Fender Bassman 100w Silverface w/ 410RBH

[Baron0li]

I have have he opportunity to get a hold of a 72' Silverface bassman. I'm a bit unsure on if it'll be okay with my 410 RBH however.

I've always used solid state and have a 1001rb paired with an 8 ohm 410RBH and love it. My love affair with tubes never really took off.

The rear of the Bassman says total load 4ohm ( it has a speaker and ext speaker output) and I jammed with the bassman paired with my 410RBH 8 ohm with no issues.

However is this viable long term? There isn't any ohm switcher from what I can see and I know on solid state it just halfs my 8ohm cab into 4, I've been told tubes are different and this could be dangerous!

I can't warrant replacing my cab so if it doesn't sound like a good idea I'll have to pass!

Attached pics of the back of it below.

Cheers

 

[BogeyBass]

tube amps have a output transformer which gives the correct
match to the tubes themselves

the impedance isn't pre set it's a ratio. so if the wrong impedance is on one side the other side doesn't see what it wants either

unfortunately using a 8 ohm speaker with the amp surplys the wrong impedance for the tubes to operate correctly and yes you need a 4 ohm load.

 

[Bill Whitehurst]

While not what it wants, it will tolerate the mismatch.
Fenders are pretty forgiving about that.

Or...
you could use that as an excuse to buy a second, matching 410.

 

[BogeyBass]

I'd actually rather have the baseman it's one of my favorite heads
and use a different cab

and yeah pretty forgiving with a higher impedance.

 

[B-string]

The Bassman will be fine with an 8 ohm load. The output will be about 90-95 watts with a lower distortion. The output tubes will still be in their optimum plate curve. I sure would not give up that cab for any amp and here you have no need to.