If you think the bass amp might be broken or not working, please check through all of the following, for guitar amp issues please see here instead.
No Sound from the bass Amp?
If the bass amp has power but is not working, try the following:
- Be sure to check the back of the bass amp head for the Headphones On/Off button. When engaged, it puts the amp into 'headphones mode' and no sound will come through the speaker. It is sometimes labeled as 'Standby'. We will need to turn this off. If you are not sure, try it in both positions!
- Make sure that the Mute button at the front of the amp is also disengaged (pressed out), and the EQ and Line Mix knobs are all set to the middle - sometimes the labels are worn and it's difficult to see which is which, best practice is to disengage ALL buttons on the front of the amp and set all dials to 12 o'clock.
Is the amp still silent?
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Make sure that both the speaker or speakon cable are fully inserted into the back of the head and cabinet - they look chunkier than a standard jack cable
. - In most cases, the black/blue speakon cable isn't inserted correctly, just like the one in the picture below - the silver clip on the blue part of the speakon cable needs to be facing up, at 12 o'clock to ensure that the cable is fully inserted. If it isn't facing up, it means the cable isn't connected and it will not carry any sound!
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Make sure that the speaker cable is plugged into the ‘Speaker/Loudspeakers’ output ports on the amp, not send/return. If there is a second Speaker port, try that one instead.
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If you are using your pedalboard, ensure that all your pedals are interconnected and powered correctly
- Test your set up with another amp or direct into the mixer