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The HandBox Amplification thread


wateroftyne

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Just played my first full gig with the Handbox WB-100/ Bergantino NV115 rig witthout PA support.  I could hear myself clearly without having to wind up the volume too far, it had a lovely warm sound and musician friends in the audience said it sat well in the mix, cutting right though.  Bass was a Sadowsky Metro PJ running passive on just the P pick-up with flats.  I'm a very happy chap.

Just as an aside I think I need a cover for the WB-100.  Anyone had one made?

Edited by obbm
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Another Handbox R400 convert here.

I've had my new R400 for a couple of weeks and had my first outing with it yesterday. The gig was with an old school R&B band with no pa support, so I took my Barefaced Supertwin 212 cab. We had a limited sound check due to folks watching Man Utd v Wolves in the bar. I went with gain vol at 12 o clock and master at 1, left my volume on the Overwater PJ with some in reserve and lifted the bass to 2 with treble at 12, no contour and no drive.

In conclusion I just couldn't fault this amp, loads of punch and definition and a lovely warm tone. Thanks to Leszek for everything, these have to be the best value/quality amps out there. Also thanks to Wateroftyne for posting his reviews, and for his advice, spot on Michael.

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  • 4 weeks later...
  • 3 weeks later...
7 minutes ago, danbowskill said:

What's the easiest way of ordering a r400? Think I'm going to give it a bash. I'm playing Drop C through a Ampeg 610 cab .... Heavy (ish) music., Is the volume output quite good on these

Hello! Either email Leszek at [email protected], or message him on Facebook. The latter will probably get a quicker response. The output is - IME - loud. It’ll be poky as owt through a fridge...

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DeeDee (Dan) has kindly parted ways with his new r400. I'll report back on how it is through the Ampeg cab, heavy/alt music in a loud band with a p bass pick played......looking forward to how it takes with my different drive pedals

Cannot friggin wait :-):-)

 

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IMG_20190508_190842.thumb.jpg.317d7abbad3e46a1bd27ae487f697445.jpgWell it IMG_20190508_190816.thumb.jpg.43554c999f62b366744be156011c733e.jpglanded 🙂

Stone me this thing is glorious as glorious gets. My main 2 doubts with getting one lay in the volume and mid's I could get out of it( I like mid's ,and volume)....... As others have said,I need not have worried, very loud,crisp, punchy with globs of mids .can't get over how light it is for a solid state iron head.the quality of build certainly shines here.

Look forward to testing it in the mix.

Thanks for shedding some light on Handbox amps wateroftyne 🙂 would never have one otherwise. Very happy bunny.

Edited by danbowskill
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1 hour ago, danbowskill said:

IMG_20190508_190842.thumb.jpg.317d7abbad3e46a1bd27ae487f697445.jpgWell it IMG_20190508_190816.thumb.jpg.43554c999f62b366744be156011c733e.jpglanded 🙂

Stone me this thing is glorious as glorious gets. My main 2 doubts with getting one lay in the volume and mid's I could get out of it( I like mid's ,and volume)....... As others have said,I need not have worried, very loud,crisp, punchy with globs of mids .can't get over how light it is for a solid state iron head.the quality of build certainly shines here.

Look forward to testing it in the mix.

Thanks for shedding some light on Handbox amps wateroftyne 🙂 would never have one otherwise. Very happy bunny.

You're very welcome. Now get out there and gig it 🙂

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  • 2 weeks later...

The WB100 is in the house! The Polish-Japanese-Dutch triumvirate of tone is assembled.

If anyone is mulling over it, I can heartily recommend this amp. 

It's relatively light, powerful and the EQ is really useable; I was a little skeptical about the Contour rather than the 4 band EQ I'm used to, but it really does the job.  The Handbox video on Youtube demonstrates the range of sounds pretty well and is a good reference for experimentation.

With the gain up it really distorts nicely; I have no need for additional pedals to achieve a solid rock tone. It's a measure of an amp when you can run straight to it with nothing in the chain and be gig ready.  
As Alan G Partridge would say: "lovely stuff!"

 

IMG_20190518_125225.jpg

Edited by foxyFuze
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On 08/05/2019 at 19:33, danbowskill said:

IMG_20190508_190842.thumb.jpg.317d7abbad3e46a1bd27ae487f697445.jpgWell it IMG_20190508_190816.thumb.jpg.43554c999f62b366744be156011c733e.jpglanded 🙂

Stone me this thing is glorious as glorious gets. My main 2 doubts with getting one lay in the volume and mid's I could get out of it( I like mid's ,and volume)....... As others have said,I need not have worried, very loud,crisp, punchy with globs of mids .can't get over how light it is for a solid state iron head.the quality of build certainly shines here.

Look forward to testing it in the mix.

Thanks for shedding some light on Handbox amps wateroftyne 🙂 would never have one otherwise. Very happy bunny.

Dan - great that you're loving this! Any further feedback from you on the amp - you had a chance to try it out in the mix? 

What is the weight and the price to your door of the head? Be also interested to hear how it's stacking up against the Markbass valve head you got last year? 

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Hi Al.

I was going to order it from Handbox , but was intercepted by Dan ( member DeeDee of this parish) who had just received his brand new r400 but due to personal circumstances was unable to play it....... So he offered it me ( it's brand new). So i can't answer questions about ordering etc ( sure wateroftyne could help there?).

I really don't want to gush too much about this amp( hard not to, trust me) ,as I have with previous amps on here in the past, only to discover niggles with them. In the mix this is AMAZING,I can hear every note fantastically...most amps I've had I've always had some sort of preamp pedal ( VT bass,tone hammer etc) as a safety net valve esq sound......but my VT seriously adds no  improvements to this amp whatsoever ( much nicer o natural)its a proper plug in and play head.

Compared to the tte 800 amp they have a similar valve like thump feel but the r400 has super clarity and is mighty nice in the upper mid's.....the main thing that let the markbass down was the lack of good mid's.

If I can get hold of a decent video recorder I'll try and do a snippet of rehearsals to show how it cuts in a fairly heavy band.

If anyone has the chance to try this head do it! I am right in love with it 🙂

Edited by danbowskill
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To answer the question about shipping (although I think this may have been covered before): email them using the website and Leszek will get back to you. It was around £25 I think. If you use Transferwise you'll only pay a few quid in exchange fees rather than using your bank.  

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1 hour ago, foxyFuze said:

To answer the question about shipping (although I think this may have been covered before): email them using the website and Leszek will get back to you. It was around £25 I think. If you use Transferwise you'll only pay a few quid in exchange fees rather than using your bank.  

Check with Leszek first before going down the transferwise route. I paid using that but was then hit with an additional charge as Leszek was short after the currency exchange. It then cost me £50 to send him the shortfall of £38 😕

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