xtreme10.1 not loud enough?

[seb]

hi guys,

i have an Xtreme 10.1 amp and two cabinets connected to it - a WCA 411 Neodym and a WCA 115 Neodym. the sound is great, but ... i have a feeling that the output is not as loud as it should be!

in the rehearsal room, i have my gain set to 60% and my master volume to 60% as well, and this is just fine, as we dont play that loud (we are: drums, rock-guitar (not metal), and vocals). but this really confuses me, because i NEVER had my old 300W transistor-amp set to these volumes, it would have been much much louder!

could there be a problem with my amp?
or maybe the cabinets??

cheers
seb

 

[Eberbachl]

It sounds a bit weird. The X Treme 10.1 is a very loud head - and the neo cabs are very efficient too.

Were you using your old head with the same cabinets? Were you using the same bass?

Regarding the gain at 60% - that doesn't mean anything - each head has it's own gain curve, and each bass has different output levels. Even with the same bass, two heads will often have vastly different gain settings when set up correctly.

How are you setting your gain?

 

[Florin]

Hey Seb,

First of all you have to be sure you set the gain right. Play the bass hard, and when you see the red light, turn the gain a little back. Depending on what output have your bass, you can set the gain for more than 60%
Anyway, I used this configuration for rehearsals too, and with the gain properly set, and master at 60% you cannot stay close to the rig, it is too loud. It was actually too loud for me even for stadium gigs, I never crossed over 50% master with that monster !

 

[seb]

hi guys,
thanks for your ideas so far!

the bass i am using is a Musicman Stingray, so its output is pretty high - when i have the -10dB switch deactivated, and i play the bass hard, the red light starts at 50% gain. so this should be ok.

my other old amp i was using with differnet cabinets, so i cant really tell the EXACT reason for this ... i just told you of it so you know that i am not completely deaf and have some kind of "reference loudness"

i bought the amp and the cabinets 4 months ago, so they are pretty new. but they were exhibit samples in the store for 1 year, so there were some other guys testing the system ...

??

best regards
sebastian

 

[Charmand G]

You might also have a low battery in your bass` pre-amp.

 

[Eberbachl]

Great point!

 

[seb]

You might also have a low battery in your bass` pre-amp.

hey, that was a good idea, cause i played my battery for quite a while now!
but after having changed it, damn, it still sounds the same

 

[Charmand G]

You might also have a low battery in your bass` pre-amp.

Usualy when you are using propertly battery, thay are working and give you 9 volt or thay don't and you have no sound at all....

Maybe, if you use a rechargeable battery, but in most of my cases, I can hear the output lacking or the signal getting distorted/farting sounds.

 

[Charmand G]

You might also have a low battery in your bass` pre-amp.

hey, that was a good idea, cause i played my battery for quite a while now!
but after having changed it, damn, it still sounds the same

Too bad. Well, at least you got to change the battery. :wink:
Have you tried different cables between your components? You might have a breach somewhere?

 

[Charmand G]

And btw, there is also the possibilty that your bass preamp is set to low in volume, but the again: you should hear a significant difference if you deactivate it.

 

[seb]

And btw, there is also the possibilty that your bass preamp is set to low in volume, but the again: you should hear a significant difference if you deactivate it.

i am not sure, what you mean with preamp ... my stingray goes directly into the xtreme, and from there directly to the cabinets ... i have no extra preamp inbetween ...

or did i get you completely wrong?

 

[Charmand G]

Ah..shoot.. I forgot that we were talking about EBMM... The warwick MEC-preamps usually have a switch where you can adjust the outputlevel of the bass.

Maybe you have something similar.

 

[seb]

no, i only have my rotary knob to adjust the basses output - but with the level of the bass everything seems to be ok (my amp at home is as loud as it always used to be...)

hmm ...