Linus27 Posted August 22, 2012 Share Posted August 22, 2012 [quote name='nottswarwick' timestamp='1345670713' post='1780395'] ok. So no real reason not to get one then? [/quote] Nope unless you have a fear of dragons as there is a drawing of one on the front. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nottswarwick Posted August 22, 2012 Share Posted August 22, 2012 haha. No, dragons I like. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
1976fenderhead Posted August 22, 2012 Share Posted August 22, 2012 (edited) [quote name='nottswarwick' timestamp='1345670713' post='1780395'] ok. So no real reason not to get one then? [/quote] I'd say the only possible reason is that in my opinion it's a very sterile- sounding amp. It's very transparent and direct, very fast attack and very focused, super clean, but it has zero organic warmth or colour. I always felt like something was missing until I added a VT Bass to it and though objectively the difference I can hear seems minimal, it increased my enjoyment of the tone massively. I'd compare it to CD vs vinyl. When I switched to CDs I couldn't quite get the same pleasure out of music and couldn't understand why. As we know, there's frequencies above 20K that though we don't 'hear' consciously, they make the music more pleasurable and they're missing from CDs. I get a similar feeling from this amp (coming from one with a valve preamp), and when I added the VT Bass it was like I put those frequencies back and it made all the difference. I'm actually liking the idea of a very sterile amp that is like a blank canvas in terms of tone that I can manipulate with pedals: I can leave it clean, I can give it a valve preamp, I can do all sorts of things. With an amp that already has a certain old school colour to it, if you add some other colour on top it just muddies the whole thing up. The VT Bass sounded like a muddy mess with my previous amp but really shines with this one. If however you like old school warm valve-like tones and want to get that from your amp and no pedals, you won't find it in the Reidmar. EDIT: Another reason why I like the idea of this amp is that almost all the other compact ones I tried (GB, MB, Aguilar, TC), had some sort of problem that I could not fix with pedals, such as muddy lows, unwanted compression or lack of power efficiency and volume. This one almost feels like a super efficient power amp with some EQ and Comp there to help but then you should warm it up with some nice organic preamp. Edited August 22, 2012 by 1976fenderhead Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Linus27 Posted August 22, 2012 Share Posted August 22, 2012 Excellent, then nothing to stop you. They really are ace amps. I went from a Shuttle 6 which was nice but thin sounding, to a Shuttle 9 which I hated to a LM2 which was ace and sounded wonderful to now a Reidmar. The Reidmar not only sounds superb and has so much tonal range, it is also much louder than any of my previous amp heads. Plus it has a dragon on the front which in my book scores it a 10 as dragons are cool. I am very happy with it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Linus27 Posted August 22, 2012 Share Posted August 22, 2012 [quote name='1976fenderhead' timestamp='1345671416' post='1780414'] I'd say the only possible reason is that in my opinion it's a very sterile- sounding amp. It's very transparent and direct, very fast attack and very focused, super clean, but it has zero organic warmth or colour. I always felt like something was missing until I added a VT Bass to it and though objectively the difference I can hear seems minimal, it increased my enjoyment of the tone massively. I'd compare it to CD vs vinyl. When I switched to CDs I couldn't quite get the same pleasure out of music and couldn't understand why. As we know, there's frequencies above 20K that though we don't 'hear' consciously, they make the music more pleasurable and they're missing from CDs. I get a similar feeling from this amp (coming from one with a valve preamp), and when I added the VT Bass it was like I put those frequencies back and it made all the difference. I'm actually liking the idea of a very sterile amp that is like a blank canvas in terms of tone that I can manipulate with pedals: I can leave it clean, I can give it a valve preamp, I can do all sorts of things. With an amp that already has a certain old school colour to it, if you add some other colour on top it just muddies the whole thing up. The VT Bass sounded like a muddy mess with my previous amp but really shines with this one. If however you like old school warm valve-like tones and want to get that from your amp and no pedals, you won't find it in the Reidmar. [/quote] Thats interesting as I feel the opposite. I found it a very full and warm sounding amp but then I am using it with the EBS classic 112 cabs which do give a warm vintage sound. I have tried it with a Genz Benz 112 and that also sounded very warm and punchy. I would certainly not say it was sterile, in fact the opposite. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
1976fenderhead Posted August 22, 2012 Share Posted August 22, 2012 (edited) [quote name='Linus27' timestamp='1345671769' post='1780419'] Thats interesting as I feel the opposite. I found it a very full and warm sounding amp but then I am using it with the EBS classic 112 cabs which do give a warm vintage sound. I have tried it with a Genz Benz 112 and that also sounded very warm and punchy. I would certainly not say it was sterile, in fact the opposite. [/quote] I have the same cabs (which are great) and still find it sterile I could tell a massive difference when using my old SWR with these cabs and AB'ing it with this amp. The SWR was muddier, less focused and slower on the attack, but had that sizzling top end overtones that are nowhere in this amp (until I added the VT Bass). Depends what kind of tone you're coming from I guess... Edited August 22, 2012 by 1976fenderhead Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Linus27 Posted August 22, 2012 Share Posted August 22, 2012 [quote name='1976fenderhead' timestamp='1345671899' post='1780426'] I have the same cabs (which are great) and still find it sterile I could tell a massive difference when using my old SWR with these cabs and AB'ing it with this amp. The SWR was muddier, less focused and slower in the attack, but had that sizzling top end overtones that are nowhere on this amp (until I added the VT Bass). Depends what kind of tone you're coming from I guess... [/quote] Yes totally. I guess coming from the two shuttle amps and Aguilar cabs which was a very clean setup to the Reidmar and classic cabs will sound a lot richer and less hi-fi I guess. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nottswarwick Posted August 22, 2012 Share Posted August 22, 2012 (edited) Ive got Vanderkley 112 ext cabs which are nice and full sounding so could be a good match They are efficient at 100db, vs a quoted 94db for the EBS classicline 112 cabs....Assuming this is a like for like measurement?... Anyway...food for thought. Edited August 22, 2012 by nottswarwick Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
1976fenderhead Posted August 22, 2012 Share Posted August 22, 2012 [quote name='nottswarwick' timestamp='1345672257' post='1780433'] Ive got Vanderkley 112 ext cabs which are nice and full sounding so could be a good match [/quote] I think so. When I bought this rig my favourite cabs of all the stuff I tried were Vanderkley and EBS Neoline, difference being that I had to cut the tweeter on the Vanderkley while I could leave the EBS's tweeter on normal volume. Once I cut it I found they performed very similarly, but I didn't exactly AB them and this was in a shop so someone else with more experience might disagree. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nottswarwick Posted August 22, 2012 Share Posted August 22, 2012 f**k it I think I'll get one. Who is cheapest..lets see Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
1976fenderhead Posted August 22, 2012 Share Posted August 22, 2012 [quote name='nottswarwick' timestamp='1345672257' post='1780433'] They are efficient at 100db, vs a quoted 94db for the EBS classicline 112 cabs....Assuming this is a like for like measurement?... [/quote] ...or maybe EBS are more honest than most with their measurements, as they were with the 250W power rating? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
shizznit Posted August 22, 2012 Share Posted August 22, 2012 (edited) [quote name='1976fenderhead' timestamp='1345671416' post='1780414'] I'd say the only possible reason is that in my opinion it's a very sterile- sounding amp. It's very transparent and direct, very fast attack and very focused, super clean, but it has zero organic warmth or colour. I always felt like something was missing until I added a VT Bass to it and though objectively the difference I can hear seems minimal, it increased my enjoyment of the tone massively. I'd compare it to CD vs vinyl. When I switched to CDs I couldn't quite get the same pleasure out of music and couldn't understand why. As we know, there's frequencies above 20K that though we don't 'hear' consciously, they make the music more pleasurable and they're missing from CDs. I get a similar feeling from this amp (coming from one with a valve preamp), and when I added the VT Bass it was like I put those frequencies back and it made all the difference. I'm actually liking the idea of a very sterile amp that is like a blank canvas in terms of tone that I can manipulate with pedals: I can leave it clean, I can give it a valve preamp, I can do all sorts of things. With an amp that already has a certain old school colour to it, if you add some other colour on top it just muddies the whole thing up. The VT Bass sounded like a muddy mess with my previous amp but really shines with this one. If however you like old school warm valve-like tones and want to get that from your amp and no pedals, you won't find it in the Reidmar. EDIT: Another reason why I like the idea of this amp is that almost all the other compact ones I tried (GB, MB, Aguilar, TC), had some sort of problem that I could not fix with pedals, such as muddy lows, unwanted compression or lack of power efficiency and volume. This one almost feels like a super efficient power amp with some EQ and Comp there to help but then you should warm it up with some nice organic preamp. [/quote] The Reidmar is missing one distinguishable feature that you get on the HD350/60, TD650/60 and Fafner mk1/mk2 amps is the 'Drive' control. You can either turn it up steadily to warm up the tone or crank it to have a balls to the wall tube tone. I don't use that control much so I don't miss it on the Reidmar, so if you prefer a FET tone instead of a tube tone then you will love the Reidmar. That said, the gain control seems to be a bit more dynamic than the other EBS heads and does warm up quite a bit when you crank it. It's not exactly the same as the drive control, but you can get some pretty cool results if you want to emulate a tube tone. Edited August 22, 2012 by shizznit Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nottswarwick Posted August 22, 2012 Share Posted August 22, 2012 [quote name='1976fenderhead' timestamp='1345672701' post='1780443'] ...or maybe EBS are more honest than most with their measurements, as they were with the 250W power rating? [/quote] haha maybe indeed..... Anyway, the Vanderkleys are nice cabs. Nice and full sounding, so a bit of "bite" would not go amiss.. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nottswarwick Posted August 22, 2012 Share Posted August 22, 2012 [quote name='shizznit' timestamp='1345672727' post='1780445'] The Reidmar is missing one distinguishable feature that you get on the HD350/60, TD650/60 and Fafner mk1/mk2 amps is the 'Drive' control. You can either turn it up steadily to warm up the tone or crank it to have a balls to the wall tube tone. I don't use that control much so I don't miss it on the Reidmar, so if you prefer a FET tone instead of a tube tone then you will love the Reidmar. That said, the gain control seems to be a bit more dynamic than the other EBS heads and does warm up quite a bit when you crank it. It's not exactly the same as the drive control, but you can get some pretty cool results if you want to emulate a tube tone. [/quote] Does that mean that it runs out of clean headroom at very high volumes? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
1976fenderhead Posted August 22, 2012 Share Posted August 22, 2012 [quote name='shizznit' timestamp='1345672727' post='1780445'] The Reidmar is missing one distinguishable feature that you get on the HD350/60, TD650/60 and Fafner mk1/mk2 amps is the 'Drive' control. You can either turn it up steadily to warm up the tone or crank it to have a balls to the wall tube tone. I don't use that control much so I don't miss it on the Reidmar, so if you prefer a FET tone instead of a tube tone then you will love the Reidmar. That said, the gain control seems to be a bit more dynamic than the other EBS heads and does warm up quite a bit when you crank it. It's not exactly the same as the drive control, but you can get some pretty cool results if you want to emulate a tue tone. [/quote] Totally agree with this, it's the key difference, I do wish it had the drive control though, might have saved me getting the VT Bass Regarding the Gain control, very true, I get it clean at 1 oc and starts distorting at peaks at 2 oc, not a bad sounding distortion but not amazing either, and if you only get it at loud notes it's missing from most of them Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
1976fenderhead Posted August 22, 2012 Share Posted August 22, 2012 (edited) [quote name='nottswarwick' timestamp='1345672885' post='1780449'] Does that mean that it runs out of clean headroom at very high volumes? [/quote] With my active MIA Jazz Deluxe, it runs out at about 1.30 - 2 oc. That's better than my old 350W SWR could do! Mind you, the volume you can then get with the Volume control is MASSIVE. WIth gain at 1oc I can't have volume past 10% at home!!! (used to be 30% with the SWR) Edited August 22, 2012 by 1976fenderhead Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
shizznit Posted August 22, 2012 Share Posted August 22, 2012 ^ What he said! Seriously...you will be amazed. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fretmeister Posted August 22, 2012 Share Posted August 22, 2012 How noisy are the fans on these? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nottswarwick Posted August 22, 2012 Share Posted August 22, 2012 anyone selling one? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
shizznit Posted August 22, 2012 Share Posted August 22, 2012 [quote name='fretmeister' timestamp='1345674418' post='1780474'] How noisy are the fans on these? [/quote] Not too bad. I use mine for recording mostly and it's pretty quiet. The fan in my EA iAmp 500 is noisier, which is surprising as that model was designed for studio use in mind. There is a detectable hum as with all amp fans, but I would say its on par with a laptop fan. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
shizznit Posted August 22, 2012 Share Posted August 22, 2012 [quote name='nottswarwick' timestamp='1345674490' post='1780477'] anyone selling one? [/quote] Haha! Yeah...nice one! In the words of Charlton Heston... “Go forth and proclaim liberty throughout all the land, unto all the inhabitants thereof.” No...wrong quote... “from my cold, dead hands.” Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nottswarwick Posted August 22, 2012 Share Posted August 22, 2012 [quote name='shizznit' timestamp='1345675194' post='1780486'] Haha! Yeah...nice one! In the words of Charlton Heston... “Go forth and proclaim liberty throughout all the land, unto all the inhabitants thereof.” No...wrong quote... “from my cold, dead hands.” [/quote] indeed. Well, you know, someone will be selling one...somewhere....even if it happens to be a shop lol. Possibly another lining of Bass Direct tills. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
shizznit Posted August 22, 2012 Share Posted August 22, 2012 [quote name='nottswarwick' timestamp='1345675470' post='1780490'] indeed. Well, you know, someone will be selling one...somewhere....even if it happens to be a shop lol. Possibly another lining of Bass Direct tills. [/quote] I have only seen a 2nd hand Reidmar on eBay just once since EBS launched it over here last year, so they are quite sparse on the used market. I would say that the initial majority of sales of the Reidmar in the UK were sold to BC members, so keep your ear to the ground. One might pop up F/S soon. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jcater Posted August 23, 2012 Share Posted August 23, 2012 Just buy a new one! Taking account performance linked with weight / size and cost it's the best amp i have ever purchased. Maybe BC should seek sponsorship from EBS after all the good comments on here Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MalGanis Posted September 26, 2012 Share Posted September 26, 2012 Hi there. I'm thinking about buying this amp. The thing is that I want to keep the weight at minimum so I just want to buy one cab, now the problem is that most cabs (cheaper ones ) are 8 ohms and I might have not enough power (125W @ 8 ohm). I play mostly jazz and jazz fusion, do you think I would have enough with those (EBS) 125W? Any advice on choosing a cab? Thanks very much. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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