8x10 cab transport question

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Tex MexicoTex Mexico Frets: 1196
So I've just bought (pending successful delivery) two Peavey Classic 810TX cabs. I was looking for something a lot more compact and manageable but it was a deal too good to pass up. Now obviously I won't be taking them both anywhere barring exceptional circumstances (our Wembley Stadium debut isn't pencilled in just yet) but unless I end up moving them on in favour of something smaller, it's likely I'll need to transport one of them.

My car is a 2013 Audi A5 coupe which nominally has enough boot space to accommodate one with the seats down. However my question is, does anyone know if the boot opening will actually admit the cab, given its dimensions of 1245mm x 665mm x 438mm? I can't attempt it until next week when they're shipped, and I don't have to hand anything of equal dimensions.

I do have access to vehicles I know will fit one in no trouble, however the ability to shift one on my own will probably determine how likely I am to hold onto them. I do know they're also 70kg apiece but that's a different problem.

When I bought the car I didn't have or plan to own anything bigger than a 2x12 so I thought I'd be okay. I also won't be replacing the car anytime soon.
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Comments

  • mbembe Frets: 1840
    If you could fit it in I would guess, having been in similar situations, that your chin would probably be touching the steering wheel.
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  • fretmeisterfretmeister Frets: 23912
    It might fit.
    Whether you can also get your bass and other kit in as well is unlikely.

    There is a reason old 8x10 cabs are now dirt cheap.
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  • MattBansheeMattBanshee Frets: 1498

    There is a reason old 8x10 cabs are now dirt cheap.
    This!
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  • sgosdensgosden Frets: 1993
    As good as an 810 sounds. Most sound men shit a bit when they sit one, and they're absolute twats to get in and out most venues. Especially with stairs. 
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  • sgosdensgosden Frets: 1993
    sgosden said:
    As good as an 810 sounds. Most sound men shit a bit when they sit one, and they're absolute twats to get in and out most venues. Especially with stairs. 
    That doesn't help with your question. 

    You need a van. 
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  • MattBansheeMattBanshee Frets: 1498
    sgosden said:
    As good as an 810 sounds. Most sound men shit a bit when they sit one, and they're absolute twats to get in and out most venues. Especially with stairs. 
    They're more likely to piss themselves laughing than anything else.
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  • hollywoodroxhollywoodrox Frets: 4080
    mbe said:
    If you could fit it in I would guess, having been in similar situations, that your chin would probably be touching the steering wheel.
    That’s what she said 
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  • Tex MexicoTex Mexico Frets: 1196
    Thanks for your input guys.

    I'm sensing a bit of negativity towards 8x10s, is this a thing? I know that obviously huge cabs present a bit of a logistical challenge but are they really that unpopular? Specifically the soundman comment: I used to be a soundman and I've never sniggered at anyone who played through big kit* - if anything I was more annoyed by the dad-rockers with bad backs who showed up with their 15w 1x8" combos and then complained that their on-stage sound wasn't trouser-flapping enough - and my only stipulation was if you put a massive cab on my stage you'd better be okay sharing it with the other bands. Honestly I found it a relief when bands had a backline powerful enough that all I really needed to put through the PA was drums, keys and vocals.

    I'm aware the trend is to downsize and even for bassists to just DI, but given the consensus is still that nothing sounds or feels as good as big heavy cabs moving loads of air, are there other reasons beyond lack of portability that drive people away from the full stack?

    *With one exception: there was a band that consisted of three teenagers with their cheapo starter gear and one dude in his 50s or 60s, ponytail, bandanna, leather waistcoat and snakeskin boots, who had three flightcased CS Les Pauls and a JCM800 sitting on top of two 4x12s. Literally the other guitar player had a Squier strat and a Stagg combo. It became clear when they started playing why Hard Rock Grandad was backed by these poor kids: they must have been the only guys he could find who would agree to stand next to him while he chucked his arthritic shapes and massacred standard after standard. Anyway, even in that case I wasn't really laughing at the Marshall stack, it just emphasised the distance between the guy's imagined and actual levels of musical awesomeness.
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  • fretmeisterfretmeister Frets: 23912
    Trouser flapping on stage is generally not very good for FOH sound if everything is going through the PA.
    Quiet stage, loud out front.

    8x10s also tend to be stupid loud directly in front and then completely different off centre. They are technology from an older age. 

    The same output db and tone can be achieved by modern designs in half the size and a quarter of the weight. And with far better horizontal dispersion too. 

    Even when a big cab is being used, often the PA is still getting a DI signal and the cab is little more than on stage monitoring.


    The world has moved on. That's why they are so cheap. Not even the fit and strong 18 year olds are buying them.

    Even the mighty Darkglass tried to introduce old fashioned cabs about 18 months ago. There were loads of comments from potential buyers who were excited and then massively disappointed with the weights. Equivalent to Ampeg gear etc.

    DG answered a few comments and stuck to their guns.

    About a month ago they announced a new lightweight line to replace it. The old tech ones didn't sell.


    As it happens the 4x12 and 8x10 new ones are not remotely lightweight either.

    A GR or Barefaced of equivalent power handling is louder, has better dispersion and is far easier to move about. The Barefaced 1x12 + HF unit Big Baby 2 moves as much air as a good old school 4x10. Their 2x12 will shift more air than the classic Ampeg 8x10.

    BF still make an 8x10. It's under half the weight of the Ampeg PRO 8x10 (they were 215lb, the BF is 79lb) and has a max output of 137db at 1 metre. 

    Modern speaker tech has come along so much it's almost unrecognisable. 


    All that being said - if you like the sound you get with yours and you are happy to carry it - then it really doesn't matter what anyone thinks. I stuck with Marshall VBC412 (pair) for years.
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  • PhilKingPhilKing Frets: 1473
    I run a pretty large bass rig if we are playing on a decent sized stage.  I have 2 15" Ear Candy bass bins with 2 2x10 mid-top cabinets.  The amp is a McIntyre valve bass preamp with a Crest stereo 250w power amp.  The advantage with this rig is that I can just take 1 15 and 1 2x10 for smaller gigs and the power amp gives less output, as I've doubled the impedence of the speakers.  It's also a lot easier to move and fit into the car.  

    Do your 8x10's have wheels?  My 15's do and it helps, though I have a cart for moving stuff, because the PA and mixer and cables all need moving too.  It's many years since I played somewhere with stairs, but I really wouldn't fancy trying to get an 8x10 up or down them.
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  • MattBansheeMattBanshee Frets: 1498
    8x10s are overkill for almost every small venue in the UK. 

    I played a gig last year at an art's centre venue, running my Ampeg SVT450 head through the touring headliners' hired Ampeg 8x10. This was probably one of the biggest venues I've played, both in terms of capacity and stage set-up (proper elevated sound desk at the back, etc). 

    The 8x10 was overkill by orders of magnitude. I had to have my head volume so low, as it just overpowered everything as soon as I turned it up a little bit. The cab was miced, the head was DIed and I ended up getting almost no monitoring from the cab itself, and just asking the soundtech to put everything into the foldbacks instead. With this in mind, the 8x10 provided absolutely zero benefit over any other sized cab, and in fact meant I couldn't turn the head up enough to get a decent amount of punch from it.

    The 8x10 is a throwback from the days when speakers couldn't handle high wattage amps and so you needed shitloads of them (see also Pete Townsend and his 100W Marshall). I'm not sure that even Glasto level acts even need them any more now that DIs, monitoring and lightweight, high-spec speakers are a thing.
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  • MattBansheeMattBanshee Frets: 1498
    I also remember watching a friend's band play at the Oxford Wheatsheaf, which is an upstairs pub venue accessed by two narrow, winding staircases (with bands being asked to use the emergency exit one at the rear to avoid carting gear through all the drinking crowd). The *opening band*'s bass player lugged an Ampeg 8x10 classic, with an SVT classic head, all the way up, then played a Warwick 6 string, downtuned, through it and all you could hear for the entire set was a bass sound that sounded like an elephant dying of terminal dysentry. It was the worst thing I've ever heard, and you couldn't hear anything else whatsoever from the rest of the band.

    Then as soon as they'd finished, he had to lug it all back downstairs again because there was no room for any other kit on that side of the stage whilst his cab was up there.
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  • fretmeisterfretmeister Frets: 23912
    I also remember watching a friend's band play at the Oxford Wheatsheaf, which is an upstairs pub venue accessed by two narrow, winding staircases (with bands being asked to use the emergency exit one at the rear to avoid carting gear through all the drinking crowd). The *opening band*'s bass player lugged an Ampeg 8x10 classic, with an SVT classic head, all the way up, then played a Warwick 6 string, downtuned, through it and all you could hear for the entire set was a bass sound that sounded like an elephant dying of terminal dysentry. It was the worst thing I've ever heard, and you couldn't hear anything else whatsoever from the rest of the band.

    Then as soon as they'd finished, he had to lug it all back downstairs again because there was no room for any other kit on that side of the stage whilst his cab was up there.
    I played there too.

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  • MattBansheeMattBanshee Frets: 1498
    edited June 2020
    I also remember watching a friend's band play at the Oxford Wheatsheaf, which is an upstairs pub venue accessed by two narrow, winding staircases (with bands being asked to use the emergency exit one at the rear to avoid carting gear through all the drinking crowd). The *opening band*'s bass player lugged an Ampeg 8x10 classic, with an SVT classic head, all the way up, then played a Warwick 6 string, downtuned, through it and all you could hear for the entire set was a bass sound that sounded like an elephant dying of terminal dysentry. It was the worst thing I've ever heard, and you couldn't hear anything else whatsoever from the rest of the band.

    Then as soon as they'd finished, he had to lug it all back downstairs again because there was no room for any other kit on that side of the stage whilst his cab was up there.
    I played there too.

    So you'll probably understand the ridiculousness of that situation!

    I actually think another FB'ers band were playing that night too, but I can't remember who it was. Great act though.
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  • sgosdensgosden Frets: 1993
    Oxford sheaf in my local. Ive helped many an 810, 412, and oversized rack cases up those stairs. 


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  • MusicwolfMusicwolf Frets: 3627
    there was a band that consisted of three teenagers with their cheapo starter gear and one dude in his 50s or 60s, ponytail, bandanna, leather waistcoat and snakeskin boots, who had three flightcased CS Les Pauls and a JCM800 sitting on top of two 4x12s. Literally the other guitar player had a Squier strat and a Stagg combo. It became clear when they started playing why Hard Rock Grandad was backed by these poor kids: they must have been the only guys he could find who would agree to stand next to him while he chucked his arthritic shapes and massacred standard after standard. Anyway, even in that case I wasn't really laughing at the Marshall stack, it just emphasised the distance between the guy's imagined and actual levels of musical awesomeness.
    Still, nice to know that my Dad's keeping active =)
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  • Tex MexicoTex Mexico Frets: 1196
    A GR or Barefaced of equivalent power handling is louder, has better dispersion and is far easier to move about. The Barefaced 1x12 + HF unit Big Baby 2 moves as much air as a good old school 4x10. Their 2x12 will shift more air than the classic Ampeg 8x10.

    BF still make an 8x10. It's under half the weight of the Ampeg PRO 8x10 (they were 215lb, the BF is 79lb) and has a max output of 137db at 1 metre. 

    Modern speaker tech has come along so much it's almost unrecognisable..
    I'm not sure that even Glasto level acts even need them any more now that DIs, monitoring and lightweight, high-spec speakers are a thing.
    So I've been out of the game for a few years now and I accept that tech has definitely come on some fair distance in the past few years, but I do remember the first iterations of lightweight bass cabs with neo speakers and smaller format cabs that used coaxial instead of adjacent speakers, and certainly at the time even the super-expensive ones struggled to reproduce fundamental frequencies. I remember trying out I think a Markbass cab or combo with a four-figure price-tag and thinking it sounded like a toy even compared to the cheapo Hartke 4x10 next to it. It was loud, for sure, but it was all in the midrange.

    Like I said I'm sure there's been substantial improvements and I'm nothing like a physics whiz but I still have a lasting prejudice that in order to produce wide and slow sound waves you need a big heavy cab.
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  • mbembe Frets: 1840
    Thanks for your input guys.

    I* - if anything I was more annoyed by the dad-rockers with bad backs who showed up with their 15w 1x8" combos 
    Speaking as a dad-rocker with a bad back, I'll have you know my 1x8" combo is 30 watts. In fact our tambourine player asked, "Do we really need 30 watts?"

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  • pintspillerpintspiller Frets: 994
    I'd love to use a 810. It's the bassist version of the guitarists' full stack. I have a 410, but got fed up with the venues with stairs, and particularly the stairs at home (wifey wouldn't let the stuff stay downstairs), so I have the cab sitting in a local music shop for them to sell while I use a 210 instead.
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  • sev112sev112 Frets: 2739
    We saw Melissa Etheridge play at the Indigo at O2 last January. I’ve been going to see her since the early 90s, maybe before, at Hammersmith, and Shepherd Bush for example where in the last they had big amps and PA.  She can rock and make some noise with the best of them.

    At the Indigo/O2 however there wasn’t an amp or speaker in sight at stage level (other than her monitors).  Backing band had none so presumably were using IEMs.  So my presumption is that the whole sound was digital, direct from her pedal board to desk, and similarly for the backing band.

    now I’ve been to quite a few gigs, and some very loud ones by some very successful rockers, but I was impressed with the quality of the sound as a listener.  I could hear the nuances of the 6 or 7 guitars she played that night, and in her voice. I must admit it was a bit of a revelation of how good (good) digital sound can be and show the performers off to their best as well

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