Power a cab with this?

[chadface]

It'll probably sound a little better if you have some kind of bass preamp pedal (or otherwise) to shape your tone and raise it to line level first.

This is what I would do, put a BDDI in front of it and you're set.

OP probably won't have to worry about blowing the cab either; I had a hartke 410xl cab and it was darn near indestructable

 

[iiipopes]

Bad memories...one gig, years ago, my bass amp died in the middle of the gig. The keyboard player had a spare amp, a Peavey PA head very similar to the OP's picture. It got me through the next few gigs until I could get my amp repaired.

 

[arbiterusa]

It’ll work just fine and you don’t need a preamp.

 

[dbsfgyd1]

View attachment 3788386 Pardon the naive q and yes, I’m aware that this is not what it was intended for. A simple yeah, good idea, no, bad idea will more than suffice.
Thanks in advance.

Why not? Back in the 80’s I used an Acoustic 6 channel powered board powering a Road 1-18 cab for over a year and we gigged a lot. Worked great.

 

[linear]

Wouldn't a DI box into a mic input be the way to do this?

Although, are those mini-XLR inputs? That would be a bit annoying.

 

[braud357]

I have used a XR600B as a bass head on many occasions - it makes a GREAT bass amp !! Passive basses were not a problem, either ! I fact, my main bass amp from 1973-1976 was a Peavey PA300 PA mixer-amp - worked great !

 

[dBChad]

I used to have one of those and it worked great. Don't let its modest power ratings fool you, those PA mixer heads are very very LOUD!

I used everything with the one I had, mics, CD player using some 1/4" to RCA adapters, instruments. If you can get a clean signal into a channel on it, you can get a very loud sound to come out of a speaker using it.

 

[micguy]

Wouldn't a DI box into a mic input be the way to do this?

Most passive Di's have an input impedance that isn't that much different than one of the instrument inputs. An active Di would work better, but my guess is that someone wanting to use an old Peavey PA head for bass isn't flush with cash for a good DI.

It'll work fine - the lower input impedance will make it a little duller than most amps, but probably not a big deal. I'd bring 6 basses if I had that, so I could use them all on one gig without unplugging. At the end of the set, I'm pretty sure there' would be a rat's nest of twisted cables, but it'd be worth it.

 

[Redbrangus]

Any cheezy-ass stomp box or tuner will isolate the input impedance. Assuming it's even an audible problem to begin with.

 

[shadven]

I’ve used a pa head in a pinch back in the day when my amp head died. I have a vivid memory of playing a big outdoor gig with my rig being a Peavey pa head and an Ampeg 810 cab.

 

[Slevage]

My car broke down on the way to a gig in the 80’s.
Thumbed yo the gig with only my bass.
Did the gig with an available channel in a lesser PV PA rig.

 

[Bassdirty]

Go for it.

I keep seein one of these on a local site, started at $100+, now down to 80. I definitely don't need it, but for 80 bucks..?

... Don't let its modest power ratings fool you, those PA mixer heads are very very LOUD!

Yeah.
The old Peaveys in general (mixers/bass amps/guitar amps) from the early era seemed to be way under rated as far as the stated wattage vs the actual sound level comin from those things.

 

[linear]

Most passive Di's have an input impedance that isn't that much different than one of the instrument inputs. An active Di would work better, but my guess is that someone wanting to use an old Peavey PA head for bass isn't flush with cash for a good DI.

I did not know this. I have an active DI with its >1MOhm claimed input impedance and I naively assumed all DI boxes were the same. Thank you.

 

[agedhorse]

Although, are those mini-XLR inputs? That would be a bit annoying.

Those are full size XLR, not TA series.

 

[Craig22221]

Had a few of these XR600 heads through the years. Indestructible. They work for any occasion.

 

[Lava]

yep, why not. You wouldn't be the first or the last.

 

[dalahorse]

My junior high jazz band classroom had one of these amps back in the late 80s. We ran mics, a Hohner bass keyboard (we had no bassist), an electric piano, and a cassette tape through it. It sounded good, provided plenty of volume, and stood up to the abuse of many school children. Old Peavey stuff is great!

 

[Rabidhamster]

It does work fine. Seen it done with the older model of Peavey PA head regularly, sounds just fine. Plus you get to use that master graphic eq for yourself if it’s only handling bass. Better than going direct into most modern PAs

A sansamp can’t hurt but it’s not strictly necessary

 

[Scott Loveless]

It's rated at 210 watts @ 4 ohms and 300 watts @ 2 ohms. For an 8 ohm cab, that's likely about 120 watts.

If that Harke is actually an 8ohm cab, it would be fairly trivial to rewire all the speakers in parallel and end up with a 2ohm total load.

 

[JamesNC]

In the 90’s I used an ooold Shure Vocalmaster PA head as a guitar head, with an Ibanez Fat Cat pedal. Sounded great to me.