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Bigwan

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  • 2 weeks later...

Interested to hear opinions on how gigable this head would be.  I asked @ashdown what the 30 watts all tube power would compare to in a SS head; they reckoned the equivalent would be around 150 transistor.

From previous posts in this thread I see that some have gigged the older CTM 15 and 30's - what size venues were these?

Would the 30watts cope with a Pub gig, small hall, church type venues?

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2 hours ago, CygnusX2112 said:

Interested to hear opinions on how gigable this head would be.  I asked @ashdown what the 30 watts all tube power would compare to in a SS head; they reckoned the equivalent would be around 150 transistor.

From previous posts in this thread I see that some have gigged the older CTM 15 and 30's - what size venues were these?

Would the 30watts cope with a Pub gig, small hall, church type venues?

"Yes" with an "if."

If you have a good cab, a CTM-30 will be fine. If your music suits a mid-heavy, overdriven sound instead a deep, throbbing dub-reggae type tone, a CTM-30 will be fine. I did several pub gigs running my LB-30 into a not-particularly-efficient Laney 1x15, and wasn't struggling for volume. I've done some bigger pub gigs since moving up to a Berg 2x12, and I feel like I could go bigger. That said, my preferred tone is more John Entwistle than Jah Wobble, so I can see why Ashdown are hesitant to market it as a gigging amp.

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The place i played with my ctm 15 was not big, small p.a. for vox, small drum kit. I played through two Barefaced 12" cabs, Midgets old and new. Not too loud, but it was all there. 

I just had a practice using my newly acquired TC Spectracomp, and that sounded quite a lot louder, and still clean. Ish! :)

 

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13 hours ago, EliasMooseblaster said:

"Yes" with an "if."

If you have a good cab, a CTM-30 will be fine. If your music suits a mid-heavy, overdriven sound instead a deep, throbbing dub-reggae type tone, a CTM-30 will be fine. I did several pub gigs running my LB-30 into a not-particularly-efficient Laney 1x15, and wasn't struggling for volume. I've done some bigger pub gigs since moving up to a Berg 2x12, and I feel like I could go bigger. That said, my preferred tone is more John Entwistle than Jah Wobble, so I can see why Ashdown are hesitant to market it as a gigging amp.

Preferred tone is definately more Entwhistle, we're your typical local rock covers band playing a few pubs, friends BBQs, the odd fun raiser etc.

My MB500 and 4x10 is overkill so I'm looking to downsize into a more compact rig. 

Was thinking this head into a Barefaced two 10 cabinet. Sounds like that might work OK for what were doing.  I guess if we play bigger I'll use the mb500 or DI into FOH if an option.

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21 hours ago, CygnusX2112 said:

Preferred tone is definately more Entwhistle, we're your typical local rock covers band playing a few pubs, friends BBQs, the odd fun raiser etc.

My MB500 and 4x10 is overkill so I'm looking to downsize into a more compact rig. 

Was thinking this head into a Barefaced two 10 cabinet. Sounds like that might work OK for what were doing.  I guess if we play bigger I'll use the mb500 or DI into FOH if an option.

Having owned the CTM30 and Two10 it's a great sounding little rig, but it would only have served as a stage monitor for me in my previous, admittedly LOUD, metal band. I'd have needed PA support. With the MB500 as backup you should be fine though - the Two10 is loud for its size! If you used a dummy load on the CTM30 you could take a line out into the MB500 and use it as a power amp...

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3 hours ago, Bigwan said:

 If you used a dummy load on the CTM30 you could take a line out into the MB500 and use it as a power amp...

I use a passive d.I. box on the speaker out of the ctm15 , the speaker then connects to the through jack, and you can feed the xlr output to whatever power amp you choose. I use it like that for recording to get the power stage break-up sound.

Apparently, the box (I use a Studiospares dual passive) is good for amps up to 100watts, and has a 3 level attenuator to tame the output to match what you're feeding into. For recording, the 20dB setting is perfect when running the amp quite hard.

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11 hours ago, Bigwan said:

If you used a dummy load on the CTM30 you could take a line out into the MB500 and use it as a power amp...

Yes, I'd thought about doing this.  What would you do, put a 4 ohm load simulator on the speaker out and take the FX send into the FX return of the MB500?

I see ashdown are at the Guitar show this weekend - I wonder if they'll have one there.

Edited by PJ-Bassist
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On 2/23/2018 at 19:39, CygnusX2112 said:

Yes, I'd thought about doing this.  What would you do, put a 4 ohm load simulator on the speaker out and take the FX send into the FX return of the MB500?

I see ashdown are at the Guitar show this weekend - I wonder if they'll have one there.

Yes we will have the CTM 30 - Little Stubby with us at the weekend

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MiniMert and I quite enjoyed the Little Stubby. The overdriven tones are sublime and it goes quite loud, I’d say louder than the CTM30 but I’m basing this on fuzzy memory only.

The feedback control is very cool, it literally feeds the signal back through the preamp valve (pre EQ) to thicken up the tone and add more “girth”. It also adds more volume too.

The drive control seemed quite sensitive, below around 10 o’clock there seemed very little if any signal passing through, then it suddenly burst into life with warm thick valvey goodness. After about 12 o’clock you start dialling in more and more grit and overdrive - this thing is a monster for a hellish dirty tone. It’s not something I use a lot of but I can see myself trying it more, hehehe.

Anyhoo, the pic is of MiniMert, sensibly defending his ears from the slapathon, giving my the all clear to buy it 🤓

BF0BDB0F-F86C-4952-87EF-C980CD7B841C.jpeg

Edited by Merton
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I honestly couldn’t tell you as I’ve no experience with them... I’m a recent Ashdown and valve convert having recently picked up a BTA200 but realised I needed that tone but smaller for a lot of gigs. This is definitely voiced differently but I’m really in love with it, I do a lot of chordal stuff and with the drive kept down, it’s clarity is really beautiful! 

On the volume front, I was surprised at how loud it will go, even staying clean. It far exceeds my expectations of 30w! 

T

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You bought this from them at the LBGS? It looks like a nice tidy wee unit. The inevitable sound clips request has officially been lodged.

side note

LBGS just makes me think Lesbian, Bisexual, Gay and Slappers (bass or otherwise) I have an hilarious image of the LGBT community showing up at the London bass guitar show being massively disappointed and confused!

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