Beer of the Bass

I owned and played a Bassix EUB for a number of years, and I can see where Neil is coming from, TBH.

Finger funk and Thumb BO sound like natural companions, somehow!

It does look like the Kenny's deal was a one-off, unfortunately. They were really good value at that price.

It's probably best to think of them as modern small valve heads, with elements of various older Ampegs informing the design. The midrange EQ circuit is closer to some of their larger amps, and the power amps are designed quite differently to the B15n. So while they sound recognisably "Ampeg", they're not recreating any specific vintage model.

I have recently bought the kit for the Vong, though haven't got around to assembling it yet. It looks well thought out though.

I was going to say that I had you down as a bit of a Viz fan, but then I realised you were using the word and not talking about the magazine!

Tubetown in Germany have a good choice of grille cloths, and the cost of postage wasn't too bad last time I used them.

That's not so far from where I set the EQ on mine, though my mid frequency is generally on setting 4. Boosting mids does something cool when the preamp is running just a little gritty!

With a Marshall type circuit, the channel volumes will affect the tone of one channel when plugged into the other, but not the volume so much.

Interesting, I wonder if that little perfboard by the inputs with the two transistors is a mod?

I mean, I'm not attributing the failures I've had to velcro, but simple FET circuits do seem to be sort of sensitive. Come to think of it, I've seen FET circuits that use zener diodes as protection at the input stage. I wonder if that might be worth looking into.

Looks nice, but I'm mostly enjoying the word "microtubules".

I've also had home built FET preamps do this. I guess there must be some way to protect against it, though I'm not sure what.

Aww, that's a shame! Though I'm toying with going without pedals in my current band - the convenience is nice...

I just read it as saying that having dabbled in cab design, he knows from experience that getting it down to that sort of weight is an impressive feat.

I can imagine the TKS S112 or S212 would be good with these amps too. I used the same driver in my DIY cabs, and the sensitivity and voicing work well with the Pf-50t.

I'm using one or two of my DIY 1x12 cabs with my Pf-50t though I did take it to a rehearsal yesterday and tried it with the house Ampeg 810-AV cab. That was sort of fun - with that much speaker area it really doesn't give the impression of being a low powered amp!

I played an older model Bassix EUB for a few years, and always struggled with posture. While he did well to offer the only EUB available for less than a grand in the early 2000s, I felt like a few details of mine weren't well thought out. One was the lack of a waist/bout extension, and there's no obvious way to fit one since the body is a thin fibreglass shell. The fingerboard on mine was oddly shaped too, and couldn't be planed as it's a moulded resin material. So while it was basically a functional instrument, I found I developed much less useful double bass technique on it than I'd hoped. Hopefully he'd have refined things a little more with later models though.

Why are almost all the youtube demos of these done with active basses with the onboard EQ cranked, and so focussed on slap? I don't really have anything against that sound, but it doesn't feel like the most obvious role for these amps...

The HiGain or Toaster style pickups here might suit the vibe of the bass quite well. https://retrovibe.co.uk/product-category/parts/pickups/

I wonder how long they'll have that for!

I'd be interested to know how you get on with the TC-61. I'm a fan of that downward "bowww" sound, but probably wouldn't find enough uses for it to justify spending a lot. So a cheap pedal with a reverse sweep could be appealing.

There's a strong element of "work smarter, not harder" too. When I first started playing a few years back I had a fairly high setup, too much relief in the board and Thomastik Superflexibles that are about on a par with Spiro Mittels. I hurt myself and had to take week long breaks a couple of times trying to brute-force my way through situations I was daft to go unamped in. With a bit more experience, I think the maximum volume I can get with my current bass, technique and setup is about on a par with what I got back then, but I don't hurt myself.

This is long, but worth it!

I quite like the preamp on the old MAG amps, the EQ bands are in useful places and I find it easy to dial in what I need. Also, these are quite a small box for a 15", if I'm thinking of the same model, so there may be some sort of mid-bass hump going on that suits your tastes.