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peavey special 130 ok for my bass?

Started by cannonhootas, August 03, 2007, 03:06:43 AM

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I scored an ancient 300 watt guitar amp from a friend and I love the sound I get with my bass thru the 12" speaker,am I going to damage the electronics at all?

get a bass cab to plug in
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play it til it blows
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Total Members Voted: 0

cannonhootas

The speaker,I expect to go anyway but I don't want to damage the amp permanently.When I asked this question at musicians friend,they tried to sell me a combo and said I would fry the amp because it isn't set up for such low frequencies.I would also like to know what I can do to improve this amp's performance,if anything.

joecool85

Well, musiciansfriend was kind of right.  Guitar amps are not set up to sustain such low frequency abuse.  However, I've heard of people using guitar amps as bass amps for a few years without issues, and I've also heard of people using them for a few weeks and blowing caps in the amp.  You could rebuild the amp to accept bass frequencies better, but it may be a ton of work.
Life is what you make it.
Still rockin' the Dean Markley K-20X
thatraymond.com

LJ King


Nah, musicians friend was just trying to make a sale.

Joe, low frequency abuse to an amp doesn't make any sense to me. Perhaps you could explain your reasoning - especially an example of what you would look at for rebuilding. Meanwhile, I'll explain mine.

There is no component in the special 130 (or any amp for that matter) that is going to be adversely affected by the octave lower (or lower for 5/6 string) bass frequencies. Resistors don't care, transistors in the op amps don't care, and capacitors - being frequency "affected" will respond based on the frequency - either they will pass it or attenuate it if it is too low, so they really don't care either.

Now I admit this may be due to my limited design work, but I can't even begin to think of a way or design that would "on purpose" self destruct when it receives a low enough frequency. I am not a peavey expert by any means, but it would not make good business sense to design a power amp specifically for guitar usage. Taking Sunn as an example, within each series such as the Concert, Coliseum Alpha/Beta, the same power amp is used regardless if the unit is Guitar, Bass, PA or Slave.

Besides, for a bass amp, extended low frequency response is not always necessary nor is it even desired. Many bass amps attenuate the response of the lower octave (+) to reduce problems caused by excessive bass response - muddy sounding bass and wasting acoustic energy rattling the drums and the rest of the band stand being a couple.

Heck, the ampeg SVT speaker cab drops in output pretty drastically at frequencies below 100-110hz and yet is known for its tight bass sound.


joecool85

I'm not really knowledgable about it, I'm passing on what I've heard.  That said, from what I gather it has to do with the poweramp not being able to keep up with the bass.  It takes more power to push out the low end notes than shredding a guitar.
Life is what you make it.
Still rockin' the Dean Markley K-20X
thatraymond.com

wblakesx

I'm pretty sure the svt cab was designed to take advantage of the psycho-acoustic phenomenon of flse bass: where the ear supplies the fundemental if the the first overtone is strong. IE where the bass speaks don't play the  fundemental.