Best Bass Heads...

[MTA]

That's the exact same problem I think I've got. I hate the way the sansamp sounds through it... when ever i want to turn up the drive it just gets wierd and buzzy. I want to turn up the drive and get that awesome growl that you got on those last blessed recordings.but I wouldn't sell the Sansamp because it's so useful for its recording applications.

I just want a tube power section because I'm certain they'll fill the void. I'm in love with the Orange AD200B... it's so pretty. Is there anywhere I could try it out.

We practice on a Sunday just off market street, so i might just take the whole band down to play the open mic night! yeah!

Yeah bring the whole band down starts from around 8 usually depending on when people arrive.

[GraemeC]

350w solid state? probably give you as much head room as a 100 w valve head if i had to guess, i'm by NO means experienced or an expert in any way at all ever. my ampeg is 450 and its got quite a bit of headroom, not masses though.

.

350w!!!! 450w!!! not enough headroom.... bloody hell, what size venues are you guys playing? the feckin Albert hall?

I've roadied for about 100yrs and doing the country circuit back in the 70's there were some huge venues, Macduff town hall being just one example, and the bands I worked for would have 100w guitar stack 100w bass stack and 2-300w pa with just a couple of mic's on the kit and vocals, and some of these bands were LOUD! so whats happened in the last 35odd years? have they de-valued the watt?

[GraemeC]

plus nate newton uses one and converge play LOUD!

You do understand that a bass players back line is just part of his on stage monitoring, and back line in general has no bearing on front of house volume.

I must point out that the above statement is only true of bands playing large venues where everything is going through the pa, volume on stage is best kept at a minimum, if bass players start horsing up 450w amps then the engineer has to take them out of the mix and has no front of house control, then everyone else has to turn up so they can hear themselves, and the monitors have to be crancked up in an attempt to let the singer hear himself and it can only go up so far before you get feedback.

Sound engineers dont tell you to turn the fuck down because they dont like you!!

[neepheid]

Yes, I'm a little confused too - I use a Hartke 3500 head into an 8 ohm Ashdown ABM 4x10. This gives me an output of 230W (it's 350W @ 4 ohm). It's at 1 in the house and I've never needed to have it higher than 5 or 6 for stage monitoring purposes during a gig. So that, coupled with the fact that I'm not even using the amp to its full potential means that I'm not concerned about headroom for the moment - it would seem that so far in my (limited) experience I have plenty and therefore no need for a volume knob which goes to 11.

[Ross.]

Yes, I'm a little confused too - I use a Hartke 3500 head into an 8 ohm Ashdown ABM 4x10. This gives me an output of 230W (it's 350W @ 4 ohm). It's at 1 in the house and I've never needed to have it higher than 5 or 6 for stage monitoring purposes during a gig. So that, coupled with the fact that I'm not even using the amp to its full potential means that I'm not concerned about headroom for the moment - it would seem that so far in my (limited) experience I have plenty and therefore no need for a volume knob which goes to 11.

It seems my Ampeg is criticised fairly often online for being a 'quiet' amp, so I'm guessing it's nothing to do with the actual wattage. All I know is that when practising with a band it needs to be cranked way up to be of any use and with the limiter utilised you can forget being heard at all.

[GraemeC]

It seems my Ampeg is criticised fairly often online for being a 'quiet' amp, so I'm guessing it's nothing to do with the actual wattage. All I know is that when practising with a band it needs to be cranked way up to be of any use and with the limiter utilised you can forget being heard at all.

I can only suggest that you have a problem somewhere down the line if you need to crank a 350w amp at rehersal...

I once owned a 100w HH bass amp that I played through a home made 1x15 cab, the power of that would have stopped a rampaging buffallo at 200mtrs

I have a little 10w practice amp that can rattle the windows at half volume...

[Huw]

I usually have mine on about 6 or 7 at a fairly loud practice and that pretty much keeps up with our drummer. So i mean it does have quite a bit of head room, but i just thought under half would be enough for a practice unmiced like.

Re: the FOH thing, i realised this after i said it. that was kind of stupid.

I've played through that 100W bass amp too down at our practice space, and my Ampeg isn't that much louder than it which is strange! i have no idea why.

[GraemeC]

I usually have mine on about 6 or 7 at a fairly loud practice and that pretty much keeps up with our drummer. So i mean it does have quite a bit of head room, but i just thought under half would be enough for a practice unmiced like.

Re: the FOH thing, i realised this after i said it. that was kind of stupid.

I've played through that 100W bass amp too down at our practice space, and my Ampeg isn't that much louder than it which is strange! i have no idea why.

That just sounds mental...

Is it a head or combo you have?

If its a head what cab do you play through and is it a propper speaker lead connecting them, sorry if these questions seem a little patronising but a 350w amp in a practice room above half volume should move the building off its foundations.

[stuartmaxwell]

its a projection thing non?

The higher wattage ampeg / boogie stuff projects at 12-16ft away and guitar amps also have a range too.

it sounds quiet standing next to it but whilst you are squinting up your face and putting your ear down at the cab, your bass sound is dishing out heart attacks and making the teeth of your audience fall out.

Dead practice rooms cause this to happen a lot, the projection doesnt go anywhere so everybody in the band keeps turning up to play with the (hard hitting) drummer. When you go home after practice you consequently ignore the conversation's your partner is trying to have with you and you go to bed unable to sleep because your head is bashing out some mad tinnitus.

Let the drums be loud, you will thank yourself for it when you hit your 40s

[Huw]

That just sounds mental...

Is it a head or combo you have?

If its a head what cab do you play through and is it a propper speaker lead connecting them, sorry if these questions seem a little patronising but a 350w amp in a practice room above half volume should move the building off its foundations.

head... Ampeg SVT3 pro (450 W) into an Ampeg B410 HLF. yeah proper peaker lead ( a bit long mind) neautrik speakon connection and all that. It's a MOSFET power section they use in the hybrid ampegs. Could that be it? could be what maxi is saying too...

its a projection thing non?

The higher wattage ampeg / boogie stuff projects at 12-16ft away and guitar amps also have a range too.

it sounds quiet standing next to it but whilst you are squinting up your face and putting your ear down at the cab, your bass sound is dishing out heart attacks and making the teeth of your audience fall out.

Dead practice rooms cause this to happen a lot, the projection doesnt go anywhere so everybody in the band keeps turning up to play with the (hard hitting) drummer. When you go home after practice you consequently ignore the conversation's your partner is trying to have with you and you go to bed unable to sleep because your head is bashing out some mad tinnitus.

Let the drums be loud, you will thank yourself for it when you hit your 40s

yeah well our practice room has those acoustic tiles and that on it and we play in pretty close proximity. seems to shake the floor more intensly than the sound it's creating. I usually drift in and out of conversations with my girlfriend, but even moreso after band practice.

[GraemeC]

. I usually drift in and out of conversations with my girlfriend, but even moreso after band practice.

Im surprised your not drifting in and out of conciousness...o_O

[GraemeC]

its a projection thing non?

When I tech for the bass player in Pallas we try and position his back line about 9-12 feet from his mic position, but thats not always possible in a pub gig...!!

[Huw]

Anybody know anywhere that stocks high end orange heads - like the ones mentioned? In Scotland it's probably a long shot I guess, but surely there's somewhere that stocks this kind of stuff. I just can't bring myslef to part with that much cash witthout trying it out rigourously first.

[HairyScaryMark]

You do understand that a bass players back line is just part of his on stage monitoring, and back line in general has no bearing on front of house volume.

I must point out that the above statement is only true of bands playing large venues where everything is going through the pa, volume on stage is best kept at a minimum, if bass players start horsing up 450w amps then the engineer has to take them out of the mix and has no front of house control, then everyone else has to turn up so they can hear themselves, and the monitors have to be crancked up in an attempt to let the singer hear himself and it can only go up so far before you get feedback.

Sound engineers dont tell you to turn the fuck down because they dont like you!!

I've seen microphones infront of bass cabs in a number of Aberdeen venues such as The Moorings and Moshulu. I think I might have seen it in the tunnels at some point but not sure about that.

Also.... I've heard good things about EBS.

[Flash@TMB]

It seems my Ampeg is criticised fairly often online for being a 'quiet' amp, so I'm guessing it's nothing to do with the actual wattage. All I know is that when practising with a band it needs to be cranked way up to be of any use and with the limiter utilised you can forget being heard at all.

Ours did that because it had developed a fault. It happened so gradually that we didn't notice until things deteriorated further. It looked like it was working, and all the valves were lit up, but all was not well. It came back from Ampeg much louder and nicer sounding.

Having said that it served well for 4 years prior to being hooped so no complaints.

The only thing is that I noticed on Saturday that when engaging the 'ultra low' button, for some reason it also seems to activate the 16dB pad, which didn't used to be the case. Perhaps this is a feature, perhaps it is a fault, but we can work around it until it craters.

We used the DG signature Hiwatt as backup, and it sounded pretty good too despite being more commonly employed as a guitar head.

[Flash@TMB]

its a projection thing non?

The higher wattage ampeg / boogie stuff projects at 12-16ft away and guitar amps also have a range too.

it sounds quiet standing next to it but whilst you are squinting up your face and putting your ear down at the cab, your bass sound is dishing out heart attacks and making the teeth of your audience fall out.

Dead practice rooms cause this to happen a lot, the projection doesnt go anywhere so everybody in the band keeps turning up to play with the (hard hitting) drummer. When you go home after practice you consequently ignore the conversation's your partner is trying to have with you and you go to bed unable to sleep because your head is bashing out some mad tinnitus.

Let the drums be loud, you will thank yourself for it when you hit your 40s

Or get an 8x10" cab... heh heh.

[GraemeC]

I've seen microphones infront of bass cabs in a number of Aberdeen venues such as The Moorings and Moshulu. I think I might have seen it in the tunnels at some point but not sure about that.

Also.... I've heard good things about EBS.

The common way of routing the bass through the PA is via a Di box, some engineers will also mic the bass if they have the channels and a suitable mic.

[Flash@TMB]

The common way of routing the bass through the PA is via a Di box, some engineers will also mic the bass if they have the channels and a suitable mic.

We do both, the mic on the speaker adds punch to it.

[stuartmaxwell]

ha ha ha

EIGHT BY TEN

im looking forward to using mine again at some point this year

[Huw]

ha ha ha

EIGHT BY TEN

im looking forward to using mine again at some point this year

Is that in MILK or Little Anchors?

I phoned up orange today. there's only a handful of place that stock 'specialist' stuff like the AD200 and the TV200. I whink I'm probably gonna have to take a trip somehwere that has tons or smart amps.

[HairyScaryMark]

The common way of routing the bass through the PA is via a Di box, some engineers will also mic the bass if they have the channels and a suitable mic.

Well, it depends on the style and overall quality of bass amp to whether or not it is a good idea but it isn't all that unusual for the bass cab to be mic'd.

Unless you are doing a recording (where you can move waveforms and use phase alignment plugins) it is often best just to chose one source as there will be a time difference between the mic and DI signal which will cause phase cancellation.

[Guest droid]

Well, it depends on the style and overall quality of bass amp to whether or not it is a good idea but it isn't all that unusual for the bass cab to be mic'd.Unless you are doing a recording (where you can move waveforms and use phase alignment plugins) it is often best just to chose one source as there will be a time difference between the mic and DI signal which will cause phase cancellation

.I don't agree style and quality of the amp has no relevance.If you position the mike quite far from the the cab the you will get a nominal time delay,but through experience,recording with an amp and cab would usually involve putting the amp in a little sound booth with the mic about 1 inch from the front of the cab.

You are correct EBS rock!

[WoodyRATM]

When i recently recorded i used DI and a mic - No idea about mics etc, but i used an ampeg svt 4 pro into my 610HLF - No issues with the mic/di sound to my ears!

Good results too imo

[Dan G]

ha ha ha

EIGHT BY TEN

im looking forward to using mine again at some point this year

All fun and games until you have to lift them up 4 flights of stairs!

[unbroken]

All fun and games until you have to lift them up 4 flights of stairs!

fucking jessie.