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Fender Bassman 410H speaker options?

A

azfatboy

May 11, 2016
735
828
#1
I am picking up a Bassman 410H enclosure today on the cheap. It might have blown speakers, but the box itself is supposedly in great shape, so for $40, I just can't pass it up. Just the enclosure is worth that to me.

I was hoping for more information on this cab. I know it's a 300W 8ohm cab and that it is relatively heavy (60+ lbs). But I would like any specifics on the speakers that are in it, as well as recommendations for replacements?
 
#2
azfatboy said:
I am picking up a Bassman 410H enclosure today on the cheap. It might have blown speakers, but the box itself is supposedly in great shape, so for $40, I just can't pass it up. Just the enclosure is worth that to me.

I was hoping for more information on this cab. I know it's a 300W 8ohm cab and that it is relatively heavy (60+ lbs). But I would like any specifics on the speakers that are in it, as well as recommendations for replacements?
Click to expand...
If no one pops up here with info, contact Fender.
 
#5
Well, I picked up the Fender Bassman 410H cab. It is in awesome shape. Hardly a ding or scrape anywhere. I am giddy just looking at it. FORTY BUCKS! I still can't believe it...

The guy said the cab was not producing any sound. Well, no wonder--cause when I took it apart, NONE of the speakers were connected to ANYTHING! And I am no electrician, but even I know that ain't good! The top 2 speakers each have a black and white wire connected to their terminals (via spade, not soldered), but those wires are just hanging loose in the cab. The bottom two speakers don't even have speaker wire! Not a big problem, except I have NO IDEA how this thing is wired! I found a schematic, but it just had two wires going to "Woofers". Well DUH! But how are those woofers connected to each other??? is each one wired independently? Are they wired from one to another?

I know it is an 8 ohm, 300W cab, and that in addition to the input, it has a "parallel" out on the back to daisy chain to a second cab (usually a Bassman 115). This configuration would result in a 4 ohm load, which the Bassman 400h (the head these cabs were designed for) was designed to handle. It also has a small tweeter in the middle, controlled by a volume knob on the back panel. This rheostat-looking switch has 3 prongs, but only two have wired soldered. The third one looks like there may have been a soldered wired on there that is no longer connected. (on a side note, the knob itself turns with a little grittiness--will need to look at that eventually).

The only resource I found on Fender's site was the User's Manual, which told me the same basic stuff in 6 different languages. Can anyone provide some help or suggestion?
 
#7
Ok, I'm working on pics. Meanwhile, perhaps the other guy was already in the cab. I was able to just connect the orange(+) and brown(-) wires from the back panel straight to each speaker. I got sound from one speaker, but not the other three. They appear perfect, but looks like I have 3 duds. :( Is there any more sophisticated test I can do to ensure they are bad?

Meanwhile, whether I have to replace speakers or not, my brain is trying to wrap itself around that schematic I found, and I think I finally made some sense out of it. I found the following diagram in the schematic:

3340323-be570ee8830a23c7381a2424744f80f7.jpg



So this is what I think I would do, and I am pretty confident, except for the middle step, highlighed below:

connect the orange to the UPPER RIGHT speaker positive
connect UPPER RIGHT positive to LOWER RIGHT positive (white)

connect the brown to the UPPER LEFT negative
connect UPPER LEFT negative to LOWER LEFT negative (black)
connect UPPER LEFT positive to LOWER LEFT positive (white) (IS THIS CORRECT?)

connect UPPER RIGHT negative to UPPER LEFT positive (black)
connect LOWER RIGHT negative to LOWER LEFT positive. (black)
 

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  • 410HWooferWiring.jpg
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#8
BassmanPaul said:
To replace four drivers look to spend $400-600.
Click to expand...

To be honest, I was mostly interested in finding an empty cab that I could experiment with. But even empty cabs in my area were going for $100-200+. And then this 4x10 Fender cab (which already matches all my other Fender amps), designed for bass, and made from solid wood and looking new shows up for $40? And I might get some good speakers out of it? buttah! Like I said, I woulda paid $40 for this empty, so I really don't look at buying new speakers as "replacing", but rather as an initial investment into building a semi-custom cab. It's an important distinction to me, anyway... :)

SO.... since it looks like at least most of the speakers are indeed bad, I am looking for suggestions. My intent is to get at least a 500W amp (Fender Rumble 500 head, GK Fusion 500, etc) to run this cab, so I would like a speaker stack that could handle it.
 
#9
azfatboy said:
Ok, I'm working on pics. Meanwhile, perhaps the other guy was already in the cab. I was able to just connect the orange(+) and brown(-) wires from the back panel straight to each speaker. I got sound from one speaker, but not the other three. They appear perfect, but looks like I have 3 duds. :( Is there any more sophisticated test I can do to ensure they are bad?
Click to expand...

Yes- take a 9v battery and touch it briefly to the speaker terminals. The cone should move and you will hear a clicking if the speaker is ok.


connect the orange to the UPPER RIGHT speaker positive
connect UPPER RIGHT positive to LOWER RIGHT positive (white)

connect the brown to the UPPER LEFT negative
connect UPPER LEFT negative to LOWER LEFT negative (black)

connect UPPER RIGHT negative to UPPER LEFT positive (black)
connect LOWER RIGHT negative to LOWER LEFT positive. (black)
 
#10
popgadget, thanks for the tip. The 9V method confirmed that only one speaker is still good.

As far as replacement speakers, should I be looking at a "bass-specific" design like the Eminence Basslite S10 or is there a "full-range" speaker that I should go for instead? And I think I would like to maintain this as an "8 ohm" cab. That way, I could easily combine with another 8 ohm cab, for a 4 ohm load. And I would only buy a head that would handle both 4 or 8 ohms. But, with the way this cab is wired, are the individual speakers rated 8-ohm, 16-ohm, or even 32-ohm? Or can I buy whatever speakers I want, and there are wiring options that will enable whatever final load that I want?
 
#11
I also found a cheapie multimeter that I bought a while back. After a couple youtube videos, I got pretty comfortable with the idea of checking resistance. So I used that to test my speakers. Got open on the 3 bad speakers, no surprise. But then I got a wandering reading of 4.1 - 4.5 ohms on the "good" speaker. Does that mean this is speaker is toast? Because it is clearly NOT supposed to be a 4 ohm speaker...

410H-speaker.jpg
 
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#12
What you are measuring with your meter is DC resistance which is not exactly the same as impedance. Your reading is typical of what I'd expect.
As I recall, that's a sealed cabinet, I would think that the Eminence Legend BP-102 would be a decent match, but replace all four.
 
#13
Ok, that's good to know. I guess I can just set aside that speaker for future projects. And yes, it is a sealed cab.

I was looking at the BP102. But I was also looking at the BassLite SC10 that is also suitable for sealed cabs and would save over 20 pounds (3.5 vs 8.9 lbs ea). Is there some reason that the Legend would be better (besides the 200W vs 150W)?

Also, I just stumbled on these Invalid Link Removed speakers and commenced uncontrolled drooling. I guess they are overstock parts that were originally for GB bass cabs? Anyway, almost as cheap as the Legends, but are rated for 300W, and weigh HALF as much (5.1 lbs ea)! Sounds like the best of both worlds! They only come in 16-ohm at this price, but for only $299 shipped, I could wire them in parallel, and have a kicking 1200W 4-ohm bass cab... No?
 
#14
Those Faital's might be a good option, but there is no way to know what the specs are, as they were customized for Genz Benz. Aged Horse might be able to give you some insight, it would be helpful if you listed the cabinet volume, then perhaps he could weigh in as to their suitability.
 
#16
Well actually, I found this GB/Faital 10PR300 specs thread, from DaveAvatar, where his intent was to provide exactly that detail. I must admit, I am not sure what "specs" I need--I just don't know what I am looking for...

The Bassman 410H cab is approximately 24x24x18 (hxwxd). The interior space is approximately 23x23x16 for a volume of 8464 cubic inches. My rough math puts that at just under 5 cubic feet. Is that the right information?
 
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#17
So this 410 cab is a open cube within? I have two Custom Shop Rumble Bass 410 cabs that are divided into two separate chambers for each pair of speakers.. The full range cab has Eminence 16 ohm speakers in it, the 410 sub has Eminence 4 ohm speakers in it.. each cab is rated at 600 watts.
azfatboy said:
Well actually, I found this GB/Faital 10PR300 specs thread, from DaveAvatar, where his intent was to provide exactly that detail. I must admit, I didn't see the "specs" on the 10", but maybe I just don't know what I am looking for...

The Bassman 410H cab is approximately 24x24x18 (hxwxd). The interior space is approximately 23x23x16 for a volume of 8464 cubic inches. My rough math puts that at just under 5 cubic feet. Is that the right information?
Click to expand...
 
#19
Ok, so I am trying to figure this out on my own as well. I even downloaded the latest WinISD (v0.7). So far, the biggest problem is that these drivers are not in the list! In fact, there is not a SINGLE Faital driver in the entire database!!!

I've seen a dozen threads where folks are using these speakers for testing in WinISD. These Faital drivers seem to be extremely popular, especially for the DIY crowd. So is everyone really inputting the speaker manually? If so, I am still doing something wrong, cause I plugged in every matching parameter I could find, and WinISD still says the "Driver data fails integrity check"...

Does anyone have a working WinISD driver file (.wdr) for these Faital/GB 10PR300 (and 12PR300 for that matter)???
 
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