using an 'audio' amp as a bass head

[ChrBass]

I currently play through a Hartke 7000 head and their Transporter 4x10. I am in a cover band and use a traditional solid body, Precision style bass. I also play various venues with my Godin A4 and use it for those 'upright' sounds, etc.
Okay, here's my dilema: My Hartke head is almost 20yrs old and has just about had it(doing that intermittent notorious Hartke short-out). I don't have the money at the moment to buy another head with that kinda power. And I have gigs coming up. However, I do have an 'high end' Aragon 8008BB(dual mono stereo amp 200Wx2) laying around that I hardly use that I could bridge into a bass cab with dual inputs.
So, if I could find a decent bass preamp, such as the Eden WT series, would this set up work as a bass amp? Or would it sound "too clean"?

[Alex1984]

The WT series is not a pre-amp unless you're talking about the navigator. What are the specs of the Aragon?

[ChrBass]

200W(each side) into 8ohms. 400W total. 400W/side into 4 ohms. Yes, the Navigator, or I may be able to borrow a Sans amp..

[MrDOS]

I used a Bryston 4B for years with a tube preamp, it sounded great.

[ChrBass]

And the Hartke 7000 puts out 350W per side with a total of 700W bi amped. 8 ohms

[ChrBass]

The only problem would be rigging up a way to transport it around(78lbs)!

[will33]

The power may work but DO NOT run a cable from each side of the amp and plug them both in the jacks on the back of your cab. Those are not "dual inputs". They're wired together in parallel for chaining another cab. NOT for plugging more than one amp into it. If you do that you will blow the rest of your gear. If the poweramp can't be bridged you are down to running one side if it into your one cab. The other side could be used to power a second cab.

[ChrBass]

Thanks, that's nice to know! ;/ .. So would it hurt the amp if I plugged side into a 4ohm Sub and the other side into an 8ohm cab? Two sides running ass different loads..

[wmheilma]

I used a component rig for years! It works great! I have a Crown PSA2 with a mixer and variety of bass preamps in my practice studio now. One of the preamps is my old SWR SM-400 which blew up so badly that it burned the traces off the circuit board (Not to thrilled with the post-SWR fender repair guys who tried to fix it three times before it actually shot sparks and stuff.)

My current rig though, is a GenzBenz ShuttleMAX 6.0 that weighs about 4 lbs and sounds great. So my BIG component rig stays at home these days.

The preamp is very important if you decide to put together a component rig. Test a lot of them to see what fits your style. You may find your best bet is to simply buy a new head if you fall in love with a pricey pre-amp.

[Jim Nazium]

I used a Carver home stereo power amp in a bass rig for a while and it worked fine. Home stereo gear isn't usually built to take the abuse that touring / gigging gear will be subjected to, so I wouldn't recommend it as a permanent solution, but as a temporary MacGuyver setup it will work.

[madmachinist]

running channel 1 @ 8 ohms, ch-2 @ 4 ohms shouldn't pose
a threat as long as your amp is stable into 4 ohms , and the
4 ohm speaker load can handle 400w.

i used a Carver M500t for awhile before i got my current QSC-1700 'Lead Sled' . it worked great...
just not very roadworthy and i had to make rack ears for it.

[will33]

Originally Posted by ChrBass

Thanks, that's nice to know! ;/ .. So would it hurt the amp if I plugged side into a 4ohm Sub and the other side into an 8ohm cab? Two sides running ass different loads..

That is fine to do. Just don't have more than one amp plugged into one cab. If the amp can be bridged with a switch or something on the back you could do that, than plug it into your 410. Bridging sums the 2 separate amps as one than sends that power to the speaker so it's still one amp ---> one cab. Plugging both sides into both jacks on the cab will destroy both amp and cab.

[gbarchus]

I've used a Crown DC300, Phase Linear 700B and even a 400 watt Harmon Kardon Citation power amp for bass.