Ampeg PF-115HE Questions

[CL400Peavey]

Deactivate the active pad. Turn the master and gain down to just above off. Plug your bass in by itself. Set the compressor at noon. Play your lowest string and bring up the gain slowly, bring it up till your hardest hits are making the red light flash. Then bring your master up a bit.

Is there still a hiss?

 

[johnpbass]

CL400Peavey, You are misunderstanding me. I know about ohms. I thought I stated that already. I know the ohms of the cabinet and the different outputs on the head. What I am disappointed in is the fact that if they were going to make this amp put out 500 W then the cab they want you to pair it with should be rated at 4 ohm so you can use the 4 ohm output and run at 500 W.

Well, the amp is rated for 4ohm or 8ohm operation so I don't think they designed it to only run 500 watts. IMO, there are people who want a scalable rig and don't always need to run at 500 watts (although the difference between the wattages is not really that much). The 8 ohm cabs give you that option. You add the second 8 ohm cab which adds some watts running at 4 ohm but more importantly gives you the added speaker area with the 2nd 15.

 

[AstroSonic]

The master is set at 12 and the gain at 12. I have an active bass and the -15 db switch is activated. The mute button also does not affect the hissing noise.

You have some audible noise coming from the preamp. However, the noon setting of both the the gain and master is an overall pretty high setting and could be causing the noise. Disengage the -15db switch. If the amplifier distorts when set for 'passive', decrease the instruments volume as needed. Your instrument will be a lot louder (maybe +15db!). You will be able to get the same spl with lower gain and master settings. This may solve or at least improve your noise problem.

 

[powerdimer]

Third. I am very disappointed in the fact that the PF500 head leads you to believe that you can run the head at 500 W, until you realize that the only way to do this is buy a 4 ohm cab, or buy the second extension cab for the PF500 head that allows you to run at 4 ohm and 500 W. Why not just call it what is is and call it a PF350? Because that's real all you're getting out of it. I would like to disconnect the horn all together and make this a 4 ohm cab. Would this be an easy process, or would I need to purchase a whole new speaker to run the cab at 500 W?

It's how all amps are marked. The 350 probably puts out 150 w. It's just numbers, so that we can compare amps. I don't see the problem. You want louder, you need more cabs.