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#15535 by drivingbass
Thu Nov 15, 2007 10:04 am
As a vintage 60 year old plying for 47 years and getting creaky I've just bought a Markbass Jeff Berlin 15" Neo Combo. I can carry it with one hand and fill a large hall with bass. Way to go in my opinion.

#17862 by TJBass
Sun Dec 23, 2007 9:17 pm
Owned in the past:
Carvin R600 tube/solid state head with Carvin 4x10 cab (Good head, crappy cab)

Crate BX-50 combo (sucked)

Ampeg B3158 combo (Good tone but it caught on fire cause I pushed it too hard due to low power, only 150 watts and that was biamped)

Hartke 3500 head and ampeg svt 410 cab (best rig I ever owned, could push the 12ax7 tube or get a good clean solid state tone, the cab was fantastic, could handle anthing I threw at it. This was the lightest rig I have owned as well)

Carvin 80's vintage Probass 500 head and 4x10 and 1x15 cabs (Great full stack rig, very heavy but tons of power and flexible tone)


Currently own:

Peavey Combo 300 (nice combo amp, 300 watts with a 15 inch black window speaker. the parametric stle low and high eq are the stuff, and the patch in/out and crossover is very handy. More amps need the + and - ground lift in my opinion)
#17885 by fisherman bob
Mon Dec 24, 2007 4:53 am
read your post about the Peavey Combo 300. I've been playing a Peavey TNT 115 for a few years, not a lot of power but a GREAT tone for blues. I've been thinking about getting a more powerful Peavey for gigs, combos are a beast to haul. Any recommendations on some of the newer Peavey bass rigs? Later...fisherman bob

#18418 by Mykk
Tue Jan 01, 2008 5:45 pm
TJBass wrote:Owned in the past:


Crate BX-50 combo (sucked)


Agreed, my first amp was a crate 50... I blew it and a Crate 100 up while rehearsing with a garage band. No joke, fire & smoke and all.

#55326 by 72 svp
Sun Feb 01, 2009 3:18 pm
I've been playing bass for 30 years and started with a fender bassman 100 with 4 12 speakers in a cabinet on an angle. O/K for the times. I than changed to a trainer mono block amp with an 18 inch back loaded speaker with 2-8 in front {a boom box} I changed to a gallien krueger 400 rb with 1-18 & 2-12 cabinets and than to a tube trainer yca bass amp with a 15 inch cabinet. I now run an Ampeg rack which is a b1re amp with an old american made svp pro preamp. I was running 4-10 & 1-15 swr cabinets and they sounded good but moved to an ampeg 4-10 and stayed with the swr 1-15 cabinet for now. It really seems like ampeg sounds better when its matched with its own gear. I am running a 1972 P bass & a 10 year old jazz bass with passive pickups which I feel sound better than the active because with passive I seem to get a more wood warm sound from my vintage basses.
#55754 by Power is Serious
Tue Feb 03, 2009 11:00 pm
When I started playing some years back I made the common teenage assumption that doubling power was tied to doubling volume, of course most of us now know that all you really get is a slight bump in volume with double the wattage (3 db).
In pro audio the most common ways to maximize volume is to have multiples of the same speaker type, use electronic crossovers to split the frequencies before amplification or a combination of both.
Using any of the afore mentioned for a bass guitar rig adds far more headroom and efficiency then any single speaker or single amplifier could achieve.
Of course raw power is useless without great tone however you can get both without using over priced and exotic brand names.

My rig is fairly straitforward and consists of a Sansamp PSA 2.1 preamp with a rack mounted Lexicon effects unit in the send/return, this then feeds a Carvin BX-1200 (Bridged in mono @ 1200 watts/4 ohms) which offers plenty of extra tone and eq adjustments and is eq'd for mid bass/mids, this in turn drives an old Sound City 'upright' 4x12 PA column which has been retrofitted with (4) Eminence "Swamp thang" 16 ohm guitar speakers (4 ohms total). Using this cab with as little as 128 watts can deliever 124 db's, (over 130 db's at the speakers power limits) this added to the incredible tonal possibilities of the Sansamp pre, Carvin tone controls and the speakers natural tone offer 'tone nirvana'.
The Sansamp also feeds a very cheap Behringer parametric eq which filters out any mids and highs and is tuned to maximize the 30-100hz frequencies, this in turn drives a very powerful Crest FA-1201 power amp (bridged in mono) and bought on ebay for $250, this powers a simple 2x18' cab retrofitted with (2) Eminence Magnum 18LF (18" speakers)...overall this bi-amped 2,250 watt set up offers incredibly smooth mid tone with stunning intensity and lows that go beyond any 8x10 cab...on the down side this rig is heavy,has multiple components, takes time to set up, is difficult to mic and draws quite a bit of electrical current.

#57763 by clarc
Sat Feb 21, 2009 5:52 am
if you want realy good low end,that can handle some power
you need to build your owne.
most stuff on the market can,t get the hertz we realy need.
and good sound can be a holelot beter then more power..


clarc

#57790 by philbymon
Sat Feb 21, 2009 11:49 am
Hey Bob...I had a TNT for awhile & liked it for the smaller venues. Now I got a PEavey Combo 400. It's way heavier, with a 15' black widow, Why oh why don't they put handles on the su=ides of these amps? I did out casters on it, but I still end up luggin' it around.

It's a good all-round amp, I guess.

Someday I'll have that Warwick & Eden set up if I ever win the lottery.

#58595 by Powakai
Sun Mar 01, 2009 3:15 pm
I ran 4 rigs 7 nights a week in Nashville for 2 years. We had alot of fun. Back to your question though 99% of the time any band that was semi-national and up used an AMPEG 8 speaker cabinet with a standard head and usually with an over easy compresor/gate and a pre-amp. Active Stewart DI box. If I played bass this would be the way I would go no if ands or buts. Hope this is helpful.
#256983 by _Andy_
Sat Mar 19, 2016 3:17 pm
Began with a Phase Linear 400 with 2 Carlson Exponential Slot Radiator cabs I built with 2 15" speakers. The Carlson design was supposed to be 15% efficient, which is both unheard of and not really true.
Started using a Phase Linear 400 into 2 twin 15", 4 ohm EV bottoms with University Sound speakers.
Switched to a Phase Linear 700 with the same bottoms, plus a horn using a 500Hz crossover and a 1965 Fender Jazz. Got complaints about the volume. Singers throats hurt. Hummm.
Switched to a Peavy TNT 100 and Peavy 80 watt biamped with a '76 Rickenbacker 4001.
Also have a 1965 near mint Kustom 200A with 2 15" speakers.

The PL 700 did the trick. 1360 watts RMS between repairs. It was awesome seeing the VU meters peg. Have ringing in my ears....won't stop....
#256988 by schmedidiah
Sat Mar 19, 2016 3:36 pm
Whoa! We got a volume warrior here! :lol:
#257230 by _Andy_
Wed Mar 23, 2016 1:26 pm
Power ratings is a topic that could be argued forever. Amp manufacturers used to have to report power in RMS, but, apparently, that has gone out the window. If a car audio, or Line 6 for that matter, reports 2000 watts or 300 watts, respectively, it isn't true. They are making up data. I agree, the power level was excessive, but really fun. The horn was really excessive. I don't remember what stadium it came from....
#257233 by Planetguy
Wed Mar 23, 2016 2:41 pm
back in the day it was all about moving a lot of air w a big rig. and that "look" still gets a lot people's ankles hard. not mine.

for the last cpl of yrs i've been using a "stack" that consists of a Class D ASHDOWN MI 550 (550 watts) head that weighs in under 5 lbs w a 5"x 6" footprint. i play that thu two Eden 1x12" cabs that weigh in at 30 lbs each. smaller gigs i go w one cab. these are super effecient cabs!

there's a thing that ASHDOWN has going on w the low mids that i just don't hear in other amps. great, smooth low end w as much definition as you want (and good definition is REALLY important to me). too many of the other Bigs....like SWR, EDEN, GK, solid state AMPEGs...even some MARKBASS amps...to my ears, they all have this "processed" kind of "colored" sound that don't get it for me. i just don't hear "wood" with them.

i'm really digging 12's for bass. i can get enough low end booty to handle a low B string at living room volume and even w the amp dimed. and it's "tight" w no no flab. this rig gets it done and carries the freight even in some pretty big rooms w loud bands. and when then ain't enough.....there's the DI offering up post or pre EQ options.

best of all....getting compliments on my tone, well, that's always nice...but i can't tell you how often other bassplayers will come up to me and remark how they can't believe what the rig puts out... they're usually pretty blown away when they learn the bass isn't in the PA and that what they're hearing is just those little cabs.

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