bass guitar speaker amp compatibility

hashbrowns · October 31, 2011, 02:09:44 PM

Hey yall. So I'm purchasing my 80's peavey butcher next week. I know that you can run a guitar through a bass amp no problem and i'm fairly sure the reverse applies as long as you use a speaker cabinet that can handle to bass frequencies. However, I've been hearing that bass requires way more watts to be reproduced properly. Also I'm not really sure if I were to get say an 8X10 for my peavey butcher whether it would sound alright for guitar. Basically my question is, if I plus my peavey butcher into a bass cabinet, would it be a usable bass rig? Keep in mind that I like really gritty overdriven bass tones a lot so if theres a lack of headroom I can deal with that as long as the breakup actually sounds decent.

Mr. Foxen · October 31, 2011, 02:22:07 PM

Lows need power, or a lot of/high efficiency speakers. But you can get away with not actually having much by way of real low end. 8x10 is a lot of speakers, so you can get a fair bit of sound without much power, plus they aren't low end sort of cabs in general, so lots of speakers and not much power, should be fine. Especially if you want Lemmy type tones, he runs with not much power, lots of speakers.

Hemisaurus · October 31, 2011, 02:41:04 PM

Keep your eyes open for a Peavey 8x10, it's a low wattage cabinet, that should sound fine with the Butcher. 810TVX I believe is the model #. Things like an Ampeg or Basson need more watts, Sunn does the Butcher do 4 ohms?

VOLVO))) · October 31, 2011, 02:42:37 PM

Yup, 4/8/16, or 4 16 ohm cabs. It's a monster.

hashbrowns · October 31, 2011, 02:47:22 PM

Awesome I will look out for that cab. I've been looking out for peavey cabs and all i've seen is a lot of 410tvx cabinets. Would 2 of those work as well as one 810x?

Hemisaurus · October 31, 2011, 02:49:16 PM

Sunn? I'm guessing it's the same units? Are the 410's 8 ohms 200W?

You're using the 810 with your T, yes?

VOLVO))) · October 31, 2011, 02:49:53 PM

Freq response is different, you'd have twice the amount of ported/vented airspace with two of the 4x10s. I dial out the fuckin' tweeters on my 8x10, it sounds like garbage. Tweeters on bass sound like garbage, anyways.

If they cheap, and abundant, why not? I paid 100 bucks for my peavey 8x10, and it hasn't let me down yet, cranking an acoustic 370 through it.

- 350 watts (rms) continuous
- 700 watts (rms) program
- Four 10 inch Sheffield® bass speakers
- Front-ported enclosure
- Horn-loaded tweeter w/ L-pad attenuator for tweeter and protection circuitry
- 30 Hz to 15 kHz
- 8 ohm
- Weight Unpacked: 102.50 lb(46.494 kg)
- Weight Packed: 117.00 lb(53.071 kg)
- Width Packed: 22.62"(57.4548 cm)
- Height Packed: 31"(78.74 cm)
- Depth Packed: 28.37"(72.0598 cm)

HIGH handling than the 8x10 with half the speakers. Fucking Peavey, sometimes...

Hemisaurus · October 31, 2011, 02:52:37 PM

So what is the 810 spec? it must use different speakers.

VOLVO))) · October 31, 2011, 02:55:11 PM

4-ohm enclosure with 400W RMS continuous power handling and 800W peak
8 - 10" Sheffield bass speakers
Special ported enclosure
Horn-loaded tweeter with L-pad attenuator and crossover
Crossover point: 2kHz
Black Tolex covering
Tilt-back wheel design for easy portability
Frequency response: 30Hz-15kHz
24-1/2"W x 49"H x 17-1/4"D
148 lbs.

I don't know, it's annoying and dumb though. It sounds great, though.

Hemisaurus · October 31, 2011, 04:17:03 PM

Corey Y · October 31, 2011, 04:54:36 PM

As long as the impedance matches and you don't exceed the power handling of that cab you're cool. A really efficient speaker cab will put out a lot of volume from not a lot of watts, but more speakers works well too. I use a 45 watt Traynor YBA-1 into an Ampeg 810e and it's monstrously loud. It all depends on if you dig the tone at the required volume.