Will this work? Little Bastard with a power amp

[sevdog]

I've got an opportunity to grab an Ashdown Little Bastard for super cheap. I love, love, love, love the sounds I can get out of it but it certainly isn't enough wattage/volume for live applications. So, I was thinking I could possibly just run it through a power amp and into my cab. Anybody do a setup like this? Good Experiences? Bad Experiences? Anybody know of a technical/mechanical problem with doing this?

I'm thinking Little Bastard-> Crown XLS 1000/1500 -> 412 cab

BTW, I read until my eyes crossed. If there's a thread out there about this already just post the link for me and save the smart comments.

Thanks!

[BassmanPaul]

It can be done but the LB will need a load applied to it. You can get a 200W dummy load from Parts Express but it will need to be bolted to a hefty piece of aluminium to keep it cool.

[sevdog]

Thanks for the response. Is this what you're talking about?

8 Ohm 200W Non-Inductive Dummy Load Resistor 019-030

$31 seems like an easy fix but I have no idea what I'd be doing with that. Is that easy to do or should I go to a shop to see if someone can do this for me. If it's a costly job then the "deal" would run out of favor pretty quick.

[RickenBoogie]

Seems like a wasted effort, since all you'd be using from the Bastard is the preamp. If you're buying a poweramp anyway, just get a pre to run it.

[chadds]

My experience is these cobbled together efforts show their weakness at the gig.
If you can afford it get a Monique.

[hennessybass]

Originally Posted by RickenBoogie

Seems like a wasted effort, since all you'd be using from the Bastard is the preamp. If you're buying a poweramp anyway, just get a pre to run it.

I assume we are talking about using the DI out to run into a power amp, right? The LB DI after the power section, not just the pre.

From the LB manual.

DI OUTPUT - This XLR socket is used to connect the amplifier to a low
impedance, balanced input on a PA system or recording mixer. The DI output
is taken from a separate winding on the output transformer, allowing the full
character of the valve tone to be sent to the PA or recording console.

----
Still doesn't solve the load problem.

[sevdog]

Originally Posted by hennessybass

I assume we are talking about using the DI out to run into a power amp, right? The LB DI after the power section, not just the pre.

From the LB manual.

DI OUTPUT - This XLR socket is used to connect the amplifier to a low
impedance, balanced input on a PA system or recording mixer. The DI output
is taken from a separate winding on the output transformer, allowing the full
character of the valve tone to be sent to the PA or recording console.

----
Still doesn't solve the load problem.

Right, so the sound should be maintained through the PA to the cabinet and the Dummy Load that BassmanPaul was talking about would solve the load problem, potentially for $32.

I know a couple of good amp guys I think I'll go pick their brains.

Thanks.

I believe Bob Weston of Shellac does something similar with a Traynor tube head and a power amp; and didn't people do this type of thing a lot back in the days of Hiwatt and Sunn before solid state?

[sevdog]

Originally Posted by chadds

My experience is these cobbled together efforts show their weakness at the gig.
If you can afford it get a Monique.

Whoa. I just went and looked up the Monique. Looks pretty awesome but $1300 kind of kills my whole idea. Seriously looks pretty sweet though. But even still the Little Bastard sounds freaking amazing to me. If I can pull off this LB-> power amp setup then I might be set for life.

[RickenBoogie]

I'm not 100% sure the DI out will run a poweramp, but it may well. I was thinking run the poweramp from the LB's preamp out, which is the normal way of doing this.

[sevdog]

So, I spoke with some very knowledgeable amp dudes here in Austin. It appears that the answer is a power attenuator. However, the consensus seemed to be for me to get a degree in electrical engineering or something before I try to build/play with this sort of thing or go buy one pre-built (attenuator + cost of amp= no longer cheap setup)

Everyone (handful of old dudes that work on amps and guitars all the time) agreed on a few things:

-that at the minimum I'd be replacing tubes at a rapid rate
-To be safe I would need to use an attenuator that, like Bassman Paul said, could handle about 200w. And those ain't cheap
-"Everyone" thought they'd heard somewhere from someone that Bob Weston basically has a small tube amp with an attenuator built into it's own box.
-It would sound totally awesome and I should do it anyways and let them play with it...which will happen when I have enough money to quit my day job.

[chadds]

Question:
When you do this will the little Bast sound the way you hear it now? (with a true load)
If it sounds somewhat different then is there another head that will sound like you want into that cab or a pre that will, into your Crown and cab?

[sevdog]

Originally Posted by chadds

Question:
When you do this will the little Bast sound the way you hear it now? (with a true load)
If it sounds somewhat different then is there another head that will sound like you want into that cab or a pre that will, into your Crown and cab?

The DI out on the LB comes off of the output transformer, so it is not just the preamp sound. The idea was that the power section is used as well, so a clean power amp could get virtually the same sound as the tube amp. However, I don't have the $$$ to play around with attenuators or the know-how to build my own so I'm going to pass on the LB.

There are plenty of other amps that I like, this thing just sounded so freaking awesome that I wanted to make it work. I suppose if it was so cheap and easy then a lot more people would have done it already.