The Chassis
The Crate B-60 is a solid state bass amp rated at 60 watts. The original cab from Crate has a sealed back, and came with one 15" speaker. We originally were going to use a 12" EV-L speaker, but ended up using a Celestion G15/100 15" speaker we had (again, from eBay) that we were planning to use in a build using a Peavey Delta Blues chassis (which also originally comes with a 15" speaker). We will probably use a 12" speaker for this project down the road a bit...
This amp has some nice features, such as a balanced line out and a built in compressor / limiter. Another nice feature in this case is that it is quite light, being solid state. We will be trying to build this up as a reasonably light combo bass amp for our daughter.
The Crate B-60 chassis as from eBay
The Crate B-60 chassis (back)
The B-60 has both Gain and Master Volume controls, as well as a built in limiter/compressor. Also, as you can see, the balanced line out, as well as the unbalanced line out and in, are located on the back panel. The unbalanced line out can also be used to drive a second powered speaker cab if desired, or as an effect loop.
We powered this chassis up on the bench and connected it to an external speaker cab to test. Worked fine as is, other than some scratchy pots. We'll clean these up with some contact cleaner before mounting in the new cab.
Ok, on to the cab...