I am thinking about travelling with a KPA (power rack) and plugging into backline guitar cabinets that the venues offer. Very often this will be 4/12 cabinets with enough power-handling to go with the 600 Watts from the KPA‘s amp. But what if there is only a small combo amp with a single 50 Watt speaker or even weaker? Is there a technically reliable way of guessing how much I can turn up the output volume before destroying the speaker? I once had the similar problem with the Bad Cat Unleash killing a cute, innocent 25 Watt Jensen P12R in the heat of a gig.
How not to kill backline speakers?
- fretboardminer
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Is there a technically reliable way of guessing how much I can turn up the output volume before destroying the speaker? I once had the similar problem with the Bad Cat Unleash killing a cute, innocent 25 Watt Jensen P12R in the heat of a gig.
There's no technically reliable way of guessing, other than the wattage a speaker can deal with.
That said, I can get band- volume loud with my Powerhead and my1x12 Greenback equipped cab (25 W).
Do you require to play very loud? -
Normally the volume of a single 25W speaker is enough for me, but I also have some bands that go really loud into the Keiji Haino, Peter Brötzmann region of volume.
Can I divide the control dial into "fractions" of the wattage? That is how I do now with the BadCat Unleash: Unleash has 100W/8Ohms so when I connect a 50 Watt speaker I only go until noon. So far this always was a good guide. That said: noon in maximum, normally I am way lower than that!
Except the afore mentioned occasion where I killed the Jensen P12R. That was a gig with a larger Freejazz ensemble with many saxes, another electric guitar and electric bass-guitar in a large venue without PA. So it was not really "really" loud in terms of Rockmusic, but just a deadly bit louder than I usually play. It was a 25W Jensen with the 100W Unleash poweramp so I started with the volume dial on 9 o clock (one quater) and in the middle of the gig I dared to go to 10:30 (one third), which was too much.
I am just a bit worried because wit 600W the KPA has so much more power than my Unleash now. I don‘want to destroy a rented speaker...
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Sadly it only takes up to 300W RMS but since you're most worried about situations where you want to drive much less than the Kemper Poweramp max ... it might be a nice tool to actually see what's going on:
http://zerocapcable.com/?page_id=221 -
Yes, this is very much what I was looking for! I think 300W should be more than enough for my needs. Thanks for the link!
It is a bit pricey but thats ok if it saves trouble with blown speakers. And hey, after all it seems to be really sturdy:
[Blocked Image: http://zerocapcable.com/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2015/11/tirepicture11.jpg] -
It's a little pricey, true. But as far as I understand the description it's also capable of limiting the input so the poweramp output doesn't exceed a specific max wattage!? If you plan to get one of these, it would be great if you could report here about pros, cons, how it works for you.
Cheers
Martin