Cheaper alternative to a Vector Active Sub? (big pictures)

[Roland]

In my hunt for tone, I've come to realize I like the roar of open back cabs, but dislike the low end thump sacrificed. I'm hoping to add a sub WITH a crossover with the intent of having my V30's focus on giving me the roar and a sub to give me a little extra thump.

This is what I want to do:

*Mesa 2x12 Tremoverb combo into crossover
*High Output of the crossover into combo speakers
*Low Output of the crossover into 1x15 cab

This is what I want to know:

Will I hurt my amp if I run my setup as I listed above?
What do I need to make this work properly?

 

[Anonymous]

Very VERY interested to hear the outcome of this!!! I posted something that was similar to this, but should have been asking this question instead. Very good idea, and I hope it can work out for you/us!!!

 

[Roland]

Indeed! The only problem I've come up with is impedance (speaker load) into the crossover. I know they sell passive crossovers with loads built in. Soooo...?

THERE has to be a simple solution some ones not sharing.

Very VERY interested to hear the outcome of this!!! I posted something that was similar to this, but should have been asking this question instead. Very good idea, and I hope it can work out for you/us!!!

 

[Roland]

...

 

[chumbucket]

I don't think you're going to be able to do this without a stereo power amp. I don't believe that crossover will take speaker level signals. You may be able to pull it off with a Crate Powerblock and keep a pretty portable rig. Although you usually need a pretty powerful amp to deliver the goods when it comes to low end.

-Run the line out from the Rectifier into the crossover.
-The outputs of the crossover get fed to separate channels of a power amp.
-Outputs of power amp to speakers.

or alternatively

-Run the effects loop send to the crossover with the highs coming back on the return of the loop
-Run the lows out from the compressor to a power amp and then to the 15" cab.

 

[garbagetruckdriver]

the crossover you pictured there is an active crossover, designed to work at line level, not instrument level, nor take the output of your guitar amp - so I'd steer clear of that.
I'm assuming from your text that you want to take the speaker output from your amp and use a passive splitter to separate the subs out and pass that to a sub enclosure. I totally get what you are looking to do, but the result is usually mush. Whilst we all love the thunder of the low frequencies, you're gonna collide with the frequencies occupied by the drums and bass. Also, you'll emphasize a lot of low frequency rumble (palm noise, electrical hum, body noise of the guitar, hand noise). When recording guitar it is an essential practice to use a high pass filter to REMOVE all frequencies below 90~100Hz from our guitars for just that reason.

Have you ever tried a mix of open and back cabs? I used to have a Boogie 2x12 Vertical Stack - bottom 12 was closed back but front ported, top 12 was slanted and open back. Loaded with EVM-12Ls if I recall correctly. Awesome live cab, and considerably cheaper and easier than the complexities of adding a crossover and sub. Another option is to look at Thiele Port designed cabs. (the Dr Z Z-Best cab comes to mind but I am sure there are others).

Final thought - if you've ever used a guitar processor direct into a 4way PA... you'll find that a front of house PA system is capable of reproducing a much fuller frequency range and thus your guitar sound will have more highs and lows than a typical guitar amp. You'll also hear how terrible you can make it sound. You don't need your guitar to go under 100Hz and once you move into the higher frequencies (over say, 4KHz) it's a battle between 'shine' and an ugly 'fizz'.

 

[glpg80]

Even with the line out, or effects send, you're going to need a load for the combo anytime it is off standby using it as a preamp source and the power amplifier is on.

your line out is also at instrument level, not line level. unless you had a send volume knob, there is not much you can do there without adding more shit to carry around with you.

I would do this:

speaker out goes through This, then into the crossover, then go into a QSC solid state amp to power the 1x15 for the low end. run the other side of the crossover into the effects return of your amplifier for the V30's in the open cabinet. the volume knob on your amplifier is for the V30's, the volume knob on the crossover is for the low end - max the QSC to prevent spikes and rail to rail variances in stability - use the crossover to control its volume.

you're basically using the suhr unit as a line level source to input into the crossover - just something to get a line out source that wont overdrive the crossover inputs and allow you to use the effects return of your amplifier which would come from the crossover side for the high's/V30's.

another option is get a THD unit, use the mesa as a preamp only - grab the crossover, grab a stereo power amplifier, run the mesa speaker out into the THD, THD's line out into the crossover - run the output of the crossover for the V30's on one side of the power amplifier, the other side for the subwoofer.