jonno1981

You could ping the main man himself, he has his own section on talkbass. https://www.talkbass.com/forums/ask-justin-meldal-johnsen.194/ A wider question around the differences in his signature to the production models already in the market would likely get you a response.

I think I’m going more down the route of a tks cab now. After a bit more research I think I’d like to go for a 12” option like the s2126 cab. It’s in the ballpark cost of 2 of the pjbs and I have no doubt it would be loud enough for my needs.

Same. I work in an open office, even all the meeting rooms have glass walls so there’s no real privacy anywhere. I’d really like to keep a bass somewhere and disappear into a meeting room for a bit, however it just wouldn’t work. I can see that scene from the office every time I think about it. “Get the guitar” etc.

I wonder if I’m better off with a c8 rather than 2 c4’s. Any tonal difference between 1 big cab against two equal sized smaller cabs?

sifi - Thank you for your thoughts on this. I think the six pack was one of the heaviest combos on the market when it was in production. The newer stuff is much lighter. The 9b is showing on their site as being 34kg alone, and the six pack 37kg. I certainly wouldn't consider hauling that kind of weight around. The 2 C4 cabs together are 26kg combined. Ultimately I'd like to have a really big, solid rig but I just don't want it taking up the space in the house when I'd hardly ever take full advantage of it.

Really helpful replies thank you. A questionmark for me now is just how many drivers would I need to compete with a drummer. Are two c4 cabs really sufficient or should I consider a c4 and a to c8 to cover more scenarios. I guess i should commit to a c4 and see how I get on with it in a rehearsal and go from there.

I'm in the early stages of weighing up options to replace a schroeder 410l that I've just moved on. The schroeder was a great cab for it's footprint and offered a shed load of volume and oooomph, but as circumstances have changed and I'm rarely gigging it was too big and unsuitable for my everyday practice needs. So I'm considering a modular rig, multiples of 1 x 12s or similar cabs, ideally something I could buy a single cab for the time being for practice and add another later down the line when I'm gigging more regularly again. I know I'm going to struggle to get anywhere near the power of a 4x10 but I think I can live with something with less power. One option that keeps coming around is the PJB range, however I don't think I've ever seen / heard anyone in a rock sounding band ever use them. I've been eyeing up a pair of C4 cabs as a replacement rig as they seem to be roughly a 1x12 equivalent. Current plan is to keep my VT500 and use that as I really like the VT pre circuit to add some warmth, I also use a lot of fuzz for some stuff. Has anyone on the forum have any experience of using these in a rock band with a reasonably hard hitting drummer? Am I looking at completely the wrong stuff? I'm open to suggestions, maybe even a swap to a high power combo rather than a head/cab combination.

Thanks for the valuable advice all. I'll do some measuring. I appreciate the only way to downsize a little bit without a huge compromise in tone is to go 2x12 or 2 x 1x12. Key is to have a smaller footprint.

Hi all, Rig advice please! I'm looking to downsize my current setup (well gigged schroeder 410l and nearly new sansamp vt500 head) to something a bit smaller. Tone wise I run it with the front end pushed really hard with Sansamp/Darkglass/Trex pre-amp/ overdrive before it gets to the amp. I don't have hugely diverse requirements as I currently only play in 1 project. I'm looking for something that takes up less footprint than a 4x10 so maybe a vertical 2x10 type design? Looking around I've spotted the Ampeg ba210 which you can pick up for around £500 but I don't know about other options. There are some new designs from Ashdown and Laney which I've never seen or tried. Alternatively I could just downsize the cab and keep the head but I'm not sure! All ideas considered!

I have to wish Phil, Barrie and Vic the very best. The business sounds like it's going to continue which is fantastic news. I'm sure there are lot's of factors involved in this, I reckon Brexit will be a major contributor. Exchange rates fluctuations and supplier confidence in dealing with the UK makes being a specialist retailer very difficult.

I've got one and really enjoy it. Worth noting that bassgear have these in their clearance sale for a silly price. I would imagine these are shortly to go up in price along with everything else imported from a US supplier......

Arrrrrgh. Why did I find out about this the day after the gig. Fail.

I bid £700 which was declined. In this case I'm apprehensive about bidding any more given the seller. They aren't a specialist by any means so this one could have a neck warped inside out and they wouldn't know about it.

I picked up one of these from bassgear last week after an extensive shoot out with some other contenders. The VT went up against the two aguilar tonehammers and a carvin head. Overall, all the amps sounded great but were surprisingly different. The aguilar's are really excellent amps but I struggled to get much variation out of them. They offer a really warm, creamy vintage tone but couldn't really do much more for me. They are loud, light, extremely well made but only really had a single sound. I think the TH500 was marginally the loudest of the amps I tried and probably the easiest to get a good sound out of, but beyond the core tone I couldn't really make it sound that different. I would be perfectly happy with one of these for the core sound but it isn't the ideal tone for me. The sansamp however has a far broader tonal palette and has a far more versatile overdrive/crunch tone. I really like a slightly over driven sound when I dig in and the sansamp nails it. It's got a huge amount of control with the 3 band EQ and master operating independently of the character and drive which you can also blend in against the dry signal. Changing one control has an impact on the other controls so you can spend ages tweaking it. This is something that I can see could be frustrating for some users but I love it. They are also the most sensitive controls on any amp I've ever used. A little adjustment goes an a long way! One gig in I'm really pleased with it. The one stage sound was great with my schroeder 410l, it's a really loud set-up. It certainly doesn't lack any ooooopmmmh which was my concern with buying any digital amp. Our soundguy really liked the DI, he said the overall tone was a little brighter and much higher output than the DI on my old ashdown head and easier to work with. I thought I might sell the VT pre-amp pedal I've had for ages when I bought this but I think I'm going to leave it on my board. I use it in front of my trex fuzz and it jumps the level up and increases the saturation of the fuzz. I could probably sell it for a signal boaster but I like the flexibility of it. Time will tell but I'm really pleased with it so far.

Agreed!! Very curious!!!! I've been keeping an eye on this thread hoping for a review before pulling the trigger!

Thank you for the responses and apologies for hijacking the original thread. I'm seriously looking into the VT500, my concern is that as it's such a new product it might be a while before I get my hands on one. I'm not so keen to buy another ashdown, for reasons I wont go into details here. Anyone have any experience of the TC stuff or GK digital amps?

I've really valued reading through this thread as I'm in a similar boat. My Ashdown RC500 evo ii has died a death and is beyond economical repair (needs new PSU and it's cooked half the transistors on the board). I have a Sansamp Bass VT and use a trex bass fuzz and tend to have a slightly overdriven sound pretty much all the time onto a full on fuzz through a schroeder 410l. I need to get a new head but don't have a huge budget to play with. I've been looking at a lightweight heads but have been a bit disappointed with the overall heft of some of the amps I've tried before. They just haven't had the same big chunky natural low end of the Ashdown which I really loved. However I don't want to get anything as heavy and I don't want a hifi esque tone. I've been eyeing up the new sansamp VT 500. It's appealing as I'm used to the tone of the pre-amp pedal that's been in my chain for years. If I get one I can also sell the pre-amp pedal too for £100ish. Are there any other contenders for less than £500? Am I asking too much for this budget? I play in a really loud 3 piece with a big hitting drummer which doesn't help! Any advice is much appreciated.

Was the the MIM with the new pickups in it? That was a very decent bass!