BassmanPaul

@Linus27 I hope your new 'toy' brings you great pleasure and gives long service. Enjoy! ;D I have yet to have the pleasure of playing through a Mark Bass amp or a Barefaced cabinet.

@BillyBass Thank you for posting that. I'd not seen it before and found it hilarious!! LOL

I like to see members thank responders for their advice. It shows you were dragged up right!!

I won't put Black Nylon Tape Wounds on any of my instruments. Over my 60 odd years I've put them on three of my basses. A Hofner Violin, Gibson EB0F and a Gibson EB2. Each in its turn was stolen from me. The Hofner in Widnes, the EB0F in Liverpool from the 21Club and the EB2 also in Liverpool. For me I consider them too dangerous!!! LOL

You need a mixer to mix signals from your microphones and possibly your amplifiers and Drums. This feeds into a power amp and into a pair of PA style speaker cabinets possibly on speaker stands to get the sound out to the audience. You might want individual monitor speakers for the vocalists. Everything depends on what you are wanting from the PA and what funds you can throw at the system. I have three different PA systems. one is made up of older heavier rack mount units. The second is a twelve channel Mackie mixer pushing a 1000W Class D stereo power amp. It has an In Ear system for monitoring and I have five receivers for band members. Last but not least is my 'big' PA. A sixteen channel Mackie mixer driving a 1500W Stereo Class D power amp for mains. The system has a four channel 500W per channel Class D power amp for the monitors. You can buy used PA stuff often very cheaply and assemble it into a system yourself. It's fun to do and teaches you a lot on the way.

in the States they seem to be going in the $1200 price point.

When a piece of my equipment reaches the end of its time with me I tend to pass it on to a younger player who could use it to great effect Recently sent one of my nephews , George, who plays bass, one of my six stringed instruments. I also sent him a Carvin BX1500 which will work on the 240V supplies you have over there. When one of my brothers visit next month he'll take all the stuff I had on my pedal board for George.

That's a nice old Precision you have there. Looks less battered than mine! LOL

Thank you for taking the time and effort to do this review though I'm sure you only did it to please your cat!!

Stewart is correct in his assessment of the Effects Loop being problematic. Linking the Send and Return has saved many different amplifiers from a premature death. I thank him for the information he provided.

I would just like to wish the OP in his new venture. Playing in front of a crowd is different than rehearsal time. I was part of a musical family so my dad had me singing on stage at the tender age of five! It was at a musical contest and I won! LOL

Both full compass and reverb are listing spare parts. Perchance maybe they have what you need. This is the link I found: https://www.fullcompass.com/searchresults.php?search_simple=true&txtAll=hartke+slider+pots

As did I. When I decided it wasn't for me I shipped it at my cost to a young guy on the infamous Talk Bass. I can't remember if he ever thanked me for it but hey that's in the past. The mods kicked me off the site for trying to warn them what a certain POTUS was trying to do. That's water under the bridge too! LOL

IMO those little boxes are not safe to use with a high power amplifier. The 1/4" phone sockets are simply not up to the current/voltage needed. They were originally designed for telephone switchboards operating at 48V DC and a couple of hundred milliamps. That's far below what a typical bass amp puts out. if they had used SpeakOns I would have no objections.

I'm don't think that an amplifier can be modified to run a load it wasn't designed for. It would entail a rebuild of the power amp AND the power supply. It would be costly even if it could be done. If you are considering this to enable you to run your existing cabinetry it would be far better get rid of the 4Ω box and get an identical second 8Ω cab.

My favourite amplifier is my Ampeg B15NF. The reason is obvious and it's staying in the fold. Second is the Class D 2KW stereo power amp that I built a simple tube pre-amp to drive. it feeds a pair of Acme B2 2x10 three way cabinets stacked on their ends for a vertical 4x10. When I feel crazy enough it will safely push all four of my Acme cabinets. If I gig this is the unit that goes along. Third was my Epiphone Constellation around 1968. which I loved made the mistake of trading it in, at Dawson's Runcorn store, for a Blonde Blackface Fender Bassman with its 2x12 cabinet. That amp was such a disappointment that I retuned it the next day. They had sold the Constellation so I just left the Fender there anyway.

Another thought is to get a replacement 240V power transformer from Fliptops in the US. It will somewhat devalue the amp but if you're keeping it it's better than messing about with external step down transformers. https://www.fliptops.net/catalog/p-100561/power-transformer-pt108-for-ampeg-b15nb12n

WOW! Talk about resurrecting a Zombie thread! LOL

I agree that there is something special about a B15. I just love the tone of my B15NF which I use as my practice amp. It makes practice time a pleasure. Mine is in better condition than the one in the link that Bill posted. In your place I would keep the 15" unit as you never know when the urge to play will grab you again. I do hope that the external transformer that you use is rated high enough to operate the amp safely.

If an amplifier has been correctly designed to operate, as all the ones I own are, into a 2Ω load they will run just as well at 2Ω as they will at 8Ω.

It's very unlikely to be class A! Too inefficient for a bass amp.

My comment was better said than unsaid! Many folks have done this and their amp has failed.

I remember that from my JBL days. I still love the brand though I don't use them to play through any more.

Don't connect both amps to the cabinet at the same time. Magic smoke comes out wen you do that!

Indeed that's what I do. After a while it becomes automatic!