Jumping Channels. Who does it?

dr_twangenstein · May 10th, 2006, 04:33 PM

Here's one to warm the depths of your heart.

A buddy of mine (we'll call him Pete 'cause that's his name) buys a 2x15 acoustic cabinet with JBL's and the guy throws in "some homemade amp that he has" with no speaker. Turns out it's a combo that someone has built using a SF Bassman 50 head built into a blue plywood cabinet. It looks and sounds crap.

So he sits on it for a while until he finds out that someone he knows out of town has begun noodling with tube amps. Pete saws off the bottom 2/3 of the cabinet and ships it to this guy who gives a little TLC, and when he gets it back, the thing is 10 x's better than the two Bassman 100's he already has. So we gave the new head a blue jewel on the pilot light and named it The Blue Bastard. (I'll get a picture next practice)

Only problem is, we play mostly small clubs where Pete can't turn this thing past 3 or 4. It breaks up best, of course around 7 or 8. Pete thinks that maybe jumping the channels will increase his tube gain a little, and I'm too ignorant to either confirm or deny his theory.

So...any advice? Is it dangerous for either the player or the amp to do this? Will it get the desired effect? What is the best combination of the four inputs if you do this? He has a 4x12 Bassman cab and the aforementioned acoustic 2x15, but for shows usually plugs into a 2x12 Fender cab.

JohnnyCrash · May 10th, 2006, 04:49 PM

It's not going to sound like it does when it's on 7 or higher...

Jumpering is not exactly like a huge gain booster... but it can be usefull for slightly more subtle things.

jculler82 · May 10th, 2006, 05:12 PM

wont hurt your amp at all... most people go: instrument to input 1 of the bass side, then from input 2 of the bass side to input 1 of the normal side. but you could do it any different way i guess. he could try an atenuator and see if he likes that.
-jeramy

NTC · May 10th, 2006, 05:48 PM

I like to jumper channels to get a bit of that bright channel glass with the normal channel thickness. You really won't lower the volume of the driven tone much if at all by dong this.

By the way, I jumper ALL of my tweed-type amps (5E3, 5E7, Traynor YBA-1's). It just sounds better to me.....

May 10th, 2006, 04:33 PM	#1 (permalink)
dr_twangenstein Tele-Meister Join Date: Apr 2006 Location: St. Louis Age: 31 Posts: 234	Jumping Channels. Who does it? Here's one to warm the depths of your heart. A buddy of mine (we'll call him Pete 'cause that's his name) buys a 2x15 acoustic cabinet with JBL's and the guy throws in "some homemade amp that he has" with no speaker. Turns out it's a combo that someone has built using a SF Bassman 50 head built into a blue plywood cabinet. It looks and sounds crap. So he sits on it for a while until he finds out that someone he knows out of town has begun noodling with tube amps. Pete saws off the bottom 2/3 of the cabinet and ships it to this guy who gives a little TLC, and when he gets it back, the thing is 10 x's better than the two Bassman 100's he already has. So we gave the new head a blue jewel on the pilot light and named it The Blue Bastard. (I'll get a picture next practice) Only problem is, we play mostly small clubs where Pete can't turn this thing past 3 or 4. It breaks up best, of course around 7 or 8. Pete thinks that maybe jumping the channels will increase his tube gain a little, and I'm too ignorant to either confirm or deny his theory. So...any advice? Is it dangerous for either the player or the amp to do this? Will it get the desired effect? What is the best combination of the four inputs if you do this? He has a 4x12 Bassman cab and the aforementioned acoustic 2x15, but for shows usually plugs into a 2x12 Fender cab. __________________ If I had to die for one word? Poontwang!

May 10th, 2006, 05:48 PM	#4 (permalink)
NTC Tele-Meister Join Date: Mar 2003 Posts: 128	It won't lower the headroom much... I like to jumper channels to get a bit of that bright channel glass with the normal channel thickness. You really won't lower the volume of the driven tone much if at all by dong this. By the way, I jumper ALL of my tweed-type amps (5E3, 5E7, Traynor YBA-1's). It just sounds better to me.....

May 10th, 2006, 04:49 PM	#2 (permalink)
JohnnyCrash Poster Extraordinaire Join Date: Mar 2005 Location: Lost Angeles and Orange County Posts: 7,128	It's not going to sound like it does when it's on 7 or higher... Jumpering is not exactly like a huge gain booster... but it can be usefull for slightly more subtle things.

May 10th, 2006, 05:12 PM	#3 (permalink)
jculler82 TDPRI Member Join Date: Apr 2006 Posts: 48	wont hurt your amp at all... most people go: instrument to input 1 of the bass side, then from input 2 of the bass side to input 1 of the normal side. but you could do it any different way i guess. he could try an atenuator and see if he likes that. -jeramy