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Turning combo amp into extension cabinet.
- Thread starter Scott Janas
- Start date
It's a trope that's probably as old, if not older, than TalkBass, itself: Did you check/replace the battery? No, not on your bass, on your multi-meter. Measuring impedance/resistance requires a little voltage. I'm guessing nobody has checked the battery in that thing in 45 years!
Haha, yeah, did the old battery test and calibration but still get a 0 reading. This is the meter, maybe I'm using the wrong setting?
Darn, I thought I'd nailed that one! If the meter is functional and calibrating to itself, perhaps the Piezo driver or an attenuator, if it has one, is shorted/bad? Is the horn working? Are both drivers working? You might need to test them separately if they're in the same chamber. Any dead short in the signal path will skew your resulsts.
I took the horn right out. I'm pretty confident at this point that I've got it right. Both drivers are working, they're both 16ohm and wired in parallel and the whole setup with the fender is working. I don't know why I can't get a read on the meter but I think I'm just going to go with it.
Thanks, actually still have the original. I borrowed it from my father, I don't think he's thrown out a manual or warranty card in his life.
Did you ensure that both the Fender combo and the Ampeg speakers are working with the same polarity?
If the cabinets are not working with the same polarity they will fight each other all night long.
Does the Fender cabinet section connect with a plug into the amp?
I haven't opened the fender up at all. I think its hardwired though. They don't seem to be fighting each other. Both cabs come through loud and clear with no cancelation.
Especially since when you use it and the Fender puts out 500-watts, it's going to split the watts equally between the two cabs. Since both are 8 ohm cabs, each cab will get 250-watts max.
If you don't want to put anything in that space, just put a piece of black paneling right in front of where your wires come out of the cab and then stack your Fender Rumble 500 on top of it. It will look like a normally ported cab to the casual observer...though I do like the idea of rack mounting some goodies in that space...
If your polarity was different between the two cabs the low end would be greatly reduced , it would be like"Where did my bottom end go ?"
Huh I also had an ampeg B3 combo that stopped working once - got repaired - then busted again and I chose to throw it out. The B3 was a little different in that the cable to the speakers had a 1/4 cable attached to it permanently. This made it pretty convenient to park another amp inside it and plug the attached cable into your new head.
This was my rig for 2012 and 2013. Good luck with yours!
This was my rig for 2012 and 2013. Good luck with yours!
Thanks! It would be great to get a couple years out of it as you did yours. I should probably get a matching Rumble cab eventually.
If you like the tone with the Ampeg BA-210 cabinet section connected to your Fender combo, the polarity must be correct, because if the polarity was reversed, it’s unlikely you would like it at all. It would sound thinner & weaker than your Fender combo by itself. If the tone gets thicker, and the perceived volume gets louder when you hook the Ampeg up to the Fender, polarity is not an issue.
The Ampeg speakers in the cabinet section of the BA-210 combo are rated to handle at least 283 Watts per Ampeg’s power rating of the original amp into 8 ohms.
The Ampeg speakers in the cabinet section of the BA-210 combo are rated to handle at least 283 Watts per Ampeg’s power rating of the original amp into 8 ohms.
