Crossover Chain...?

[fivebass52]

Asking for a friend... no, seriously! ... Fellow bassist here in Hawaii, plays in a Roots/Reggae band, just bought a new TC Electronics head, wants to buy a GK-15, and a GK 4x10. He wants to know;

1. if one cabinet has a higher wattage than the other, which cabinet should the lead to go into first....

2. If he wants to run a crossover, is that a) feasible in this scenario, and b), if so, how would you set it up in the chain?

NO experience with any of this... and I'm wondering, considering the amp has a single out, would it be better to just have a compressor pedal instead, to tighten up the low-end, but allow all the wattage to pump the 15... thoughts?

[tim]

Asking for a friend... no, seriously! ... Fellow bassist here in Hawaii, plays in a Roots/Reggae band, just bought a new TC Electronics head, wants to buy a GK-15, and a GK 4x10. He wants to know;

1. if one cabinet has a higher wattage than the other, which cabinet should the lead to go into first....

2. If he wants to run a crossover, is that a) feasible in this scenario, and b), if so, how would you set it up in the chain?

NO experience with any of this... and I'm wondering, considering the amp has a single out, would it be better to just have a compressor pedal instead, to tighten up the low-end, but allow all the wattage to pump the 15... thoughts?

Just a couple of thoughts on this:

1. The cabs will all be in parallel, so the order of the chain makes zero difference to where the power goes. The power will divide according to the relative impedance of the cabs: if impedance is the same, power will divide close to 50:50; if one impedance is lower, the cab with the lower impedance will get a larger proportion of the power.

2. A crossover is feasible, but would have to be designed from scratch based on the impedance characteristics of the cabs. But really, it doesn't make sense to use a crossover for two full-range cabs.

If "tightening up" the low end is the goal, I would try an HPF first. That would cut some of the amorphous extreme low end, and conserve amp power for the frequencies he does want to produce.

If he is looking to buy cabs specifically for dub, he should just double up on whichever cab handles the low end better (driver size isn't the deciding factor here--too many other factors at play).

I don't have any experience with compressors.

I'm sure there's a lot out there written for assembling a rig for this type of music. Sounds like a fun project

[Matt R.]

What Tim said. Also, make sure both cabs have the same impedance.

[andrew]

What Tim and Matt said.

[NoXX]

Exactly what the guys said. My 2 cents : GK has offered bi-amping on some of their heads (RB series, rather than MB) for years. They split the signal, giving 50W for the HF horn. This used to be on 1/4", but now they do it via 4-connector speakon. The current GK NEO 4x10 and 1x15 cabs have HF horns, and accept either the 4-connector speakon bi-amped setup, or full-range with 2 connector speakon.

Your friends TC amp is likely to have a full range output on 2 connector speakon, and knowing it's a single out, it will be so much easier to go full range to the daisy chained cabs, as Tim said. The GK cabs do have attenuators on the horns though (similar to my Mesa cab), so you can turn them down.. also, as both the GK 4x10 and 1x15 have horns - this may be a lot of hornage for a reggae dude..

I've not used the newer GK cabs, so I'd do what Tim says, and have your friend audition some cabs - ideally with his amp, but if not, with something close in output/type to his TC (not an all tube SVT for example - side note Darryl Jenifer killed it with an SVT and an 8x10 in Bad Brains )... happy hunting.

[tim]

Darryl Jenifer killed it

He sure did.

[fivebass52]

Thanks for all of the input Guys, I'll pass it on to my friend....