BassmanPaul

For me the Fender Bassman was the worst amplifier I ever owned. The speaker cabinet sounded nice at low volume but getting it to gig volume was horrible. The first Fender amp I ever liked was the Rumble series.

I think all of us who do tech work have come across similar trials at one time or another. I hope your saga end with stellar results.

@uk_lefty just for interest who is Jo?

Seeing as though @afterimage didn't rise to the bait I should explain that I too count Liverpool as my home city. Yes I'm a little crazy too!! In the Sixties I worked at The Automatic Telephones plant on Edge Lane while I learned my skills and going to EE school. At the same time I played with a Merseybeat era personality called Earl Preston, real name George Spruce. On June 6Th 1968, whilst playing a gig at Nalgo somewhere off Queens Drive, I met a pretty 17 year old girl who I fell in love with. We were married in 1969 and so have just enjoyed our Golden Wedding. We came back to the city to celebrate it with our family. Forgive my trip down memory lane but it was a life changing time in my life. to all of you keep yourselves safe in this horrible time!

Oh come on Nancy love Ohmage?? The correct word is impedance! It's obvious that you know what you are doing. You use your amplification wisely. All too many people just crank the amp to get louder without giving a damn about whether the speaker systems are capable of handling that extra power. The only time I damaged drivers since 1962 is when I left my amplification in the van over a cold winters night. Stupidly I failed to allow the stuff to warm up to room temperature before dropping a nice low B into the pair of Acme B2s. I cracked a surround on one driver in each cabinet. Let me tell you THAT was a long night. <moan!> Luckily Andy Lewis the builder of the cabinets shipped me a replacement for each very quickly.

Did you get the amp repaired? Does it now work properly?

RTFM is always a sensible option!

It doesn't matter what the subharmonic does if the speaker system is incapable of safely reproducing what is coming out of the amplifier.

AMEN!

My choice would be a Mesa TT800 and forget about the big iron crap!!

Do the battery test on the cabinets to see if they are working properly. Make sure the SpeakOn plugs are wired properly and are made by Neutrik. Is there an impedance selector on the amp and if so is it set appropriately.

If you add an 8Ω load in parallel with a 4Ω load (2.67Ω total) the 4Ω load will get two thirds of the available power. In series (12Ω total) the 4Ω load will get one third of that power.

Dont bother - they're out of business now.

This all happened in the Sixties so these little gizmos were not available.

That's what I wrote.

Don't be naughty! LOL

I won't put black Nylon wrapped strings on any bass I have. I've done it three times and all three basses ended up stolen. When I got my Precision I wanted to use Rotosounds but none were available in Liverpool at the time. Finally I took a train to Manchester to buy some.

The standard 1/4" phone plug was originally developed for telephone switchboards. in that service they were rated at 48V DC at a couple of hundred milliamps. Using them for a guitar cable is fine. as a speaker cable not so much especially as amplifier power has grown. Up to a couple of hundred watts they are adequate but have problems shorting the amp if withdrawn accidentally from the amplifier. SpeakOn cables are superior in every way. Typically they are wired +1 >>> +1 and -1 >>> -1. For Bridge mode they are wired at the amp end +1 >>> +1 at the cabinet. Amp end +2 >>> -1 at the cabinet.

Too true! Too many make you go blind!!! LOL

Many of the heads were designed around 2Ω cabs and didn't perform so well into higher cabinet impedances.

As someone who worked in the electricity generating industry perhaps I'm biased! LOL

Only if it equates to more power output. 236W is only going to get you so far despite the algorithms used to process the signal.

For myself, I was glad to leave tube output sections behind. I still build tube amps but they are aimed at the guitar. My current amp is a 2000W capable class D stereo power amp. I designed and built a tube pre-amp to drive it. The system sounds great into a pair of 4Ω Acme B2 cabinets, one on each channel.

Why did the chicken cross the road? To see Gregory peck!