New amp advice

[Greg Edwards69]

I've decided after much time that my diminutive Markbass LMII just isn't right for me anymore.

I'm using mine with a MB 1x12 traveller. Honestly, up against 2 guitarists using 1x12's and a drummer, it's plenty loud enough, so no worries there (I don't think I've gone past 12 o'clock on the master volume since I bought it about 6 years ago).

When I bought it, I was using my warwick thumb BO as my main bass, the amp was a match made in heaven. Since then, my tastes have changed and I'm now using a Yamaha Attitude, both outputs, through a small but relatively complex pedal board, mixed together into the amp. Whilst the power, general tone and VLE/VPF filters are great, for the past year or so I've been really struggling with the eq. The more I tweak my sound through my pedal board to get that elusive 'tone', the more I realise the amp's tone stack isn't quite right. The bass is fixed at 40hz - too low IMO, and the low mid is 360hz, too high IMO.

Generally I try to keep the amps eq neutral, and get my basic tone from the pedal board, however, sometimes I want to dial in a little low end punch around 80-120hz, or dial out 200hz and just can't do it. I don't really want to add more eq to my pedal board (I have two eq pedals on there for other tone shaping reasons, and eq in my two zooms for shaping), or any more pedals for that matter.

Whilst I like the general tone too, I'm also wanting something a little more gooey and valvey. Just a little hair on the overall tone - not light overdrive, I have that already, but tubey warmth.

I also want to buy a new head as my LMII met with slight damage last year and it cost quite a lot to repair as the board isn't made anymore and the repairer had to source a refurbed board. I dread to the think the cost should it go wrong again. So I would retain the LMII as a backup whilst using the new amp full time.

Lastly, I don't drive, so needs to be little and light, like the LMII, and I would still use the MB 1x12 cab.

So far, I've narrowed it down to two main contenders.

Carvin BX500/700 - The tone/eq controls are a knob twiddlers dream and offer a huge bang for buck. I could envision using one eq section for tone shaping and the other for tweaking for the room. However, I'm not sure the tube preamp will give the desired tone, and I understand there's been reliability issues in the bass. Also, it's quite difficult to try Carvin before you buy in the UK.

TC Electronics RH450. Yeah, I know about the false wattage, but the question is, is it loud enough? Will it stand up against my LMII in terms of volume and headroom? On the plus side, the eq seems wonderful - 4 bands of parametric, the tube tone sounds great, and built in compression and tuner means I could even do the odd short gig without pedal board, just bass and amp.

There is a third contender, but it's not out yet. The forthcoming peavey minimega. This caught my eye recently, small, extremely powerful, parametric mids, compression and Kosmos/psycho-acoustic enhancement - could be handy for my single 1x12 in certain environments. But I'm not sure the 'crunch' will deliver 'that tone' I'm looking for.

The other thought was a DHA VT-1 eq preamp. But again, I don't really want to add pedals, and I really want to move the LMII to backup duty for fear of failure.

So - thoughts anyone? Sorry for rambling, but just wanted to make everything clear!

[leroydiamond]

IME the TC electronic RH450 will not stack up well when compared to the LM11 in terms of headroom and volume. I used this Amp over a weekend after a number of years with the LM11 and I was pretty underwhelmed by it to be honest.
I used the LM11 with 2 cabs at 4 ohms and found that with this set up, this little amp really flourished when compared with an 8 ohm set up.
Right now I am using a Tecamp 900 and am more than happy with it. Also have an Aguilar TH500 which is more old school but has a complex EQ set up that I sometimes struggle with. Again plenty of headroom with this baby.

[Lozz196]

I`ve encountered the very same problem with Markbass, the eq setting aren`t where I want them. So I`ve added a Tech21 VT DI, where the eq is:

Low - 125Hz, Mid 1000Hz, High 3.2kHz

And it`s worked fine for me, I set the Markbass eq flat, and adjust from the Tech21. This way my whole sound comes from the pedal, so if I have to use a provided amp, or go FOH, or for recording, my tone comes with me in one small pedal rather than my amp set-up.

However going by your wants for no more pedals, I`d look at the Carvin and the RH450. I had a TC Classic 450 and it was great, and the 4-band parametric on the RH means - without numbers mind - you can adjust where you want. Some have experienced lack of power with the TC amps though, so for use with only a single 1x12 maybe this could be an isue.

[discreet]

^ ^ I've done the very same and it worked for me, too. [size=4]Essentially you're using the MB as a power amp only and using the pedal as a pre. [/size]Also it's a lot cheaper than buying another amp.

Edited May 5, 2014 by discreet

[Japhet]

Streamliner

[Raslee]

+1 for Carvin, not sure on the newer amps but the tube is switchable on /off on my BX1500. The amp is very light too. Versatile beast and very clean sounding - complete opposite to my Streamliner which is most wooly and vintage sounding IMO of course

[paulbass]

I currently use a RH450 with a RS210 cab and that can hold its own. I've gigged with this set up for just over 2 years and it is plenty loud enough. I have on occasion used a bottom cab (trace elliot 1518c) to give me more headroom and that is loud!. At the end of the day you can only be as loud as the drummer and if you plan on bigger venues then i would advise going through a Pa. This amp does have an excellent DI and every sound engineer i've used has always complimented me on the quality of the sound.
If i had to fault the RH450 it would be that the buttons tend to develope cracks in them.This is a common thing with these units but it doesnt effect the amp at all.
Hope this helps

[hamfist]

I owned and gigged wth the RH450 (and 2 x RS210 cabs) for a while and I always struggled to get what I wanted from the EQ. On paper it looks awesome, but in use, it certainly didn't deliver for me. And also be aware that is does have a significant cut off in top end frequencies. I can't find it currently but someone did a frequency amplitude plot of the RH450's output at "flat" and it cut off a lot of frequencies starting at something like 2Khz.

I do know what you mean about getting the right frequency centres and I'm not a great lover of Markbass' chosen ones either. Don't forget that there are many ways of fiddling with your EQ. Changing (or adding a) preamp on the bass is a good one as most preamps accurately quote frequency centres and there are a lot of good parametric units around. A new preamp obviously will take no more room in your rig either. If you can source a preamp with the bass frequency centre of your choice, which also has a parametric mids to let you cut some of those very low mids, you would perhaps be getting close to what you are looking for.
I think you can do a lot worse than start off with a known reliable clean amp (something like the LMIII, or GK MB500 (bass centre 60Hz, lo mids centre 250Hz) etc) and then simply do all your tweaking from the bass and from pedals.

[Greg Edwards69]

Thanks for the input everyone.

The RH450 seems to divide opinion whenever it's brought up - it's a bit 'marmite' you might say. On paper it looks great, but if it doesn't have the oomph I'm after, runs out of head room and has too much high and low end roll off, then it's crossed off the list.

A preamp pedal is an intriguing thought, particularly the VT Bass, Tone Hammer or one of Dave Halls offerings. I don't really want to use more pedals either on my board or on top of the amp, but as mentioned, it is a cheaper alternative. Still, that still doesn't give me the backup amp head I want. It's always in the back of my mind that my LMII head packed up before and might again.

When I finally get off my backside and learn to drive, then another cab will be on the shopping list. For most of my gigs (pub rock covers and functions) the Markbass 1x12 is quite ample, but there are the odd handful times that I'd like a little more... something. I'm quite liking the looks of the Eden EX112. Compact, light and quite inexpensive (about half what I paid for my markbass 1x12). They would probably work quite nicely with my existing cab - or I would sell my cab and get two of the Edens. I'd love a barefaced super compact or two, but honestly can't justify the outlay for one.

The Genz, GK, new Fender Rumble, and Ashdown Rootmaster compact heads are all lovely looking amps, but I don't think any of them quite has the feature set I'm looking for.

So far, it looks like the Carvin is top of the table, but I think I might wait and see what the Peavey is like when it comes out. If rumours are true, it could be priced very competitively - I just hope it sounds as good as the spec sheet looks.

PS perversely, I have been eyeing up the now discontinued LMK head. I know it goes against everything I have said I'm after - the eq section in particular. But as I use a 2 channel setup from my Attitude bass, through separate signal paths on my pedal board, it could work quite well. The MB eq voicing work quite well for the low end of my setup from the woofer pickup - a little VPF and that's about it. The other channel for the top end needs different voicing however, but perhaps something like the VT bass in conjunction with this could be the answer to my prayers. If i'm mixing and eqing both signals on the amp instead, it would certainly open up space on my board for a preamp pedal.

Does anyone know of any other 2 channel amp heads, or 2 channel preamps for that matter - with discrete inputs and combined outputs? I've seen the Tecamp, but that is a lot of beer tokens and girlfriend demerits.

Edited May 16, 2014 by Greg Edwards69

[rk7]

What about an RH750? The same feature set, and plenty of headroom.

RK