aldude

Tubey lightweight head? TC RH450, though that's a bit like marmite, if you know what I mean. Perhaps Genz Benz Streamliners which have tube preamps. Markbass do heads with tube preamps though I haven't heard much love for those, most of the outpouring is for their solid state heads IME.

TC RS112? Half the speakers, half the size! For the extra loud gigs you could even use both the cabs for a 3x12 set up. Or, Barefaced Midget, not cheap, but top stuff. As for the volume level, I find the master volume sensitive and I am in a loud band! I turn the "preset level" (accessed through Shift) to about 1/3, that makes the preset quieter which should help.

I'm after a clean sound and the RH450 does quite well for me. I have not noticed much difference in initial note sounds compared to a massive old Trace that I used before, though I had the compressor on quite high on that. It certainly helps having (now two) high sensitivity cabs as I am less likely to hit that infamous power management limit. Either way, I shall hit the audience hard tonight and post my thoughts as soon as I can! FWIW, if I turn up the "Tubetone" to max there is this horrible, buzzy bee noise. Is this what people call overdriven tube tone? If so, it's not for me!

I'm firing up this rig good n proper at a gig tonight, I have been using it at very low volumes for the past couple of weeks without a single problem but tonight should put it through its paces a bit more!

I have ordered some D'Addarios (custom set, 120-95-75-55), they haven't arrived yet but I am looking forward to replacing the old strings on the Aerodyne, fingers crossed no more breakages, these things are expensive! Not tried Newtones, but I can find the D'Addarios a bit slippery sometimes so I will look into them.

[quote name='Mr. Foxen' timestamp='1318500541' post='1402841'] The 'bass expert' guy at PMT is totally 'that guy' (the only tone is the Ampeg tone, you could buy any of this stuff, but I'm going to tell you that the Ampeg tone is the one you really want, even though we don't stock any Ampeg, sealed cabs have more bottom), but left handed tip sounds like the guy from Rikkaxxe. [/quote] PMT is OK, but I do recommend Steve Carmen out the back who runs his own repair shop - great service and dirt cheap, I have used him to fix two amps. On-topic, I have heard good things about Absolute Guitars (not to be confused with Absolute Music) which is in Backwell, on the Weston road. I have not been in myself (it's about 1 min from my house!!).

Get to the Queen Vic in Stroud this Friday night to check out my RH450 + Super 12T + Compact rig. We're on at 9pm ish.

[quote name='winterfire666' timestamp='1318078857' post='1397873'] ... All i need now is a compact, just for sillyness.[/quote] I recommend it!!! http://basschat.co.uk/topic/155853-ncd-i-am-a-happy-chappy-barefaced-content/

So, I have recently obtained a shiny new (used) Aerodyne Jazz which is nice. Bought a shiny new set of DR DDT (55-115) strings to go on there - they are great for my Ibanez SR's. Put the E string on ... they seemed long, the fat bit went round the tuning peg a bit but I thought, these are standard, right? (The Aerodyne is 34") Apparently not, as soon as I began to tighten there was a Ding! and the core snapped round the peg. B*gger, I thought, but I have an old set of the same strings (used with no problems), and guess what happened as soon as I started to tighten the E string.... So, I wonder if anyone out there can help me in recommending me a different brand of strings, which are short enough for the Aerodyne! Decent quality preferred, I always liked DR DDTs. D'Addario nickels are OK but are a bit slippery. I need a nice heavy gauge too, 55-115 minimum. Thanks!

The control cavity might have to be the same shape, i.e. not a mirror image, to fit in the innards. Probably would be more trouble to produce a few circuit boards just for left hand versions!

Ah why not do what I did, get the Barefaced Compact AND Super 12 T, that way you get a really big but modular and light rig that is at 2.67 ohms, TC seem to have confirmed that the RH450 is capable of this and also I have had no problems!

[quote name='nottswarwick' timestamp='1316637337' post='1380874'] I currently have a Compact and S12t both at my place (Compact going back). But I cannot try it as my ABM is only 4ohm capable... MY interest is awakened in the TC amps again though...but go not dosh so it will have to wait. For a long time... [/quote] According to that table, the TC BH500 is 2 ohm capable! So that should handle the Compact+S12T fine, and that's £339 new at soundslive, not sure about 2nd hand though. You could even add a second compact for a 2xCompact + S12T mega-rig Or even, 4 compacts, two Super 12s, ... (dreams)

[quote name='Musicman20' timestamp='1316626050' post='1380620'] I wonder. Its weird how they have admitted to the min load issue, but not officially said 'go and use any 3 8 ohm cabinets, or a 4 and 8.' Could lead to quite an interesting stack. [/quote] Ah yes, it could well lead to a Compact+S12T stack! Speaking of which, I had a go at it tonight. Now it was at low practice volumes and just me on my own, but here are a few initial thoughts. The sound of both cabs is instantly quite different. The Compact is deep and slightly woolly (I am used to a tweeter!), perhaps a scooped sound compared to the S12T but at least seemed not as strong in the mids as the S12T. Whereas, the S12T on its own sounded a lot brighter and punchier, definitely better for playing up at the dusty end, butt noticably less "deep" than the Compact. But both together? ... oh my god. This is the sound I have been after all these years - both deep and punchy at the same time. Everything is there, and the two cabs go together completely naturally. Love it! After 10 mins of low volume playing the amp didn't complain at all or even get warm, though obviously this is not a very thorough test! I am definitely looking forward to cranking this rig up at the next rehearsal! As an aside, yes the 2.66 ohm stuff is in that table, so it looks like TC have admitted these amps are 2.66 ohm capable. Even more interesting is there "peak" power of 800W that has always been put forward, is actually the peak power at 2.66 ohm load. So I don't really expect any problems with the Barefaced cabs I've got now. EDIT: And it looks more and more that "only works with three TC cabs" is just marketing for you to go and buy more TC cabs!

That's an interesting document, and if I understand it correctly, the TC amp looks like a lower power amp due to its limiting of high peaks to create a more tubey sound, so this implies that the high peaks that we don't really hear anyway contribute quite a lot to the measured power output of an amp. Or, to put it another way, the 236W measured by that bass magazine (can't remember which right now) is mainly a fault of the testing method, which includes the loud peaks that you don't really hear anyway, the loud peaks being reproduced unnecessarily by the "other" solid state heads, but this is beneficial to the other heads as it ups the apparent wattage without really sounding much louder. I appreciate this has been scrutinised by TC's PR department but it certainly does help in understanding what the amp is up to! Unfortunately this does not address the ohmage capability of the amp and whether it would cope with 2.67 or even 2 ohms.

[quote name='burno70' timestamp='1316603031' post='1380158'] Wow - looks fantastic mate. I'm expecting my super12T soon. Just wondering - did you feel that the super12 lacked lows or were you just after a complete killer rig? [/quote] I did feel the S12T lacked lows, I was running it with a Trace Elliot amp. I could always EQ in enough but I don't like to "force" these things. I don't feel that the S12T lacks lows at all with the RH450, I suspect because it is naturally more pronounced in the low mids. So the Compact is mainly there for the extra output when needed. Which admittedly isn't that often

TC say their heads (RH450, RH750 and I assume the Staccato '51) can run with three of their own 8 ohm cabs. If their cabs are truly 8 ohm, there is no reason why the head cannot be run with three of another manufacturer's 8 ohm cabs, or an 8 and a 4. So, theoretically, the RH450 is good for 2.67 ohm. That's good enough for me TC insisting that it must be their own cabs is either marketing spin, or an implicit admission that their cabs aren't actually 8 ohm - I have heard that they are about 10 ohm but then I have also heard they are actually 8 ohm so it depends on who you listen to! I guess only time will tell, and I promise to post pics if my RH450 becomes a blackened hulk

It is the RH450. I have not yet had a chance to try it with the S12T+Compact, and I won't for another 2 weeks but I have used it plenty with the S12T on its own, including for gigs. It sounds good, plenty of volume (far too much in fact!), the EQ is pretty powerful and you can dial in pretty much any sound you like. It's clear and cuts through very well, it's voiced a little low for my taste but I add quite a lot of mids and get the sound I want easily enough. I like it just wish it was a bit more trebly.

New cab arrived today. No need for explanations, just see the pics Edit: OK, I will explain, it's the Compact that came!

I should add that I think the piezo tweeters on smaller Markbass cabs are horrible! Proper ones all the way.

TC RH450 might be a good bet. It's quite punchy and clear yet deep, but lacks top end, so not really that good for slappers (though you can just about tease out an acceptable sound), but that might not bother you.

[quote name='bassman7755' post='1375482' date='Sep 16 2011, 01:32 PM']Compact + midget-T[/quote] The S12T is just so loud. I put the volume knob less than 1/3, and also put the preset level (through the "shift" button and Tubetone knob) at 50% to get more accuracy on the volume knob, and the rig still cuts through like a knife... and is still a bit too loud if anything I would expect the same sort of performance with those 2 cabs, slightly louder if anything! Enjoy!

[quote name='bassman7755' post='1375286' date='Sep 16 2011, 11:01 AM']Though I would give my gig tommorow a sly pimp in this forum as well [url="http://basschat.co.uk/index.php?showtopic=155060"]http://basschat.co.uk/index.php?showtopic=155060[/url][/quote] Nice, my RH450+Barefaced S12T done a gig in Weston Super Mare last night, it was loud, clear and ... loud! Which Barefaced are you?

It's probably a combo socket, as my RH450 has a combo socket, I use a jack in the head to a speakon in the cab, though a speakon-speakon would work just fine too.