attackbass

Hey wimbish. I can only comment on the club cab and lo cab. The sound is incredibly clear and articulate with the club cab. It's full range I think and yes, many people describe it more like a studio monitor than a typical bass cab. However it is also still very warm and punchy and find that I shape my sound using the Hellborg pre much in the same way as if you were using a console in a studio. I tend to boost the bass, cut a fair bit of 800hz boost a bit of 3 or 5k and then slightly roll off the treble which takes the very high end off needed or I might leave it flat. I wouldn't compare it to a traditional speaker and tweeter combination cab, the tone sounds together as one thing not two things working separately... If that makes sense?! I haven't got an overdrive at the moment, but I think you'd need to shape the tone with the Hellborg EQ to make it sound pleasant or have some sort of EQ on the drive pedal to shape the drive before hitting the amp.

Just got home from the first proper all Hellborg amp/cab gig. I love this amp and the cabs. The sound was full, tight, clear and warm but if I wanted more note articulation I could just dig in a little and the notes popped out. Versus Class D amps I feel more comfortable with playing into the older technology of solid state amps. I feel like they can deliver a more solid sound and manage with a range of dynamic playing from soft to heavy fingerstyle playing and heavy slapping. It just seems to respond better and deliver, and I used to use a posh miura M2 compressor to but I find that unnecessary now. I have been using iem for the last year and tonight I decide to give the Hellborg a go, minus the iem and I did not miss them at all. In fact it felt a lot more natural to me! Yeah it's heavy... But I loaded all my gear in to the house in under 5 minutes at 2:30am with little hassle. Definitely worth it... Also definitely enjoying not using pedals any longer as well.

LOL! Maybe this stuff is hard to get in the states. I wonder how the used prices of Hellborg stuff will be effected after the Thomann blowout. I never intend on selling my rig now, it's such a cool rig I imagine I'll have it well into my old age. I just took delivery of my new Hellborg power amp, so I now have two and I can confirm that the power amps do impart a harmonic colouration to the sound. It's a shame you can't tap the output transformer with a DI.

Nice... im glad im done with my tone search! Just waiting for my back up hellborg poweramp o be delivered today!

Haha fair enough. I can remember overdriving the tubes in a summit audio pultec type EQ on bass. It certainly adds fatness. Best signal chain I wish I could recreate was a 70s ampeg SVT (ex stones) blended with a clean tubeworks DI into a never console and I'm sure there would of been a compressor in there somewhere. Sounded incredible. If you're going down that route you might as well add a mic pre like a golden age, warm audio or classic API... Wouldn't add much weight to an already heavy rig or cost. I don't know how roadworthy these bits of gear sound be, might need some good shock mount racks

Is this for studio use or live? If it's live you might just be better off getting a pedal compressor and save yourself a bit of hassle!

The 1176 can actually be used as a preamp itself... Used to engineer in a studio and ever did it myself (we had neve 1073 pres) all I know is that it can be done, but I'm sure a Google search or a search on gearslutz will provide you with more info. Not sure if it would offer much compression. I think that you may be better running a preamp Infront of it, it'll probably give you more control and perhaps better gain staging. Been a good few years since I got out of the studio thing so my memory is cloudy but hopefully offers you some direction to search the subject further.

I Hi, We have a couple of ashdown cabs in the studios I help run. They've all done this... It's probably due to combination of a damp environment as the studios are in railway arches and maybe a combination of the wood being sealed properly or just poor grade MDF or board. I ended up just glueing it back on as it was constantly falling off.

Just ordered a backup Hellborg Mono 500- I NEED HELP. I have sworn this is my last big purchase for the next few decades!

Haha there really is!

I don't know man, Aguilar gear is beautiful. I would be quite happy with either

Haha. Girlfriend is not impressed... I think the occasions where I need to use both cabs will be few and far between. The club cab for a 250w cab is very loud! Really digging it.

Just an update on an escalating situation in my house...

Also you're right about the Trickfish just sounding great flat. I have spoken to Ryan at Trickfish and he insists it is completely flat with all dials at noon. I find you don't need to do much to get a nice tone and even at extreme settings the amp never sounds harsh or in musical.

Just to chime in on the loudness of the Trickfish. It's plenty loud enough for wedding type/function gigs and also stays solid when pushed and competing with Marshall stacks... Even then it wasn't maxed out and was running just with the 8ohm cab. One thing I should mention is that I tend to mostly play with professional musicians and usually find that we are sensible with stage and rehearsal volumes, so maybe I haven't had to compete with a guitarist with two 4x12 Randall stacks and no PA support 😉

If you are interested in Trickfish I have my rig for sale in the amps for sale forum. I literally feel insane selling but I just have a desire to put myself through mysery lugging around a Hellborg rig!!

So my club cab arrived. I'm completely amazed how clear and articulate this is. It's quite strange and I've never heard a 1x15 like it. Clearer than a 4x10 I would say. Comparing the trickfish and the hellborg, the trickfish seems to have more low mid and a slightly fatter tone, more vintage I guess by comparison. Whereas both cabs are very articulate, the Hellborg seems to have less roundness in favour for note clarity where the Trickfish offers a pillowy response... This could maybe be due to the Hellborg not going as low as the Trickfish. I like both, I'm aware the Hellborg has not been broken in too so I'm going to spend time with it and get to know it, and also see how it combines with the lo cab Another note... The cab is rated 250w but is noticeable louder so I think there must be some magic going on there in terms of speaker efficiency and getting the most out of the power amp..

As an owner of the hellborg pre and power amp before the price reductions I wouldn't say this was a piece of kit just for players who like Zing! I mean, yes you have the control to go for that sound and it's easy to get but the clarity of the preamp and the eq enables you to essentially shape your tone, whether it's zingy and piano tone like or more thumpy, warm and old school. It just offers a lot more clarity to your sound. I also find it's how the amp feels to play in to that is different to other amps. Yes there are great amps at the same price point and lower, and I have played a vast amount of those amps and they all get the job done and are all great... I have no objections to using the behringer ultrabass, great amp for the money! With amps at the higher price point, yes there is very little difference in quality of sound. Put side to side with my trickfish - it was extremely close, but the hellborg felt just a little warmer whilst they trickfish was a bit dryer sounding, and in a live situation probably not very noticeable. However, when DI'd the clarity of the hellborg was eye opening, my trickfish has a very nice DI but the hellborg was just incredibly detailed and open in comparison. Despite this I still love both amps, with the trickfish being the favourite of all the class d amps ive used. and yes at the original price of these amps I would have never entertained buying one - i got mine in a trade!! I think it's just a unique piece of gear that UAD will probably model in 20 years, with dodgy flickering light and scratches in the aluminum face plate!

I think you have put me off buying one! I gig the hellborg and I can just about manage it lugging it around in the gator case.. tho any walk of 100m or more can become quite a work out! It looks really cool tho. I'm thinking of further down the road buying a LWA1000 and using it for it's power amp. It wouldn't be the same but it would keep things lighter whilst being from the same school of thought and engineering of Hellborg