SWR Amplite into MM Preamp into Goliath III

[gilez]

Hello,

Can any one help or suggest what may be happening with my setup up. I have a passive bass going through a SWR Amplite (4 ohm) into a Marcus Miller Preamp into a Goliath III (8 ohm).

The problem is the low strings are distorting as if the ohm setup was wrong.

[username1]

the bass should be going through the preamp not the amplite. Sounds like things are connected in the wrong order. Plug bass into preamp, preamp out into amplite input and amplite to speakers.

[gilez]

Thanks... but I dont think its possible to do that.

I seem to have adjusted most of the distortion out. I think it may just be a new and different animal. I had a 125 watt SWR working man 12 combo powering the Goliath 3 though the external speaker before, and it was not making the distortion noise. But when I tried a differnet bass it did not do it... so I am not sure what I might be doing wrong if anything... ???

[sqadan]

Do you have the Amplite or the Headlite? The preamp should feed the Amplite (poweramp)... that's the whole point...

Bass>MM-Pre>Amplite>Cab... that should be your setup.

Unless you have the headlite... in which case - not sure why you would use the MM.

Am I missing something here?

[JB696]

If you run the line out or the DI from the Amplite to the MM preamp you will be sending a very weak signal to the speaker cabinet. It will probably be inaudible unless you put your head right next to the speaker grill. If you go from the Amplite speaker out to the preamp and then to the speaker cabinet you will hear something.....a loud pop followed by a sizzling sound. These are the only two ways I can think of to hook it up Amplite>preamp>speaker cabinet. Probably neither one is the sound you are after.

[gilez]

I think my bass cab may be bad. I have it hooked up right from the beginning. Guitar|preamp|amp|cab.

[JB696]

OK, the Amplite doesn't have a DI out, so that possibility can be eliminated. If it is hooked up preamp>Amplite>speaker that will be much better than the way it was in your original post. And it should work perfectly as long as the signal from the preamp isn't too hot. Try backing down the output level of the preamp and see what happens.

[gilez]

I turned the preamp down to under half on the master and 1/4 up on gain. But it is still weak on the e string. I think the amp may be under powered for the cab.

BTW I just noticed I wrote the hook up order wrong in the original post sorry about that. Thanks for trying to help.

[T. Alan Smith]

Originally Posted by gilez

I think the amp may be under powered for the cab.

How so? Granted, that's not a metric ton of headroom, but it's certainly enough to get the job done.