Small is beautiful ohms selector on small bass cabinet

[ceilidhswinger]

Hi Y'all, I'm looking for a smallish cab to go with my Ashdown Little Giant either a 2x10 or 15 inch must be 4ohm and at least 300w I have just spied a great looking wee cab with an very use able ohm-age selector switch from 4 to 8ohm at my local shop, its [font=arial,helvetica,sans-serif][color=#333333][size=3] [/size][/color][/font]The Hart[font=arial, helvetica, sans-serif]ke [color=#333333][size=3]HyDrive HX112 [/size][/color][/font][font=arial, helvetica, sans-serif]and ju[/font]st wondered if you guys knew of another make that uses a 15inch or 2x10 ideally with 400w power

Thanks

Calum

[chapsimon]

Not much noticable difference between 4 or 8 ohm volume wise i've found. All you'll do by buying a 4 is restrict yourself to only ever having one cab. By buying an 8 you could always get another cab when funds and/or loud drummer/guitarists dictate.

Edited August 9, 2012 by chapsimon

[ceilidhswinger]

Thanks guys! Like I said I'm using The Ashdown which is 4 ohm with 300w 8ohm PA cab for small gigs but thought about Hartke with selector which I could use for other set ups eg: extension cab for GK amp for double bass, also further down the line I could add another 4 ohm cab to get full power from Ashdown, 1000w head! Just don't want to drive amp too hard. Its a pain in the arse when you have to have different set up of gear.

[pete.young]

The Hartke is unusual in having two sets of voice coils, one at 4Ohm the other at 8Ohm. There aren't many others like it on the market.

[xgsjx]

EBS make 4 ohm cabs. I know the LG has 2 4 ohm channels, but like others have said, you won't notice the difference at 8 ohm.

[ceilidhswinger]

So your all saying that I wont get anymore volume between 4 and 8ohm? Its bound to cut power you would think! Will it not drive 4 ohm amp too hard using 8ohm cab?

[xgsjx]

[quote name='ceilidhswinger' timestamp='1344539719' post='1766270']
So your all saying that I wont get anymore volume between 4 and 8ohm? Its bound to cut power you would think! Will it not drive 4 ohm amp too hard using 8ohm cab?
[/quote]

You will, but you won't notice it. If your amp is putting out 300 watts at 8Ω, I believe you would need 3000 watts to get twice as much volume.
The best thing to give you more volume is more speakers & it's usually wise to keep all your speakers the same diameter.
With the LG, you have 2 500w channels. They're not like valve amps where they need a specified load & would quite happily run a couple of 8Ω cabs (or 4 cabs if you wanted to run a big rig).

[DukeL]

[quote name='pete.young' timestamp='1344533072' post='1766144']
The Hartke is unusual in having two sets of voice coils, one at 4Ohm the other at 8Ohm. There aren't many others like it on the market.
[/quote]

I didn't know Hartke did that. I didn't know [i]anybody[/i] did that. Imo, switching between two different voice coils is the only right way to make a cab switchable between 4 and 8 ohms. There is a [i]sligh[/i]t efficiency penalty from the additional moving mass of the inactive coil, but it's still imo a better solution than using resistors or transformers.

I tip my virtual hat to Hartke. Well done!

Edited September 30, 2012 by DukeL

[0175westwood29]

The hartke is an awesome little cab, i use it on 4 ohms on its own just to get the full power from my amp but like the guys have said there no really volume increase.

But they are super light ill def grab another when i can.

Its the only cab ive seen with an impedance swtich

Andy

[bigjohn]

Very interesting. Though yep, as people have said, its very hard to tell the diff between a 4ohm and an 8ohm cab volume wise.

In fact I rewired some 4ohm cabs to 16ohm once and couldn't hear the difference. My amp ran a lot cooler though!

[Musky]

From what I understand the Little Giants have a rather low output from the preamp - it's often commented that they sound a bit quite for the stated wattage. Apparently putting a booster in the effects loop improves things no end. Any pedal which can lift the output will do the job, providing that you like the sound with it engaged of course.

[ceilidhswinger]

Hey Musky, thanks for that, yeah tis a bit quiet for the power, luckily I just use it for small gigs and have it for a travel set up. So what type of pedal will lift volume and if its effectspedal , does it need to be on to give more volume/ eg: chorus on!

[Musky]

Yeah, it'll have to be on to get any boost, but you'll want something that can leave the effect turned down to zero. Anything that will give you more gain will do the job, so a booster like the MXR micro amp or any of it's many clones would be good. Or a distortion that you can turn the drive down to zero or a minimal level. An EQ pedal might be a good choice (you could leave it flat and just boost the level).

Behringer BDI21 might be a good as well. They're dirt cheap, useful to have as a DI and have a wet/dry blend. I'm not sure if you'd still get a signal boost with it used totally dry though - I'll give it a punt and let you know.

Edit: Just checked with a BDI21 into the instrument input of an amp (not a Little Giant) and with the drive fully off and completely dry there is still a small but very noticeable increase in volume. Obviously more gain is available by turning up both controls.

Edited September 30, 2012 by Musky

[ceilidhswinger]

Thanks for your time Musky, Ive got a Behringer BEQ700 up for swap on here at the mo,it has level boost, I'll give that a try, interesting!