Bass Culture

I'd recommend one of Mike Walsh's Purple Chili PCB112's, which is loaded with a Celestion 'Green label' neo driver as standard, rates at 300w and can be ordered in a 4ohn version. Treat the lukewarm-ish review in this month's BGM lightly. The cab weighs in at 12.7kg - 28lbs in old money - and is criticised for not feeling rock solid. That amounts to critcising a lightweight cab for being, er, lightweight! FWIW, it [i]looks [/i]rock solid and - as far as I am concerned - is about the nicest looking cab out there. I know this shouldn't be a consideration but - let's face it - are there any of us who really don't care what our gear looks like as well as sounds like? Sounds-wise, I've only had it at home practice levels so far but it sounds clean, tight and punchy and has more bass than the Barefaced Compact I also had. The cabinet construction also looks more robust than the Compact and is made from thicker material, which gives it a bulkier appearance - which is not to criticize the BfC so much as point out there are are more ways to skin a cat... It's almost unbelievable the difference between what it looks like and what it weighs - in a good way! These are retailing at about £340 I think. [url="http://www.purple-chili.com/"]http://www.purple-chili.com/[/url] I'm waiting for a second one as I wouldn't expect any single cab to really handle louder gigs effectively - there's several people already running two Barefaced Compacts in a rig, for example, for this very reason. The Purple Chili doesn't claim to be a total single cab solution but I can't imagine you needing more than the one for rehearsals and anything up to medium-sized gigs. Definitley worth an audition. There's not that many about so you're welcome to try mine out if you want - I'm not on commission, btw, I just think that the BGM review might put some people off what is an excellent cab on the basis of them appearing to apply unfair criteria to it in their assessment. It's light, it's loud (enough), it's sounds great, it looks great and - it's British! Pip pip!

Pete Tullet - that's the man! I exchanged a few e-mails with him about my combo some years back and he was unfailingly helpful and still very enthusuastic about the amps. Even then I think thery were unlike anything else on the market. And yeah, by todays standards, there's a plentiful supply of kit that will out perform them by any objective measure. But they did have one thing that a lot of the new stuff lacks (imho) - character!

Yeah, I had the 150w 1 x 10" combo too. I loved it. Mine was loaded with an EV speaker; sounded brilliant. I exchanged a few e-mails with the guy who made them and he was kind enough to send me some publicity material and copies of reviews from back in the day. I think he was the guy behind (was it?) Alligator amps but someone will correct if I'm wrong. It was a company that made very well regarded amps for a while back in the 80's anyway. I wish I could remember the bloke's name but it was a few years back! I don't have the publicity material and other stuff anymore as I gave them to the person who bought the amp off me a few years back. I managed to pick up a 15" extension speaker from a shop in East Anglia somewhere (same neck of the woods as the company were based in) but someone had swapped out the original driver for a crappy Fane one. I put a Black Widow in it and this was a killer rig with the combo! I also had the head separated from the combo and covered the whole lot in grey vinyl as the wood was starting to scratch. By modern standards it wasn't high powered but it used to deliver every one of those 150 watts! The cabs were tiny too. I often wished I'd kept them. I'd love to have heard what they sounded like with a couple of newer neo drivers in now. Anyway - Peterson: great amps.

[quote name='GreeneKing' post='670785' date='Dec 1 2009, 09:37 AM']Hiya Mark If you run two cabs in 'apparent series' i.e. one cable to the amp, 2nd cable from 1st cab to 2nd it is actually a parallel connection i.e. two 8 ohm cabs give 4 ohms. The 1st lead will take all the load too so needs to be decent and OBBM cables do it with ease I'm sure. Peter[/quote] Ah, thanks for that, Peter. That's deals with that then! I'm still on a mission to find one of the current breed of lightweight/Class D's that cab give me the same oomph, weight and warmth of sound as the Trace head I've been using recently. I've tried a Little Mark II but it sounds a bit clinical and thin by comparison. I've picked up a Genz Benz Shuttle 3.0 which I'll try too. Any thoughts on how the RH450 might compare and stack up against the Trace?

I have a horrible suspicion that this is going to be a stupid question, but why have these amps only got one speaker output? If you have to run two (for example) 8 ohms cabs in series doesn't that keep the ohmage above 4 ohms and therefore mean you can't draw maximum power from the amp?

That Roscoe's lovely. I've been the happy owner of a fretted LG3000 I got from Mark at Bass Direct for a couple of months now. They're simply fantastic basses. Your fretless looks no different. What's the top wood btw?

John, Any gigs over the Christmas period? I live in Chester now but all my family are still down in Colchester and we're staying with them for a few days over the holiday period. We've only otherwise got the 'traditional' (and all too predictable) holiday gig at St Mary's Art Centre top look forward to otherwise. Pip pip! Mark

The album gets a 4 star review in this month's 'Mojo'.

[quote name='Count Bassy' post='662285' date='Nov 23 2009, 12:03 AM']Wot? No single string basses at all?[/quote] He shoots, he scores!

[quote name='Pearl_Jammin' post='661777' date='Nov 22 2009, 02:00 PM']By the way, if you're into vinyl, this album really lends itself to being spun. My LP verses a 320 kbs rip is much warmer and generally more musically enjoyable![/quote] I love my vinyl - appreciate the advice. I agree about the Queens of the Stone Age comments; the same would apply to the Eagles of Death Metal too, I guess. None of which, of course, makes any of them bad and it does it helps to distinguish between the various musicians involved!