Is it possible to bring up the impedance my head puts out with a power amp? My new Basson cab requires a minimum load of 750 watts at 8 ohms, but my head only puts out 450 watts at 4 ohms. Would a power amp bring up the impedance and wattage? And if so, would I need a pre-amp to go with it.

For the record, my head is an Ampeg SVT-3 PRO, and it has a preamp output and power amp input, right next to each other like a lot of heads have.

Would this work, or do I need a new head?

that's not what your cab requires, it's what it can handle.

and with impedance, the lower the ohm number, the higher the actual resistance.

No, the cab can handle 1000 watts at 8 ohms. There was a big piece of paper on top of the cab that said: Minimum power requirement: 750 Watts at 4 ohms.

So the lower the ohm number, the higher the resistance means? I used to know this, but kinda forgot after a year of not needing that knowledge.

Niccolai said:

Read on the right side, it mentions about needing an amp rated at 750+ watts at 8 ohms.

http://www.bassonsound.com/b410b.htm

that's a wiiiierd cab then. is there a series crossover in it?

based on what your saying, your head is only about 225-280 watts at 8 ohms... and for some reason your cab needs three times the power to run it.

That's a very unorthadox setup.

Niccolai said:

So essentially what we need is

MORE POWER!!!

Niccolai said:

That is around what my head runs at 8 ohms. Would a power amp be a good way to push more power? And would I need a preamp to go with it?

immortal13 said:
yes


you should plug the preamp output into the input of the power amp. your head will then act as the preamp.

unholy_dave said:

But without a load connected to the power amp output of his head, he's going to fry his output transformer.

The simple solution is either
A) buy a cab rated for your head
B) buy a head rated for your cab

I'm afraid pete's right.

your head has a built in power amp, you just can't aplify an amplifier to increase power consumption.

yup. sell your head and buy a powerful as fuck head, or go the preamp/poweramp route. if you're not looking to kill yourself monetarily, go pre/power and buy used.

ArrowHead likes Ellios Pizza said:

that head is solid state, it should be fine.
a better suggestion though, is what you and blue both said. i'd trade thaat thing in or sell it and move up to the svt 4 pro, 1200 watts @ 4 ohms, and nearly identical preamp section

I would try sending an email to Basson first before anything though

it sounds fishy that their cab won't work with any head that uses less then 750 watts at 8 ohms. It may be a typo?

unholy_dave said:

Nope. My head is a tube head with a mosfet power section.

Can't get the SVT-4 because I need a head that runs 8 ohms, not 4.

any head that will handle a 4 ohm load will also handle an 8 ohm load, since 8 ohms is less resistance.

generally speaking, a amp that uses 400 watts at 4 ohms, will use in the area of 200 watts at 8 ohms. half of the resistance means half of the power is needed.

immortal13 said:
i'm aware of that, my point is that a solid state power amp (MOSFET or otherwise) will not be damaged by not having a load attached to it. it makes no difference whether there are tubes in the preamp.



like niccolai said, any head that is stable at 4 ohms will run at 8 no problem. if were you i'd get rid of the bassoon and get an ampeg. look around, someone's always selling one somewhere (craigslist is a good resource for that) and you can often get one used for around 500 bucks.

he just got rid of his ampeg 4x10, he is endorsed by basson now.

plus basson cabs are fucking killer. I wouldn't want to get rid of it.


Like I said before, call basson and tell them exactly what you have and want to do. they will be able to give you the best idea.

There's a lot of bullshit in this thread, but check it out anyways. Basson claims that if you underpower the cab, the voice coils will break:

http://acapella.harmony-central.com/archive/index.php/t-1184179.html

sounds like the folks at Bassoon are a bunch of clowns. the only way a voice coil is going to burn out with an underpowered amp is if you drive the amp to ungodly amounts of clipping, and even then it's unlikely.
and your tone would go to shit long before then anyway.
total bullshit.

Blue said:

Didn't get rid of it yet. Still up for sale. $400 if anyone wants it?