chilisfan16 Posted September 12, 2010 Share Posted September 12, 2010 Hey guys. I'm a bass player who's used to using combo amps, and i've decided to start searching for seperate heads and cabinets. What i'm wanting to ask the most is, do most heads and cabs both use mains connections (ie plugs) or do they use batteries at all? Thanks a lot for the help guys. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dood Posted September 12, 2010 Share Posted September 12, 2010 [quote name='chilisfan16' post='953514' date='Sep 12 2010, 12:56 PM']Hey guys. I'm a bass player who's used to using combo amps, and i've decided to start searching for seperate heads and cabinets. What i'm wanting to ask the most is, do most heads and cabs both use mains connections (ie plugs) or do they use batteries at all? Thanks a lot for the help guys.[/quote] Hi Chilisfan, Yes, pretty much all amplifer 'heads' on the market use a mains connection. Cabinets (unless they contain active electronics*) do not have a mains connection. Much like your home hifi - you connect the mains to the amplifier and then a cable to carry the audio from the amplifier to the cabinet. The reason why you will not see bass amplifiers using batteries - is that it requires a great deal of 'power' to turn those very small guitar signals into window shaking volume - and batteries simply wouldn't last long enough to make it worth it AND you'd need SO many it wouldn't be a marketable idea. However, you can buy little amplifiers for busking - usually only a few watts in power output that can run off batteries. They wouldn't be any good in a rock band though! You'd never hear them up against an acoustic drum kit! *Some manufacturers, such as Bergantino and ISP Technologies place an amplifer inside the speaker cabinet - you may have seen PA cabinets with volume and EQ controls on? (I can think of Wharfedale and Mackie as examples). These are known as 'Active' or 'Powered' speakers. But in the main, companies such as Ampeg, Harke,Ashdown, SWR and many many more do not offer active or powered systems to Bass Players Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chilisfan16 Posted September 12, 2010 Author Share Posted September 12, 2010 Hey man, thanks a lot for the advice. I just read somewhere that a guy's batteries were running out, but he must have been talking about the active electronics on the bass itself. I was just trying to figure out pricings before i go off and get a head and cabinet. Cheers Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dood Posted September 12, 2010 Share Posted September 12, 2010 No problem at all! Pleasure! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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