Cabinet or amp dilemma

[justheretolook]

Ok so i have a pathfinder that i really love and been practicing with for abt 3 years already. Thing is i want to make it my gigging amp since i cant afford a tube amp. The dilemma is, am i better off playing the pathfinder thru a cab or buy another pathfinder and play it stereo? If its better off with a cab will the pathfinder actually get mre headroom? 1x12 or 2x10? What brand? Those are the qns that i need answers to.

Fyi i play thru an epi lp jr with p90 and i play blues with a muff. And no my amp isnt't set to clean, i set the gain at 10 o clock, vol 8.30 o clock. Any help will be appreciated

 

[dodgethis]

Using the Pathfinder through a speaker cabinet will work around the speaker distortion that seems to be a common problem, though it's not going to help much in a gigging environment due to the lower power output.

And if you buy another Pathfinder, how can you run them in stereo properly at a gig? Running them without mikes, as the main source of your sound will probably get you drowned out by the rest of the stage noise, even at maximum volume. Even if you were miked up, is the PA setup to get you the stereo sound you want? Will the organizers provide two mikes to run into the mixing board and out into the proper left and right channels?

 

[justheretolook]

The mike issue is the main problem why i dnt want to run a stereo setup. Btw what u mean by speaker distortion? Im nt entirely familiar with that term

 

[valentinik_15]

Speaker distortion is when your speaker distorts. The signal going to your speaker is fine but the output is too high for your speaker to handle so it starts to distort. Kinda like when you blast your HiFi and you get crappy rattling, booming sounds coming from your speakers.

Fitting an external cab based on my knowledge is not gonna give you more headroom. Imagine a 25W amp at 85db and a 50W amp at 85db. The 25W amp has to work harder, thus the 50W has more headroom. Something like that.

I honestly don't see a need for you to run 2 amps in Stereo. Seriously, nobody does that. Unless you need to have some wicked stereo Chorus, Delay or Flanger effect.

 

[Dongara]

If you are still interested in this topic, you can try changing over the speaker of the amp. With these little amps, the distortion is almost aways from the amplifier circuit and not the speaker. The speaker distortion stopped when people stopped using a 50 watt Marshall to drive a 80 watt cab (4 times 20 watt celestions). Now a Marshall 50 watt head drives a 250 watt cab (4 times 75 watt celestions).

I changed many speakers in small amps over to hi fi audio speakers as they are louder for the same power (95dB per watt versus 85dB or so). If you'd like help with this I can give you some contacts in Singapore to buy cheap high grade audio speakers (<$50) that will buy you some more volume and improved tone (much bettter bass for the size) as I'm in Oz now.

Will be back in Singapore in late May if you need more help.

cheers,

Mark.

 

[Vax]

am i better off playing the pathfinder thru a cab or buy another pathfinder and play it stereo?

To answer your question directly, I'd say a cab.

If its better off with a cab will the pathfinder actually get mre headroom? 1x12 or 2x10?

You can't go wrong with a 12" speaker, but because your solid-state amp isn't going to drive the speakers as well as a tube amp will, the difference will be less noticeable.