more power to a cabinet

[Kindofblue]

Hey everyone, I am trying to make my amp louder to cut through my band. It says my cabinet is rated at 700 watts at 8 ohms (it is a fender bassman) and my head is only 250 w at 4 ohms. What could I do to boost the wattage? I am new to amps and understanding this stuff because I just started playing electric bass after playing upright for a few years. Thank you!

[Eric Moesle]

An amplifier has the power it has, and that's it. You can't get more out of an amp than what it is built with.

You could purchase a separate stand-alone power amp made for PA use and go line out into the new amp, but its not cost effective. At that point you should just buy a new bass amp.

[Thunder Pulse]

If it's 250w at 4 ohms then it's even less at 8 ohms. If you're turning the head up as loud as it will go without clipping and it's not loud enough, then you've maxed out the capabilities of that head. You'll need to get a more powerful head if you want more volume.

[Jaco who?]

Well, you can add another same/similar 8Ω cab to get the head's full 250 watts and you might be loud enough. It depends on what's out there and what's most cost effective.

I can tell you though that 250 watts into a pair of, say, 15"s would be much louder than trying to get every last millimeter of xmax out of one 15" cab with 500 watts. (The 15" is just an example, you would be in a similar predicament with other sizes/configurations too).

[jtc_hunter]

Someone else can correct me if I am wrong, but i believe i read where 2x the speaker area increased volume by 2x. But to increase volume 2x with watts thru one speaker, you have to increase watts 10x. So add another speaker.

[billfitzmaurice]

Originally Posted by jtc_hunter

So add another speaker.

I wouldn't. His current speaker probably needs about 300 watts to get it to full output in the low end, and he's only got perhaps 160 available into an 8 ohm load. Unless he absolutely positively can't live without the tone of his amp I'd get something rated for 400 watts or so into 8 ohms. Then he could push a second cab effectively should the need ever arise.

[IvanMike]

zactly what bill said. you aren't even close to pushing that cab as hard as you can. (and it's a rare moment when bill recommends more watts!)