Can I do this? Pre/power amp question

[ashevans09]

Heya,

Merry Christmas everyone, hope you all had a lovely time and are nursing suitably giant food babies

Basically, since I've come by a little cash this christmas and have been saving for a bit I've been thinking about adding to my rig.

A while ago I used an Ampeg SVT preamp into a Mesa strategy power amp, and I got some really nice tones out of it. What I was thinking of doing would be picking up another one (or maybe another preamp) and running it into my Mesa 400+.

My intention would be to gain a second channel by switching to the new preamp via an AB pedal.

My question is, can I do this? Will it be detrimental to the power end if I have two preamps running in to the Mesa 400+'s power section? Can I even do this? I'd be running the new preamp into the effects return input, which according the manual goes directly into the power section.

Thanks, apologies for any potential stupidness in this question.

[Bassman Steve]

My guess (and it is a guess, not tried it) would be that plugging into the Mesa power amp input (via effects return?) would disable the pre-amp and give you just the graphic. I am pretty sure the manual states that (see below).

The Effects Return jack can also be used to plug directly into the 400's power section. The
Master can regulate sensitivity, and the Graphic EQ will be functional. If you wish to use
only the preamp section of your Bass 400, you can use the Effects Send jack as a preamp
output; be sure to set the Effects Blend at 10 and the Master to 0. This will prevent signal
from driving the power section, so running the amp without a speaker or load resistor will
be OK.