51m0n

9 minutes ago, Linus27 said:

 

Cheers!

Now you see that's a nice amp that is. I highly recommend it 😁

10 hours ago, garyt said:

If you liked the Mark Bass gear, you'll probably love the little mark tube 800W.  I have the LM3 and can't fault it, but have a friend who raves about his Tube 800W (which doesn't help the GAS)

Way back in the day when the 800w Markbass amps first came out there were a lot of comparisons between them and the LMII. Invariably the common thread in those reviews was how the extra headroom was great, but the inherent special part of the LMII tone wasn't there in the same way.

Now with the Trickfish there is a similar comparison between the .5k and 1k heads, and I am not sure whether I will go for the 1k for that exact reason.

16 minutes ago, Leonard Smalls said:

Not at all! I use the bridged Crown to power my 1x15 Precision Devices and 2x10 Markbass cabs. The Markbass is fine on it's own for small venues, even without going through the PA. And on 1/2 power amp volume with both cabs I can drown out both drumkit and our guitarist...

This is the measure of 'enough' power for me too

48 minutes ago, afterimage said:

Have the Bamp 

 

Bergantino gear is pretty good, but my one argument against his amps are the way they are heavily targeted at his cabs, which I no longer use, since the Big Twin works far better for me than my old Berg rigs did.

Plus all that DSP gubbins is just asking to go wrong 🤣

On 09/02/2019 at 12:42, Leonard Smalls said:

You could do what I did... Buy a pedal or pre that covers your eq needs. That covers DI-ing to PA. I use a large pedal board plus a BBE pre.

Then get a Crown PA power amp to power your on-stage ,monitors. I got the XLS1502 at about £350, which when bridged into 4 ohms gives 1500W. XLS2002 gives more!

The sound is incredibly clean, cuts through wonderfully with no traditional bass amp honk, and I can hear 20Hz if I use down octavers!

This is all great, and then you play without your pa and have to rely on a house pa incapable of projecting sound below 1KHz run by Norman whose been doing this job 60 years man and boy and is subsequently as deaf as a post, and his culpable assistant keV who can't quite work out how to tie his shoe laces or keep his trousers from descending beneath his derrière. At which point you need a big bastard bass rig in order for the band to actually hear you, since Norman is convinced you can catch IEMs from kissing someone funny, and won't have any truck with that funny stuff on his 'stage'....

7 hours ago, Hellzero said:

Bloody Italian blood, thought it was all gone during the last transfusion. 

Bwahahahaaaaaaaaaaaa!

Brilliant 😁

1 hour ago, Hellzero said:

Indeed, by people who read what's on the website and never compared the two. That said, it's a minor detail. Buy the one you like, but be aware that, as I wrote, what is really making the sound of this amp is the most transparent preamp to date : the Michael POPE one.

And to be honest, I really don't like your aggresivity about my comments when I only try to help.

Mate, that's called sarcasm. It's quite different from aggression, and was actually aimed at the other reports not yours.

Chill out!

Fascinating, there's a lot of mentions of the uprated capacitors out there. Surely it can't be smoke and mirrors 🤣

9 minutes ago, Hellzero said:

The Trickfish .5k uses an Ice Power module like most the powerful Class D amplifier, when the 1k uses a Pascal power module just like, for the moment, only one other amplifier which is the Warwick LWA1000. The GSS Sumo 1000 certainly uses the same Pascal power module, but it's a mono power amp only. 

As I already wrote, the Trickfishes use a Michael POPE Flex Core derived preamp, so to date the most transparent preamp available. That could be the explanation for that :

 

It's not just a standard Pascal power amp, it has uprated caps to better cope with very large peaks apparently....

6 minutes ago, Al Krow said:

Good stuff!

The power rating on the TF amps has always been a bit of a bug bear and a number of users (on Talkbass in particular) have felt it is underpowered. The 1K is rated at 1,000 peak and therefore probably around 500W to 600W RMS, and I presume the .5k at half that. 

If the smaller one suffices for you, there's one going in the FS which I think has already been mentioned. 

To be precise it's 1000w peak AT 8 OHMS. So maybe 500w RMS or thereabouts at 8 OHMS which could be 700w RMS at 4ohms.

Well the .5k uses the ICE power section apparently.

I did feel it was not as loud as the other amps, but here is an interesting point, to get them to sound even somewhere close required a lot of EQ work, removing an inherent nasal quality and pushing the low end a lot.

Now that requires more power and the volume difference becomes less obvious once you start getting those amps closer to the inherent tone of the Trickfish.

But I definitely want more headroom than my sa450 had and that's why I didn't walk away with a .5k there and then

So I went up to Bass Direct on Sunday.

Tried out the Glockenklang Steamhammer,  Mesa-Boogie d800 and the Trickfish .5k side by side through a Barefaced Big Baby II.

I had tried the Darkglass m900 in GAK on Friday.

To cut a long story short the Trickfish makes the rest of them just utterly redundant to my ear. Just a way better tonal starting point. I don't think this amp is flat with everything set to noon by any means. But whatever, it just sounds brilliant.

All the bells and whistles on those other amps don't mean a thing, because at the end of the day the core Trickfish tone is just better.

So it has a 700w ICE power section and I think that may be enough, but to be sure I am going back a week tomorrow to test a 1k they are getting in with my Big Twin. If the .5k is enough I will get that, if I think I need the extra power reserve to be able to leave the amp idling and achieve war volume, I'll go for the 1k.

16 hours ago, la bam said:

If you like markbass, how about a markbass evo 1?

That is 2 channel - 500w - 3kg, has built in tuner, x2 di outs, compressor, chorus, envelope, drive, delay etc and models of:

LM3, TTE500, SVT, SVT blue line, Trace Elliot, Marshall superbass, Fender bassman, Gallien krueger, SWR redhead, and more...

I could be tempted to part with mine - as im having a big clearout - id be looking around £450.

Well, I would like a bit more headroom than 500w ideally, I don't need 2 channels, I don't really dig modelling amps particularly, and that is a lot of extra stuff in a box to go wrong, if you know what I mean!

But it was an interesting thought!

That's a lovely offer, we'll see how things go, I might just take you up on it, you're right though I would be needing much more oomph, but the tone is probably not a million miles away from its big brother.

3 hours ago, BigRedX said:

Well then instead of getting a new bass amp get some better monitors instead. The whole band will benefit.

Like I said before, we quite often don't get to chose our pa or sound people. In those cases a decent bass rig is still the best solution imo.

38 minutes ago, Al Krow said:

So having said you're after a Markbass tone from your amp, the DG M900v1 is now at the top of your list?! 

Lol! 

Not that it's a bad amp...it is my current gigging amp after all!  But I wouldn't equate it to a Markbass amp. 

It is however shiny. Maybe that's all you really need? 😀

 

Not quite, the m900 is the only thing I can find nearby to give me an idea about its core tone, IE there is one around the corner to listen to. I am prepared to go to Bass Direct to have a proper play if I have to!

I know I loved the sa450, nothing else I've heard of or read reviews of seems to suggest a similar core tone with that feature set, the semi parametric EQ and separate line out level control are really useful.

Given that appears to be the case I am willing to see if I can get anywhere with other offerings.

My son has a Quilter, in the time I've had with it, a couple of rehearsals, I concluded it was a great amp but too bright and a little harsher than I'd like, something the eq doesn't really dial out.

I'm interested in seeing if any of the current crop of lightweight heads can be made to sound like what I want to hear.

On top of which if I had one thing to moan about with the sa450 it would be a slight lack of headroom. The newer 700+ watt heads should mean I can truly gig with an amp on tick over, which means longer life and less issues.

Shiny is nice though 😍

19 minutes ago, Paddy515 said:

Badlands Guitars?

Seriously mate, you can't have ever been in there, you would be lucky to find a practice amp in there, and even then it would be a sodding Peavey 🤣

16 minutes ago, Hellzero said:

Try the Warwick in black, and you'll see that the price raises of about 25%.

Why is the Trickfish so expensive : Is American (with a Danish power module) "made" enough for you ?

The Warwick is an "old" amp and the silver hi-fi finish is not to everyone taste.

You said money wasn't an issue, so go for the Glockenklang you won't be disappointed : certainly the best amps ever.

if around 600 Watts is enough, contact @Matte_black , he has two Glock's for sale.

The Warwick is too daft, I don't need two independent channels.

Trickfish is interesting, as is Glockenklang, and the Darkglass m900 v1. GAK have an m900 so I'll have a crack at that. But it's not easily rack mounted, and I probably don't have a use for the overdrives.

I didn't say money was no object quite, I said quality costs 🙂, but there is a point where the premium unicorn poop is not quite worth double the money.

If I really didn't care how much it was I'd have a Glock Blue Rock, and it may be what I end up with, however if I can get close enough to it to not care for less then I'd be being a little daft wasting money I don't need to. 

Does anyone know if the Steamhammer is close to the Blue Rock in core tone? For a serious company Glockenklang's web presence is woeful!

Now why is that Warwick so absurd?

Very cheap but the size of a house and two separate channels? Weird. 

So why is the trickfish so expensive if it's the same power amp?

And the Glock is definitely on my list but mad expensive if there is something cheaper that will do the job.

Plus I really want to have a listen to the options before buying but where to go? I am in Brighton and GAK's bass department is laughable...

Any suggestions of shop s in London which stick a decent selection of amps to have a try on. 

Damn it, I've had no amp GAS for the 10 years I've had the sa450 and still don't now, I just need a reasonably priced great sounding amp that won't break my back, that I can try before I buy.

Q strip is an interesting idea.

What I want to know is does anyone know if a lightweight amp with that same tone profile as the LM2/SA450.

I know the quilter isn't even close, it's got a far more aggressive top end for a start. Great amp but not the sound I'm looking for at all really.

I will be sticking it in a rack too, because I baby my gear , so that's a consideration.

I couldn't face the Peavey historical issues, they were always crap, somehow it will find a way to disappoint me, they always do, but thanks anyway.

I acknowledge my snobbery, what can you do 🤩

15 minutes ago, jrixn1 said:

Upgrade the monitors?  I hope the others are paying for this new bass rig btw 😁 I mean... you're not going to benefit from it at all (as you're already sorted with your in-ears)!

Ha! Nah it's all down to me!

We often play on stages with a naff PA monitor-wise that we have no control over. Bringing a serious bass rig is the best way I've found to deal with that....

Because our monitors don't deliver enough oomph for them. They like a LOT of bass onstage.

Which is nice 😁

12 minutes ago, naxos10 said:

If you want another SA450 Bass Direct have a second hand one in according to the website.

Yeah but the MTBF on that will be about 10 minutes 😄

Oh and I need parametric/switchable mids, and two of them, and a separate line out level control ideally.

Ok so budget is whatever it needs to be really. Obviously I don't want to spend more than I need to but quality costs...

Power would be upwards 700w

Amp is basically a monitor for most of the band and provides the foundation of the foh sound for most gigs.

The LM2 configuration had a very lovely tone, since the LM3 the amp internals changed and they reportedly lost some of that magic slightly more old school tone. Having said that I haven't tried one and they are on the list!