headroom vs. no headroom - on speaker cabs

S

SpotlightKid83

New member
So I just got an ENGL E650 head (100w), and a 4x12 cab with Greenbacks on it ( 25w each, total of 100w). Now i'm being told that I have no headroom at all, and some people say it's good 'cause it'll sound fuller, other people are saying that i should get another cab so that I have 100w headroom and I don't run the risk of blowing the speakers.

What would be the best thing to do?? :confused:
 
You aren't likely to blow the speakers unless you crank everything wide open and keep it that way. If you want a cleaner sound, an extra cab will help (be sure to match the resistance or you can damage the head.)
 
Celestion Neodymiums are killer speakers, try to see if someone or some store locally has a cab and see if they will let you bring your head to try them out.

They are pricey but can handle a ton and are super clear.
 
Thanx for the replies.
What I'm worried is that even thought the amp spits out up to 100w, it can peak at 150w.
Don't get me wrong, I don't want other speakers, the sound of the Greenbacks is what I want, just want to know if I should get another cab or not.
Up until now I've only used them at practice, and I could never get the volume knob past 5 and it's already unbearably loud, but I'm worried that when we get a gig at an outdoor stage and I have to crank it up I'll blow the speakers :(
 
Even at an outdoor gig, 5 will be as far as you need to go. As with most tube amps, the volume doesn't really go up that much after 5, it just gets more distorted.
 
Farview said:
Even at an outdoor gig, 5 will be as far as you need to go. As with most tube amps, the volume doesn't really go up that much after 5, it just gets more distorted.
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And even at an outdoor gig, the PA should do the heavy lifting. You don't necessarily need to play louder.
 
Farview said:
True, and you will probably have side fill monitors too.
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That would be the ideal, but not always. Last month we played a gig on a huge stage, but we only had the vocals through the monitors, and everytime I would walk over to the other side of the stage I would stop hearing myself completely. And that's what gave me the last push for deciding to buy a bigger amp and I got the ENGL.

Yeah, I understand that the PA does the job for the audience, but in this kind of situations being onstage and not hearing yourself is a pain in the ass.
 
I have a 100-watt Matamp tube amp that I played in many situations, including outdoors and in some pretty large rooms. I never got that thing running at full tilt - 100 watts is just plain overkill for almost every situation.

Your monitoring situation is understandable, but if you move around the stage enough at some point you will get off-axis to your guitar cab - with any amp - to the point where you just can't hear it. The solution is to have some guitar fed through the monitors. This is problematic if the monitor setup doesn't have enough flexibility to run different monitor mixes for each musician.

Another solution might be to use a second cab on the other side of the stage.
 
I used to run a half stack on the side of the stage pointing across. The whole band ran that way. The guitar coming from my side of the stage was me, the guitar coming from the other side was him. I could hear myself all the way across the stage.

Another advantage is that it keeps your guitar sound from directly getting to the FOH guys ears. He has more control over the mix and it tends to sound better.
 
Farview said:
Even at an outdoor gig, 5 will be as far as you need to go. As with most tube amps, the volume doesn't really go up that much after 5, it just gets more distorted.
Click to expand...

I thought thats how solid state was? not tube?
 
AMcB said:
I thought thats how solid state was? not tube?
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It's kind of how everything works. Once you run out of headroom, it just gets more distorted. I've had tube heads that don't get much louder after about 3 on the master volume. They just get more saturated and dense sounding until they get to the point where it sounds like it's about to crap out.
 
I did think of running another cab on the other side of the stage too, adn the idea of putting the amp on the side is not bad at all, thanx for the advise :)
 
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