solarus with matching 215 cab

[wearepowers]

I recently picked up a solarus head with the matching 215 cab. my intention is to play bass through the setup. When i turn up past 2 it gets very distorted and you stop gaining volume around 4. below 2 it sounds great. Then i hooked the head up to my friends jcm900 cab and it sounds great playing the bass through it and had a ton of volume. Then i hooked up a Peavey XXL head to the sunn cab which had the same problem the solarus head had. then i tried a crate tube head to the sunn cab and it sounded fine. what am i missing?

[mckinnon audio]

  Hi there,I'd say you've got an intermittant connsction somewhere in the cabinet wiring,or a bad (corroded) 1/4" jack input. It seems to be a sort of "hit and miss" kind of situation,so don't rule out the spkrs. either,good luck,Mel.

[basiklybass]

+1 on the connector.

Replace the jack, check and re-soldier all connections, pull the wires out of the speaker connectors, clean the wire and put it back in.

If the amp has not...dare I say it...been recapped, consider have them replaced. Definetly look over the head and make sure everything is still soldiered and tight. Clean the jacks on it as well. Check the tubes as well.

Line the cabinets and amps up with long speaker cords and try the swap again using one amp on each speaker, then changing to the next speaker. After trying the first amp, change to the second and fdo it all again. Play the same instrument with the same cords. Keep notes of your findings. Many times swapping stuff around and not tracking the changes can lead to errors in what you think happened. Personal experiance speaking...after hours and hours of searching...turned out to be a bad cord.

[JoeArthur]

Play the same instrument with the same cords. Keep notes of your findings. Many times swapping stuff around and not tracking the changes can lead to errors in what you think happened. Personal experiance speaking...after hours and hours of searching...turned out to be a bad cord.

+1.

Many times what you obviously think cannot be the problem usually turns out to be exactly the problem.

I wasted several days tracking down an "obvious" amp problem only to find the real cause to be a defective mini-switch in a guitar.

[pickinatit]

I recently picked up a solarus head with the matching 215 cab. my intention is to play bass through the setup.

O.P. says Solarus Head with "the matching 215 cab..."
Wasn't Solarus sold primarily as a guitar amp. as opposed to Bass?  Also, wasn't it usually sold with a matching 2 X 12 cabinet with Guitar transducers in it? (I have that original set-up myself).

I know with Sunn Amps the Cabs were often switched and mixed and matched a variety of ways but are you sure the cab is 2 X 15  and not 2 X 12 ?   Just wonder what the possibility is that the Cab has guitar transducers in it.  I guess you should still be able to play bass thru it at around 2 volume though without TOO much distortion, although my Solarus Cab with the 2 X 12's always INSTANTLY rejected bass being played thru it  LOL.

[basiklybass]

Instantly rejects the bass....why... that is sacrilege.

Another thing to remember when trying to track down a problem...is that just 'cause you just put a brand new thingamajiggy in it, don't mean the thinagamajiggy ain't bad. One can save oneself many hours if one keeps notes on what one does and strives to keep an open mind.

Of course if you have a Sunn amp that rejects bass......there is no hope for you at all. Baring of course those small ittybitty amps.......

[Isaac]

It's not the amp that rejects bass, it's the open back guitar cabinet.

I've played bass through mine, and it's fine as long as you keep the level low.

Very low...