Rig Quandry

[Waddycall]

Following a recent thread asking about cab choice -

 

I’ve been mulling over the responses and thinking about my current rig situation. 

Ive just joined a new band. We’re doing 80’s to present rock and pop covers. It’s a five piece with two guitars. We e had one rehearsal so far with one guitar only. I was playing my Ray34 with Delano hybrid system and added neck J pickup. It was in passive (J) mode throughout. We were playing in a small hard floored room with an acoustic drum kit. I really struggled to hear myself. I had the cab kicked back and propped up on the front of my rack case. We’d not played together before and i was pretty embarrassed about how cr@p I sounded!  I tried upping the mids on my amp but it didn’t really seem to help. I also cut the bass slightly as the sound was a toneless pitchless mush. When I opened the amp up the next day I was shocked to see the master volume at half and both preamps up at about 3/4. 

My amp is a Hartke HA3500 I bought from another member on here quite a few years ago. I’ve never been that thrilled with the tone but it’s always worked until a year or so ago when a pair of caps gave out and it kept blowing fuses. I replaced the caps myself and made a right pigs ear of desoldering them from the board. I wrecked the track and had to solder some wire onto it to bridge the gap.

Ive been playing around with the eq on it today and found that there’s no noticeable effect from any of the sliders until they’re almost at the extent of their travel (either all the way up or down). Maybe it’s just due to playing at house volume but the eq didn’t seem right. I’m not sure I’ll be able to trust this amp again!

my cab is a fender rumble 115. I bought it from Mansons about 7 years ago having tried it against some others. I’ve done a few gigs with it but always been mic’d and through the PA as the DI is noisy on the amp.

i also have a Fender Rumble 150 head (150watts @ 4 Ohms). As my cab is 8Ohm I’m guessing it’s likely to be something like 90-100 watt combined.

I’m a bit stuck as to where to go from here. I think ultimately I need a new head first and see what happens. I can’t see myself trusting the Hartke again and the fact that I had it up so loud in such a small room makes me wonder if it has issues. 

In a previous band that rehearsed in a proper studio my current rig seemed ok but that was about 5 years ago and before the caps went.

would be good to hear others opinions on this. I think I’m good for a rehearsal or two. I’m going to try my Ibanez SR1820 next practice as I can bump the mids on it and see if that has any effect.

ive spent a bit of time doing some research and wondering if a Magellan 800 could be a good option.

 

edit - might try both amps together at next rehearsal - bass into rumble, rumble fx send to Hartke fx return, Hartke to cab. Use the preamp of the rumble and power amp of the Hartke.

 

 

Edited August 30, 2021 by Waddycall

[Lozz196]

I think I’d be tempted to get the Rumble 210 combo. For rehearsals & small/medium sized venues it would be enough on its own, then add in the 115 cab for the big venues. 
 

Re the Hartke, a band I joined some years back had one of these and it went completely dead on the Tube control, and was very thin sounding when not on it.

[Waddycall]

50 minutes ago, Lozz196 said:

I think I’d be tempted to get the Rumble 210 combo. For rehearsals & small/medium sized venues it would be enough on its own, then add in the 115 cab for the big venues. 
 

Re the Hartke, a band I joined some years back had one of these and it went completely dead on the Tube control, and was very thin sounding when not on it.

Hmmmm. That’s interesting. Hadn’t really considered adding a combo. Must admit storage space at home could be an issue so I’d prefer a one cab solution (even if that means changing cab) but that’s definitely worth considering 👍

[Waddycall]

Well this is sort of resolved! Tried the rumble head at rehearsal last night- sounded ace. Might be down to the fact one of the guitarists has dropped out so there was only one guitar, drums and vocals to slot in with. It’s a new band and the guitarists hadn’t split up the parts so they were both hammering out the same rhythm parts/chords. I think this was just filling the space with mid range mush and not letting me cut through. Sounded brill last night even though the head is 150w into 4 ohm and I have an 8 ohm cab! No immediate panic but still hasn’t cured the gas!

[BillyBass]

I would have a look at the deals currently available on Ashdown kit from this German retailer:

 

https://www.musik-produktiv.com/gb/bass-guitar-amplifiers/ashdown/

 

Some of the kit is half price, like the RM 800 EVO II head I bought from them a couple of weeks ago.

Edited September 12, 2021 by BillyBass

[Waddycall]

2 hours ago, BillyBass said:

I would have a look at the deals currently available on Ashdown kit from this German retailer:

 

https://www.musik-produktiv.com/gb/bass-guitar-amplifiers/ashdown/

 

Some of the kit is half price, like the RM 800 EVO II head I bought from them a couple of weeks ago.

That RM is sorely tempting! No headphone socket or aux in though (?)

[Merton]

16 minutes ago, Waddycall said:

That RM is sorely tempting! No headphone socket or aux in though (?)

It has both on the back!

[Waddycall]

15 minutes ago, Merton said:

It has both on the back!

Oh really? Couldn’t see a headphone socket and I’m guessing the line in is mono?

[Merton]

2 minutes ago, Waddycall said:

Oh really? Couldn’t see a headphone socket and I’m guessing the line in is mono?

I’ve used the line in as an aux input from my phone no problem. I can’t remember if it creates a stereo image in the headphones though

[Waddycall]

Just seen the headphone socket on the MP site. The images on the ashdown site show a different back panel! Hhhmmmmmm.

[Merton]

Are you sure you’re looking at the RM800 EVO II on the Ashdown site? Pics are identical as far as I can see…

 

https://ashdownmusic.com/collections/heads/products/rm-800-evo-ii-head

 

https://www.musik-produktiv.com/gb/ashdown-rootmaster-rm-800-evo-ii.html

[Waddycall]

Haha - you’re right, I was looking a the previous version! Really tempted by this now. Saw a pic of someone’s rig with one of these and a couple of barefaced 1x10s looked ace, 

[Merton]

1 minute ago, Waddycall said:

Haha - you’re right, I was looking a the previous version! Really tempted by this now. Saw a pic of someone’s rig with one of these and a couple of barefaced 1x10s looked ace, 

Possibly mine (albeit the EVO rather than EVO II head) 🤓😆

[Waddycall]

That’s the one! How is it for gigging?

[Merton]

14 minutes ago, Waddycall said:

That’s the one! How is it for gigging?

Bloody marvellous! Though I have actually just upgraded the head to a Glockenklang Blue Rock. But this rig is plenty unless you’re very loud and don’t have PA support

[Waddycall]

I have been considering the Reidmar 750 but the RM800 from MP is half the price. Could be a winner👍

[Waddycall]

Done👍

[Waddycall]

Finally arrived! Not had a chance to use it in anger yet (that’ll be Thursday). Some observations so far from low volume and headphone use-

sounds boxy with a flat eq

sounds nice with the pre-shape

octaver (sub) doesn’t track at all well (won’t be using it).

some buttons are a bit fiddly and the compressor one needs to be pushed in a long way (almost past flush with front panel) for it to latch.

compressor seems good although I’m no expert

noisy headphone operation (using  DT770) seems to be related to colour of VU meter light

line in is mono and low gain compared to bass input. 

I think the headphone socket is a grafted on afterthought. I won’t be using it for headphone practice which I’d hoped to.

looks nice

lovely and light

notched volume control is a pain for quiet practice (didn’t realise it was between notches when it slipped up a notch!)

no centre detent on eq seems a bit weird

drive is lovely used moderately, a lot is not nice.

looking forward to trying it with the band. Hopefully it’ll redeem itself when used in it’s  natural environment!

edit - speaker pops when you turn it off. Anyone else had this?

 

Edited September 27, 2021 by Waddycall

[Waddycall]

Tried it with the band last night. Sounded great 👍. The sub feature seemed to gets itself together too and was pretty good for adding a bit of oomph. Really pleased. 

[Waddycall]

Well, after a few twists and turns this has hopefully reached a good conclusion! Thanks to @BillyBassand @Mertonfor pointing me in the direction of the RM800. A bit of looking around at what’s available new and used, reading reviews, umming and ahhhing about whether I wanted a 112, a 212 or 2 x 112 I’ve ended up with a used  VK 210LNT!  Looks fab. I haven’t yet had a chance to try it out with the band but looking forward to doing so on Thursday. Thanks to Mark at Bass Direct for some really impressive customer service too. 

[Waddycall]

Finally got to try this out with the band last night. What an interesting journey this is turning out to be. I was initially really underwhelmed with the tone and volume out of this set up. I’ve used the amp previously with my 115 cab and hadn’t had volume issues. I’m not sure whether we were louder last night or if the  Vanderkley needs driving a bit harder than my 115 but the RM800 just didn’t have the guts! Fortunately I had my old 150 watt rumble head with me. I’m guessing that’s about 90-100 watts into 8 ohms. It had more power than the RM800. I used all the same cables etc so only the amp changed. I also noticed that the volume on the RM800 topped out with the knob at 9 o’clock. Further increases made little to no difference. I seem to recall reading a thread about someone else having this issue with an RM combo. Anyway bottom line is the head appears to be faulty so I’ll be getting in touch with Musik Produktiv. Hopefully they can refund it. Hard to judge the cab as the rumble head was almost maxed out and was breaking up a little but it’s definitely got more punch than the 115.

[BassAdder60]

My RM800 EVO II head with output vol at 9 o clock is loud enough over a loud drummer and 4x 12 guitarist 

I use two 210 Pro Neo cabs 

 

Do you have your input gain very low ?

 

Mine with a PBass is around 12 o clock 

 

Makes a huge difference to the volume of the amp 

[Waddycall]

8 hours ago, BassAdder27 said:

My RM800 EVO II head with output vol at 9 o clock is loud enough over a loud drummer and 4x 12 guitarist 

I use two 210 Pro Neo cabs 

 

Do you have your input gain very low ?

 

Mine with a PBass is around 12 o clock 

 

Makes a huge difference to the volume of the amp 

Hi BassAdder, input gain was set so the VU enters the red zone when played hard. I was also using some compression before the amp to even things out. I checked the input gain before swapping heads. Judging by the photo I took it seems I had it set pretty much the same as you👍

Edited October 23, 2021 by Waddycall

[BassAdder60]

Yes the input gain is higher now in your second photo 

 

About the same as mine. 

 

Is it still quiet ? 
 

 

[Waddycall]

21 minutes ago, BassAdder27 said:

Yes the input gain is higher now in your second photo 

 

About the same as mine. 

 

Is it still quiet ? 
 

 

Yep, I took that photo just after swapping the heads over on Thursday night. The only change from playing was the master volume turned down before powering off as it makes quite a loud pop noise when turned off which I’ve not been too happy about😕. The photo in my living room was just an oooh this looks nice one 🤣