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The HandBox Amplification thread


wateroftyne

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1 hour ago, wateroftyne said:

Maybe roll the bass back a bit..!

I currently use a Darkglass M900 for gigging / rehearsals and a Genz Benz Streamliner 900 for home practice.  With the Streamliner I find I roll off the bass more with the BB2 than with the One10.  The 10CRs seem to go low but in a tight and controlled way, whilst the tube pre with the 12" drivers can potentially bloom every once in a while.   

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1 hour ago, wateroftyne said:

Just curious - What are you missing / struggling with?

I suppose I'm trying to boost low mids and cut the hi mids. Last time I used it on a gig ,the other bass player on the bill thought I had quite a toppy sound, which isn't what I was going for. 

Part of the problem is that I haven't been doing loads of gigs recently so I haven't had a  lot of chance to play around with it. Also I'm used to a Mpulse with a  semi para EQ, which is obviously a much different approach to eq'ing an amp. 

I hope that I can find a way to get to grips with the EQ as I do like the amp. It's got a good core sound, plenty of attack, it's loud enough and it's a pretty convenient package (I don't need a featherweight Class D amp and the HB is a lot more convenient than lugging a rackcase to pub gigs). 

I'm sure there is a suitable sound in there, I just need to find it! Any suggestions/ tips welcome... 

Edited by peteb
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4 hours ago, wateroftyne said:

^^^ very good advice. FWIW, here’s my Transferwise affiliate link which means you won’t pay for the first £500 of your first transfer. (Other transfer providers are available, etc.)

WoT, you should set up as Leszek's UK distribution arm!!

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19 hours ago, peteb said:

I suppose I'm trying to boost low mids and cut the hi mids. Last time I used it on a gig ,the other bass player on the bill thought I had quite a toppy sound, which isn't what I was going for. 

Part of the problem is that I haven't been doing loads of gigs recently so I haven't had a  lot of chance to play around with it. Also I'm used to a Mpulse with a  semi para EQ, which is obviously a much different approach to eq'ing an amp. 

I hope that I can find a way to get to grips with the EQ as I do like the amp. It's got a good core sound, plenty of attack, it's loud enough and it's a pretty convenient package (I don't need a featherweight Class D amp and the HB is a lot more convenient than lugging a rackcase to pub gigs). 

I'm sure there is a suitable sound in there, I just need to find it! Any suggestions/ tips welcome... 

What bass and cabs are you using? Bear in mind the response of the amp is pretty much flat, so whatever the bass is putting in, is going to be well reflected in the out. Presumably you haven’t got ‘bright’ engaged, and you’re using flat at a starting point..?

One way to take out a bit of the high mids would be to dial in a little bit of the contour.

I was a long-time Mpulse / WA user, and while the EQ is far more flexible, I found myself mostly using it to try and put the mids back in.

Either way, I hope you manage to sort it after a bit more tinkering. I don’t like a toppy sound, but it’s perfect for me just left flat or thereabouts - it’ll be interesting to hear how you get on!

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1 hour ago, wateroftyne said:

What bass and cabs are you using? Bear in mind the response of the amp is pretty much flat, so whatever the bass is putting in, is going to be well reflected in the out. Presumably you haven’t got ‘bright’ engaged, and you’re using flat at a starting point..?

One way to take out a bit of the high mids would be to dial in a little bit of the contour.

I was a long-time Mpulse / WA user, and while the EQ is far more flexible, I found myself mostly using it to try and put the mids back in.

Either way, I hope you manage to sort it after a bit more tinkering. I don’t like a toppy sound, but it’s perfect for me just left flat or thereabouts - it’ll be interesting to hear how you get on!

I'm generally using an active Xotic jazz. When I'm using my own cabs, it's going through either a Berg 410 or two Berg 112s (all ceramic speakers). 

As you guessed, I've not got the bright (or drive) engaged and I've started with the amp flat. Actually, I think the HB is naturally quite mid focused,  so the trick is to find a sweet spot where I can balance the mids without losing them all together. 

At the moment, I'm trying the bass at 2 o'clock and the treble & contour at 10 o'clock. That sounds ok at low volume through a 112 in my front room, so I shall see how it works when we start rehearsing up the new lineup of the covers band next week. 

Edited by peteb
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27 minutes ago, wateroftyne said:

I think we're used to amps with baked-in EQ curves, so relatively speaking it might seem like it. According to the tone plot, it's relatively flat.

imageproxy.jpeg

That's interesting. I'm sure you're right, after all we can use other amp we've ever played through as a reference. 

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  • 2 weeks later...
On 01/11/2019 at 12:24, peteb said:

That's interesting. I'm sure you're right, after all we can use other amp we've ever played through as a reference. 

I think that you must accustomed to that. I used to use amps with mid knobs too but Handbox is the sound. I always hear myself clean and clear in any situation and bandmates and FOH guys just love my sound too. I think that BASS stands for bass and low mids and TREBLE stands for hi mids and highs. Handbox amps are pretty flat. With good cab you have anything you want. As Michael said if you wanna "scoop" just boost bass and treble accordingly. if you wanna more midrange it's bass and treble down and if you wanna more high mids then more bass down and when you need more low mids then just more treble down and that's all.

I must tell you a secret ;)

As far as I talked with Leszek he don't wanna put midrange knobs in his amp to prevent loss in signal chain of the amps but he knows that bass players "complain" that there's no mid knobs on his amps. So he worked on some kind of "mid solution" for players like those "complainers" ;) But it's always a sacrifice. He said to me that it change a sound a little bit but not so much and drastic to lost what he made with present construction. Leszek is very peaky so he hears every little change in signal chain and he is a fan of greatest possible sound but I think (and he said that too) that many players won't hear the change too much. So we must wait a little bit for this "improvement" (which still change sound for "a little bit" worse). But still Bass and Treble option will be available and it's the best option for getting this great quality and clean sound which Handbox have reputation for it. 

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4 hours ago, jb90 said:

I think that you must accustomed to that. I used to use amps with mid knobs too but Handbox is the sound. I always hear myself clean and clear in any situation and bandmates and FOH guys just love my sound too. I think that BASS stands for bass and low mids and TREBLE stands for hi mids and highs. Handbox amps are pretty flat. With good cab you have anything you want. As Michael said if you wanna "scoop" just boost bass and treble accordingly. if you wanna more midrange it's bass and treble down and if you wanna more high mids then more bass down and when you need more low mids then just more treble down and that's all.

I must tell you a secret ;)

As far as I talked with Leszek he don't wanna put midrange knobs in his amp to prevent loss in signal chain of the amps but he knows that bass players "complain" that there's no mid knobs on his amps. So he worked on some kind of "mid solution" for players like those "complainers" ;) But it's always a sacrifice. He said to me that it change a sound a little bit but not so much and drastic to lost what he made with present construction. Leszek is very peaky so he hears every little change in signal chain and he is a fan of greatest possible sound but I think (and he said that too) that many players won't hear the change too much. So we must wait a little bit for this "improvement" (which still change sound for "a little bit" worse). But still Bass and Treble option will be available and it's the best option for getting this great quality and clean sound which Handbox have reputation for it. 

I’m not sure that I really understand what you (and apparently Leszek) are getting at here. I don’t see how having controls for mids is a tonal sacrifice! The main selling point about the Handbox is its core sound (as well as it being a powerful amp in a compact package), whereas its drawback is a rather limited EQ section. I am getting to grips with it more, but am finding myself boosting the bass and cutting the treble more than I am used, which is not a problem in itself but something I don’t find intuitive after using a 5 band semi parametric EQ.

I am aware that there are bound to be compromises in such a compact amp and I am getting used to the EQ section and starting to get better results. Perhaps it should be noted the guys in the guitar based rock covers band love it, but less so with those in the tribute band complete with loads of keys – they seem to prefer the Mesa

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3 minutes ago, peteb said:

I am getting to grips with it more, but am finding myself boosting the bass and cutting the treble more than I am used, which is not a problem in itself but something I don’t find intuitive after using a 5 band semi parametric EQ.

The tone stack is a classic passive Baxandall, which is just a different approach to the type of stacks we’ve become used to in other amps (along with driving the output gain higher than I’m used to on other amps). The Walkabout is a variant of this, with additional parametric functionality.  Personally I wrestled with the WA EQ for years, even when I finally understood it. Thankfully it sounded great flat-ish.
 

Maybe part of the HandBox’s tone and character comes from the simplicity of the circuit? I’m not sure what they have coming up re: additional EQ, but if someone had very specific EQ needs, or is used to tweaking a 5-Band EQ, I can understand why they might feel the need for more specific control. 

I’m interested to see what it’s going to be...


 

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I've only done one rehearsal with mine, but I loved the sound it made so much that I never wanted to move the dials.  I ended up moving only the gain and volume depending on the nature of the song.

The tone from the WB-100 is just amazing.  So much character, punch, natural harmonics.  I found myself letting notes ring out longer because they sounded so good.  I think I might be slimming my pedal board down a little further.

I'll test out the DI in the next rehearsal. I'll keep that on pre rather than post if I'm going to end up moving dials about willy nilly. 

One happy punter!

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  • 3 weeks later...
On 29/10/2019 at 18:40, walshy said:

Exactly the same here. It’s bloody excellent 

I just bought Paul’s HB400R, put through its paces using just one EA NL112 tonight, quite amazing, everything flat. Using 2 x EA NL112’s on Saturdays gig, oh lookout.

Like others I have tried lots of kit, this is the simplest of EQ’s (for me) so easy to get a good sound. I hardly had to fiddle with anything, no tweaking allowed.

Mmm, now where can I get complimentary cabs, a 15” would sound super.

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17 hours ago, Oldman said:

I just bought Paul’s HB400R, put through its paces using just one EA NL112 tonight, quite amazing, everything flat. Using 2 x EA NL112’s on Saturdays gig, oh lookout.

Like others I have tried lots of kit, this is the simplest of EQ’s (for me) so easy to get a good sound. I hardly had to fiddle with anything, no tweaking allowed.

Mmm, now where can I get complimentary cabs, a 15” would sound super.

And thanks to @Oldman I now have this 🤘

A8E0C5BF-9985-4DB2-B96F-1C58001DCE25.jpeg

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