Origin Effects BassRig Ampeg B15 Fliptop recreation

[Quatschmacher]

36 minutes ago, LukeFRC said:

I was without my phone for a few days and got back to my emails and saw their mailing list one and thought you would be very very happy ! 

Indeed. You’re welcome to pop over and try it. 

[paulo m]

After watching the Barefaced interview & explanitory audio for myself' this latest offering from origin  could well be more successful than their previous fender & ampeg recreations?

But the Price is going to be a stumbling block for many

Andertons have them @ an eyewatering £449.00 this morning?

Edited 10 hours ago by paulo m

[LukeFRC]

22 minutes ago, paulo m said:

After watching the Barefaced interview & explanitory audio for myself' this latest offering from origin  could well be more successful than their previous fender & ampeg recreations?

But the Price is going to be a stumbling block for many.

Nah- I think price point will be ok - they have sold  plenty of the other bass rigs - if you can afford it it won’t be a problem, and it’s cheaper than an amp and cab. 
 

[fretmeister]

1 hour ago, paulo m said:

After watching the Barefaced interview & explanitory audio for myself' this latest offering from origin  could well be more successful than their previous fender & ampeg recreations?

But the Price is going to be a stumbling block for many.

 

They've got 3 years of sales figures to analyse on the other 2 bassrigs so it's clearly working for them. If they are selling all they can produce then there is no need for them to drop the price. Doesn't mean I have the means to just go out and buy one though, but I can't buy a fancy watch either.

 

I'm looking forward to someone doing a good comparison with the Noble DI. The Noble is more than double the price and if there is a non-valve competitor that sounds as good in a mix then Noble sales might suffer. 

 

I wonder whether the 2 previous bassrigs will get a "Cab Off" Mk2 in the near future.

[Quatschmacher]

3 minutes ago, fretmeister said:

 

They've got 3 years of sales figures to analyse on the other 2 bassrigs so it's clearly working for them. If they are selling all they can produce then there is no need for them to drop the price. Doesn't mean I have the means to just go out and buy one though, but I can't buy a fancy watch either.

 

I'm looking forward to someone doing a good comparison with the Noble DI. The Noble is more than double the price and if there is a non-valve competitor that sounds as good in a mix then Noble sales might suffer. 

 

I wonder whether the 2 previous bassrigs will get a "Cab Off" Mk2 in the near future.

The Noble is a different beast. Not a 6SL7 tube like the B15 and won’t overdrive without something else pushing the front end. A closer comparison would be the SushiBox Grand Slampegg which uses the same tube and tone stack as the B15 (but again won’t overdrive by itself).

Edited 10 hours ago by Quatschmacher

[ra0ulduke]

14 minutes ago, Quatschmacher said:

The Noble is a different beast. Not a 6SL7 tube like the B15 and won’t overdrive without something else pushing the front end. A closer comparison would be the SushiBox Grand Slampegg which uses the same tube and tone stack as the B15 (but again won’t overdrive by itself).

 

I'm very curious about the result.

[fretmeister]

23 minutes ago, Quatschmacher said:

The Noble is a different beast. Not a 6SL7 tube like the B15 and won’t overdrive without something else pushing the front end. A closer comparison would be the SushiBox Grand Slampegg which uses the same tube and tone stack as the B15 (but again won’t overdrive by itself).

 

I didn't know the Noble wouldn't overdrive by itself. Weird.

[markorbit]

56 minutes ago, fretmeister said:

I wonder whether the 2 previous bassrigs will get a "Cab Off" Mk2 in the near future.

I wondered that too. It would make sense I think.

 

As for the £449 price, it's something I'd be willing to pay if I knew it was going to be the answer to what I needed but as with all gear you never know until you've thoroughly tried it, which usually means owning it for a while.

 

It's just a bit too high as I ended up flipping the other BassRigs. As of yet I've never preferred a 'cab-simmed' sound no matter who makes it.

I did particularly like one of the Origin Fifteen demos but it was impossible to determine whether the mojo was a good P bass or not as the pedal was always on.

 

But I do keep coming back to that demo. 

 

[fretmeister]

As with all things like this - the end result for a gig relies on the PA being good.

 

One of the reasons I've got a HX Stomp is that after 10 years with a Helix I can dial in pretty much anything I want in a few minutes, so if I pitch up at a gig and my favourite patches sound awful then I can cobble something together fast even if it is very different to my preferred tone. Getting the gig done is far more important than me loving the tone.

 

Single amp based preamps always carry a risk that it just won't suit a situation no matter what the settings are. Even with my Stomp I have a Caline knock off of a BDDI in the bag. I have the Behringer as well but the Caline is in a smaller enclosure so I take that with me.

 

Still - as of 30 mins ago my youngest has passed her driving test so now I have to find a couple of grand to insure her as an unsupervised driver so I won't be buying any posh pedals for a while. She's got another 2-3 years of study before she gets a full time job so I really hope the No Claims Discount comes easily!

[knicknack]

Mwah... looks good in person. A proper test will have to wait until after my dog walk!

 

[thumbo]

6 minutes ago, knicknack said:

Mwah... looks good in person. A proper test will have to wait until after my dog walk!

 

How does it sound with your mustang? Very cool I imagine! 

[krispn]

Come on @Quatschmacher we’re all on the edge of our seats for the verdict. 
 

 

[Quatschmacher]

2 hours ago, krispn said:

Come on @Quatschmacher we’re all on the edge of our seats for the verdict. 
 

 

OK, had a bit over an hour on it so far. These are my first impressions. Obviously take them with a pinch of salt and do try one for yourselves rather than trusting one person’s opinions.

 

The other big caveat is that I’ve never played a real B15, so best that in mind. 
 

Mostly just played my Fender American Pro II Precision with rosewood board and 4-year-old Labella 760-FS strings.

 

I’ve so far only played it out of the 1/4” output (so no cab sim) into the Shift Line Cabzone Bass and using its headphone output. I’ve run it as-is and with the Shift Line B15 cab sim (the same one that is the stock one in the Ampeg SGT-DI incidentally).

 

I do like it. It’s not going to replace my Grand Slampegg (though I never expected it to; I was thinking this would be more a case of something close but without the reliability risk of tubes).

 

Going from memory, the Fifteen has more bounciness in the string feel compared to the Broughton Fliptop; on the latter, the D and G strings always felt a bit “stiff” above the 7th fret. Would be interesting to be able to compare them directly as I played that pedal as my only preamp for a good couple of years.

 

As the Grand Slampegg doesn’t have a gain control, I had to dial in a fairly clean sound on the BassRig (drive knob around 10 o’clock) to match. Bass knobs at 3-4 o’clock, treble knobs around 10 o’clock. The GS definitely has more “squishiness” to the feel, if that’s the right word (it’s hard to describe); sort of like it makes the strings feel like they’re made out of a different material compared to the dry sound, more rubbery or elastic. (The way I have mine set, I actually find the ‘64 Black Panel seems to feel a bit squishier to me compared to the Fifteen, though I have the former dialled in with drive set to the point where anything played above a medium level breaks up a fair bit. The Fifteen feels a bit more like the Super Vintage under the fingers to me.)

 

Compared to the BassRig, the GS also has a noticeably fuller/warmer bottom end and the attack of the notes have a kind of slight softness or bloom to them that isn’t present in the BassRig.

 

The BassRig does seem to have a certain midrange note that pokes out more than on the GS.

 

Out of the three BassRigs, the Fifteen (at least when set to match the GS) sounds good with both my P basses (the second being the same type of bass but with a maple board and (I think) the stock Fender nickel roundwounds; the way I have the other two BassRigs set at the moment (64 set as above, SV very clean with boosts to bass, mid (@ 220 Hz) and treble) they sound great with the flats but not so much with the rounds. (Maybe I just don’t like the maple/rounds combo much; need to experiment with different strings and using rounds/rosewood and flats/maple to compare.)

 

And just to emphasise why you should take my findings with a pinch of salt, could anyone recommend what XLR cable I need to hook between the BassRig and a Scarlett 2i4 interface? It has combo inputs which take standard 1/4” and some other kind of connector I’m unfamiliar with. Also if using XLR-to-1/4” from the BassRig, could I plug that into the 1/4” input of the Cabzone so I could use the BassRig’s cab sim and monitor on headphones (instead of having to hook up to the computer interface)?

Edited 3 hours ago by Quatschmacher

[Quatschmacher]

The other observation I forgot to mention (and this applies to all the BassRigs compared to tube-based pedal recreations of those amps): there’s something different in the way the overdrive decays. On the tube pedals I have used (Shift Line Olympic (roughly like the ‘64 Black Panel), Shift Line Flex (supposedly B15 but uses 12AX7 and sounded closer to the Super Vintage) and the Grand Slampegg), the drive has a softer attack and noticeably longer decay time compared with the BassRigs. On the BassRigs it reacts with more of a quick spike. The drive character when digging in to cause breakup is also “smoother” on the tube-based pedals compared to the BassRigs, though some of that may be to do with my having used the 1/4” output on the latter. 

Edited 4 hours ago by Quatschmacher

[spyder]

The Scarlett 2i4 interface uses standard XLR cables I believe.

 

[Quatschmacher]

Here's a rough comparison clip. GS then BR, first alone then through the B15 IR of the Cabzone. (So GS, BR, GS with sim, BR with sim.) Apologies for any artefacts in the recording; I think my computer is on the blink.

Edited 1 hour ago by Quatschmacher

[spyder]

I've had mine for about an hour now. My first impressions..... where have all the bass and treble frequencies gone.?

 

My signal chain.

Passive Serek Midwestern 2 five string.

Dunlop flat wound strings.

AEA active DI.

Midas MR18 

Presonus Air10 & Air15 sub.

 

I've tried so many preamp di pedals that I've almost given up. I prefer going straight into the mixer with a high quality transparent active DI.

 

I usually use an AEA active DI with just a little eq boost ( 3-4db ) around 80hz and 2khz. Also HPF around 50hz.

 

The Presonus PA is an entry level system with a defused sound that is just ok.

 

No matter what I did the Fifteen just sounded wrong. Bass was lacking and the treble was dull. Of course that is exactly what the B15 sounds like.

 

I took a break and came back with fresh ears. This time I used headphones connected to the Midas MR18 and I finally got the idea. It sounds like you are playing through the Ampeg B15, a fabulous vintage sound.

The pedal feels very responsive and the sound reacts to how hard you play just like a real amp.

 

I think through my Presonus PA the sound is a little lost. But with a better PA or while recording or using headphones the sound is very amp like.

 

I'm going to spend all of tomorrow morning playing with the pedal with backing tracks of our set. This should give a better idea how it sits in a mix. I'm sure it will sound great. If not it's going back to Andertons.

 

 

 

 

 

[markorbit]

Thanks for the initial reviews. I have found that I don't particularly like the squishiness (my Walkabout had it) so to hear the BassRig isn't super squishy is a positive for me.

 

It's probably going to be a used BassRig for me - just in case. I agree that they do have a nice feel and bounce when played.

[risingson]

I’m really interested to hear more reviews on this, and thanks for those who have shared. I’ll likely hold off until I get more of a sense of other’s opinions. 
 

I ended up moving my Black Panel on. I always preferred the tone out of the 1/4” rather than the DI as the non-defeatable cab sim just killed the dynamic range and feel, meaning that my JF Capo easily supplanted it on my board. Two years on and the Capo for me is still the very best preamp I’ve owned so it’ll take something special to swap it out. 

 

Given Origin seem to have paid attention to their target market feeling the same and have introduced a proper switch to address the cab-sim, I’m very tempted by this one. I happened to really love the squashy compression of the Black Panel so it’s also interesting to hear from feedback that this sounds a lot ‘quicker’ with less of that natural compression.