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ruinedhero posted:
I've been on the market for a stage rig for bass for a while ago, and I thought I'd share my experiences thus far... I just picked up a Warwick Profet 5.2 500W bass head for $700AUD. The preceding model (the 5.1) had a number of issues; the compressor was a little slow to kick in, and the volume pot they used was set up such that at 12 o clock it was feeding out 50% of the amp's power, rather than the way most amps work (where 12 o clock is usually more like 80% of the available wattage). As a result the 5.1 was somewhat of an underperformer, as you really needed to peg the volume to get much out of it and even then it was a lot quieter than the new model. The tone is great, especially for an amp with no preamp tube, and you will not find anything that can touch it in this price range, which basically includes lovely Bheringer, low-end Hartke and low wattage GK stuff. It's packed with all the features you'd expect in a mid-high end head, and honestly at the $500-900 price point it's untouchable. Make no mistake this thing is LOUD, even for a 500w, and even running through a single 410 cab. The other bass amp I've toyed with recently was the Hartke LH1000. This is unlike anything Hartke have done before. It's a very simple design, with a few quirks. First of all, it's actually two 500W solid state class D power amps, with a fader control and a Bassman style preamp, 12AX7 tube and all. It looks like a very simple and understated rackmount unit, but the sound is something else. It's warm, absolutely wrings every inch of tone out of your bass.. The guy who was demoing it for me at the store actually sold his big $$$ Aguilar head recently and replaced it with one of these, he liked it so much. With 1000W you will have more power than you would EVER need, with the capability to run four 8ohm 500W cabs. The price I was quoted? $1200 AUD which is about $700-900 in your strange green paper money (I'm factoring in the price bump we get on amps in Aus, although it's less evident for the smaller, lighter SS bass heads). I didn't get this because I really don't need 1000W at all, and the Warwick sounds great already. They make a 500W (single amp) version but it's lacking some features like a tuner out, and no speakon connector. I'd check out both of these heads if you're on the look out for a bass amp. Granted neither will give you that all tube Ampeg/Mesa sound (although pedals exist that can), but for the price of a mid range 115 combo you could realistically have one of these and a 410 cab to play with. gently caress, at that price it's almost worth it just to mess around on the lovely bargain bin SX P bass every guitarist seems to have :P
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Jul 7, 2010 09:01
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), or whatever - please contribute here. Ampeg is the poo poo, but price wise it goes well over $1000 so I would love to hear good budget setups for bass as well.
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I'm building the exact same setup with the Warwick, man. It's going to go something like this (sorry for the derail) Guitar/Bass -> Zoom C5.1t+ Amplitube 3 -> Warwick amp) -> 4x10 Ashdown cab my friend's selling me for like $300. The Zoom will be plugged into the effects loop return on the Warwick, thus bypassing the preamp. Planning on running Amplitube 3 on either my laptop or a 2RU rack mount PC racked up with the amp in a road case. This should give me access to all the amp models available. I'm hoping the cab will have enough mid/high end. I also want to build one of the Fearful cabs, probably the 15-6. If it all works out well I might post a thread about it, I think it's the kind of thing guitargoons would be into.
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Jul 7, 2010 13:03
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plester1 posted:Orange Thunderverbs are designed for both. ...and speakers designed for bass may not have the range/colour you're looking for. I think you might find many bass caps have too "scooped" a sound - as most of them consist of 2-4 10", 2 12" Or 1 15" woofer(s) designed for low end reproduction and a horn tweeter, you might find having two cabs a necessity. Another thing to consider is that guitar amp buffs are quite picky about the woofers they use because of the "colour" they add - eg vintage 30s are often chosen because they have a particular tone to them, despite being very old hat tech compared to modern neodymium woofers. I am planning on trying a bass cab with a modeling setup but I am relying on Amplitube to add a certain amount of colour to the sound. We'll see.
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Jul 9, 2010 01:39
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Uncle Marx posted:My Marshall MG10CD's overdrive went kaputt after years of trusty duty, so I'm looking for a new practice amp for my home and for band practice. To really answer your question, it'd be a good idea to tell us what kind of music you want to play. Also as for your requirements, OD and Wah pedals both generally go before the pre-amp in your effects chain (IE you plug your guitar into them and then run a chord from the pedal into the amp) so provided the amp you choose will take an OD pedal - and I haven't come across one yet that won't at least on the clean channel - you're fine. Most small amps these days have an effects loop too, so you should be covered there. Headphone out is a bit hit and miss in my experience - A lot of amps in the size/power range you're looking for don't have them. It seems you're looking for something that will compete with a drummer (although I can't see how your old amp could have??), so I'd say you're looking for something in the range of about 15-30W tube or 60W solid state. There's a LOT available in this price range(moreso solid state), I'd check out some of the cheaper Peavey/Fender combos. I have a Peavey Studio Pro that I bought a few years ago for $400AUD. 65 watt with voicings for vintage, metal and a high-gain rock sound. Honestly for the price I don't think I could have done better. Edit: Don't discount the used market - it's a goldmine for practice amps, as a lot of people get rid of them for space reasons when they upgrade to something a bit more pricey. Don Dongington fucked around with this message at 01:52 on Jul 16, 2010 |
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Jul 16, 2010 01:49
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Boz0r posted:What's the word on the street about Bugera amps? Are they ok if money is tight? I had a yarn to the main guitar/amp tech down at the music store that gets the majority of my money, and his response to the same question was "they sound good, but we had to RMA enough that we decided to stop selling them". Behringer is Behringer unfortunately, and these "boutique" range of amps really aren't that much better from a reliability perspective - which is a shame because they've just launched Mark IV and Rectifier copies with an adjustable variac circuit that would be ideal for home use in my humble opinion. Honestly I think you would be better buying a genuine Peavey rather than one of their knockoffs, or one of the smaller Blackstars. Or better yet, just buy used. The advantage of most four-figure tube amps is that they're usually over-engineered, with the (replaceable)tubes themselves being the weak point, so you should be able to find plenty of serviceable 5150s and even the odd dual rec for sale for something not too far off the price of a new Bugera.
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Oct 12, 2010 01:13
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A 6505/5150 is capable of an awesome soaring lead tone, it's the amp Eddie Van Halen helped design, and that's one thing he was known for. They provide almost infinite sustain with just the amp drive alone. Stick a good reverb/delay in the FX loop and you'll have a pretty killer lead tone. Dime used Randalls are you probably know, which are mostly solid state and have a harsher distortion - the Peavey is all tube and much smoother in my opinion. I've heard people get Dime-level harshness from Mesas, and I think with abrasive enough EQ settings you could do it with a peaves. Funnily enough one of the closest approximations I've heard was a Dual Rectifier with a Boss Metalzone in front. Petrucci uses Mesa Mark(IVs I think), in conjunction with a rack mounted multi-fx unit and a few assorted pedals. I've seen him play at a clinic with nothing more than a pair of triple rectifiers and a stereo delay though, and his tone was pretty smooth then. A Mesa Mark/Rectifier will definitely get you the smooth tone you're after, as well as amazing versatility (3 channels with seperate EQing and multiple voicing circuits on each) but for a considerable price hike VS a Peavey. Keep in mind as well the 6505 isn't exactly praised for its clean tone, which(in my opinion) needs a lot of help from pedals to really sing. The way I like to describe them is "They're a one trick pony... But gently caress, what a trick." They're pretty easy to dial in too, a rectifier can take a while to really get your head around. Edit: If you're looking for a quiet amp around the volume level of your classic 30, I'm not sure a 6505 would suit, they're 50 or 60 watt if I remember, which is going to be LOUD, even with 1x12 Don Dongington fucked around with this message at 06:24 on Feb 22, 2011 |
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Feb 22, 2011 06:16
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After The War posted:I've talked to many a rocker who was only allowed to play music post-marriage if they did it in church. Jesus wept.
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May 3, 2018 01:16
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Southern Heel posted:My amp warns me with a red light on the footswitch if I accidentally set it to the "clean" channel, whatever that is. \m/ 5150 owner spotted
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Jun 5, 2018 07:48
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I seem to recall this thread singing their praises not long ago - but regarding the Yamaha THR10 and THR5 lunchbox modellers - is there any real difference between the two other than volume?
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Jul 18, 2018 08:25
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Thanks for the details. I have a Dark Terror a and a Peavey Studio Pro in the workshop, with a 4x12 and a single 12 open back available, and an ElevenRack in my office hooked up to some decent speakers. All great hardware, but I still don't play enough, and I'm trying to figure out something that will get me playing more. I like the ElevenRack, and it's a great tool for recording demos and the like, but I find I don't really sit down and play through it. I'm constantly cycling through the factory presets because I haven't sat down and dialed in 10 or so really decent user presets, and the factory presets aren't that great. I don't really have the few hours required to really sit down and dial poo poo in though, and these things apparently sound better? Definitely look more convenient. The Dark Terror is freaking great for high gain tones but I can't really use it in the house with 2 kids under 2, and the Studio Pro is similarly volume constrained.
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Jul 23, 2018 07:02
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So a local music store convinced my friend that the THR10 is 7 years old and feature poor, and he'd be far better off getting a Fender Mustang GT40. Now I've listened to a side by side comparison between that and the ugly-rear end vox thing that costs $100 more, and I think it sounds like poo poo in comparison. I also don't like the fact that almost everything has to be done via the app, vs the Yamaha's WYSIWYG approach. Bluetooth would be pretty nice though. Any other options out there? The THRs are out of stock everywhere in the country atm, so I have nothing but time right now. Edit: Australia.
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Jul 24, 2019 06:46
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Thing is I have a Dark Terror and an early 2000s Peavey Studio Pro so I have loud, high gain noises on lock. I want something that lets me play blues and classic rock at bedroom volume. I really like the way the Yamaha seems to get the fender style tones right - does the Boss handle break up well or nah? I already have an elevenrack but its modelling is starting to sound dated to me.
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Jul 24, 2019 10:11
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I do plan on testing one, but my issue with that is that it takes quite a bit more power to get an 8" driver moving than 2 3" drivers, which means more volume before you get the kind of tones I want. I may have found one shop with THR10s in stock so I'll go test one of those and try to find a GT40. The Kitana Air and the VOX ADIO are probably a bit outside my price range.
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Jul 25, 2019 02:09
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I have a my Dark Terror running through my 4x12 is about 90% as loud as my Laney G100 ever got; it just gets turned up to 7 or 8 instead of 1.5-2. On the jam room on 2.5-3 it was bordering on uncomfortable even with ear plugs. I'm happy to just turn up a bit more to be honest. I feel like driving the EL34s in that amp to break up would probably be illegal under most circumstances.
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Jul 25, 2019 14:29
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massive spider posted:Anyway I’m talking a lot of noise here because as much as I’d love a 100w head again my current set up is digital and my future solution to shows like that is just not to play them lol That's the solution. If there's no PA in my town, a 412 is going to be way too loud because it means you're playing in the corner of a beer garden. Also the Dark Terror has no clean headroom at any volume, that's why I'm not just looking for a reactive load box. I love the lead and crunch tones it gives me, but if I went the load box route I'd still need a bunch of heads and pedals, where I just want to be able to sit down and jam a particular song or style without having to plug a million things in. Sometimes I only get 15 minutes of play time on a weekend so it's about getting into it quick.
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Jul 26, 2019 00:22
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Dr. Faustus posted:Google suggests this is an actual thing: Now I wanna see a THR with analogue stereo line outs, running into a Behringer iNuke 1000W stereo power amp, into two 412s. Spose you could just use the headphone out, but they tend to be a bit lovely.
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Jul 26, 2019 05:15
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I ended up finding a Vox ADIO AIR GT for about $50 more that I really enjoy. It's not as versatile as the katana but the sounds it does are really sweet. It's a surprisingly nice Bluetooth speaker too, and battery operation was a plus. Does look like grandma's purse though. Meanwhile, the guy I took shopping with me walked out of the store with an OR15, a PPC212 and a new Prestige RG. Hngg.
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Aug 4, 2019 04:16
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I just don't really get why you'd go software in 2019 when for the price of a decent interface and a software license you can get a Katana/THR10/VOX ADIO AIR/Fender GT 40 and have a decent interface, a range of different tones AND a practice amp you can use without fiddling with a computer.
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Sep 19, 2019 05:06
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Vox Adio Air GT is pretty nice to record with. Just install the driver off the website, set up the desired inputs and then load your patch and go. I think it can do re-amping if you're able to feed it a DI source too.
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Sep 25, 2019 03:56
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The katana ii 50 looks freakin great and you should probably get one based on the YouTube reviews alone.
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Nov 17, 2019 13:33
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Yeah they do have a different use case. You're not going to be able to use anything with a 12" speaker in a 2nd floor apartment, or a house-with-a-baby setting the way you're going to be able to use a THR/Katana Mini/Vox ADIO etc. They sound brilliant at really low volume on account of having tiny drivers that hit their efficiency curve at much much lower volume levels. The Katana does have a low wattage mode, but a 12" driver needs to be moving a certain amount to produce the low frequencies. This is why older hi-fi systems had Loudness buttons, to compensate for the larger drivers in vintage hi fi setups not being able to hit their optimal frequency response curve at lower volumes. At least, that's how I understand it. Also the new models allow you to tap straight into the power section with a DI box, pre-amp or modelling pedal which is cool. My Peavey combo lets you do this via the effects return, but the master volume control doesn't work. I am glad I got my ADIO, but seeing what the Katana can do makes me wish I'd waited for the new models. The one thing the THR and ADIO don't have that the Katana does is dirt pedal models. I have stuck a bunch of pedals in front of the ADIO though, including a tubescreamer, an EP boost, chorus and a compressor, and it takes them nicely. But that's not the same as being able to dial up a blue driver or a DS1 on demand without plugging anything in.
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Nov 28, 2019 04:59
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Dang It Bhabhi! posted:Yes because of Mesa’s product development approach of including everything imaginable, usually from previous versions of the same line, inside one amp. Complex switching and countless interconnected circuit boards are all sandwiched tightly together making fault-finding brutal. Now take that, have it reverse engineered and assembled by the lowest bidder by the manufacturer of the amp in the post above, add some weird poo poo like built in tube testers, and you'll appreciate why most of the music stores in my city stopped carrying them about a year after Behringer introduced them to the market. Nightmare fuel.
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Jan 18, 2021 15:18
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SnatchRabbit posted:I'm in the market for a smallish tube amp for my office/basement. I already have a modeling practice amp, and a tube amp seemed like the next logical step. I'm currently looking at this: Make sure you try an OR15 if you're considering a rocker15. Maybe it's my taste, but I listened to the back to back and the OR is just otherworldly, whereas I thought the rocker sounded a bit brittle to my ears.
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Mar 5, 2021 03:01
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Speaking of improbably competent solid state amps from the early 2000s, I recently hooked up an A/B pedal and did a comparison between my venerable Peavey Transtube Studio Pro and the Katana 50 Mk II. Both have pretty similar modes, with the Boss having an accoustic model, and the Peavey having two different clean voicings (modern/vintage). The clean tone on the peavey holds up, but the Katana utterly destroys it in all 3 higher gain modes, before you even get to the impressive collection of simulated drives. The peavey sounds muddy compared to the katana, which sounds way more tight and articulate, and the Peavey is really loving noisy without a noise gate, whereas the katana is dead quiet on the higher gain modes even without the built in gate enabled. Both amps are great in that you can dial in a sound in 5 seconds and just play, but the katana just does it better. Then when you add the option to chuck a DS-1/BD-2/MUFF/HM-2 in front or just throw a delay on there with the twist of a knob, a cab emulated line/headphone out and the variable wattage, it's no contest. So the peavey now lives with my niece, who recently discovered grunge. Those katanas really are something special. Also if you haven't hosed around with the app, do so, there's a lot of cool poo poo buried in there. Don Dongington fucked around with this message at 15:23 on Jun 16, 2021 |
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Jun 16, 2021 15:20
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No secret amps on my 50 as far as I remember, like on the Vox ADIO etc, but there are tonnes of stomp boxes and effects that aren't available from the panel without the app. Boss tone studio is the app, on Win 10 it should install the drivers automatically when you plug in the USB cable and turn it on.
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Jun 17, 2021 05:17
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The Dark Terror is basically the same thing with a tube power section and 7/15w options, and likewise sounds loving amazing at all of the things a 6505 does, and as an added bonus actually sounds wonderful at lower gain levels (especially with a reverb pedal in the loop), which I've never really felt can be said about the 5150 series. It's also a much quieter amp in terms of hiss and noise. It does only have the one channel, and it doesn't have any clean headroom really, so in terms of variety of gain levels, you're going to be limited to what you can achieve by rolling off the volume on your guitar/using a boost pedal. Still, I have that, and a Katana, and I don't really want for anything else.
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Jul 20, 2021 05:11
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I'm still waiting on a dual latching foot switch to show up for mine. My FS-6 is broken, on account of boss including a ridiculous amount of pointless circuitry just to make LEDs go on and off, and one of the tiny transistors melting at some point, rendering one of the switches inoperable. At some point, I may break out the soldering iron and some hook up wire and try to bypass all of that stupid bullshit (THERE ARE TWO INTEGRATED CIRCUITS IN HERE IT IS A FOOTSWITCH, gently caress) and just make it work as an un-powered footswitch like it should be.
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Jul 21, 2021 06:48
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PSA: If you own an Orange Dark Terror, and have ever considered tube rolling your Orange Dark Terror (or similar 2x12AX7 lunchbox), you should do that. I've been messing with different combinations of the facatory JJ ECC83S, A 12DW7, and a 5751 in both V1 and V2, and it's really interesting how versatile this little amp can be with a little less gain and a tiny bit more headroom.
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Oct 21, 2021 16:09
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I mean the ultimate 80s sleeze amp right now has gotta be the Marshall Studio Classic (Mini JCM800) - but it's gonna run you a fair bit more than the Katana. Probably less than the Friedman though. Alternatively you could look at a couple Laney amps. I had a GH100 for a while, which while needing a tube screamer to get modern high gain sounds, absolutely slapped for classic rock/metal. I love my katana, but I still don't feel modellers have managed to nail the crunch sound yet. Wonderful cleans and high gain noises though. Edit: Orange rockerverb 15 could also get you where you wanna be.
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Feb 11, 2023 00:24
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Yeah I had a GH100 before trading it for my Dark Terror, and with a tubescreamer in front it sounded amazing.. until you'd stop playing. NS-2 sorted that out pretty well though. 5150s were the same though in my experience so get the noise suppressor and shred on IMO.
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Jul 16, 2023 01:51
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If I had the choice again I'd pick the Dark Terror I traded my Laney GH100 for every time - but you're right, there is a difference in the nature of the sound beyond just volume level between a dialed EL84 and a big 34/6L6. Maybe it's just the sheer volume of air being moved or something beyond that. It's just not practical for me to fire up a 100w tube amp outside of a rehearsal space and without ear plugs, even with a big house in the suburbs.
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Jan 12, 2024 01:20
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| # ¿ May 6, 2024 10:15 |
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I love my Boss Katana because I can get pretty much any sound out of it I want if I'm willing to fiddle. I love my Orange Dark Terror because it has like 3 knobs and sounds fuckin awesome no matter where I set them. Both have upsides and downsides but I wouldn't call one inherently better than the other - they scratch different itches.
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Apr 27, 2024 13:42
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