silverfoxnik Posted July 20, 2008 Share Posted July 20, 2008 Hi Folks, Well, I thought I was getting on fine with my Gallien Krueger 700 RB and an SWR Triad; I liked the sound, the amp is ultra-simple and easy to use plus the band were happy with my sound too (which makes for an easier life....). But then I got greedy and bought an SWR 210 from dmz, having decided for some wierd GAS induced reason that I wanted to run the Triad with the 210 occasionally.. Trouble is, the GK 700 will only cope with a 4 ohm load and both the SWR cabs together makes for a 2 ohm load! So, when Bottomfeed's Peavey T-Max came up for sale recently I decided to go for that and sell the GK 700 (even managed to do it without losing any money too which was a bonus ). The T-Max runs at 350 watts at 4 ohms and 500 watts at 2 ohms and it has a tube pre-amp and a solid state pre-amp, which can be used seperately or together, which seemed like a good idea to me at the time. Anyway, this weekend I had a Friday and a Saturday gig to use the T-Max in anger for the first time and at Friday's gig, I was having real problems with the sound and returned home a bit miserable thinking maybe I'd made a big mistake going for the T-Max! But looking back, I realised that I'd run the amp in dual-channel mode for the whole gig, combining the tube and the solid state pre-amps. And to make matters worse, I'd also used the tube simulator setting on my Zoom B2 throughout (which I always used to warm the tone up a bit with the GK 700), so no wonder it sounded like overkill at the gig! So, yesterday afternoon, I set all the gear up in the garage and did a bit of testing at gig volume (which seemed to entertain the neighbours a bit ) and what I finally worked out after almost two hours was that the following set-up sounded really good: Roscoe Beck V -> Boss TU2 tuner -> Peavey T-Max Tube pre-amp -> T-Max Fx loop to DBX MC6 compressor happily, the gig last night went really well and the sound was great with lots of compliments coming my way from the band, so that must be a good sign! Another bonus was that I was able to dispense with my pedal board and all the extra cables all over the floor making my setting up time much quicker. And I was able to use the solid state preamp setting with my BC Rich Eagle on a couple of numbers and balance the volumes accordingly, as the Eagle has a much higher output than the Roscoe Beck! On the down side, I did notice that the GK 700 seems to articulate the low frequencies of a B string better than the T-Max, so I had to fiddle with the e.q. to get that as good as possible from the T-Max.. And I think that with the valve pre-amp, there is more sustain, so I'm going to have to play a bit with the DBX to get the balance right there.. But overall, I think I'm now a 'valve convert' and that that maybe valves really are much better for bass.. What do you think?? Nik P.S. I haven't even used the 210 with it yet, so I've still got that to look forward to.. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kiwi Posted July 20, 2008 Share Posted July 20, 2008 Nik for what its worth, both my Burmans and my V8 have no problems articulating the B string on my Smith 5. I think Peavey amps tend generally to be fairly coloured and its up to the individual to decide whether that colouring is to their taste or not. As you're already aware I had a pair of GK combos for a long while and I would still be playing them if they hadn't weighed as much as they did. I think the GK stuff is fairly aggressive sounding which, if you have a soft sounding bass like a Smith or a Peavey Grind, can be a good thing. As far as sustain goes, I think it depends on the bass, the venue and how loud your amp is. I could stand with my Pedulla Pentabuzz next to the GK combo and the bass would feedback ever so gently when I played meaning I got oodles of sustain at stage monitoring volumes. I think with valves, you get a little more compression and the transients are less obvious. It might also be that you have a gentle feedback effect with your bass at certain frequencies when the amp is loud enough perhaps? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
silverfoxnik Posted July 20, 2008 Author Share Posted July 20, 2008 (edited) [quote name='Crazykiwi' post='243761' date='Jul 20 2008, 01:31 PM']Nik for what its worth, both my Burmans and my V8 have no problems articulating the B string on my Smith 5. I think Peavey amps tend generally to be fairly coloured and its up to the individual to decide whether that colouring is to their taste or not. As you're already aware I had a pair of GK combos for a long while and I would still be playing them if they hadn't weighed as much as they did. I think the GK stuff is fairly aggressive sounding which, if you have a soft sounding bass like a Smith or a Peavey Grind, can be a good thing. As far as sustain goes, I think it depends on the bass, the venue and how loud your amp is. I could stand with my Pedulla Pentabuzz next to the GK combo and the bass would feedback ever so gently when I played meaning I got oodles of sustain at stage monitoring volumes. I think with valves, you get a little more compression and the transients are less obvious. It might also be that you have a gentle feedback effect with your bass at certain frequencies when the amp is loud enough perhaps?[/quote] Hi CK Good to hear from you and thanks for those thoughts.. It does get interesting doesn't it when you mix different basses with different amps & cabs.. And I hadn't even considered the feedback possibility? I do like the GK sound but I also quite like the Peavey sound too. I think I'm beginning to realise though that whilst I've played lots and lots of different basses in my time, my experience of amps is much more limited.. At the next Bash I'm going to spend a bit more time investigating the rigs that people bring more than the basses. Nik Edited July 20, 2008 by silverfoxnik Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bass_ferret Posted July 20, 2008 Share Posted July 20, 2008 I used to have a Tmax and 2 2x10TX cabs. Nice sounding and very loud but as Kiwi said very coloured, making the basses sound the same. I had the footswitch with mine that was good for switching channels but I preferred the tube channel. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
silverfoxnik Posted July 20, 2008 Author Share Posted July 20, 2008 [quote name='bass_ferret' post='243872' date='Jul 20 2008, 04:13 PM']I used to have a Tmax and 2 2x10TX cabs. Nice sounding and very loud but as Kiwi said very coloured, making the basses sound the same. I had the footswitch with mine that was good for switching channels but I preferred the tube channel.[/quote] Was that when you had your 2 GBs, John?? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bass_ferret Posted July 20, 2008 Share Posted July 20, 2008 No. I was using my Bass Collection and an Ibanez Musician fretless. I went to Bernies to try the EBS gear and got sucked in to ordering the basses when I got the rig Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
silverfoxnik Posted July 20, 2008 Author Share Posted July 20, 2008 [quote name='bass_ferret' post='243910' date='Jul 20 2008, 04:56 PM']No. I was using my Bass Collection and an Ibanez Musician fretless. I went to Bernies to try the EBS gear and got sucked in to ordering the basses when I got the rig [/quote] Blimey - That was an expensive visit!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bass_ferret Posted July 20, 2008 Share Posted July 20, 2008 About 5 grand!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
silverfoxnik Posted July 20, 2008 Author Share Posted July 20, 2008 [quote name='bass_ferret' post='243974' date='Jul 20 2008, 07:00 PM']About 5 grand!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!![/quote] Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
casapete Posted July 22, 2008 Share Posted July 22, 2008 Mate of mine had a T-Max in combo form (think it ran at 4 ohms into its internal speaker). He then bought a Peavey 210 4 ohm cab to run with it as well, therefore giving its full output into 2 ohms. Thats when the problems started! Local engineer expressed doubts over whether these amps can run for long periods into 2 ohms without overheating etc. far safer to run them at 4 he reckoned. Good luck getting sorted! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cheddatom Posted July 22, 2008 Share Posted July 22, 2008 I ran my peavey tnt combo at 2 ohms for ages until a cab broke down. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bass_ferret Posted July 22, 2008 Share Posted July 22, 2008 Ran mine for years at 2 ohms - and that was when I was gigging a lot. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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