BASainty Posted November 4, 2012 Share Posted November 4, 2012 Ive noticed that my kickback 12 produces quite a bit of distortion when ever I start playing loud and hard, when im playing quietly I get the warm smooth sounds that im looking for for some of our songs but as soon as i start turning it up distortion starts to kick in, is this the natural sound of these amps or is this a problem? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mybass Posted November 5, 2012 Share Posted November 5, 2012 [quote name='4StringFortress' timestamp='1352067777' post='1858451'] Ive noticed that my kickback 12 produces quite a bit of distortion when ever I start playing loud and hard, when im playing quietly I get the warm smooth sounds that im looking for for some of our songs but as soon as i start turning it up distortion starts to kick in, is this the natural sound of these amps or is this a problem? [/quote] I don't think they can be 'pushed' too much....possibly replacing with a better (!) speaker may help Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BASainty Posted November 5, 2012 Author Share Posted November 5, 2012 [quote name='mybass' timestamp='1352123956' post='1858969'] I don't think they can be 'pushed' too much....possibly replacing with a better (!) speaker may help [/quote] I'm thinking of taking it to be serviced to make sure there isn't any underlying problems. is this advised? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Phil Starr Posted November 6, 2012 Share Posted November 6, 2012 I've got the kickback 10. Neither of these cabs will go terribly loud. You are pushing only 120W through a relatively small cheap speaker. They are excursion limited and you can see the cone working like crazy. At low frequencies they will move beyond their recommended limits (Xmax) and 'fart out' Probably best to turn down if this happens, it won't get any louder anyway and you will break the speaker fairly quickly. You say you like a warm tone, I suspect you are using some bass boost, even a little bass boost means the speaker will overload more quickly and turning to 3 o'clock will halve the volume available. Shoving your amp back against the wall will give you some natural bass boost and pushing it right into a corner even more. If you do this you can cut the bass on the amp and get more volume before it distorts. I would only expect a kickback to match a quiet to medium drummer in a small room, they really won't give rock volumes at a gig. Plugging in a better speaker will give you a lot more potential volume but you can use them for gigging. I run mine with bass cut on stage and use the DI out into the PA where I cut the top and boost the bass. This gives me a nice clean sound on stage and kicked back I can hear really well. The audience hear a really full sound from the mix of backline and PA. I like this set up because it stops most of the bass feeding into the vocal mics and takes up less space. I retain the tone shaping on the Kickback which I quite like. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BASainty Posted November 6, 2012 Author Share Posted November 6, 2012 [quote name='Phil Starr' timestamp='1352162601' post='1859669'] I've got the kickback 10. Neither of these cabs will go terribly loud. You are pushing only 120W through a relatively small cheap speaker. They are excursion limited and you can see the cone working like crazy. At low frequencies they will move beyond their recommended limits (Xmax) and 'fart out' Probably best to turn down if this happens, it won't get any louder anyway and you will break the speaker fairly quickly. You say you like a warm tone, I suspect you are using some bass boost, even a little bass boost means the speaker will overload more quickly and turning to 3 o'clock will halve the volume available. Shoving your amp back against the wall will give you some natural bass boost and pushing it right into a corner even more. If you do this you can cut the bass on the amp and get more volume before it distorts. I would only expect a kickback to match a quiet to medium drummer in a small room, they really won't give rock volumes at a gig. Plugging in a better speaker will give you a lot more potential volume but you can use them for gigging. I run mine with bass cut on stage and use the DI out into the PA where I cut the top and boost the bass. This gives me a nice clean sound on stage and kicked back I can hear really well. The audience hear a really full sound from the mix of backline and PA. I like this set up because it stops most of the bass feeding into the vocal mics and takes up less space. I retain the tone shaping on the Kickback which I quite like. [/quote] Cool thanks for the info, when you say plug in a better speaker do you mean in the amp its self? If so what would you suggest? Also would it be a thought to buy a better amp for gigging? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Phil Starr Posted November 6, 2012 Share Posted November 6, 2012 On mine there's a speaker jack deep inside the back next to the power socket which connects the internal speaker to the amp. You could unplug this and plug into any speaker of 4ohms or higher. If you used a Hartke 4x10 with the same speakers in it you should get an extra 6dB using the same power from the amp, equivalent to turning up 2 or three notches. I'd only really do this if I was going to upgrade anyway or if I was able to borrow a spare speaker from someone. If you were looking to upgrade anyway you could buy a cab first and just use the Hartke as a head until you had the funds to buy what you wanted. But, yes I'd look to either buy a bigger amp for gigging or decide I was going to go through the PA, the Harke will do fine as a stage monitor if you really like the sound but it needs some PA backup. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gjones Posted November 6, 2012 Share Posted November 6, 2012 (edited) [quote name='4StringFortress' timestamp='1352067777' post='1858451'] Ive noticed that my kickback 12 produces quite a bit of distortion when ever I start playing loud and hard, when im playing quietly I get the warm smooth sounds that im looking for for some of our songs but as soon as i start turning it up distortion starts to kick in, is this the natural sound of these amps or is this a problem? [/quote] I used to have a Hartke 90 watt amp which sounded great but couldn't really keep up with a heavy drummer. Luckily with my Hartke there was a limiter built in so the speaker suffered no damage. I notice form the harke website that, with your amp, the speaker is 8 ohm and there is no extension socket for another cabinet - which seems a bit odd. I have a friend who uses a hartke kickback and he's quite happy with it but he plays in a blues band and they keep the volume at reasonable levels. If you're playing at volumes where the speaker is starting to fart out then you probably need a louder amp (just like I did with my hartke 90 watter). Edited November 6, 2012 by gjones Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BASainty Posted November 6, 2012 Author Share Posted November 6, 2012 What kind of power am i looking at for a new amp? Also how much is it going to cost me? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hobbayne Posted November 6, 2012 Share Posted November 6, 2012 I use one of these, and find its well loud enough for most of the gigs I do. There is a line out if you want to run through the PA, and the 15" speaker gives a really nice punch. [url="http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/WARWICK-Sweet-15-3-UK-150W-Ex-Demo-/300596779766?pt=UK_MusicalInstr_Amplifiers_RL&hash=item45fcf6daf6"]http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/WARWICK-Sweet-15-3-UK-150W-Ex-Demo-/300596779766?pt=UK_MusicalInstr_Amplifiers_RL&hash=item45fcf6daf6[/url] Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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