Any way to increase Ampeg B15N wattage?

[wcrankshaw]

A friend of mine is interested in making his B15N more powerful. I told him I'd ask the pros. Anyone have any ideas?

[olddawg]

A more efficient speaker might get you a little something. An extension cabinet might give you more apparent volume. I would just run two amps or get another amp.

[Jazz P Bass]

There is not much , circuit wise, that is going to make the amp louder.
As quite a number of bass players are running 500 - 1000 watt amps, this amp is going to fall way short.

[wcrankshaw]

Thanks. I had a feeling that would be the case. He just uses it for a Jazz group and maybe upright with a bluegrass group. So, mega wattage isn't really an issue. Adding more speakers wouldn't really increase it's ability to hang in there with other amplified instruments any better right? Or would 2 speakers instead of 1 speaker actually make 30W "louder"?

[Jazz P Bass]

More speakers will provide more coverage.
Keep in mind it is a tube amp.
You have to use the correct speaker load for the output transformer.

[loudthud]

Depending on exactly what model the amp is, it probably doesn't have a 4 ohm tap on the output transformer, only 8 and 16 ohms. It connects an 8 ohm extention speaker in series with the internal speaker and switches to the 16 ohm tap. Not a good idea.

There is an external amp output that you can just connect to another B15N. It really acts as input on the second B15N so you can control everything from one amp. Or you could use a power amp and any suitable speaker. Note the power amp should have a high input impedance to avoid loading the signal down which is shared with the B15N's power amp.

[Ronsonic]

Mic it up.

About the only way to make a real difference.

[Jazz P Bass]

That is a good idea.
Totally eluded me