Jack

I'm confused, do you want a rack or not? Would a rack bag be a compromise between a proper rack and a soft case? I know Tech 21 themselves do a proper bag for it.

The issue that I have with that stuff is that the velcro bond is stronger than the adhesive bond. Whenever I try to remove a pedal it takes the velcro up off the board with it.

Hmm, fair enough. I just think you (well, 'I', the royal 'you') only ever really see RCF's lower end stuff. Which I appreciate is still pretty high-end, but they do some ultra-nice touring and theatre stuff that sells for the prices of small hatchbacks. Meh, either way the point was that FBT make decent stuff.

FBT is midrange/top end stuff, same kind of league as RCF and l'Acoustics. Not heard of Syrincs.

I was watching a rig rundown (albeit of some band I'd never heard of) and both guitarists were using the Mustangs. By that youtube-compressed metric they sounded great. I hope the bass stuff is good enough!

Used PA power amps are stupid cheap these days. I sold my QSC 1602 for £200 and you won't really find a better amp anywhere in the world. If the second cab doesn't get you what you want, maybe a better amp (or both!) would get you there.

You're doing it the right way.

I've found that a lot of those types of units don't have enough output level to drive a frfr anyway. I use something like a Lehle Sunday Driver XLR or even a Behringer Mic 100 to push the levels and so an xlr out on the other units is sort of moot.

I've been following this on the other bass forum, neat idea.

Hi! Firstly, thanks for posting on here, I really think it adds a lot when you guys and other companies interact directly with your customers. IME, the lack of a rear input means that anyone using a tuner, a wireless, other preamps or effects can't plug in neatly. You really have to leave a spare rack space above an amp so that you can route cables from the back (whereall of the other rack gear ever made has the I/O) to the front for the bass amp. Hey don't get me wrong, first world problems and all that, but it does seem an odd design choice. You folks really know your onions and you've sold more amps than me so fair enough. GK's heads are designed the same way too, so there must be a reason but I can't think of it. I just don't imagine many people who buy the RC versions of your head are just putting the head in a 2u rack and leaving it at that, otherwise they'd probably have bought a stand alone version of the head. They're probably using at least a wireless, which will have its output on the back. Yes, sorry, 600W. Fantastic amps by the way. I used to own about 80kg of MAG full stack that was my first proper amp and I loved it. In recent years I think my tone goals moved away from your amps but I've come around and I think the new Evo IV stuff is a huge leap forward from the previous.

Hello, I'm tempted by the Ashdown ABM 500 EVO IV head (despite being largely ampless, a new situation has come up!) but it doesn't have a rear input. Why do so many companies do this? It's acceptable(ish) on micros that aren't usually mounted in a rack and the ears are kind of extras, but this is a purely rackmount-only head that you can't really use in a rack due to it's design.... Anyway, has anyone had a peek inside? Do you think a tech would be able to rewire the 'line input' on the back that I wouldn't use so that it replaces the input jack in the circuit? I know that this would be trvial on a hand-wired, point to point head but it may be impossible if the jacks are directly mounted on the PCB. Any thoughts, experiences, or even gut shots of ABM IV amps would be appreciated!! Thanks, Jack

Generally the DIs on amps are slightly inferior to the standalone ones. Thankfully it's not a big enough difference to matter most of the time.

If you like the pa sound, then what about something like a QSC K12.2? Makes more sense to take your own wedge than an extra amp if you like the ampless sound. For a more traditional combo there's always the effervescent Markbass stuff. I'm not the biggest fan of the sound myself but that's a personal thing and those little 12" combos do kind of have the 'amp as stage monitor only' thing nailed. Tiny and light.

You can use a Powersoft K20 and your favorite dubstep track to find the limit quite easily. Once.

To put it simply, the 'sound' of tube amps is essentially harmonic distortion and some natural compression yes, but the 'magic' of tube amps is the way in which those factors interact with each other and the player. According to Wikipedia, Linkin Park and The Who have both sold ~100 million records.

To specifically answer the OP's question: compressors as a separate device became more popular with the advent of good solid state amps that slowly started to replace tube amps and their natural compression. Many of the early SS greats like Trace and SWR included compressors in the amp for this very reason and for everyone else there were pedals.

Mids, overdrive, compression, chorus. All of that can help if the technique and the mix is right. If they're wrong then nothing will help IME.

Whether it's on your board or in your amp or neither, there's a good bet the soundman has you compressed at the desk. My gigging experience only goes back 15 years as I'm just a wee bairn but it's been like that at every gig I've played.

There's also the GK plex.