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Amp / Cab Shootout! - Spur-of-the-moment Geordie Bass Bash!


wateroftyne
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Hi all

Yesterday, Warwickhunt had the fab idea of a mini-bass bash, so he, rslaing and myself convened at a handy location this evening with all our stuff and made a right old din for a few hours.

Apologies to any local BCers who missed out - it was a bit spur-of-the-moment so we didn't have a chance to round anyone else up. We will next time, though!

Right.. the line up (as I remember it):

[b]Heads:[/b]
Thunderfunk
Glockenklang Bass Art
EBS TD650
Mesa M-Pulse 600
Mesa Walkabout Scout 112
Warwick Tubepath 10.1

[b]Cabs:[/b]
Tech Neo 6x10
Epifani UL310
Schroeder 21012L

[b]Basses:[/b]
Warwick
Musicman (I'll be more specific about these two basses when WH gives me the deets)
Sei 6-string with flashy lights (again, I'll post specifics when I have them. The flashy lights were ACE though)
Fender '72 Fretted P (La Bella flats)
Fender '71 Fretless P (La Bella flats)

Personally, I found it to be a VERY enlightening evening. I'll just post the photos now, 'cos I'm knackered. I'll chip my findings along with rslaing and warwickhunt later. If there's anything specific you want to hear about, let us know....











Edited by wateroftyne
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[quote name='thinman' post='198369' date='May 13 2008, 11:19 PM']Still can't tell which one's you.[/quote]

WoT had the camera, rslaing looks comfortable with a 6 string SEI and... I have hair :huh:

Must say it was a blast but 3 hours just flew by :)

Revelations... at least for me

All basses should have LEDs
My Tech cabs eats wattage
Schoeders are cleverly designed and eat cabs
EBS TD650's have a lot more tonal variation that I imagined
4ohms is 'significantly' different to 5.3ohms regardless of sensitivity
WoT should never be let loose with round-wounds

I'll get up tomorrow morning and have given this some serious thought. Cheers RL & MB

My basses were an 88 Stage II with EMGs and an EB/MM Sterling with Nordstand

Edited by warwickhunt
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Hi john
So did the td650 surprise you, i love that head, ive played a lot of diffrent stuff through it and always been happy (oh and it sounds great for slap :huh: ) red off to the docs next week, had to wait a month for my local tech to be available very busy man to quote jimmy saville, may be having a trip home next month, will let you know.
all the best, love the wall of rigs-lee



WoT had the camera, rslaing looks comfortable with a 6 string SEI and... I have hair :huh:

Must say it was a blast but 3 hours just flew by :)

Revelations... at least for me

All basses should have LEDs
My Tech cabs eats wattage
Schoeders are cleverly designed and eat cabs
EBS TD650's have a lot more tonal variation that I imagined
4ohms is 'significantly' different to 5.3ohms regardless of sensitivity
WoT should never be let loose with round-wounds

I'll get up tomorrow morning and have given this some serious thought. Cheers RL & MB
[/quote]

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is that the buckeye burl sei millenium 6 with blue LEDs from the gallery? if so, i was going to buy that bass but decided that a flat was more important - plus i'm terrible at 6 string. i'm beginning to realise i made a horrible mistake after seeing it again, it looks incredible in the photos!

did you pair the EBS TD650 with the schroeder? I have a BFM omni 10 sans tweeters at the mo, and am looking for something a little more HI-FI and shiny - i love the sound of EBS gear, but the cabs are just too heavy. I know schroeders aren't the lightest cabs in the world, but i think it's great compromise for the tone - just wondered how it paired with the EBS in the 'shiny' department. my BFM has a middy, growly old-school tone that sounds great, but doesn't have the 'sheen' that i'm trying to achieve.

i know this is hardly an objective comparison and it would be incredibly difficult for you to try and quantify any of this, but just thought i'd try and get some (very) subjective and hearsay comparisons before i drive the 300+ miles to go and try them out for myself!!

J

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[quote name='jamesf' post='198592' date='May 14 2008, 11:16 AM']is that the buckeye burl sei millenium 6 with blue LEDs from the gallery? if so, i was going to buy that bass but decided that a flat was more important - plus i'm terrible at 6 string. i'm beginning to realise i made a horrible mistake after seeing it again, it looks incredible in the photos!

did you pair the EBS TD650 with the schroeder? I have a BFM omni 10 sans tweeters at the mo, and am looking for something a little more HI-FI and shiny - i love the sound of EBS gear, but the cabs are just too heavy. I know schroeders aren't the lightest cabs in the world, but i think it's great compromise for the tone - just wondered how it paired with the EBS in the 'shiny' department. my BFM has a middy, growly old-school tone that sounds great, but doesn't have the 'sheen' that i'm trying to achieve.

i know this is hardly an objective comparison and it would be incredibly difficult for you to try and quantify any of this, but just thought i'd try and get some (very) subjective and hearsay comparisons before i drive the 300+ miles to go and try them out for myself!!

J[/quote]

Is it worth risking a tenner on 4 piezos to fit to your Omni 10 before replacing it? I built mine with 4 and it's quite zingy when required.

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Hi Jamesf

Yep... we paired everything with everything!

I'm sure warwickhunt and rslaing will chip in with their 2p worth, but my view was this:

I really like the EBS head - I always loved the MBII preamp, and this has pretty much the same front end. It does clean well, but I really like the tube emulation.

The EBS into both the Schro and the Epi produced fairly similar results, apart from (IMO) the Schro was noticeably relatively louder (4ohm against 5.3ohm for the Epi, perhaps?) and it had a noticeable low, growly punch that wasn't apparent on the Epi.

The Schro and the Epi weren't flat sounding - unlike the Tech 610 - but it's a very tasteful colouration that fits well with what I do. It's not like the mid-hump the smaller Schroeders have. As for a 'sheen'.. I dunno. I might not have been listening for that as much as warwickhunt or rslaing.

The Epi is slightly smaller and noticeably lighter (a one-hand lift!), but the Schroeder isn't a bad lift at all.

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thanks for the advice, i now have some tweeters on the way, as well as the resistor. i agree that for £15 and a bit more sawing i can probably get a more shiny sound out of the omni - just wanting to know what else is out there and how the EBS paired up with some of the smaller cabs available. i tried a gormET350 in the studio last year and loved it but it was just too heavy.

i'll let you know how i go on with the tweeters in the omni

J

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[quote name='alexclaber' post='198683' date='May 14 2008, 01:01 PM']And this is where anecdotal evidence causes serious misinformation.

Alex[/quote]

I know where what you're saying here Alex (mid humps et al) but it was 'noticeably' different from both the 5.3 ohm Epi and the 5.3 ohm Tech and at various levels with a variety of amps! I would concede that the natural tone of the cab might account for some of the perceived volume increase (and nobody was more surprised than I) but it wasn't a subtle difference :)

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Ive found my schroeder to be miles "louder" than anything else ive played. and thats only the 1212, although its the R not the L verision, which apparently has more beef, but i cant vouch for that!

Ive still got mixed opinions about the tech gear, ive got it in my head that its a bit weedy, with not even nearly any evidence to suggest so. just a weird subconcious assosiation!

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[quote name='ste_m3' post='198699' date='May 14 2008, 01:20 PM']Ive found my schroeder to be miles "louder" than anything else ive played. and thats only the 1212, although its the R not the L verision, which apparently has more beef, but i cant vouch for that!

Ive still got mixed opinions about the tech gear, ive got it in my head that its a bit weedy, with not even nearly any evidence to suggest so. just a weird subconcious assosiation![/quote]
I'll try and add full thoughts this evening (and the lads will chip in) but the Tech is far from weedy! It has quite a flat response (measured with 3 sets of ears rather than any scientific proof) and desperately cried out to be fed watts :) It seemed to come into its own the more power it was given.

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I think the main conclusion that can be drawn is that using a flat response (on the common amp used) each cabinet obviously had it's own characteristics and they were apparent immediately.

And with minor fiddling on the amp, an almost identical sound could probably be obtained for each cabinet anyway.

The Tech does need to be driven hard to maximise it's potential.

The Epifani had a deep round clean sound.

The Schroeder's low mid hump made it really punchy, and with the amp on the same volume setting for each cab, was noticeably louder. This could be attributed to one of two things - either the low mid hump made it sound that way, or, the impedance match (4 as against 5.3 for the Epi and 6(?) for the Tech) produced a little more power from the amp. Or maybe it was a bit of both.

Regardless, a massive sound from small, light gear. I honestly don't think you need anything other than rigs as small as these. If you are in a major venue that requires louder equipment, your back line gear should be D.I'd in to a decent sized P.A.

And yes, the Sei millenium bass was bought from the Gallery, and apart from very frustratingly not being able to get the sound I wanted from it originally (I didn't have the knowledge of the wiring//pickups/piezo/coil tap/pan pots/tone pots etc etc) I've now got the gist and it not only looks wonderful, it sounds superb. Not sure about the LED's though :) Handy if you are playing in a theatre pit or something similar - as long as you don't put the xmas tree effect on. :huh:


[quote name='warwickhunt' post='198715' date='May 14 2008, 01:41 PM']I'll try and add full thoughts this evening (and the lads will chip in) but the Tech is far from weedy! It has quite a flat response (measured with 3 sets of ears rather than any scientific proof) and desperately cried out to be fed watts :huh: It seemed to come into its own the more power it was given.[/quote]

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[quote name='voxpop' post='198886' date='May 14 2008, 05:00 PM']Hi Guys, did anyone try or like the Glock head, I have the Heart rock and wondered what you thought of the Art.

It was on my short list of gear to try but couldn't find one in the UK.

Thanks.[/quote]


[quote name='ped' post='198896' date='May 14 2008, 05:11 PM']Also interested to hear how the Glock compared to the others, which cabs suited it best etc?

Looks like brilliant fun, certainly better than your average Tuesday. Cheers for the pics

ped[/quote]

The Glock had literally arrived that afternoon and we were 1/2 way through the sampling before I got around to soldering up an XLR to Speak-on lead, so it didn't get a thorough test BUT it certainly seemed to shine when WoT put his fretless through it. We ran the amps on pretty much their mid/flat settings (contentious but for these purposes they were considered flat) and the Glock meant my expectations in the short time that we ran it (too many amps - not enough time). It appeared full without being flabby and had a clarity across the range that seemed to suit all of the cabs, which not all of the amps did. Not that there was a bad combination among them and as Robert said with a touch of EQing you could have brought most of the combinations within a gnat's chuff of each other with few exceptions.

If I was forced to pick I'd say that the Glock partnered the Schroeder well but we'd be really nit-picking :)

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[quote name='Ham fisted Bass' post='199051' date='May 14 2008, 09:03 PM']The whole event looked like fun - good idea. :huh:[/quote]

It was but 3 hours just flew by and we didn't get the chance to do everything... or did we :)

[quote name='StevieC' post='199058' date='May 14 2008, 09:14 PM']Aye,

Let me know next time you do one of these and I'll bring my Phil Jones stuff along with me. It sounded like good crack as well as a unique chance to try out some quality gear!

Steve[/quote]

Will do Steve but it was a bit of a rush job!

It may not been in the too distant future especially if I change cabs :huh:

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It may not been in the too distant future especially if I change cabs :)
[/quote]

So this 'shootout' had mixed blessings then, did it? Lol

Or were you planning on changing anyway? For what it's worth, if you like the natural sound of your bass(es) you should have a look
at the Phil Jones gear.

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[quote name='StevieC' post='199075' date='May 14 2008, 09:31 PM']It may not been in the too distant future especially if I change cabs :huh:


So this 'shootout' had mixed blessings then, did it? Lol

Or were you planning on changing anyway? For what it's worth, if you like the natural sound of your bass(es) you should have a look
at the Phil Jones gear.[/quote]

No the gear change was already in progress I just wanted to hear a few 'small' cab solutions too see exactly how much of a compromise I'd be making going from a 6x10 down to a couple of 12's or a brace of 10's. I'm not doing the full-on '[b]ROCK[/b]' band thing (I don't think) in the future so a 2100watt 6x10 is a bit overkill for an electro/acoustic duo/trio with the potential use of an EUB :huh:

It 'will' be a compromise but I've got to accept I'm not going to need gob loads of volume and internal organ emulsification tone :huh:

I'm just seriously on the fence with the PJ gear :huh: it just looks too... small/dinky/odd. I'm not dismissing it out of hand but I just have the feeling that it may be too clinical for my tastes :)

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