Increase Signal from Bassman 50

Gary Don

Hi all, have been using a 4ohm 1972 Fender Bassman 50 head with an Dr.Z 2x10 for my guitar rig for years and it has worked a treat. Sounds huge, loud, bright and clean.

Wanted to get a bass cab for the head but when I plugged it into a 4ohm 300watt 1x15" I was really disappointed by the lack of volume. It broke up at about 5/6 and never got any louder.

So for bass you need a lot more watage I'm guessing? Is there something I can put between the head and the cab to increase signal?

Thanks for any advice

punchdrunk

Gary Don wrote: »

Hi all, have been using a 4ohm 1972 Fender Bassman 50 head with an Dr.Z 2x10 for my guitar rig for years and it has worked a treat. Sounds huge, loud, bright and clean.

Wanted to get a bass cab for the head but when I plugged it into a 4ohm 300watt 1x15" I was really disappointed by the lack of volume. It broke up at about 5/6 and never got any louder.

So for bass you need a lot more watage I'm guessing? Is there something I can put between the head and the cab to increase signal?

Thanks for any advice

unfortunately not,the only think that can help you is more wattage!
is it for gigging? is the amp mic'ed up?? are you using monitors?
the Bassman,while an awesome guitar amp,makes a pretty poor Bass amp as it just doesn't have the wattage (you need roughly three times the wattage of your Guitarists as a rule)
you could try and run a D.I split from you signal to the P.A and mix it with the amp sound

also a 50w amp is going to struggle to get a 300w cab cooking,unless you want a very clean sound with no speaker break up

Gary Don

Thanks for the tip punchdrunk. It'd be used on it own for rehearsal and then DI for gigs but just doesn't quite have the oomf needed.

Tried it with the 200w mini ampeg cab as well, even quieter.

Yeh, was even thinking of something like an attenuator if they can increase as well as decrease the signal but haven't used one...

punchdrunk

im not sure if it does but if the Bassman has an effects loop you could take the pre-amp out and run it into a different,more powerful valve power-amp,it wouldn't sound exactly like a Bassman but it'd be pretty close

i wouldn't go plugging the speaker output from the amp into anything but a speaker cab,or an impedance load simulator like the H&K red box

Gary Don

Cool, okay.

Thanks

reniwren

you could try a more efficient cab, also ive always found that 1x15 cabs are too dull and cant cover enough of the frequency spectrum