Suggestions for MORE POWER?

[shreddermon]

Muhahahhhahhhaa!!! No seriously...

I tend to keep my rig simple. Right now I don't play out, but jam with friends / bands frequently enough. Hence, I don't need a ton of output volume. Well, over the past few months I've done a couple of larger-than-usual locations and/or played with folks with "volume issues". [img]graemlins/laugh.gif[/img] One being a keyboard player, of all people. [img]graemlins/images/icons/tongue.gif[/img]

Anyway, that's got me thinking of pumping up my output. Mostly to have in reserve for the rare occassions that it's needed. But it will get used at times. The meat of the set-up I run right now is a Boss GT-3 through a 50W Carvin Bel Air. ...Like I said, nothing too fancy. But it gives me reasonable output and tonal flexability for the variety of styles I play. (Everything from pop tunes to balls-out metal.)

So, for more output, I'm thinking of doing two options:

- Pick up an extension cabinet for the Bel Air.
- Pick up a 2nd amp, most likely another 50W combo, and add her to the loop.
- Blow it all away, and go half-stack.

Benefits: With the former two options the set-up will be "modular", if you will, and I will only need to lug around the equipment needed for the situation. The 2nd option also has the very cool benefit of being able to run in stereo, which the GT-3 does. Option 3 = most power, obviously.

Suggestions amongst these options? And within them, what gear would you suggest? Or I'm also open to other suggestions?

[jgcable]

Re: Suggestions for MORE POWER?

Add another 2 x 12 cabinet. 50 watts is plenty of power for just about any size gig. This will allow you to downsize for the smaller venues. Your volume presence will rise big time when you add the extra cab. You can also spread the cabinets out stage left and stage right or angle them differently. Make sure you get a closed back cabinet because I am pretty sure the Belair is an open back.

[jgcable]

Re: Suggestions for MORE POWER?

The problem with running 2 combos at the same time is ground loops. I did it for years and you can never tell when you will be at a club that has a crap ground. A 50 watt all tube amp like the Belair has plenty of power for most gigs. Actually, a 50 watt tube ANYTHING should suffice. I always run my 100 watt live rigs at 50 watts. 2 amps means double the potential problems. I think that you are confusing power with volume. Pete (Twisteramps) can speak volumes about this but I will try to sum it up. What you actually want is presence. IMHO, boosting your midrange and increasing the amount of speakers will give you what you want with your 50 watt Belair. I have a 5 watt class A wired amp that can power a 1/2 stack loud enough to bring the cops to my house. 50 watts is plenty. Thats just my .02 cents which is about all that it is worth. [img]images/icons/grin.gif[/img]

[Soloist1]

Re: Suggestions for MORE POWER?

Hey Shreddermon when is the last time it had a power tube change? If it's been a while some new matched tubes and a bias adjustment may give you what you need. Don't forget to change the other tubes also. An amp will always sound better and louder when you change out all of the tubes and have it properly biased.

[lerxstcat]

Re: Suggestions for MORE POWER?

I'm with jgcable here. Get a closed back 212 extension cab; you'll then HAVE a 1/2 stack with more bass oomph than you have now. That should help you with the loud keyboard player.

Going stereo is great, but then you won't want to scale it back because the effects won't sound good mono anymore. You'll end up lugging both amps everywhere, defeating the purpose of having a 2-tier
system. You can still get stereo by using both your GT3 output and your amp's cab-voiced output on 2 sends to the PA, if you want.

[shreddermon]

Re: Suggestions for MORE POWER?

The tubes are fine, not too many hours on `em. I've got spares waiting in the wings, for when needed. [img]images/icons/grin.gif[/img]

And yes, jg is correct. What I'm truly looking for is more volume. Or "presence", if that's the more technically correct terminology. ( [img]graemlins/scratchhead.gif[/img] ) Not necessarily more power via wattage. Certainly more power - via a 2nd combo - will result in more volume. [img]graemlins/headbang.gif[/img] But you don't necessarily need to add more power to get more volume.

Aside from the coolness factor of running a stereo set-up with another combo, I guess I'd be worried that adding an extension cab - while meeting the goal of increasing volume - might also change my current tone in ways I would dislike. ...Then again, I suppose that'd be true of adding another combo if it weren't a 2nd BelAir. [img]graemlins/scratchhead.gif[/img] ...And then again, on that option, I was kinda' toying with doing a different combo, like a 5150 or something. Wondering if I'd get more of a "wall of guitars" type tone with different set-ups, although both running off the GT-3.

[Soloist1]

Re: Suggestions for MORE POWER?

axess electronics makes a buffered splitter that would eliminate the grounding problems of splitting off to two seperate combo amps. I believe the web site is
http://www.axess-electronics.com

If you call talk to Mario. He is extremely knowledgeable and can point you in the right direction to get a great tone that is noise free if you decide to go with the 2 combo setup.

[ August 13, 2003, 02:22 PM: Message edited by: Soloist1 ]

[thenine]

Re: Suggestions for MORE POWER?

Nah, buy another 50W combo. Thats a very flexible setup. The GT-3 will run both in stereo (as you say) so you can go for a cool stereo spread. Or, just bring one amp for those times you want to go smaller, as you're doing now. The subject of this post is MORE POWER right? Make sure you get another wah, the one in the GT-3 sux.


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