep, it's working again now. My computer is almost as ancient as I am so I do get odd glitches

Sorry, but this simply isn't true, though it has become the received wisdom on BC. Size matters in a number of ways and the radius of the cone is an important factor in predicting it's performance. It occurs in a number of the calculations designers use. The other factor in speaker cones is their mass, and bigger cones are heavier. Heavier cones have a lower resonance and can reproduce deeper notes as a result. You can make a small cone go deeper by adding weight but this will make it quieter, or by loosening off the suspension but this will affect it's sound too, again in complex ways. For example a thicker cone with a loose suspension is more likely to act as a piston and not flex, this will reduce the high frequency content and probably lose the mid-range hump which gives the characteristic sound of many bass speakers. It also isn't true that a 10" speaker travelling twice as far will be as loud as a 15 or two 'ordinary' 10's. speakers produce very high energy high pressures at the cone, Sound is normally spread over a large volume and the pressures are much lower, there is an impedance mismatch at the point the speaker meets the air and energy is transferred inefficiently. Horns act to match the impedance of the cone and air and that is why they are louder, They aren't making energy they are simply converting it more efficiently. Increasing the cone area will do this as well, doubling cone area and will give you a 3db increase in sound level for the same electrical input. Of course size isn't everything and there are many other factors, the electromagnetic motor and the detailed design of the cone. Alex Claber explains this perfectly fairly (from memory as his site is down) in saying there isn't a sound of a 15 or a 10" speaker. There are so many variables it couldn't be, but it isn't insignificant either, if you wanted a loud, efficient speaker driving down to 30Hz you wouldn't start with a 4" speaker.

[quote name='xgsjx' timestamp='1387014944' post='2307384'] Cone size makes no difference to the sound. It's all down to how the driver is made & cab design. So to put it simple, the more air you can move, the louder you can go. [/quote]

Can you put up a link to the EBS article on power requirements please? I've been looking for this sort of information. I use the Hartke kickback10 for this sort of gig though only with mains, It's an awkward thing to carry due as much to its shape as it's weight. My 2x10 is lighter louder and a lot easier to carry. I'm really not convinced you need 300W though, It is going to drain the battery pretty quickly and you will have to carry a correspondingly heavy battery. to reduce weight overall I would start with the speakers. Moving from Hartke's 92 dB/W to something like 102 dB/W would give you the same sound level with a tenth of the power. If you are prepared to compromise on deep bass you could easily use short throw speakers like guitar speakers which are much louder because more of the coil is in the magnet at any one time making electrical efficiency higher. There are drivers out there with intermediate characteristics that would give higher efficiencies too. My 2x10 built with ceramic magnet drivers and 18mm ply weighs only 17kg and has a sensitivity of 98dB/W and I'm sure I could achieve better if I designed for lightweight. This alone would give you the same sound output with a quarter of the power than using a less efficient speaker. I haven't measured the output from my KB10 but it is going to be around 112dB, in any case this is limited by bass excursion as i can hear it distorting if I push it hard. If the Hartke is loud enough for you but just too awkward to carry then you only need that sound level. Using a 100dB/W speaker would only need 12db of gain so 16W of amp. A 30w amp would be louder and save your batteries, and you wouldn't be driving the speakers beyond their excursion limits so your bass would be cleaner.

OK it has been explained before but here's the technical bit. Amps are really simple to measure, Their wattage is just a measure of the electricity they can pump out. Connect them up to a resistor, turn them up to the point of distortion and measure the voltage and current. There are variations but the 'RMS' wattage is basically that simple. Speakers are more complex, their failure is caused three ways, By overheating, by over excursion and by wear and tear. The ratings of speakers are based on over-heating only. The measurement technique is simple enough, plug a few samples in turn up the power and see if they burn out, then try higher powers until they do. the last power at which they all survives is the rating. the trouble is that it tells you little about the real world performance. Your cab will have a different rating in Kyoto in the summer to Reykjavik in the winter for instance. The amount of stuffing in the cab is probably more significant in affecting cooling but the biggest factor is the type of music you play, Gaps between notes reduce heating, lots of sustain and distortion increase it. Compression is a particular killer. The heating effect is about the average power you are using. If your peaks are 100W and you have 40dB of dynamic range between your quiet and loud bits your average power is only 1W (yes one watt) with a more realistic 20dB range it would be 10W. (this all assumes you don't have any gaps in your playing so in reality the average would be less) Extreme compression can bring the average very close to the peaks, though of course it will sound louder and you would probably turn down. Used normally though it is unlikely that the 10W average power is going to burn out your 100W speaker. Much more likely is damage through over excursion, here bass is a problem just as much as power. If the coil moves out of the magnet it won't cool efficiently. If it moves too far in some designs it will hammer against the back of the magnet. The more power and the deeper the note the further it moves. The air in the cab asts as a damper on the movement but if you have a ported cab there is another complication, below the port tuning the air doesn't damp the movement and your 400W cab might only be able to handle 40W. So practically what does all this mean? Firstly that no-one can definitively say whether your cab will be safe, we don't know how you play. Most people don't regularly blow 300W speakers with 300W amps. If you use a lot of bass boost and fx pedals then you probably ought to be more careful than if you go for a clean sound. If you only match the acoustics of the drums then there really shouldn't be a problem with this level of amplification, you almost certainly aren't going to turn these amps anywhere near full up. If you are trying to drown out two Marshall full stacks then beware. for one thing you won't hear a farting cab because of your hearing loss. Finally don't rely on hearing the speaker distortion, for one it is often already too late by then but mainly because, although that sound is really clear in your bedroom or a rehearsal room, on stage it can be really tricky to realise it is your rig that is making the awful noise.

Building a cab for a speaker isn't really very high tech. If the box is well made and the right size and shape, and tuned properly if it is a ported design, then it is pretty much going to sound like a commercial cab. There are lots of designs out there you can copy too so you can do this without much technical knowledge. Just like DIY repairs to your house some people are better at it than others though. No secret to this either, they just take more care, don't cut corners and get better the more they do. Even designing cabs isn't difficult. It's roughly A level maths/physics sort of standard. You do need to work at it but most reasonably bright people will get on top of the basics in a year or two. You can get in at the bottom end by letting the computer do the number crunching but it helps to understand what the computer is doing for you. The joy is that you can then apply your knowledge in so many ways, the perfect speaker doesn't exist at any price. They are all compromise designs and each compromise leads to a different sound. Not all the compromises are built commercially and there is a tendency for most of the manufacturers to do me too copies of the currently best selling designs. I've been designing and building speakers since the 1970's and am still learning how little I know and how much more there is I want to try. So go ahead and use DIY speakers, then get into building them yourself.

In bridge mode you are connecting the output of the two amps together pushing in the opposite direction to each other with the speakers connected in between. If one were turned right up and the other not then you are directly applying an electrical potential across the output of the amp which is turned down, which in turn could cause it to fail or trip some of the protection circuitry depending upon the exact design of the amp. The problem with setting volumes half way is that the potentiometers in the volume controls may be a poor match and combined with any inaccuracies you introduce this may cause a mismatch. the afest thing is to turn both up full and put up with the high sensitivity or to buy a little mixer or pedal to cut the volume somewhere earlier in the chain such as in the fx loop.

If you can afford just over £1000 then it would be worth looking at the AER Amp One. They are genuinely astonishing for their size and portability. They come up here for discussion but I can honestly say I have been blown away by the sound of these little combos' [url="http://basschat.co.uk/topic/157525-aer-amp-one-the-best-amp-i-have-bought-evar/"]http://basschat.co.uk/topic/157525-aer-amp-one-the-best-amp-i-have-bought-evar/[/url]

You would be doing two entirely different things for different reasons and you would need different speakers, at least, to achieve either. Taking a mono signal and using a crossover is about sending the signal to more capable speakers. Bass needs a big heavy cone, a long coil, high power handling,a particular magnet design and so on. Highs need a small cone for dispersion, lighter so it moves quicker, excursion isn't a problem so you can make the coil shorter and the speaker more efficient (louder) so saving on power handling. This will usually give a cleaner sound all round and if you like the sound of DI'd bass from a stack it could be the way to go. Another alternative might be to use a guitar speaker to give you a desired distorted sound but protected from the bass with a 100Hz crossover and then to fill in the lows with a sub below 100Hz. but essentially most people would go this route to get a cleaner sound. Having said that a better way of doing this technically is just to DI and use the PA sound and set up monitors on-stage. your problem here will be finding someone who makes a really good 'satelite' top for a bass. Feeding two signals to two stacks is a bit odd. As Synaesthesia (nice to see the dipthong) said the joy of twin pup's is blending them to get phase cancellations or 'mid scoop' and you'd lose this capability for something less predictable by separating the pups output. What you would gain is having two stacks with different sounds so you could use either or both during a gig for different songs and get a range of sounds you couldn't get otherwise by 'blending' the stacks. It wouldn't matter that this is unpredictable because you could hear the results. The trouble of this for me is that I would probably not want to feed the two stacks from different pups. The old way of splitting signals and feeding to a 1x15 and 2x10 makes no sense, unless you want that particular old school sound, as modern drivers are so much more capable. You really couldn't get decent power handling and bass from anything with high frequencies back then. If you want a super-clean on-stage sound then go for the crossover. You might need to look to unconventional speakers though. Barefaced sub with Phil Jones tops? If you want to try splitting the pup's find a fellow bassist who fancies some experimenting and try his stack/combo with yours in various combinations rather than spending a fortune on extra amps and speakers.

go to the doctor. Even if everyone here was medically qualified you need to have someone examine your finger, it is probably nothing to worry about but it needs checking as early as possible especially if you need to be ready for the gigs. Make an appointment this morning. Good luck

Too harsh on drummers guys. The OP asked how much power, and the answer isn't to be louder than the drummer can possibly ever be. The other thing is that the volume control isn't the only way we have of playing louder, we should have dynamics too. I set to the drummer at the beginning of the set and if he plays harder so do I and vice versa. Of course a drummer should use the appropriate dynamics for the song but shouldn't the rest of the band.

[quote name='Billy Apple' timestamp='1385666411' post='2290971'] Fight your ground for your opinions on ported or sealed cabs. Which is tighter? Which has more 'thump'? Does it change tone? In a fight....6X10 sealed (eg, Matamp) or 2x12 ported (eg Barefaced)? Which one is best for Metal? What do you think? [/quote] Great question, there are differences some of which are down to the type of cab and some down to just differences due to the actual speaker in question. Now the physics isn't really helpful on the above. mainly because 'thump', 'tone' and 'tight' mean different things to each of us. I'm not a fan of metal but even my superficail listening tells me that metal bassists don't all sound the same, though big cabs seem to have the image needed [quote name='Billy Apple' timestamp='1385666411' post='2290971'] Fight your ground for your opinions on ported or sealed cabs. Which is tighter? Which has more 'thump'? Does one have more bass/mid/treble? What differences does it really make? How does the same driver react in sealed and ported cabs? [/quote] There are differences which Lawrence has talked about, They are all in the bass region so no, they don't make any difference to mid or treble. Yes in hi-fi speakers some midrange sound can be reflected off the back panel of the cab and come out through the port though this isn't really relevant to bass cabs as it isn't going to be noticed unless you are miking up in a strange place. The main effect of the port is to give you extra output at the frequency around the ports tuning point, About 3dB or double the output which you can see clearly on Bill's graph, Most bass designers can't resist this 'free' extra bass so most modern style cabs are ported designs. Older cabs with walls of cheap drivers were filled with speakers that couldn't work in ported designs so tended to be sealed getting their extra bass from sheer muscle, a bit like American sports cars. The other advantage of porting is that sealed cabs always raise the resonant frequency of the speaker so the bass output starts to fall from a higher starting point in a sealed cab compared to a ported cab depending upon which drivers you use. (it's a bit complex here but this holds true for most commercial cabs IMO) There are disadvantages coming from the port though, below the resonant frequency of the cab the speaker unloads very quickly. The air in the port acts like a plug at high frequencies, like a tuned bass string at resonance and like a big open hole below resonance. This has lots of consequences because the cone flaps around under little control from anything. First of all it is likely to exceed its excursion limits and the power handling can be reduced to a tenth of its rated level as it starts to hammer against the back of the magnet. The bass output falls very rapidly in a ported cab (at 24 db/octave) so if the cab was tuned to 60Hz the bottom note of a 5 string might easily be 1/200th of the power of B an octave above. (you'd still hear plenty of harmonics, just not the fundamental tone) You also get problems with phase at these frequencies. If you are using a ported cab and want it ot go on working then you really need to cut all the bass below 40Hz or even higher with some designs With the sealed cab the bass falls off at half the rate of a reflex cab at 12 dB/octave though it will do this from a higher point because of the raised resonant frequency. Because the cab is sealed it acts on the back of the cone and reduces the excursion at low frequencies, this means you can often use a little bass boost safely to bring the level up to that of a ported cab. At some point the ported cabs more quickly falling output will cross over the slowly falling output of the sealed cab. Bill gives one example where it crosses over below any bass note we play but there could be any number of examples where it is higher than this. Sealed cabs can be designed easily to either give a big hump in frequency and a slightly woolly bass or a flat response or a really tight well damped bass simply by changing the size of the cab. This makes it easy to design in 'thump' or 'tight, fast bass'. You can do this with ported cabs too but I would say with less flexibility. The other factor is room resonance, you can easily get an extra 6dB or more of bass by the sound being reflected off the floors and walls, I find myself cutting the bass more often than boosting it when I play live so a slow bass roll off might be something between a curse and a blessing. It is hard for an engineer designing a speaker to turn down the advantages of the extra bass of a ported design and most sealed cabs have really cheap drivers in them so you aren't comparing like with like quite often. No-one I know of has taken the Barefaced approach of putting the best modern bass drivers into a well engineered lightweight sealed cab yet, though someone will correct me on that. I don't think there is anything intrinsically wrong with the idea though.

[quote name='steve-bbb' timestamp='1385716898' post='2291377'] definitely this unless the guitarist is doing something rhythmically tight i tend to ignore the guitar and just focus on the drums and then the keys in our band - the guitar can be sort of left to its own devices to a degree because as long as drums and bass are locked together it gives the guitarist room for a bit more fluidity im always telling our singist (much to her amusement) that i havent got a clue what she is doing - its not so much wilfully ignoring her but my ear seems to zone out the vox when i focus on the drums and the structure good luck with the gig tonight [/quote] Yeah good luck. This is getting interesting, I've always seen it as my job to knit the band together. I learned to play with a drum machine when I started so timekeeping wasn't an issue but I was shocked when i joined a band to find most singers and guitarists can't play to a drum machine or indeed any steady beat! I try to control the tightness of our songs by defining the first note of a chord change and if i hear someone drifting or making a mistake I'll try to emphasize those notes a little to draw everyone back in, Actually once a song is secure you can pretty much relax and concentrate on performance but I always try to listen to everyone, I always thought this was my job. In practice I mainly concentrate on the singer and the drums. My pet hate is singers who think phrasing is singing out of time. Obviously there is more than one way to be a bassist, so do i have it wrong?

[quote name='Mog' timestamp='1385633808' post='2290385'] These "Smart Power" cabs have intrigued me for a while. The principle is sound but something in the back of my mind keeps saying gimmick. Has anyone been using one of these for a few months/years? [/quote] [quote name='Bill Fitzmaurice' timestamp='1385647060' post='2290637'] The principle has been known for 40 odd years. Take two drivers, configure them so that only one of the cones is exposed to the air and one to the cabinet, and you get the same response curve with half the net box size as is required with one driver. That's a plus. You also get the same net output as with one driver. That's not a plus. [/quote] [quote name='BurritoBass' timestamp='1385652818' post='2290724'] Can I buck the trend by being the first person to comment who has actually been using one for years? The reality for me is it is all I need. I tend to play in a range of venues from Art Centres to pubs and in small / medium pubs with vocal only PAs it really holds up well. In the larger venues it is standard to mic up the bass so again, no issues. I get more comments about my sound now than at any other time and I've been playing 25yrs. [/quote] There you are then, not confusing at all. The truth is they are both right. The principle isn't sound, as an engineering solution it is completely bonkers. I can't believe it is anything other than one engineers daydream and a complete marketing gimmick from then on. If you want a little cab then make a driver with a bigger magnet, which will be cheaper and lighter than two drivers. If you want a portable cab don't make it so heavy! If you want it to sound nice then using an isobaric cab won't change the sound it just makes it more expensive. But these cabs do sound OK if you like that old school sound, There's nothing actually wrong with them and you'll either like the sound or not. I quite like how they sound as it happens. Just ask yourself though if you are happy paying almost twice as much for a cab to have a gimmicky extra speaker which doesn't contribute to the sound and where the money could have been better spent. If that really is the sound you can't live without and you don't mind the weight then go for it but it isn't good because it is isobaric and it isn't the first speaker I'd look at at that price.

I'll be only the first to say this; you don't need to match the guitarist who will have to turn down. Your job is to match the drummer. If you are louder than the drums they will need to be miked up and that means a big PA which you can then use as well. If the guitarist uses 50W turned right up you will all be deafened anyway. Literally. The other thing is that you don't need to specify a power but a dB level as some speakers are a lot louder than others, Drums chuck out just over 100dB or thereabouts so this is the level you will be aiming at, The loud bits will need to be louder than this average level. If your speakers are an efficient 100db/W you might get away with 100W if they are a relatively inefficient 94db/W you'd need 4x this or 400W. This doesn't allow for your tone, if you play a 5 string or like to boost the bass then you'll need a bit more power than if you like a nice clanky mid dominated sound. I'd say go for something in the 400W range and you'll cover most eventualities but 200W will probably be enough, remember that you need to double power to make a noticeable difference.

Blue Aran do a range of feet of various sizes with washers in them. I'd bolt them on if it is practicable.

Good advice from everyone, your problem is very simple though. You are in a volume war and you need to end it by talking to each other. The tone you carefully set up at home won't work in a band situation or in a different room acoustic, for you or the guitarists. Talk to each other. Good luck.

[quote name='BetaFunk' timestamp='1385480681' post='2288746'] Blimey, that week was better than i thought. Some fantastic songs there. I had my ear glued to my transistor radio in the 60s. Myself and my friends at school always listened to Radio Caroline and Radio London which both started around 1964. We also had Radio Luxemburg in the evenings so there was plenty of opportunities to listen to this music even before Radio One opened in 1967 so i'm not really sure what your point is. [/quote] My point is simply that a, there is some good stuff there but more cr** than good, unless you like Jim Reeves b. yes I listened to Caroline too but a casual listener to mainstream stations wouldn't have known of say, John Mayall just as I suspect those bemoaning the current state of music don;t really know what the kids are listening to. I'm also a little wary of becoming something I despised when I was at school [b] “Our youth now love luxury. They have bad manners, contempt for authority; they show disrespect for their elders and love chatter in place of exercise; they no longer rise when elders enter the room; they contradict their parents, chatter before company; gobble up their food and tyrannize their teachers.”[/b] Socrates

Thought this old f**t would be posting the old stuff but I like this, it has the correct ratio of drums to bass too. Nothing earth shattering but rather nice. [url="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T4EWfdEyoLs"]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T4EWfdEyoLs[/url]

[quote name='jmchich' timestamp='1385467449' post='2288534'] While not in the same style, this is some incredible bass playing, and one of my favourite songs. Heavy yet melodic. [media]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l3B7yf6c3mY[/media] Oh, and Wishbone Ash are still pretty cool [/quote] Love it

[quote name='BetaFunk' timestamp='1385462020' post='2288452'] I've just had a random look at the charts in the 60s. Here are a few of the records that were in the charts in one week on 1965: Ticket To Ride - The Beatles Here Comes The Night - Them For Your Love - That Yadbirds The Last Time - The Rolling Stones Times They Are A Changin' - Bob Dylan Nowhere To Run - Martha Reeves & The Vandellas Stop! In The Name Of Love - The Supremes Bring It On Home To Me - The Animals It doesn't look awful to me and i reckon that there are a definitely a few iconic songs there. It was certainly a golden age of music for me. [/quote] Of course there were some great songs but if you listened to the mainstream radio you wouldn't have heard much of these, No Radio One in those days so you'd have to wait till Sunday to hear most of these songs. This is the charts from my birthday week in 1965. A few great songs but an awful lot of potboilers too. I suspect if you look back at the 00's in fifty years time it'll look like a golden age too. My point is not that it was anything but a privilege to be listening to music in the sixties but that it is a privilege to listen to great music now. [b] THE LAST TIME[/b] [b] ROLLING STONES[/b] [url="http://www.officialcharts.com/archive-chart/_/1/1965-03-20/#"]Buy[/url] 2 1 [b] IT'S NOT UNUSUAL[/b] [b] TOM JONES[/b] [url="http://www.officialcharts.com/archive-chart/_/1/1965-03-20/#"]Buy[/url] 3 3 [b] SILHOUETTES[/b] [b] HERMAN'S HERMITS[/b] [url="http://www.officialcharts.com/archive-chart/_/1/1965-03-20/#"]Buy[/url] 4 2 [b] I'LL NEVER FIND ANOTHER YOU[/b] [b] SEEKERS[/b] [url="http://www.officialcharts.com/archive-chart/_/1/1965-03-20/#"]Buy[/url] 5 7 [b] COME AND STAY WITH ME[/b] [b] MARIANNE FAITHFULL[/b] 6 13 [b] GOODBYE MY LOVE[/b] [b] SEARCHERS[/b] 7 9 [b] I MUST BE SEEING THINGS[/b] [b] GENE PITNEY[/b] 8 4 [b] I'LL STOP AT NOTHING[/b] [b] SANDIE SHAW[/b] [url="http://www.officialcharts.com/archive-chart/_/1/1965-03-20/#"]Buy[/url] 9 10 [b] YES I WILL[/b] [b] HOLLIES[/b] [url="http://www.officialcharts.com/archive-chart/_/1/1965-03-20/#"]Buy[/url] 10 5 [b] THE GAME OF LOVE[/b] [b] WAYNE FONTANA AND THE MINDBENDERS[/b] 11 16 [b] I APOLOGISE[/b] [b] P J PROBY[/b] 12 8 [b] DON'T LET ME BE MISUNDERSTOOD[/b] [b] ANIMALS[/b] [url="http://www.officialcharts.com/archive-chart/_/1/1965-03-20/#"]Buy[/url] 13 19 [b] HONEY I NEED[/b] [b] PRETTY THINGS[/b] 14 14 [b] GOODNIGHT[/b] [b] ROY ORBISON[/b] [url="http://www.officialcharts.com/archive-chart/_/1/1965-03-20/#"]Buy[/url] 15 12 [b] THE SPECIAL YEARS[/b] [b] VAL DOONICAN[/b] 16 17 [b] IT HURTS SO MUCH (TO SEE YOU GO)[/b] [b] JIM REEVES[/b] [url="http://www.officialcharts.com/archive-chart/_/1/1965-03-20/#"]Buy[/url] 17 11 [b] FUNNY HOW LOVE CAN BE[/b] [b] IVY LEAGUE[/b] 18 27 [b] CONCRETE AND CLAY[/b] [b] UNIT FOUR PLUS TWO[/b] 19 32 [b] DO THE CLAM[/b] [b] ELVIS PRESLEY[/b] [url="http://www.officialcharts.com/archive-chart/_/1/1965-03-20/#"]Buy[/url] 20 18 [b] MARY ANNE[/b] [b] SHADOWS[/b] 21 30 [b] I KNOW A PLACE[/b] [b] PETULA CLARK[/b] [url="http://www.officialcharts.com/archive-chart/_/1/1965-03-20/#"]Buy[/url] 22 24 [b] IN THE MEANTIME[/b] [b] GEORGIE FAME AND THE BLUE FLAMES[/b] 23 26 [b] I CAN'T EXPLAIN[/b] [b] WHO[/b] [url="http://www.officialcharts.com/archive-chart/_/1/1965-03-20/#"]Buy[/url] 24 23 [b] A WINDMILL IN OLD AMSTERDAM[/b] [b] RONNIE HILTON[/b] 25 15 [b] TIRED OF WAITING FOR YOU[/b] [b] KINKS[/b] [url="http://www.officialcharts.com/archive-chart/_/1/1965-03-20/#"]Buy[/url] 26 38 [b] THE MINUTE YOU'RE GONE[/b] [b] CLIFF RICHARD[/b] [url="http://www.officialcharts.com/archive-chart/_/1/1965-03-20/#"]Buy[/url] 27 25 [b] THE ''IN'' CROWD[/b] [b] DOBIE GRAY[/b] [url="http://www.officialcharts.com/archive-chart/_/1/1965-03-20/#"]Buy[/url] 28 21 [b] GOLDEN LIGHTS[/b] [b] TWINKLE[/b] 29 20 [b] KEEP SEARCHIN' (WE'LL FOLLOW THE SUN)[/b] [b] DEL SHANNON[/b] [url="http://www.officialcharts.com/archive-chart/_/1/1965-03-20/#"]Buy[/url] 30 NEW [b] REELIN' AND ROCKIN'[/b] [b] DAVE CLARK FIVE[/b] 31 NEW [b] YOU'RE BREAKIN' MY HEART[/b] [b] KEELY SMITH[/b] 32 NEW [b] FOR YOUR LOVE[/b] [b] YARDBIRDS[/b] [url="http://www.officialcharts.com/archive-chart/_/1/1965-03-20/#"]Buy[/url] 33 37 [b] I DON'T WANT TO GO ON WITHOUT YOU[/b] [b] MOODY BLUES[/b] [url="http://www.officialcharts.com/archive-chart/_/1/1965-03-20/#"]Buy[/url] 34 31 [b] CAN'T YOU HEAR MY HEARTBEAT[/b] [b] GOLDIE AND THE GINGERBREADS[/b] 35 NEW [b] KING OF THE ROAD[/b] [b] ROGER MILLER[/b] 36 39 [b] I BELONG[/b] [b] KATHY KIRBY[/b] 37 22 [b] YOU'VE LOST THAT LOVIN' FEELIN'[/b] [b] RIGHTEOUS BROTHERS[/b] 38 RE [b] I'M LOST WITHOUT YOU[/b] [b] BILLY FURY[/b] [url="http://www.officialcharts.com/archive-chart/_/1/1965-03-20/#"]Buy[/url] 39 NEW [b] HEY, GOOD LOOKIN'[/b] [b] BO DIDDLEY[/b] 40 NEW [b] STRANGER IN TOWN[/b] [b] DEL SHANNON[/b]

You generally get an extra 2dB more volume from the amps contribution by going 4ohm and 2dB more headroom. This is only just noticeable in absolute terms and only noticeable in practical terms if you hover at the point of distortion as Lawrence has said. As Bill points out by doubling the speaker count you'll get an extra 6dB, actually probably 5dB (3dB from the extra cone area and 2dB from the extra amp power) Since you are using a very efficient driver changing the speaker will probably lose you a dB or two. (2-2=0 so no change in volume) Most 4 ohm speakers sacrifice either efficiency or bass extension (Xmax) so you will probably be worse off.

Yep, great customer service from Ashdown.

Now as an incredibly ancient person who actually remembers the whole of pop music from the early days of Rock'n Roll and who plays predominately stuff from the last 10 years with his bands I'll stick my neck out and say [size=4][b][color=#444444][font=arial, sans-serif][b]plus[/b][/font][/color][/b][color=#444444][font=arial, sans-serif] ça [/font][/color][color=#444444][font=arial, sans-serif][b]change[/b][/font][/color][color=#444444][font=arial, sans-serif], [/font][/color][color=#444444][font=arial, sans-serif][b]plus[/b][/font][/color][color=#444444][font=arial, sans-serif] c'est la même chose (“the more it [/font][/color][color=#444444][font=arial, sans-serif][b]changes[/b][/font][/color][color=#444444][font=arial, sans-serif], the more it's the same thing”)[/font][/color][/size] [color=#444444][font=arial, sans-serif]As a teenager in the sixties it is easy to look back on them as a golden age with so many iconic songs, look back at the charts though and it looks awful. You find the iconic songs barely scratched the charts and the sixties equivalents of Simon Cowell dominated what was broadcast. It's pretty much the same, old blokes like me who used to get their music by sharing with mates at school now only listen to the radio, and radio 4 most of the time too, we only get to hear the mainstream stuff. (unless you are lucky enough to have a music obsessed daughter). You can't kill creativity and young people are just as driven and imaginative as they ever were, but the good stuff only rarely becomes mainstream so my generation don't get to hear it so much[/font][/color] [color=#444444][font=arial, sans-serif]T[/font][/color][color=#444444][font=arial, sans-serif]here's a slight grain of truth though. A lot of Indy uses a fairly steady eight beat root pump as part of the overall sound, just as Rock'n'Roll used a lot of major triads and pentatonics, and bands at the beginnings of their careers often write simple I,IV,V songs moving on to better things as they mature as musicians. I don't think many bands get the chance to mature nowadays.[/font][/color] [color=#444444][font=arial, sans-serif]I've often thought it would be fun to put up an old and good bass player and challenge someone to come up with a good modern player. I'm sure I'd learn something.[/font][/color] [color=#444444][font=arial, sans-serif]Have some Martin Turner [/font][/color][url="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ia73dAETiGk"]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ia73dAETiGk[/url] nice tone, check out Argus by Wishbone Ash for more.

Yep, you have a problem with the amp. If you have a voltage across the pots they will crackle quite often, this damages the pots too so good idea not to use it apart from the risk of shocks. Take the amp in with your bass on Saturday along with all the leads you were using.