bass *straight pipe* in a power amp

[bassolp]

im not a noob but i never try this before so... i got a active bass. does it work if i plug my bass in a power amp like a crown XLS 1500 or wt into a bass cab. i never use EQ on every amp i ever use i always setup flat and gage on my bass if i need some thing ( anyway am the kind of guy who think TONE come out of the finger ) the question is if i plug the bass * straight pipe * in the power do i get all the power i need



thanks bass lovers

 

[silky smoove]

It's pretty infrequent that a bass will be hot enough on it's own to drive a power amp to much volume. The Crown XLS Drivecore stuff requires a hotter signal than a lot of power amps on the market today, so I'd expect that one to be especially wimpy without anything in line.

The good news is, there are lots of neutral, flat, uncolored, transparent, etc. etc. etc. preamps out there to stick in line and just leave flat.

 

[bassolp]

thanks silky

 

[bassolp]

just to change a little bit off the topic do you think theres a bass amp on the market that can just AMPLIFIED a bass ( im pretty tiried of an EQ for me its useless )

 

[bongomania]

One option is to get a transparent-sounding clean boost pedal that has sufficient gain to drive the power amp. Not all boost pedals will work, but some do. I use a Stephenson Amps "Fix My Duck" pedal for exactly this purpose.

Another option is to get a power amp that has a very low input sensitivity rating, like the Crest CA series. With an input sensitivity of 0.7 V, you may be able to drive the power amp "well enough" with just the direct output of a high-output active bass.

 

[bassolp]

thanks bongo for the reply

 

[craig.p]

just to change a little bit off the topic do you think theres a bass amp on the market that can just AMPLIFIED a bass ( im pretty tiried of an EQ for me its useless )

Buy your power amp. For home practice alone, your active bass's output should be enough to drive the power amp directly. For work in a group, go buy a simple "mic preamp," and that will raise the signal level enough to drive your power amp. The simple/inexpensive ones have one channel and one volume control, and nothing more. As an example, Invalid Link Removed what BH Photo & Video offers. You may have to buy an unbalanced-to-balanced converter, to convert your instrument's high-impedance/phone-plug output to a mic amp's low-impedance/XLR-jack input, but that's about the only gotcha I can think of this early in the morning (here).

Wait -- another gotcha MAY be that you'll have to watch the volume on your bass so as not to overdrive the mic preamp. But really, that's a non-problem; it just falls under the category of running your equipment correctly.

There are bass amps out there that, when set flat, really are flat when set flat, or at least sound that way. The problems are a) finding the ones that behave that way, and b) verifying it with measurements if you need the amp truly to BE flat (versus SOUND more or less flat). The mic preamp + power amp setup makes the perfect end run around those headaches.