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New amp dilemma...


Conan
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[quote name='Conan' timestamp='1425471132' post='2707616']
My new addition is a (slightly) used Aguilar TH500. So I caved in to public opinion after all! :D

Will be trying it out at rehearsal tonight... B)
[/quote]

Well I heard a bassist using my TH500/Barefaced Super 12T rig with his Jazz a few weeks back and it was awesome - made me go all gooey over Jazz basses (which is quite unheard of usually for me). So I think you`re in for a treat this eve.

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[quote name='Lozz196' timestamp='1425489839' post='2707876'] I think you`re in for a treat this eve.
[/quote]

Sadly the rehearsal was postponed (at the last minute - I was loading the car!) until Sunday... <_<

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I have to say this thread baffles me.

If mids are an issue, wouldn't a parametric EQ sort out the problem? Ideally 7 bands +... this seems ideal: http://ashdownmusic.com/products/6/Pedals/9/Ashdown-Pedals/69/12-Band-Graphic-DI-/

Also, why wouldn't you make sure your next amp had one if a seperate pedal was not ideal?

Yours confused....

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[quote name='Conan' timestamp='1425472086' post='2707637']
:D

Absolutely Matt! I know I am giving the impression of being a bit flighty and indecisive over this amp business, but I'm really not! I just feel a bit like a kid in a sweet shop at the moment... But yes - you can have first dibs!
[/quote]

thanks, i'm not going to hold my breath though, i've tried a th500/barefaced rig and it was epic, if i hadn't been broke i would have bought it on the spot! i think the chances of you not liking it are probably power than my chances of winning the lottery this weekend (which are very slim as i've never bought a ticket :D )

Matt

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[quote name='Thurbs' timestamp='1425543894' post='2708297']
If mids are an issue, wouldn't a parametric EQ sort out the problem? Also, why wouldn't you make sure your next amp had one if a seperate pedal was not ideal?
[/quote]

I tried the pedal solution. It was OK, but I just don't like using pedals.

I used Trace Elliot gear for over 20 years, so I'm well aware of the capabilities of a graphic EQ (and that was 11 band!). But on this occasion I'm looking for a number of things in one package - not just the midrange control. Even then, being able to add mids in a useful, sweet-sounding part of the frequency range is more important to me than having infinite control over many bands that may or may not sound good...

The thread has evolved as time has gone by and other options have become available or been drawn to my attention.

I really looking for an amp with a pleasing core tone, and without extraneous features (I'm a fiddler you see, and I would just waste time and effort tweaking things!). An amp with a small footprint is a bonus, although not a deal-breaker as I'm not decrepit yet!

This thread is also the product of the BC membership - where lots of people will (strongly) recommend what [i][b]they[/b][/i] use and explain why nothing else will suffice :)

I apologise for your baffledness, but to be fair the thread was for [i][b]my[/b][/i] benefit and it has certainly worked in that respect B)

Edited by Conan
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[quote name='Matt P' timestamp='1425558608' post='2708549']
i've tried a th500/barefaced rig and it was epic, if i hadn't been broke i would have bought it on the spot!
[/quote]

Sadly, you've just missed one at a stonkingly good price! Not that it was for sale for long... :o

[url="http://basschat.co.uk/topic/257053-aguilar-tone-hammer-500-lightweight-bass-head-l399/"]http://basschat.co.u...bass-head-l399/[/url]

Edited by Conan
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[quote name='Conan' timestamp='1425629034' post='2709122']I apologise for your baffledness, but to be fair the thread was for [i][b]my[/b][/i] benefit and it has certainly worked in that respect B)[/quote]
No need to apologise :) I don’t think I ever will get it. Whilst I like having a nice sounding backline and want to “dial in that tone” whenever I can, I know it is not always possible. Cost, practicality, weight, the wife and life get in the way. Plus most of the gigs I play now are plug and play affairs so you end up playing with all sorts of sh*t or just straight in to the PA.

I fear you are sucked in to a whirlwind of GAS and will come out the end of it significantly poorer but none the (tone) wiser. Finally, have you considered a different cab if it is mid tone shaping you are after?

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[quote name='Thurbs' timestamp='1425636549' post='2709212']
...the wife and life get in the way.
[/quote]

Life you can't do much about, but the wife..? She shouldn't even be on the bloody stage in the first place. Tsk!

[quote name='Thurbs' timestamp='1425636549' post='2709212']
I fear you are sucked in to a whirlwind of GAS and will come out the end of it significantly poorer but none the (tone) wiser.
[/quote]

There is no coming out the end of GAS. GAS comes out the end of you.
The success of this forum is based on that whirlwind! And it smells. ;)

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[quote name='Thurbs' timestamp='1425636549' post='2709212']
I fear you are sucked in to a whirlwind of GAS and will come out the end of it significantly poorer but none the (tone) wiser. Finally, have you considered a different cab if it is mid tone shaping you are after?
[/quote]

Point taken about the GAS - but it's really just a means to an end. I knew that my previous amp (Hartke LH500) wasn't giving me the tone I wanted, but I wasn't sure what would. After a lot of reading and considering my budget I thought that the amps in my original poll would be the best options...

I am very happy with my cab though. It reproduces mids very well, but only if the bass and amp put them out in the first place! :D

Edited by Conan
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[quote name='GregBass' timestamp='1425638131' post='2709231']
Conan - if you don't get the sound you want from the Aguilar and still have RH750, I can guide you through the setup on the RH to push out those mids. Give me a shout if you need it.
[/quote]

Thanks for that - but as I do not have a big budget for bass gear, the RH750 was the price for getting the TH500 (i.e. I traded!).

TBF, the TC had no problems pushing out mids, it just had too many features that I didn't need and I found them distracting.

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[quote name='No lust in Jazz' timestamp='1425654135' post='2709451']
I'm amazed (in a good way) that this tone goal is so clear to you
[/quote]

It was very simple really - I wanted more midrange in my tone and the LH500 couldn't give it to me!

Other amps I have tried since have been able to provide the mids, but due to the way the controls work, finding a sound that I like and can use in a band situation is more difficult than I had anticipated... :(

The Aggie (which I tried last night) has lots of potential, but (as I recall reading in someone else's post a while back), the interactivity of the controls is counter-intuitive and frustrating.

What it shows (quite clearly!) is that there is no one "bass tone" and that each manufacturer of bass gear has different goals in mind and different ways of achieving them!

As with other things in life, sometimes the journey is more enjoyable than the destination B)

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[quote name='Conan' timestamp='1425887628' post='2711716']
It was very simple really - I wanted more midrange in my tone and the LH500 couldn't give it to me!

Other amps I have tried since have been able to provide the mids, but due to the way the controls work, finding a sound that I like and can use in a band situation is more difficult than I had anticipated... :(

The Aggie (which I tried last night) has lots of potential, but (as I recall reading in someone else's post a while back), the interactivity of the controls is counter-intuitive and frustrating.

What it shows (quite clearly!) is that there is no one "bass tone" and that each manufacturer of bass gear has different goals in mind and different ways of achieving them!

As with other things in life, sometimes the journey is more enjoyable than the destination B)
[/quote]

Have you tried Markbass? if you wanted to test out my F1 then just give me a shout, and if all the knob twiddling with the TH500 doesn't work out then i'll swap it for a bundle of cash!

Matt

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[quote name='Conan' timestamp='1425887628' post='2711716']
It was very simple really - I wanted more midrange in my tone and the LH500 couldn't give it to me!

Other amps I have tried since have been able to provide the mids, but due to the way the controls work, finding a sound that I like and can use in a band situation is more difficult than I had anticipated... :(

The Aggie (which I tried last night) has lots of potential, but (as I recall reading in someone else's post a while back), the interactivity of the controls is counter-intuitive and frustrating.

What it shows (quite clearly!) is that there is no one "bass tone" and that each manufacturer of bass gear has different goals in mind and different ways of achieving them!

As with other things in life, sometimes the journey is more enjoyable than the destination B)
[/quote]

Could it be the cab not being able to give you want you want...??

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[quote name='JTUK' timestamp='1425897433' post='2711853']
Could it be the cab not being able to give you want you want...??
[/quote]

I suppose it [i][b]could[/b][/i] be...

I know that you are not the biggest fan of Barefaced, but please believe me when I say (again) that I am happy with my cab. :)

Maybe part of the problem is that the Big One (which was designed - IIRC - to be similar in delivery to a good PA - i.e. very clear, uncoloured and "hi-fi") is just too honest and shows the differences between amps very clearly?

I don't know. I am certainly no expert in sound.

Part of my problem is that I don't have a lot of cash to spend on bass gear, so I am limited either to what is cheap (if bought new) or what is available (if bought used).

After selling my Hartke, the TC RH750 became available locally at an excellent price that was too good to refuse. I had wanted to try one of the Aguilar TH heads but as my budget was limited to around £400 I thought that the 350 would be my limit. Having acquired the RH750, I was able to trade for my current TH500. So financially I am happy, and have been quite fortunate.

I have moved from a very simple, no-frills amp (the LH500) to a couple of amps that have loads more features. Maybe I will just need more time to get the hang of these features - or maybe I just haven't found my ideal amp yet? ;)

Edited by Conan
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[quote name='Matt P' timestamp='1425896268' post='2711830']
Have you tried Markbass? if you wanted to test out my F1 then just give me a shout, and if all the knob twiddling with the TH500 doesn't work out then i'll swap it for a bundle of cash!
[/quote]

No I haven't tried MB, and I will definitely bear your offer in mind! :)

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[quote name='Conan' timestamp='1425915163' post='2712133']
I suppose it [i][b]could[/b][/i] be...

I know that you are not the biggest fan of Barefaced, but please believe me when I say (again) that I am happy with my cab. :)

Maybe part of the problem is that the Big One (which was designed - IIRC - to be similar in delivery to a good PA - i.e. very clear, uncoloured and "hi-fi") is just too honest and shows the differences between amps very clearly?

I don't know. I am certainly no expert in sound.

Part of my problem is that I don't have a lot of cash to spend on bass gear, so I am limited either to what is cheap (if bought new) or what is available (if bought used).

After selling my Hartke, the TC RH750 became available locally at an excellent price that was too good to refuse. I had wanted to try one of the Aguilar TH heads but as my budget was limited to around £400 I thought that the 350 would be my limit. Having acquired the RH750, I was able to trade for my current TH500. So financially I am happy, and have been quite fortunate.

I have moved from a very simple, no-frills amp (the LH500) to a couple of amps that have loads more features. Maybe I will just need more time to get the hang of these features - or maybe I just haven't found my ideal amp yet? ;)
[/quote]

It was not quite such a silly facetious question from my point of view. ;) I find that most people's issues with sound tends to be
complicating the signal chain. I was having a conversation with a bass player friend of mine who is really REALLY old
school and he said that 99% of the bassists he knew moaned about their sound. I could understand his point
..even if I doubted his stats.. as I do sometimes wonder why so and so would do what they do with the signal.
And I've always thought that P.A cabs and bass are poor bed mates as the sound can be too harsh and require a lot
of skill and technique to make them work..which is just making it more difficult than it should be. It is quite possible
to my thinking that a cab that can produce clean is going to be a right handful if you dial in any mids ... and you'd likely
have to scoop it quite a bit at some point. The good thing is that the TH has quite a lot of movement with the sweepable control
so the amp should be capable of taming a cab sympathetically. In this sense a sweep or semi parametric is 'better' than
an out and out graphic...especially if the bands are quite far apart.

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[quote name='JTUK' timestamp='1425931844' post='2712491'] The good thing is that the TH has quite a lot of movement with the sweepable control
so the amp should be capable of taming a cab sympathetically. In this sense a sweep or semi parametric is 'better' than an out and out graphic...especially if the bands are quite far apart.
[/quote]

Agreed. And as you say, the cab reveals every bloody frequency in perfect detail! :rolleyes:

I will persevere as I think there is a very good tone in there somewhere. Whether it is within my abilities to find it is another matter! :D

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Oh..and don't worry about scooping it...everybody pretty much needs to do it.
There are holes..and pretty well have to be..in every sound, IMO.

I find the general 'understanding' of scooping to be as wrong as 'up your mids' comments.. IMO, of course. :lol:

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[quote name='JTUK' timestamp='1425981594' post='2712904']I find the general 'understanding' of scooping to be as wrong as 'up your mids' comments.. IMO, of course. :lol:
[/quote]

You keep making these sweeping statements without actually explaining what you mean! It's very confusing...

I think most of us understand "scooped" to mean a tone that is lacking in midrange frequencies but often has a significant boost to the top and bottom end. The classic "smiley face" on a graphic equaliser.

Of course, the strict definitions of what constitutes "top" and "bottom end" vary from person to person. Where are people going wrong? Is my understanding flawed too? :huh:

I'm equally perplexed by your comment about "upping the mids"? Adding more midrange to your sound? What's hard to understand about that? :unsure:

I'm happy to have my misconceptions and errors corrected of course - but just telling me I'm wrong isn't very helpful :(

Edited by Conan
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