I have a concert bass head w/o the distortion pedal

[wblakesx]

I tried to just jumper the back panel in/out with a rca cable but it just got louder and the front panel controls stopped working. I'd like to hear the distortion even if it is not so good. Any comments?

[JoeArthur]

Sounds like you plugged into the wrong jack.  There is one for boost and the other side is for the distortion.

[wblakesx]

there's two rcs labelled "distort footswitch", one "L" and one "R" . I tried to jump them with a rca patch cord and go he results above. Then I tried cutting a cable in half, stripping the wires and joining the lead grounds to hots to make two shorted, single ended rca plugs, result: one lowers the volume, both lower the volume, the other ( by itself) has no apparent effect and in no case does the front panel distortion distortion control have any effect...

[JoeArthur]

there's two rcs labelled "distort footswitch", one "L" and one "R" . I tried to jump them with a rca patch cord and go he results above. Then I tried cutting a cable in half, stripping the wires and joining the lead grounds to hots to make two shorted, single ended rca plugs, result: one lowers the volume, both lower the volume, the other ( by itself) has no apparent effect and in no case does the front panel distortion distortion control have any effect...

Oops... sorry I misread.

You do not want to jumper the two RCA jacks together.  Not a good thing.

#1 Ok... the jack one that lowers the volume.  Plug your grounded lead into that one and try turning the distort control.  If it is working correctly, this should be the boost control and you should get MORE boosted volume as the distort control is turned towards zero, less volume as the distort control is turned towards 10.

#2 If that works, take that SAME cable, unplug it and plug it into the other RCA jack.  This should turn on the distortion - and the distort control should give you more distortion as you turn it towards 10.

If #1 doesn't work, then #2 isn't going to work either.  Use your other half of the cord and try #1 again.

If #1 works and #2 doesn't... well, the RCA jack could need cleaning or could be disconnected internally, or the pot could be bad... or etc.

[wblakesx]

Yes! That worked. Thanks
I used an old es175 jap copy and the dis doesn't sound anywhere near as bad as I had expected. I'm playing into a 12" 50's jensen at say 10 watts and the sound has a nice chunk to it, a little reverb and who knows ( yet ). My mapn amp is a  deluxe rev. With a n effects box the Sunn gives me tomes I can't otherwise, then there's the slavong...,  and now it's fully functional, one less nagger. Thanks again...

[JoeArthur]

You're more than welcome!!