AER Bottom Line bass amps

[LukeFRC]

[quote name='djaxup' timestamp='1418695767' post='2632478']
Got the Amp Three today. First impressions...

- huge sound. It sounds like a full muscle amp and feels like a 212 in terms of air movement. Astonishing. Unbeievable really because it is so small. And it is that deep, full sound that so many micro amps lack. The kind of oomph you expect from much much larger and higher power rigs. This combo does NOT get its loudness via low mids and cut off bass range. So deep... crazy. And very focused and not a tad muddy down low.

- the compressor is top notch. Not much else to say here, but it just works great.

- it has a bit of hiss when turned loud or boosting the treble up. No other noises though, no hearable fan or anything like that.

- superb sound, love the options. And just like medpb stated, quasi impossible to dial in unsusable sounds.


So far I'm totally stoked.
[/quote] How do you find it compares to the amp two?
I'm currently trying to sell my current rig, and while I have plans to replace it with something else bigger.... I am tempted to try and find an AER amp 2 somewhere to try/buy.

[djaxup]

The Amp Two is a different character. Three and One are like siblings, their character is similar with the One being more portable and classic sounding, the three having more oomph and lows and a bit more treble response. Still it has the warm treble. Both have no horns or other treble speakers.

The Two has a 12" and a 4", sounding more fullrange and Hi-fi. Many say it is a good match to an upright bass, but sounds superb with an e-bass nevertheless. The compressor is placed before the EQ.
It has another voicing, but I can't really understand why Ed Friedland reviewed it so short in his video and only with a bass that does not show the extended upper register this combo has.
And it does have more watts, also the screws around the speaker look awesome I liked it very much, but thought it was too big and heavy for my micro rig needs.

direct comparison between Two and Three:

- Two is substantially larger and heavier. Not really large or heavy, mind you. But still quite a difference.
- Three has more punch in the bass frequencies, the two has a much more detailed and hi-fi sound
- the two is a bit louder, but a more middy loudness. All AER Amps are very room filling and huge sounding, but the Three takes the crown for me in terms of sheer bassy goodness.
- the Two is, to my surprise, less noisy. It's "horn" (it's not really a horn but a very small speaker) is very silent.

Edited December 16, 2014 by djaxup

[LukeFRC]

[quote name='djaxup' timestamp='1418740619' post='2632843']
The Amp Two is a different character. Three and One are like siblings, their character is similar with the One being more portable and classic sounding, the three having more oomph and lows and a bit more treble response. Still it has the warm treble. Both have no horns or other treble speakers.

The Two has a 12" and a 4", sounding more fullrange and Hi-fi. Many say it is a good match to an upright bass, but sounds superb with an e-bass nevertheless. The compressor is placed before the EQ.
It has another voicing, but I can't really understand why Ed Friedland reviewed it so short in his video and only with a bass that does not show the extended upper register this combo has.
And it does have more watts, also the screws around the speaker look awesome I liked it very much, but thought it was too big and heavy for my micro rig needs.

direct comparison between Two and Three:

- Two is substantially larger and heavier. Not really large or heavy, mind you. But still quite a difference.
- Three has more punch in the bass frequencies, the two has a much more detailed and hi-fi sound
- the two is a bit louder, but a more middy loudness. All AER Amps are very room filling and huge sounding, but the Three takes the crown for me in terms of sheer bassy goodness.
- the Two is, to my surprise, less noisy. It's "horn" (it's not really a horn but a very small speaker) is very silent.
[/quote] thanks for that Amp 2 now on my GAS list!

[djaxup]

the Amp Three has a fan inside that runs only when needed. I played for an hour or so yesterday and I noticed the fan just before switching the combo off. Very silent, but hearable up close.

[djaxup]

After spending two month with it, some rehearsals and some song recordings (sadly no gig yet) I thought I'd give you a short overview of the pro's and con's of the Amp Three.


Rehearsal: I usually play through a Mesa Carbine M6 using an Ampeg 810E. So you could say me and the band are used to quite ground shaking bass tones and lots of air moving power. I brought the Amp Three to rehearsals and everyone was flat out overwhelmed by that small combo. It has such a deep low end sound... our room is 36 m², so not exactly small. Still the Amp delivered the goods. It even shakes your feet like the big boys. I have NO idea how they do this. It is unreal. And you can push the little guy a lot before you notice the speakers going more middy and driven in sound (or even visibly moving). Astonishing.

Recording: the setup was like this: DI out (pre) into interface and an AKG Perception 220 to record the speakers, about 30-40 cms in front of the grille.
The sound was really nice, I even used the build in compressor over the .vst compressors we had at hand. I ended up using almost only the microphone signal.


The features of the Amp, and how they interact:

- gain: I usually set the gain lower than the manual says, because this combo has some hiss to it. This is my main gripe with it, I think it's just too pricy to have any hiss, at least so easily noticable hiss. But setting the gain quite low definitely helps. It also makes the sound more "headroomy", if I set the gain to the usual "flash only on hard strokes" the sound gets too middy for my likes.

- color switch: this one is important and maybe one of the main features. It gives a substantial boost to the upper mids/treble (3,8 KHz). It comes across as a high mid boost, the amp has a naturally warm treble because of the lack of a tweeter, though the 8" cones have a bit more treble definition than a 10".
I have basses that work perfect with the color switch and I almost always have it on with them. My P-Bass and T-Bird, and my Bongo (a special mahagony version with lots of mids), they sound so awesome with this switch engaged. It makes the notes jump at you and just sounds so musical.
If I use my Spector or my 2-band Stingray, I have to turn it off or it will bite off my ears if I dial in the usual amount of treble. Everything above 30% treble on the Ray means ears bleeding. As soon as I disengage the color switch I can go all out with no problems. And that sounds a lot better to me with both basses.
So, use with caution. This is a voicing option with lots of character to it, but it can go out of hand.

- bass boost: this one is magic, but only if you don't use the balance/intensitiy (see later) at the same time. Then it is just utter madness and boomy. But set the combo relatively flat and this button gives you booty shaking low end and thumb that's outrageous for such a small combo. The louder you dial the combo, the better this knob gets. It keeps the combo from sounding too middy and all Geddy like when playing loud.

- Bass and treble EQ are normal. Treble is barely noticable, depending on the bass you use.

- the parametric mids are just that. You have two different Q's, one that is very narrow and one broader. The narrow one is excellent to kill problematic frequencies... our rehearsal room has a problematic frequency at about the low A, and I was able to tackle that quite well with the mid knobs. The broader Q setting is more musical sounding and can drastically alter the tone of the amp. I set this knob different for each bass, but it is very easy to find the correct spot.

- the Tone Balance section: this is a smilie face EQ that boosts treble and bass substantially. So in effect a mid cut, call it what you will. If you set balance in center pos and dial the intensity all the way up you get a solid slap sound and the bass played on it's own sound dope. Turn the balance to the left and it only boosts the bass, to the right: only the treble part. I leave this off most of the time. It gets much, much too boomy when used with the bass boost. I like the sound a lot with the more muffled T-Bird, the tone balance and the color switch add a lot of texture to the bass sound that is normally not there.

- Compressor: very nice one. It makes the overall sound level lower if engaged and you have to turn the master up higher to compensate. I have it on almost always and have both knobs on 12 o'clock. You can notice it evening your sound without pumping. I like it very much, better than my EBS Multicomp.



pros:

- so easy to carry! It is small, has a very comfy leather handle and only weights 13,5kg.
- It feels every bit as huge tonewise as my M6 Carbine sounded over my Powerhouse 1x15. And that really means something. The M6 could of course go louder, but I didn't need it to go that loud anyways. The Amp Three can easly handle a normal rock band.
- The amp sounds perfect when played at low levels at home. That's very important to me.
- I played the Amp Three with a little bit of PA (run over the DI out) and that sounded just sooo good. Perfectly audible bass sound with booty.
- superb EQing options. They do take some time to get used to and understand the interactions of each.


cons:

- it is stupidly expensive.
- it hisses when turning in too many treble options and running the gain higher. More than I expected it to.
- It changes character over its loudness leves. From super headroomy to mids-to-the-face. So, EQ after setting the correct loudness - but I found this to be true for almost every piece of amp equipment I ever had.


Honeymoon's over, I still love it. Can't wait to take it to a gig. Up until now everyone who heard it could not believe the pressure, fullness and musical sound that came out of this little box.

[pmjos]

Thanks very much for that detailed review. Getting my amp 3 next week with any luck!

[machinehead]

Thanks for the excellent review djaxup.

The amp two is the same if you use the bass boost together with the tone balance on the bass bias side. It's a great sound at home and low volume, but on my first gig with the amp two I forgot that I had both these on (rushed sound check) there was instant boom. I knew what to do and fixed it immediately.

These are astonishingly good gigging amps for "weekend warriors" like me. Far too expensive, yes, but if you want a compact, loud and sweet sounding combo they are superb.

The amp three is very tempting too. (If I win the lottery)

Frank.

[tbonepete]

First proper outing tonight for my amp two, having only used it for smaller duties such as trio gigs and rehearsals etc. Am looking forward to winding it up, although it'll be the first time di ing into a large house system, so the heavy lifting will be done by the house system. Just curious as to the di level to send to the desk.......I'll ask the engineer tonight. Happy days

[djaxup]

Any feedback tbonepete? would be interesting to read.

Still love my Amp Three to bits. I have regularly used it in loud rehearsals more or less as a preamp, like this:

Bass --> Amp Three --> DI Out --> Crest CA9 power amp --> Mesa Powerhouse 2x12

awesome. As the Amp Three lacks a horn it's sound is always a bit muffled compared to a full range cab like the Powerhouse. But the preamp is just soo good and sounds perfect with the 600 Watts of the amp. This is also an alternative to use it for bigger scenarios.

[tbonepete]

[quote name='djaxup' timestamp='1432729159' post='2784316']
Any feedback tbonepete? would be interesting to read.

Still love my Amp Three to bits. I have regularly used it in loud rehearsals more or less as a preamp, like this:

Bass --> Amp Three --> DI Out --> Crest CA9 power amp --> Mesa Powerhouse 2x12

awesome. As the Amp Three lacks a horn it's sound is always a bit muffled compared to a full range cab like the Powerhouse. But the preamp is just soo good and sounds perfect with the 600 Watts of the amp. This is also an alternative to use it for bigger scenarios.
[/quote]

Hi djaxup,
Short answer is that I found it plenty loud enough, but there were shortcomings in the sound for me that I couldn't live with , so it's gone now. I did find the people at AER very helpful though, and if they build what I'm looking for in the future I'll be certain to try them again. This is only my comment, and is in no way a reflection on the quality of the amp .

Cheers Pete

[medpb]

I've owned this amp one for I think about 18months now and I can never see me buying another amp again : ) From Wal basses to Fenders it always amazes me how it sounds.

[sk8]

Continually amazed by my Amp One. Can't believe what it does for such a tiny package