maz91379 wrote:I guess I'm not completely sure how wattage works in solid state amps / what I need to try as far as wattage ratings on cabs. Mostly understand ohm ratings.
Yes. Not to get into the tube vs SS thing cuz I am not an authority..
maz91379 wrote:Like with guitar I'm used to picking speakers rated at wattage or a bit over my guitar amp so I can get a bit of speaker distortion. I guess that's undesirable with bass?
Depends on the person. some bassist like speaker distortion, personally I find most average bass cabs under 400w distort at lower volumes then they should going by their ratings.
maz91379 wrote:Like with a 350 watt amp at 4 ohms , about half at 8...would a cab rated for 350-400w hypothetically be enough or would I want to aim for like 5-6+ ideally? Or does that sort of also depend on construction / speaker/ particular cab etc?
Pretty much, but..
maz91379 wrote:Oh also! What's the deal with program ratings?
program is important with bass speakers because one issue you can have is that over a period of time if and when your speaker heats up it's functionality and efficiency lessens which is perceived as decreased volume, so you will want to turn up louder and louder and eventually..
[we are talking hours here...]
maz91379 wrote:Also also complete tangents. Pretty sure I could find some suggestions if I dug through search but I don't quite remember how this works. What's stopping me from loading higher rated bass or PA speakers into a guitar cab and running it at 8 ohms so I can do both guitar and bass through it? I have a silly overbuilt atlas 2x12 I imagine would work similar to a sealed cab. Would my only downside be zero speaker distortion for my 30w guitar amp? Any potential upsides like more clean loudness ? I currently have a vintage 30 and a green back of some variation in it....
Nothing. I used a cab like that for a few years [it had 2 200w EV 12s @ 4ohms] sadly I blew up one of the speakers but A. I was using a SVT, and B. it was a used homemade deal with no ports or baffling. Sealed cabs can work but, you will want some kind or dampening material inside to help with resonate frequencies getting out of control..