reamping question OR how much bass can a guitar amp take?

[vier-personen]

I probably should just shut up and try it out myself.... but I plan to ask a friend to lend me his older small, but fine mesa boogie guitar combo to reamp some material that sometimes has a lot of low frequencies (moog prodigy, trautonium). I am a little worried about blowing his speaker - should I be? or am I save as long as I keep the volume below 11? (but where?s the fun in that)

thanks for any comments!

[Freakmagnet451]

Not sure what you hope to accomplish but there is not enough information yet. What speaker is in the Mesa? A few came with an Electrovoice speaker which can take a lot of abuse but most have a Black Shadow which is a house branded Eminence or Celestion that will not do too well with bass frequencies. If it is an open back you will not hear much bass in the room either way, even if the mic is picking up tons of bottom end. If you kill the speaker, it will usually protest vigorously before death. Once it dies you are in danger of frying the output transformer. Could get expensive! Maybe you can borrow a bass cabinet to run the Mesa as a head with?

[runrunrun]

you could also HPF the signal going to the amp to get the low bass stuff out of it, and then blend the DI and the reamped track, using the DI for the lows and the reamp for the air/highs/etc.....id start around 80hz or so and then see iif you can cut more. that real low stuff is probably gonna take up a lot of the amps energy/headroom and can cause the speaker probs. not cranking the amp to 11 will help tooo.

[Jeff White]

you could also HPF the signal going to the amp to get the low bass stuff out of it, and then blend the DI and the reamped track, using the DI for the lows and the reamp for the air/highs/etc.....id start around 80hz or so and then see iif you can cut more. that real low stuff is probably gonna take up a lot of the amps energy/headroom and can cause the speaker probs. not cranking the amp to 11 will help tooo.

Genius!!!!

*prepares to send MiniMonsta to Mesa DC-3*

[farview]

The amp/speaker will sound like crap long before it blows up. Just listen and use your best judgement.

[vier-personen]

thanks for the replies!

I don?t know which specific model the mesa is, but I know it sounds very good with guitar and would like to get that quality for the synths.

hpf the signal is a good idea, will do!

and of course I am careful with stuff, I just had this terrifying experience that made me extra canny when I was 12 or 13 and got my first bassamp - a peavy combo that had to be carried by 2 people. I wanted to see how loud it is and turned every knob to the right... every item in that house started to shake when I hit a low E and after about 30 seconds the speaker exploded. I got it repaired on warranty.

[WillMorgan]

Lol at peavey failure in materials and workmanship, or at least their underestimation of their young customers' desire to rawk at 11.

I just started patching my Boogie subway rocket, which has a single black widow 10", out over my PA, Mackie SRM 450s, and noticed how all of a sudden there was an annoying low end on my guitar sound.

Methinks the speaker will just filter out the low end but you might start with the bass knob ( or slider if it's a DC-* with the graphic EQ ) rolled off all the way.

[jmiller]

Methinks the speaker will just filter out the low end but you might start with the bass knob ( or slider if it's a DC-* with the graphic EQ ) rolled off all the way.

However, the idea behind hi-passing the signal before it hits the amp is to prevent the speaker from having to do the potentially life-threatening work of acting as a filter itself, as well as not bogging down the amp with a bunch of low-end energy it won't reproduce anyway.

[matyas]

I plan to ask a friend to lend me his older small, but fine mesa boogie guitar combo to reamp some material that sometimes has a lot of low frequencies (moog prodigy, trautonium).

Du hast ein Trautonium? Echt?

[vier-personen]

I plan to ask a friend to lend me his older small, but fine mesa boogie guitar combo to reamp some material that sometimes has a lot of low frequencies (moog prodigy, trautonium).

Du hast ein Trautonium? Echt?

ich nicht, aber ein freund. wenn du mehr wissen willst, schreib mir eine pm / not me, but a friend. if you want to know more, pm me.