FAQ's

 Please read before emailing questions. Thanks.

1. Can you make a custom cab for me? Sorry no, because we have our cabs made for us and our cab suppliers only do large production runs so the cabinets are only available as they appear in the website.
 

2. Can I buy the cab without the speakers? Yes on some models of guitar cabs and if we have enough in stock.. The complete but speakerless prices are near the bottom of each guitar cab page. The Bass cabs are only sold loaded.
 

3. Are your products available in other countries?  YES

     Canada   Steamcomusic.com in Winnipeg, Canada sells Avatar and Hellatone products. Their phone is 204 .237.4299.

     Australia  Geoff Whitehead at the 4wd workshop, 16 wells road Frankston  3199 Victoria and the phone number 03 97861818

     Holland  Rob at Wiersma Global Products rob@wiersmaglobalproducts.nl, Albert Hahnweg 148, 7242EL, Lochem, +31613201906

      For other countries, please check with a freight forwarder like shopUSA.com ...we can ship to them and they forward to you. You can also google

      Freight forwarders in the US and shop for the best rates.

4. What modes of shipping do you use?  We use DHL Ground Insured exclusively for U.S. 
 

5. Can I use an amp that has a smaller power rating than that of the speaker cabinet wattage rating?    Yes. There are different schools of thought for guitar and bass guitar. For bass guitar solid state amps, the general rule is that with what ever power amp you have, if you are turning the amp up too much past halfway on the master gain with the input set at a normal level, then you should consider getting a higher wattage amp. What heats up speakers is straining the amp and that generally begins to happen above past half of the amps potential. That point of distorting differs from amp to amp but if you are straining the solid state amp, the speaker can get a gradual heat build up over a period of time. That could be a few minutes or it could be a couple of hours but if done for long enough, it can overheat the speaker voice coil to the point of melting or warping out of its round shape so that it rubs against the magnet and makes a bad scratching sound. Then that speaker is blown and is no good.

With tube guitar amps, it's a little different.  Overdriving the power tubes can give a desirable distortion tone which sounds great but most guys will use smaller amps than what the speakers are rated for. For example,  having a 15 or 18 watt power tube guitar amp and turning up most of the way produces great tone but you still need the speakers to have a combined total speaker rating that is higher than the amps rating because the amp can still overheat the speakers. 

6. There are two jacks on the back of the guitar cab. Which do I plug into?    On standard mono cabs,  the two jacks are tied together in parallel so you can plug into either one and the other would be used as an 'out' to go out and daisy chain to another speaker cab. On a custom stereo cab, the two jacks would be wired both as 'ins' but the majority of cabs are mono.

 

7. What forms of payment do you use?    We take Visa, MasterCard or people send checks or money orders with a note describing in detail with what they want. Please see ordering page for more details.
 

8. What ohm cab should I get for my amplifier? Briefly, most solid state amps will mention either in its owners manual or on the back of the amp itself, the lowest resistance that the amp wants to see hooked up to it....and you usually don't want to go below what it says. For example, most bass guitar amps want to see no lower than a 4 ohm load and that is the load where the amp puts out the most power. So , the idea is that you should get either one 4 ohm cab and that's it...or two 8 ohm cabs because two 8 ohm cabs together makes a 4 ohm load. Some newer bass amps will go down to a 2 ohm load so you could use either one 2 ohm cab even though that is a little rare..or two 4 ohm cabs. It's the same principal for solid state guitar amps with single or multiple cabs and many guitar amps can go down to a 4 ohm load but many only go down to an 8 ohm load. For an amp with a minimum 8 ohm load, you'd want either one 8 ohm cab or two 16 ohm cabs..because two 16 ohm cabs makes an 8 ohm load to the amp. With tube amps however, it is really best to try to match the amps exact load requirement. There are many different tube amp designs relating to the power transformer and output tubes, so you should check with your tube amp manufacturer to see if it is appropriate to deviate away from the original desired load. A tube amp with the wrong speaker ohm load connected to it could sound fine but could be stressing the tubes and transformer causing them to prematurely wear out. 
 

9. What if I only want to get one cab now but I may want to add another later? Most solid state amps will allow you to go above the lowest ohm load but usually not  below the lowest ohm load. ..but  check with the amps owners manual or contact the amp company for advice for their particular amp. If your bass amp has a minimum 4 ohm load, and you want to get one cab now and leave the door open to expand and add another cab later, then get one 8 ohm cab now and another 8 ohm cab later. When you run a single 8 ohm cab on an amp that can go down to 4 ohm, you lose a little power that only translates to about a 3 db drop in volume which is just barely perceivable, but you can expand and add another 8 ohm cab later which will not only give you more speakers to move more air, but your amp will then be at optimum power at the 4 ohm total load.
 

10. I have a 4 ohm cab now and I want to rewire it to 8 ohm so I can add another 8 ohm cab to it to make a total 4 ohm load. How do I do that?  Most people would change the speakers inside to the other desired ohm. You can sell the 4 ohm cab and buy an 8 ohm cab.  It is technically possible to add a large high wattage resistor to the speaker to change the ohm of the cab. The resistors do soak up power which may defeat the purpose of trying to get more power out of the amp but it is a viable option in some circumstances.

 

11. When you use a 30 watt speaker with a 60 watt speaker of same ohm and SPL sensitivity, why doesn't the power rating add up to 90 watts?  Because half of the signal is going to be evenly distributed  amoung the two speakers, you don't want to put any more power than twice the lowest capacity wattage into the pair....otherwise you could damage the 30 watt speaker. The two wattages..30 and 60 don't sum to 90. A 30 watt speaker mixed with a 60 watt speaker makes a 60 watt capacity cab (twice the lowest one).

12. Could you sell me an extra back for my guitar cabinet ? Usually no because we buy the cabs and we only get one back per cab from the cab makers, so we don't have any spare backs.