Who owns a Fender PS400 or 300 and would mind showing their stack?
And how does the Fender Super Bassman hold up against it's granddad?
And how does the Fender Super Bassman hold up against it's granddad?
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Fender PS 400 Bass Amp & 18 Speaker System
- Thread starter toshibajoe
- Start date
A few of the veterans here may have owned both, though doubtfully at the same time. I can't comment on the Super Bassman, I've never seen one. I haven't bothered to try out amps in years. I've been happy since I found cabinets I liked for the 400PS.
WARNING - Weird, heavy, old tube amp and MIXED DRIVER SIZES pictured below. NSFTB, so I am posting a link, not a pic. Click at your own risk.
http://i.imgur.com/XKWCvkK.jpg
WARNING - Weird, heavy, old tube amp and MIXED DRIVER SIZES pictured below. NSFTB, so I am posting a link, not a pic. Click at your own risk.
http://i.imgur.com/XKWCvkK.jpg
I have never heard of an amp that can handle three 4Ω loads, 1.3Ω aggregate. At 440W, that is an incredible amount of current - 330A!
There is one on eBay at the moment. It has all 3 cabs. I think starting bid is $3495. We were on a bill with Heart in Canada 1973. The guitarist, bass, and keyboards all played with 3 cabs! 9 cabs on stage total. It WAS loud, but they sounded great. I bought a ps400 several years ago on eBay. The seller didn't have a clue on packing it. 8 little styrofoam corners. By the time it came from the east coast to my house it was totally hammered. It was so bad I wouldn't even attempt to plug it in.
I was sick. Got my money back 90 day later, no apologies. I think the seller was selling me junk and wanted it destroyed by UPS. Scam? Not sure but he disappeared from eBay fairly soon after the incident. At least I learned how to pack an amp bullet proof. LOL
I was sick. Got my money back 90 day later, no apologies. I think the seller was selling me junk and wanted it destroyed by UPS. Scam? Not sure but he disappeared from eBay fairly soon after the incident. At least I learned how to pack an amp bullet proof. LOL
That amp actually has 3 separate 4-ohm windings, so it's not technically running them all in parallel. Each time you plug in a 4-ohm load, it switches on a pair of 6550A tubes, so you have to have 3 cabs to get full power.
And your math is a little off - P = I^2 R, so I = 18A total for 440W into a 1.3333 ohm load, but that's spread across the 3 4-ohm windings, so each speaker is getting 6A.
Chris
I thought about this right when as I was going to bed and forgot to correct myself this morning. It occurred to me that it is not a parallel connection so that assumption was wrong and the math is too. The labels on the jacks say 145W into 4Ω and that works out to 6A. There are three jacks so theorectically it can put out 18A total. That's still a pretty high current but not quite jaw dropping. 
Thanks.
Thanks.
Don't own one and was just browsing this thread and thought it was cool. Then, while browsing CL in MSP I found one for sale:
[Invalid or Expired Link Removed]
That's my home town - too bad I'm not in the market!!
Raz
[Invalid or Expired Link Removed]
That's my home town - too bad I'm not in the market!!
Raz
I run 2 of my 400PS outputs into a Peavey 1810 cab. I also keep the 2 input channels connected together.
More than enough for what I do!
More than enough for what I do!
Found some old pics of past cabinet configurations, before I hit upon my current one, which sounds best for what I'm doing and is portable. There's a reason the only photos of this amp I have outside of the guitarist's practice space/dungeon are of the current rig!
Odd cabs in photos below:
2. 2 Peavey 1820s (18, 210) 2 Bergantino 15 subs
3. Ampeg IsoVent (210, 2X15)
I've got a 400ps with an original cabinet, sure would like to find 2 more cabs....it is a monster amp. for the Barry Oakley fans I also have 2 of the original cabinets he used with his 400ps, I pulled them out of a basement in Macon Ga a few years ago. They were left there by the guitarist from Grinderswitch many years ago. I've never tried them with the head though.
There's a pawnshop here that hasn't sold their 300PS yet, still don't think I've seen a 400 in the wild though, if I do I don't remember.
This amp is still on my bucket list. Making my own cabs, I could easily come up with 3 dual driver 4-ohmers to take advantage of it.
My practical side thinks 6-12's would be a sweetspot, though the rock-n-roller in me still wants 6-15's.
This amp is still on my bucket list. Making my own cabs, I could easily come up with 3 dual driver 4-ohmers to take advantage of it.
My practical side thinks 6-12's would be a sweetspot, though the rock-n-roller in me still wants 6-15's.
The thing about the original 'W' cab is that it somehow throws sound right past you into the rear of the stadium!!!!
I,m gonna bump this because the ps400 rules. And NEED to share. In holland a guy is selling a pristine ps400 cabinet.
- May 9, 2008
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- Proprietor Springvale Studios
That beast would be a hard old job for any six by ten you could get, if you felt like you needed a bit of good old fashioned Lemmy like tube power stage distortion.
That is a very nice example johnk_10. A lot cleaner than mine. I'll post some pics when I can. Maybe a 400PS Club is a good idea. There doesn't seem to be one.
