ilovefuzz.com

I know this topic has been discussed throughout the land of idiots and traditionalist, conservatives and sensationalist, but I thought I'd specify my situation for some reassurance.

I've been running two amps for awhile with my guitar, a 4x10 Traynor combo and a behringer bass head into a 1x18 bass cab. The sound is the bare bones and foundation of the group. The ultrabass function on the head allows a sub octave to come with each note you hit creating quite the frequency range when I play. It's glitchy and sounds like a OC-2 or the like. Recently was lead on by friends on the bill of a show, that my needs were covered so I needn't bring my amps. When I arrived there was one of the new bassman combos and no bass cab around. I used a buddy's 4x12 for my bass head and it was very unique. The ultrabass did come out and it also had a lot of breakup considering it's solid state. I more recently played a show and played an Avatar 2x12 with the head meant for guitar and it again sounded great. The bass wasn't as full, but I didn't feel like I was sacrificing a lot of that sound, however, driven the Avatar cab got really flatulent and I didn't boost it for the remainder of the show.

I've been looking for someone to make my setup into a guitar cab, but no responses. A 2x10 on top and a 1x15(instead of 18) on the bottom with guitar and bass speakers respectively placed with a plug in the back for a head for each. Until this day arrives I was thinking of buying a 2x12 guitar cab but am worried that I may blow my speakers. After reading about stuff for years, I think that if I buy speakers with higher headroom this should be fine.

Does anyone do anything similar so I don't feel dangerous? Octave pedal split with the octave in a bass head with a guitar cab or the like...I know bassman of old and a bunch of other amps were cable of this, but the frequencies range of the two have split quite a bit since this whole music thing blew up.

It'd suck to buy a cab and abuse it a ruin it because I didn't do my homework.

TL;DR
Can bass frequencies from a bass head kill high head room guitar speakers at loud volumes?

It depends on how low you're going--if I'm remembering it correctly, the lower the frequency of the note, the more movement in the speaker, and guitar speakers aren't designed to exert for those frequencies for a long period of time.

I think. Go ask Talkbass.

Are you just wanting to have one cab??? What head would you use for the 2x10 1x15 cab???

One cab two heads biamping ability. That peavey with the two 8s and one 15 is really the inspiration. You could plug into either speaker set or both.

I sold an amp to a guy that plays harmonica and he said that the newest hot shit on the street are cabs with various size speakers... The harp players like an 8" 2 10"s and a 12" in one cab... I know you should be able to find something... Am I missing something or, what head are you gonna use for the "guitar" side???

Ampeg made a cab that was similar with a 410 up top and a 115 on the bottom
The bass player in my band has one. I think the model # is SVT-1540 HE.
It's the same size as their 810 (maybe a little deeper (twss)) and I believe the top and bottom are isolated.

That's tight but I need the guitar and bass speakers as well as two less tens. If I didn't have to carry my shit I'd have that ASAP.

My guitar head is tbd at the moment. Musicman probably. Wish there was a head I could run two different signals to two different outputs with different eq sections but here's why I'm learning soldering and electronics.

Fender Bassman head has two sections and two outs but I don't think they're wired separately... There has to be something, how bout those Peavey MarkIII and IV's???

as for the guitar cab situation - you should be fine with 12" speakers that are rated properly.
as for the head, maybe try and find some rackmount power amps? that way you can keep it compact. there aren't a ton of rackmount tube amps available (mesa/boogie i think makes some) but there are obviously solid-state ones that are made for bass and i'm sure for guitar as well. this could possibly also be a cheaper route?

I think you know, that i have a similar setup with a London City into a 4x12 and a Bugera Bass Amp (mostly with second voice on the octave down setting or the octasynth) into the other 4x12. Both cabs are loaded with 2 Eminence (sorry, forgot the model) and 2 V30 each. I use it in this combination more than a year now and i have no problems with the speakers yet. The only problem is the jack - but i switched to locking jack at both cabs.
I'm with you, i think the guitar speaker sound a lot better than bass speakers for that octave down stuff. I love the coloring.
So as long as the power rating of the speakers is a bit higher than the amp i think you are fine. My cabs are rated 300 watt, the Bugera has also 300 watt - so it is a bit dancing on a volcano but i barely turn the Bugera up.

Forecast: I want to switch the speakers in my cabs to the 50Hz Eminence ones (the JBL clones (225Watt!)) in the "bass" cab and to 55Hz G12H in the "guitar" cab. But right now i only have one of these 8(!) speakers. Is a bit of an investment but i hope the bass response gets a bit more "sub-y" and it will be save with the 300 Watt bass amp.

That's what I wann keep. The sub freqs! Otherwise it's be just a think octave down effect with no sack and people would ask if we need a bassist again.