1000 watt steel amp

Larry Behm · Post by **Larry Behm** » 7 Nov 2004 12:09 pm

What kind of speaker(s) would it take to handle this kind of power.

The bass player has a 1000 watt Carvin into 8 10" speakers and can move a house. I do not want to take a refrigerator to the gig every time, but it is hard to keep up and stay out of the guitar players way with my volume. (forget the sound man idea, we have one and that is not working either)

What is the volume difference between a 200 watt amp and a 1000 watts?

Could I still have children at the end of the night.

Larry Behm, no longer mister nice guy.

Jerry Roller · Post by **Jerry Roller** » 7 Nov 2004 12:18 pm

Larry!!!!!!!!!!

Earnest Bovine · Post by **Earnest Bovine** » 7 Nov 2004 12:27 pm

One or two Black Widow speakers should handle it. Remember that Carvin watts are much smaller than other watts.

Eric West · Post by **Eric West** » 7 Nov 2004 12:38 pm

Get rid of THAT guitar player.

Then go get a Nashville 112. Get two of them. Don't point them at your head.

Replace the plexiglass barrier with 20 feet of stage space if nothing else. No modern stage band I know of has the steel and the lead guitar player on one side of the stage. (Check out the ones that Gary Morse plays with.)

Especially one with the tone center and dynamics of a chainsaw.

Sorry Al. Remember I did two years playing against it. Either the Strat, or the Tele, Lime green or Flaming pink was not unlike my dentist using a different color drill for an unanesthetized root canal. I earned my opinon.

Play ONE night with Kevin, Buster, Artie, Monty, Shawn, Casey, or even Bob Salome, and you'll realise that your ten years of trying every amp, processor, black, gray, or pink box that comes along has missed the mark for only one reason.

Lin Poulson's untimely passing should remind us of something. It does me.

Remember the times you played with him.

Welcome to the world of not-so-nice-guys.

You've got some catching up to do.

Though I'm sure you'll do fine.

EJL [This message was edited by Eric West on 07 November 2004 at 12:55 PM.]

Mark Herrick · Post by **Mark Herrick** » 7 Nov 2004 12:41 pm

My understanding is that the conversion between Carvin Watts and "Real" Watts follows the monetary exchange rate between the Israeli Schekel and the U.S. Dollar:

Exchange Rates

So for 1000 Carvin Watts you get, roughly, 225 "Real" Watts...

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Bob Tuttle · Post by **Bob Tuttle** » 7 Nov 2004 12:48 pm

Ernest, I've seen several of your posts in the past mentioning a difference between the Carvin watts and other watts. What is the "rest of the story" about Carvin watts? (Inquiring minds want to know.)

Gary Lee Gimble · Post by **Gary Lee Gimble** » 7 Nov 2004 12:53 pm

Larry, why don't you all do the in ear monitor thing. Your guitar player would hopefully play quieter on stage and he can still blow as loud as his ear monitors can dish out without sacrificing stage volume. This solution has worked for my band, the drummer and guitar player play at an acceptable level, for now anyway. Maybe you can rent a unit for a night or two to see if its a viable solution?

Eric West · Post by **Eric West** » 7 Nov 2004 12:58 pm

I think they rent Glocks too..

EJL

Earnest Bovine · Post by **Earnest Bovine** » 7 Nov 2004 1:01 pm

I bought a Carvin 350 watt amp and tried it on the gig. It was about as loud as my old Fender Princeton amp. I concluded that Carvin inflates the watts.

Gary Lee Gimble · Post by **Gary Lee Gimble** » 7 Nov 2004 1:15 pm

I prefer a Sig, got 2.

Gary Lee Gimble · Post by **Gary Lee Gimble** » 7 Nov 2004 1:17 pm

and they weren't rent to own either

Eric West · Post by **Eric West** » 7 Nov 2004 1:20 pm

I've always been a wheel gunner. No doubt when you're trying to stumble over a drumset before the first shot, whether you've got one under the hammer. Jumping over bandstand railings after the first barrage is a little safer too.

S&W Featherweight 637

Glaser +P Safety slugs.

Limited overspray.

Can't beat 'em.

EJL

Donny Hinson · Post by **Donny Hinson** » 7 Nov 2004 2:25 pm

Watts won't do what radiating area and efficient speakers will. (In other words, you need to move more air.) In my younger days competing with drums and lead guitar, I found that my Fender Super-Twin Reverb (180 watts RMS) and a BIG Altec-designed cabinet (with two 15" SRO's) would easily keep up with the SVT's and Vox Super-Beatles. I'd run the big cabinet and the two built-in speakers out of the same speaker jack, and that brought the impedance down to 2 ohms, but I never had a problem. (Probably meant it was pushing a little over 200 watts, too). Needless to say, the 2 fifteens and 2 twelves all working together got the job done!

Curly woulda' loved it!

Dan Dowd · Post by **Dan Dowd** » 7 Nov 2004 4:44 pm

I bought my Carvin 1000 watt amp after hearing Bill Stafford play thru his. The Carvin amp model DCM1000 is rated at 1000 watts RMS into a 4 ohm load continous if bridged. It is 350 watts per channel stereo into a 4 ohm load and 500 watts continous per channel into a 2 ohm load. It weighs 23 lbs. I use mine with a Walker stereo pre amp and a Alesis Quadra Verb with 2 JBL 15 inch speakers. It is also very quiet with a signal to noise ratio > 100 db. Hope this info helps.

chas smith R.I.P. · Post by **chas smith R.I.P.** » 8 Nov 2004 9:22 am

"I prefer a Sig, got 2"
I got the Sig and the Glock.

What is the volume difference between a 200 watt amp and a 1000 watts?

In theory, a 1000 watt amp is twice as loud as a 100 watt amp.

David Doggett · Post by **David Doggett** » 8 Nov 2004 11:08 am

Normally the watt handling capacity of each single speaker should be summed to get the total handling capacity. So two 50 watt speakers should handle a 100 watt amp, but also a single 100 watt speaker, or four 25 watt speakers.

But the way most of us play steel with a volume pedal, we attack the notes with the pedal backed off 50% or more. The high watts of steel amps are used mostly for sustain, not attack volume. So playing this way, you can get by with speakers that handle half the wattage of the amp. This is why 60 watt JBL-D130s work okay for steelers in a 100 watt Twin, if they are not too heavy footed. But regular guitar players more typically play at the top power of their amp, and would quickly blow a 60 watt speaker with a 100 watt amp.

I'm with Donny. My Super Twin through two JBL 15s, or a single modern heavy duty 15 competes well with guitar players with amps of 50 watts or less. If they have a bigger amp, I might need to get out my other Super Twin (and the ear plugs - I've had all the children I want). [This message was edited by David Doggett on 08 November 2004 at 11:11 AM.]

Sam Marshall · Post by **Sam Marshall** » 8 Nov 2004 2:27 pm

A shameless Fender plug here:

Try the 800 Pro - a 2 rack space pre- and power amp. It produces 1200W into 2 ohms, 800W into 4 ohms. Its EQ is quite flexible and can be tuned for great steel tone IMHO.

Sam

Ken Fox · Post by **Ken Fox** » 8 Nov 2004 3:57 pm

I am convinced that if I need an amp for my Tele that is more powerful than a Super Reverb (40 watts) in a band, then the band is too darn loud!

Bill Llewellyn · Post by **Bill Llewellyn** » 8 Nov 2004 3:57 pm

In theory, a 1000 watt amp is twice as loud as a 100 watt amp.

Just to refine the point a little, the loudness difference in decibels (dB) for that particular power ratio is 10xlog(1000W/100W) = 10dB louder. 6dB constitutes a doubling of loudness (+6dB = twice the voltage, or 4x the power into a given load) so 1000W is 4dB beyond being twice as loud when compared to a 100W amp.

Ahhh, math....

For the question of a 1000W amp compared to a 200W amp, that's 10xlog(1000W/200W) = 7dB, or just a touch over twice as loud.

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Bill, steelin' since '99 | Steel page | My music | Steelers' birthdays | Over 50?

Bobby Lee · Post by **Bobby Lee** » 8 Nov 2004 4:48 pm

I've been playing through two 20 watt power amps lately, and it's plenty loud for indoor gigs. I keep my 50/50 in storage for the winter.

Larry Behm · Post by **Larry Behm** » 8 Nov 2004 6:02 pm

Sam is there a Fender power amp designed more for guitar, more highs and mid range with this kind of power?

Larry Behm

Chris Bauer · Post by **Chris Bauer** » 8 Nov 2004 6:45 pm

b0b - What kinda 20 watters?

chas smith R.I.P. · Post by **chas smith R.I.P.** » 8 Nov 2004 8:10 pm

Ahhh, math....

I knew I should have paid more attention, or for that matter, taken the class....

Kevin Mincke · Post by **Kevin Mincke** » 8 Nov 2004 9:05 pm

H/K for me guys........[This message was edited by Kevin Mincke on 08 November 2004 at 09:07 PM.]

Sam Marshall · Post by **Sam Marshall** » 9 Nov 2004 6:43 am

Larry,
Actually, the 800 Pro is a bass amp. Here is a link:
http://www.fender.com/products/show.php?partno=2146800

Obviously, the real trick is finding steel guitar cabinets that can handle the 1200W at 2 ohms/800W at 4 ohms/400W at 8 ohms. It can drive 2 SVT-style cabs all day long (8x10's plus horn - see http://www.fender.com/products/show.php?partno=2217200)

Regards,
Sam[This message was edited by Sam Marshall on 09 November 2004 at 06:45 AM.]