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Heft - from heavy amp, or from lightweight amp & pedals?


Lozz196
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[quote name='Paul S' timestamp='1464596315' post='3060509']
Heft, for me, is the quality of bass sound that hits you in the body, not something you get with your ears.
[/quote]

That would be my definition too Paul.

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[quote name='EBS_freak' timestamp='1464594846' post='3060487']

Which amp are you using?
[/quote]

Been using a Glockenklang blue soul for the last year, but just got a Epifani piccolo which also doesn't appear to be lacking any "heft". As far as I know both these amps have proprietary power modules.

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This is a spectacularly illogical poll. If you honestly think that no class D amps can do heft then why on earth would some £200 9V powered effect pedal be able to add that heft? What I call 'heft' is the ability of a rig to produce unencumbered weighty sonic output below 80Hz. Others may consider it something else...

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[quote name='alexclaber' timestamp='1464605339' post='3060670']
This is a spectacularly illogical poll. If you honestly think that no class D amps can do heft then why on earth would some £200 9V powered effect pedal be able to add that heft? What I call 'heft' is the ability of a rig to produce unencumbered weighty sonic output below 80Hz. Others may consider it something else...
[/quote]
Quite!

Don't you know that putting go faster stripes on a car actually makes it go faster?

:-p

Edited by EBS_freak
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nothing wrong with ss amps i loved my old markbass lm2 but valves have a sound and putting drives on top of driven tubes sounds amazing.

not saying the class d stuff sounds bad, but also alot depends on the cab aswell ive tried really small 112's and it just doesnt sound as big as i want, not tried any barefaced cabs but my current 810 is my favourite cab, massive mid punch! low mids for me is where the punch/heft is.

Andy

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I may be totally wrong. Ok so class d basically has a transistor shut on and off rapidly. This is very efficient.
But Just like an interlaced picture vs progressive, or a refresh rate of a picture that supposedly we can't see, some people do notice these differences as its a on off picture basically.

Where as other forms of amplication like class A etc is always on a bit like a progressive scan pic. Not efficient amp tech but noted for its sound quality.

Is this possible where the lack of heft some people perceive is coming from. That like a refresh rate etc some can see or in this case hear the difference.

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This is very interesting for me right now as I'm about ready to buy an amp, and I know the tones I like - Mark Bass, Genz Benz, Ashdown, Aguilar, SWR - but I'm very aware of the whole Heft issue. I want a fairly light amp that I can carry without breaking my back....but I do not want something which has a thin tone - I contemplated a Rumble V3 but they seem a little thin.

So here's the question - if I have a budget of £500 and I don't care if it's combo or separates, don't care if it's new or used (I imagine it would be used given my budget) I want 250-300w of oomph......what should I buy? Not looking to hijack the thread, so if the mods want me to start a separate thread for this, I happily shall.

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Well I like my Aguilar Tonehammers paired with a Sansamp, these give me the elusive bigness/heft that I want. But I recently heard the Ashdown Rootmaster and it seems to have the sound I want from just the amp so I`d recommend trying them out. If they did a DI/Preamp pedal that matched I`d be all over them I reckon.

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[quote name='Lozz196' timestamp='1464523291' post='3060042']
Re the various opinions on heft, just interested to see how people prefer to get it.
[/quote]

I had my vaccinations against heft many years ago.Thankfully, they have never failed me to date.

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I'm another one that struggles with many people on here's definition of "heft". In fact, the phrase has been bandied about on here so much recently that I think it's lost a lot of meaning anyway - it's turned into a rather lame joke.

For me "heft" (if there is such a thing) is the power of the bass hitting you, as the words are linked I'd say it's similar to the notes having weight. In my experience this generally only comes from big tube amps - they have many an issue such as cost, weight, size etc... but they do provide heft. Some old-fashioned SS heads do a decent approximation at a substantially lower cost & weight (whilst still not being light!). The current crop of class-d bass amps most certainly do not - I'm sure if you measured them they are equally capable of reaching the same volume with the same frequencies covered but IMO they just don't have it - adding a Sansamp or Tonehammer in-front categorically does not add "heft", I was actually surprised to even read that as a thread title.

I'm sure it'll come - the proper professional standard class-d PA's can do it so it's just a matter of time before the clever people out there work out how to make the bass amps work too.

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Guest bassman7755

[quote name='Twincam' timestamp='1464611340' post='3060749']
I may be totally wrong. Ok so class d basically has a transistor shut on and off rapidly. This is very efficient.
But Just like an interlaced picture vs progressive, or a refresh rate of a picture that supposedly we can't see, some people do notice these differences as its a on off picture basically.
[/quote]

The switching frequency is way above the audible range at which point the difference between a continuous and sampled signal becomes moot.

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Heft is a word I use to try and describe the sound of an amp, along with a lot of other words.Trying to describe the sound of an amp (or anything else) that someone else hasn't heard is really a pointless task, as both the sound and the words are open to interpretation - and in any case sound is incredibly subjective. Even a recording of a bass being played through an amp (on YouTube, for example) is also pointless as there are so many variables to take into consideration such as recording quality, type of speakers used to listen to the recording, and on and on.

At the end of the day whether your gear sounds any good is most likely down to whether you can actually play the bass or not.

Edited by discreet
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