Combinations of kit that are a sonic match made in heaven

[BillyBass]

I've recently acquired a Spector and am really blown away by the sound of it through my GK Legacy 800 and Super Midget.  Most basses will sound good through the GK and the Super midget but the Spector really does shine through it.

 

I tried @Merton's Trace Elliot 1200 and Barefaced 210 at he SE Bassbash in the Spring and that also sounded like a perfect sonic match.  I have a couple of barefaced 110s and my Elf also sounds sublime though them.

 

All subjective of course, one man's meat etc but has anyone else got combinations of kit that really just work perfectly with each other?

 

Gratuitous Spector & GK pic

 

 

Edited June 18, 2023 by BillyBass

[Merton]

Yep my Trace TE-1200 and TE Elf with Barefaced Two10s are both something to behold  The Two10 cabs just seem to love whether you give them tbh!

 

Ashdown pairs well with BF too.

[Lozz196]

Fender/Sansamp/Ashdown 

 

The warmth of the Fender & Ashdown work well with the clinical sound of the Sansamp.

[Baloney Balderdash]

You might not believe me, as this is predominantly all relatively budget gear, but:

 

My Ibanez Mikro Bass, equipped with an EMG Geezer Butler P pickup wired directly to the output jack socket /->

 

->/ My ampless setup: EHX Black Finger (tube driven optical compressor/tube preamp stage) -> NUX MLD Bass Preamp,using the Aguilar Tone Hammer amp emulation combined with the Ampeg SVT-212AV IR cab sim -> ART Tube MP Project Series (tube preamp and DI) /->

 

->/ Effects Return (poweramp input) of my Peavey Solo Special 112 160W combo guitar amp, with its build in 12" speaker unit disconnected and instead hooked up to a FRFR PA speaker /->

 

->/ The Box PA 502 (passive FRFR PA speaker with 1 x 15" bass/mids driver + 1 x 1.7" high frequency tweeter)

 

 

If weight is no issue I simply can't recommend the quite budget The Box PA 502 enough for everyone looking for a passive FRFR cab (there's an active version as well, with a SS, not Class D, poweramp section, the The Box PA 502 A but have no personal experience with that), the only downside really is that it weights about a ton: https://www.thomann.de/gb/the_box_pa502_fullrangesystem.htm

 

Truly amazing sounding, regardless of price, as said very clear and articulate, and with an impressive, but tight and punchy, low end response, and in it's price class simply unbelievably astonishing.

 

Really punchy, clear and articulated.

 

Edited July 1, 2023 by Baloney Balderdash

[Ed_S]

A Precision with new stainless rounds and everything on '10', into either the original Orange Terror Bass 500 or the Ashdown ABM1000, through a Barefaced Super 12. Two of my favourite combinations to date as they were not only brutally powerful, but had a kind of 'bounce' to them. Like a boxer on their toes, punching hard but moving fast.

 

Sadly my original Terror died, but I keep thinking that maybe I should get one of the new ones and see if it's got the same attitude. To music, that is. The same attitude to spontaneously incinerating power amp components would be rather unhelpful.

 

More generally, Markbass heads into Barefaced 10CR based cabs seem to be a really good match.

[jazzyvee]

My version of a bass rig made in heaven.

Alembic preamps, Crown power amp and barefaced cabs of which i have 3 to choose from. BT2, BB2 and Dubster2 that i can use individually (mostly) or any combination.

I like a clean hifi sound.

Edited June 23, 2023 by jazzyvee

[Downunderwonder]

I combine all kinds of gear on the basis of what I can be bothered carting around and it all sounds pretty damn similar with some fx helping it along. I think sonic matching is a marketing invention to sell you an amp and a cab and a bass all at once.

[BillyBass]

On 23/06/2023 at 23:39, Downunderwonder said:

I combine all kinds of gear on the basis of what I can be bothered carting around and it all sounds pretty damn similar with some fx helping it along. I think sonic matching is a marketing invention to sell you an amp and a cab and a bass all at once.

I can't remember seeing any gear marketed as a sonic match for other manufacturer's stuff, but perhaps I just haven't seen it.

 

I will concede that, in the mix, differences in the bass sound can be minimal but, as an example, my G&L Kiloton, with its single bridge humbucker will never sound like my P basses.  

 

At home, practising without other instruments, the differences are obvious.

[Baloney Balderdash]

On 24/06/2023 at 00:39, Downunderwonder said:

I combine all kinds of gear on the basis of what I can be bothered carting around and it all sounds pretty damn similar with some fx helping it along. I think sonic matching is a marketing invention to sell you an amp and a cab and a bass all at once.

Music is marketing. 

 

Those bastards will try to sell it to you.

 

But just say no to drugs, Mcayy?

[Merton]

On 23/06/2023 at 23:39, Downunderwonder said:

I combine all kinds of gear on the basis of what I can be bothered carting around and it all sounds pretty damn similar with some fx helping it along. I think sonic matching is a marketing invention to sell you an amp and a cab and a bass all at once.

Absolutely, in terms of one manufacturer saying “cab A with amp B”. And that is almost always tosh, especially the way a lot of mainstream cabs are “designed” 😄

 

We’re just celebrating other combinations we have decided we personally think work

 

[Burns-bass]

My favourite amp of all time is an EBS HD350. I had the matching 4x10 (flightcased) but it was too much so I sold the lot.

 

Someone on here sold me one for the insane price of £175 (including flight case) and it’s been used for gigging ever since. 
 

It pairs well with everything, but the Barefaced combination is amazing.

[Reggaebass]

Like a lot of us here we’ve been through many combinations of amps and cabs, some work well and others not so well for the sound we want, the setup I’ve had for a while I really like and I can’t see me changing it any time soon, it’s the Ampeg V4B with a big baby gen 3, my 71 precision with really worn in flats sounds lovely through it, it didn’t seem to match well with my markbass 15 or Ashdown 15, I also use an Ampeg PF50T which is ok but doesn’t seem in the same league as the V4 

[chris_b]

Combinations that have worked the best for me in the last 20 years:

 

Aguilar TH500 and Bergantino 12" cabs.

 

All Aguilar amps and Barefaced 12" cabs.

 

Thunderfunk amps and Bergantino and Barefaced cabs.

[ossyrocks]

On 18/06/2023 at 14:37, Merton said:

Yep my Trace TE-1200 and TE Elf with Barefaced Two10s are both something to behold  The Two10 cabs just seem to love whether you give them tbh!

 

Ashdown pairs well with BF too.

Elf and BF cabs here too. I have a choice of One10 and Two10s depending on the situation. Great with my Precisions. 
I’m curious about your EQ on the Elf, what do you run them at? I’m tending to run everything at noon except Mid which is at 1 o’clock.

 

Rob

[Merton]

1 hour ago, ossyrocks said:

Elf and BF cabs here too. I have a choice of One10 and Two10s depending on the situation. Great with my Precisions. 
I’m curious about your EQ on the Elf, what do you run them at? I’m tending to run everything at noon except Mid which is at 1 o’clock.

 

Rob

Everything at noon pretty much! Sounds so good. Sometimes nudge the mids depending on the situation.

[Delberthot]

The two best combinations I ever had were:

 

Fender Precision Special with EMGs into a Hartke LH1000, Laney Nexus 4x10" & 1x15" cabs

 

 GK 700 RB II and 2x  Ashdown MAG 4x10" although I can't remember which bass as I had a revolving door of basses back then so it could have been anything from an Epiphone Goth Thunderbird with passive EMG soapbars to a defretted Yamaha TRB6 II. A couple of 12 string basses passed through my hands around that time as well

[VTypeV4]

Trace Elliot V-Type (particularly the all valve variety) and SWR cabs (Goliath Jr MK3) - killer combination. 😃

 

 

[Lfalex v1.1]

On 23/06/2023 at 23:39, Downunderwonder said:

I combine all kinds of gear on the basis of what I can be bothered carting around and it all sounds pretty damn similar with some fx helping it along. I think sonic matching is a marketing invention to sell you an amp and a cab and a bass all at once.

 

Some items definitely work better together.  Heads and cabs (where the manufacturer makes both) are frequently voiced to sound complimentary. 

 

Similarly,  I've an Ampeg preamp that definitely gives its best with Fenders and Stingrays. It's not so good with Warwicks, Ibanez etc.

That may have been driven by what basses were available when it was designed/ prototyped, though. 

[BigRedX]

Line6 Helix straight into a decent PA.

[bartelby]

On 18/06/2023 at 15:02, Lozz196 said:

Fender/Sansamp/Ashdown 

 

The warmth of the Fender & Ashdown work well with the clinical sound of the Sansamp.

 

 

Similarly and a bit more specific:

Royal Blue Fender Steve Harris with new D'Addario pro steels, straight into an Ashdown CTM300 (the CTM30 is pretty perfect too) and 2 1x15" cabs. Absolutely my favourite sounding set up. 

Is it what I use in the, very slowly, developing band?

Nope. 😄

[pbasspecial]

My Ashdown ABM 600 (20th anniversary) and my Barefaced Supertwin. 
Absolute amazing tone and tons of power!

[BillyBass]

3 hours ago, pbasspecial said:

My Ashdown ABM 600 (20th anniversary) and my Barefaced Supertwin. 
Absolute amazing tone and tons of power!

What sort of music do you play?

 

A sonic match made in heaven is all very subjective.  I gig my Super Compact and used my RM800 with it last week; we play punk/new wave and I used a Charvel reverse PJ (w/Dunlop stainless rounds) with a bit of bridge pup dialled in but mainly the neck pup.  It sounded fine, but not as good as my GL Legacy does, in my opinion.  I also prefer the features and knob layout of the GK.  So the RM800 is being sold and I have a GK Fusion S on order.

 

Personal taste?  Or music/bass/strings dependant?

[Bunion]

18 hours ago, VTypeV4 said:

Trace Elliot V-Type (particularly the all valve variety) and SWR cabs (Goliath Jr MK3) - killer combination. 😃

 

 

I tried one in the 90’s with an SWR Big Ben 18 and a Goliath 4x10 but kept my SVT II Pro, both were magnificent. Those cabs though were amazing, no SWR today but I do run a handbox WB-100 into a pair of Bag End cabs the S15X-D and a S15-D  they sound great absolutely love them 

[Owen]

I went through a phase when I came to the conclusion that all preamps were much of a muchness. Different flavours of good, but good all the same. I then realised that they were all going through my Bergantino IP310. So almost anything through an IP310. 

[AndyTravis]

EBS Reidmar Head, EBS proline 410…and a Spector.

 

Why I no longer own these 3 items is beyond me.

 

That was the “sound in my head”.

 

At least I can get it back at some point.