BassmanPaul

The physical rotation of the volume control has no relevance to the actual output power the amp is producing. "Half volume" does not mean 100W being put out.

During my career I have used many speaker cabinets loaded with 18" drivers. I couldn't get on with any of them. Your experience may differ. As BFM states it's not the size of of the cone that matters. Look at Phil Jones Bass who use a bunch of small drivers to get really deep bass.

No not utter madness - just the way the UK seems to work!!!

What a trip down memory lane!! I when I bought my first bass I plugged it into my Dad's hiFi system. A Leak TL12 pushed by the VarislopeIII preamp. I used the tape input on the facia and through his Wharfdale SFB3 speaker system it worked very well.

Looking back over the last 60 odd years as a bass player with an engineering education I muse at the time I spent getting distortion out of my signal chain. Now folks are deliberately adding it. Who knew? LOL

The required Y cable should be available at almost any "stereo" store o big box store such as Walmart. I'm sure you have those over there.

Nice Peavey amp you have there!

I switched to Condenser microphones in the early Seventies. I gave all my dynamic microphones away.

Reading the posts in this thread makes me remember all the years that I gigged with a 50W or less amplifier. In reality more powerful amplifiers were few and far between. LOL

Link Send and Return with a short signal cable and see if that helps. Sometimes these jacks get corroded and the switch contacts fail to connect properly.

LOL I think you'll find that such niceties get tiring after a while!!

Truthfully I simply don't remember. Most bass players were searching for a way to be louder without the distortion we were finding with amplifiers that were on the market place. I had pleasant surprises from a borrowed VOX AC30B bass amp when I played the Silver Blades Ice Rink in Liverpool. There was a sloping stage and the VOX was 'walking' down the stage. I had to keep dragging it back Into position. It sounded good though! The other was an Epiphone Constellation amp. It had a 15" driver that had been replaced with one from Wharfedale. It worked very well too.

Talking about Leak Hi-Fi amps, a friend sold me a Leak TL50+using a pair of KT88s, for five quid. I had a pre-amp chassis and engraved front panel made for me in work. I built a one valve pre-amp, essentially the Normal channel circuit from a Fender Bassman, into this chassis and, connected to the Leaks pre-amp socket, it sounded wonderful through a Marshall 4x12 100W cabinet. I used that set up for quite a while before moving on to something different.

In those days bass equipment tended to be large and hard to find. Power levels were very low as befits tube/valve output stages. For most applications 50W tended to be the upper limit. When 100W amps hit the market, usually using four EL34s in the output stage, players who could afford them switched to them in droves. I couldn't <sob>. That led me to start building my own amplification. For PA the Mixer/amplifiesr were what you would find in a building PA. The Cave used Vortexion my last band in Liverpool used an Altec Lansing unit with two microphone inputs. The band had three vocalists. At that time microphones were typically high impedance. I modified the amp and by removing the plug in transformers I had the space to add two more high impedance inputs. I still have those two transformers. It's amazing what you hang on to through moves about the country and even across the world. LOL

The band I was a part of in South Wales before we left for Toronto had all Orange gear. 4x12 plus 2x12 with three horns on each side of the stage for PA. 4x12 for guitar and another for bass. It was a workout to get all that stuff loaded in and set up I can tell you!!

In my mind, if you want to sound like you're using an EBS then use one. If you want sound like you're using a Mesa amplifier then buy one. Every amp has it's own voice and you have to learn how to get the best out of it sometimes by trial and error.

Not my cuppa tea but ENJOY!

@Stealth The bass drum made my eyes go gozzey!

@Bill Fitzmaurice Thank you for continually sharing your knowledge. It helps no end.

Thank you for a trip down memory lane. I bought my first bass in 1962. A VOX Clubman II in white. It was a great time to play around the Merseyside area. I eventually bought my first amplifier: a VOX AC50 with the 18" Foundation cabinet. It too was a poor bass amp but looking at it on stage made me feel like I had 'arrived' and was a professional. LOL

Agreed but we know so much more about the subject these days.

May I suggest that you stack the 15 in the top position. It's not going to be able to handle as much power as the 4x10 so you need to be able to hear it's cries of pain.

I think you mean that the amp is Class AB. Just because the amp has a power transformer has no bearing on the Class that the output stage uses.

My choice for a speaker cabinet is the Acme Sound B2 2x10 three way. They handle the Low B of my six strings without any problem. I own four but usually just use a pair in a vertical 4x10 'skinny stack'. They are a delight to play through.

Thing is that the vast majority of an amplifiers weight is taken up by the amp's power supply and heat sinks. If you did do this you would save very little actual weight.