Will the average amount of clipping cause damage to my head, and or cabinet?

by the average amount i mean, the slap and pop every now and then. and sometimes when i use my distortion/fuzz pedals i see a little flicker in the clipping light.

it might be a silly question to all you pros out there, but i was just wondering.

thanks!

Give me the make and model of the amp and I can tell you more.

Many better amps have a limiter circut that acts like a very hard compression, which won't allow the amp to output any dangerous levels to the speaker.

Also, if the speaker is rated for power levels much higher than the amp can possibly put out, you're also ok.

We had a Peavey TNT-150 that we used for rehearsal for a while, and that thing had virtually no power (150w), so the clip light came on a lot. Because it had a compressor and limiter, there was never any harm.

Clip lights generally flash at -10 dB from the upper limit. A small jump on it here or there is not harmful, so long as it's just a small forray into that range. Staying in the redline for a long period of time can be fatal to speakers that have no protection and aren't rated high enough.

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Autistic Savant

Awesome information thank you.

Well i have an Acoustic B-200h head, which is 200 watts. I usually use a GK Goldline 1x15 for practice which is rated at 8 ohms and 300 watts. At live gigs i use this vintage 2x15 cabinet that i have no idea what make/model it is, and or its power limits. But it works fine with my head, and gets pretty loud. I usually keep the head at 12 oclock live, and a little less at practice.

I was just so curious about the clipping because i let another bands bassist use my gear at a show, and the clipping light was on CONSTANTLY, and i was freaking out, but i couldnt run out on stage and be like "Hey bro, stop playing for a second i think youre breaking my amp."

Your Acoustic head can't even touch the GK speaker, it's only able to output its 200 watts at 2 ohms, according to the documentation. I'd imagine it's only able to put 100w RMS into the 8 ohm cab, so call that a peak power of maybe 400w for an instant, which the GK has a peak handling of 600w, which is plenty.

As for the other 2x15, it should also not be too much of a problem, unless the speakers are very low power handling. Any info you have on the old cab, like what model the speakers are, would be useful.

The Acoustic head does have a protection circut, but it doesn't say in the manual what it actually does. I imagine it limits output.

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Autistic Savant