argibbo

Hi folks. Anyone else bought or owned an amp that sounds lovely when played on it's own, but disappoints when gigging along with the band? Here's my problem. I have an Ampeg Portaflex head and my own 200W all valve head. (Think Fender Bassman 100 pre amp and Sound City power section). The Ampeg sounded lovely in the shop so I bought the amp and two matching cabs. I soon realised it absolutely couldn't touch the valve head for tone. Couldn't even get near it, but..... ...the valve head seems to have a boom at the bottom end that makes it sound muddy at gigs. Worse I've been threatened by flying drumsticks and violence coz our drummer doesn't like the boom, preferring the Ampeg. I'm not gonna give up on the ARG valve amp, never, coz it has tone that the Ampeg can only dream of, but... it does have this problem with bottom end. When I get some time I'm going to subject it to frequency response testing and adjust the amount of NFB to flatten the response. I can't live with inferior tone but extracting frumsticks from personal orifices is not on my to do list either. Anyone else noticed this trait in tube amplification?

Dion and the Belmonts. "Teenager in Love". The person who recorded that double bass is a god. It sits there in the stereo mix and just growls at you. You can smell the varnish. "Katmandu" - Cat Stevens (from Mona Bone Jakon). Another double bass, but this one is MASSIVE. Careful, coz this track starts off quietly (so quietly that the tape hiss is very apparent) and then, wait for it.........a bull fiddle the size of a small planet! "From The Underworld" by the Herd. Recorded in the days when they mic'ed bass amps up. I love that phasey bass sound, all string and no body. Bet it played well on am radio.