Power Amp for a Bass Board

[Tripehound]

I'm thinking of getting a bass board to go with my IEMs.

The Porter and Davies looks terrific (and has the big name endorsees) but it's pricy at over £900 by the time you add VAT and carriage. However, this has its own amplification included.

Alternative is the Eich Bass Board which is considerably cheaper but requires a separate amp to drive it (assuming I'm not going to be taking a bass rig out with me, just a Helix or a preamp pedal). The Eich T500 is suggested as a suitable amp for it but, splendid amp though it is, this seems like expensive overkill if all it's going to do is drive the board and sit there looking pretty.

Any suggestions on a suitable power amp to drive the Eich board which is around 500w?

Also any views on which is the better product very gratefully received!

[ped]

I think something class D and powerful will fit the bill. I use a TC BH800 which is great, especially because using the compressor helps beef up the response of the board over the whole range of the bass. I turn the hi-mid and treble controls off so only the bass gets through to the board, but with the comp you still get plenty of rumble on the G string too.

Whereabouts are you, you're welcome to come and try mine.

[Tripehound]

6 hours ago, ped said:

I think something class D and powerful will fit the bill. I use a TC BH800 which is great, especially because using the compressor helps beef up the response of the board over the whole range of the bass. I turn the hi-mid and treble controls off so only the bass gets through to the board, but with the comp you still get plenty of rumble on the G string too.

Whereabouts are you, you're welcome to come and try mine.

Hi Ped - Many thanks for the offer but it would be a trek from here in Derbyshire! I'm off down to Bass Direct tomorrow to try out the Eich which looks to be the most cost-effective and flexible approach. The P&D costs £922 by the the time you've added VAT and carriage whereas the Eich comes in at £439 plus I was considering the TC BQ500 at £181. Also has the merit of being able to split and sell the two parts if necessary, use the Eich with my other rig, etc. I don't doubt that the P & D is a fabulous piece of kit (and I like it aesthetically) but it's over £300 difference to do essentially the same thing. P & D tell me that theirs is the superior product because it has a wider frequency range so you can add keyboards, percussion etc to the input - I was thinking in terms of just bass and drums.

Do you just put bass into it or anything else?

Very interested to read your comments on cutting mid and treble - I'll try that tomorrow.

[ped]

2 minutes ago, Tripehound said:

Hi Ped - Many thanks for the offer but it would be a trek from here in Derbyshire! I'm off down to Bass Direct tomorrow to try out the Eich which looks to be the most cost-effective and flexible approach. The P&D costs £922 by the the time you've added VAT and carriage whereas the Eich comes in at £439 plus I was considering the TC BQ500 at £181. Also has the merit of being able to split and sell the two parts if necessary, use the Eich with my other rig, etc. I don't doubt that the P & D is a fabulous piece of kit (and I like it aesthetically) but it's over £300 difference to do essentially the same thing. P & D tell me that theirs is the superior product because it has a wider frequency range so you can add keyboards, percussion etc to the input - I was thinking in terms of just bass and drums.

Do you just put bass into it or anything else?

Very interested to read your comments on cutting mid and treble - I'll try that tomorrow.

Great, I’ll be interested to hear your thoughts. Mine is part of my home playing setup so everything goes through it, so basically the music I’m playing along with and my bass. Using the amp I can normally fine tune the response to give me a really fat kick drum which makes playing along feel great and really helps with feel and timing. 

I haven’t used it live for a long time but in the studio too I have everything going into it - I want to feel the rhythm and anything too trebly won’t shake it anyway. 

Also at home I pay music in my studio through my hifi and have the floor board providing some kick which is really addictive!