converting a combo amp into a cabinet

maffpink

hi,

i bought a fender stage 185 from ebay a while back. shortly after getting it our bass amp went down so we tried using the stage 185 as backup. ever since running the bass through it has been experiencing problems. basically, every time i play the volume level is inconsistent, especially it seems when playing an 'a'.. i don't know exactly whats happened but i think the electrics have pretty much been mangled since the bass incident. it's almost as if the signal breaks up, but not in a nice overdriven kind of way, more of a slow death kind of way.

i had an idea of how to resolve this but i thought i'd run it past you lot first as your more likely to be in the know.

i'm thinking i'll buy a small valve amp (possibly fender champ 600) and then hook it up to the stage 185 cabinet bypassing the mangled electronics. so long as its not the speaker/ cab thats broken hopefully it should work a treat. my only issue is i'm a complete novice and don't know how to turn the combo amp into just a cabinet. is it just a question of a wire running from the speaker itself to an input socket?

i've built a couple of electric guitars from parts before so i'm not a complete retard (i think). how would you suggest i go about this? could you direct
me to any sites with instructions/ diy walkthroughs?

any help would be massively appreciated!

thanks,

maff