DB amp head recommendation please

[Christian Topman]

Good evening basses,

 

I’d like to replace a mark bass nano amp with something else……I use it with either one or two barefaced 110 cabs, which sound great with the acoustic image head from my coda combo. 
nano sounds ok with electric bass, but I’m mostly on upright for which it gives a lot of boom, far too much salt, pepper, spice and colour for my taste.  
The AI is getting old and we all know the issues attached to that, though I hope I get lots from it yet.

So I’m looking for a backup head - light, sturdy, reliable and an honest straight forward sound.  I’m tempted to find a 2nd hand GK md 150…( though my one did last one did 30 years ), but I feel that might be a regressive step.  I imagine the market might have something more new and reliable - I’ve no doubt that I’m not unique in my preferences!

 

thanks in advance for any tips or shared experiences of good and bad used.

 

Christian

 

ps ai users, I have found an amp maker who thinks he can fully service AI gear.  I’ll report back with a name if it works out

[tinyd]

The Warwick Gnome and TC heads are pretty widely used (and not expensive). I have a Gnome and it works great for DB. 

I use a PJB C2 cab but there's somebody either here or on TalkBass that uses one of these amps with a Barefaced 110....

Edited October 16 by tinyd

[Burns-bass]

The right DB amplifier will depend on a lot of factors, including:

• Your bass and its specific characteristics 
• What pickup you're using
• What type of music you're playing
• Whether you're going through the PA (and need the amp just for stage volume)
• If you're using a HPF or pre-amp
• Your budget
• What kind of sound you want (hi-fi replication for jazz, or a more aggressive tone for blues etc.)
• How picky you are (I'm not picky, other people are)

I use Barefaced cabinets and have settled on an EBS amp as it provided both the quality of sound and the character I want for bluegrass. For other music, it wouldn't be appropriate or suitable. 

 

I also have a Trace Elliot Elf as a back up, but this is just a small amp I can stick in a case. 

[fretless]

Christian,

 

Noted - please do share name of AI amp fixer - mine needs a new power supply which, it turns out,  is all one part with the main amp board.

 

Expensive part ( circa £200 ) and looks fairly easy to swap over but I will be very sick if I end up wrecking the new board trying to install it.

 

Am trying a Genzler Kinetix at present and will report back once a few more gigs are done.

 

fretless

[TheRev]

Have a look at the Eich T500, it's essentially the same design as the Tecamp Puma 500 heads, which worked well for double bass.

[keeponehandloose]

In my experience boomyness comes from the bass not the amp.

What's your pickup of choice?

[Hellzero]

32 minutes ago, TheRev said:

Have a look at the Eich T500, it's essentially the same design as the Tecamp Puma 500 heads, which worked well for double bass.

If you go for an Eich amp, don't forget to buy the 5 Megaohms input model as it will be way more suited to double bass dedicated pickups.

[Owen]

I must admit, I have found that any amp works for a DB as long as there is an FDeck HPF between the bass and the amp. It smooths things out and you can nuke the boominess. A Vong doobrie https://schalltechnik04.de/en/instructions/vong-filterung- would also do a cracking job. 

[Burns-bass]

These guys build one too

 

https://sineeffect.com/High-&-Low-Pass-Filters-c172981009

[Paddy Morris]

2 hours ago, Owen said:

I must admit, I have found that any amp works for a DB as long as there is an FDeck HPF between the bass and the amp. It smooths things out and you can nuke the boominess. A Vong doobrie https://schalltechnik04.de/en/instructions/vong-filterung- would also do a cracking job. 

Yep.  HPF is a must.  God alone knows shy they are so rarely found incorporated into amp heads in the first place.

[Paddy Morris]

I've been working my way by trial and error through bass amp heads and these are the sweeping generalisations I've arrived at:

 

TC - good, solid amps but the EQ generally positioned at the wrong frequencies for upright. Boomy and prone to feedback

 

Warwick Gnome - excellent value, but EQ bands in the wrong spots also.

 

Genzler Magellans 350 and 800- excellent for double bass.  Even without an HPF, there's enough tone shaping to get you a decent sound in most situations.

 

Genz-Benz streamliner - tube front end actually slightly more flattering to an upright bass than the more modern Genzlers.  Great.

 

PJB - Two Four.  Couldn't get on with it really.  It's very highly tuned to a single low frequency, so a real feedback hazard if you hit that particular note.

 

Traynor YBA300 - delicious, but heavy. Far too much low end unless you use an outboard HPF.  But I do use one, and I'm currently in love with the sound of it.  Just about sits neatly on top of an LFSys Monaco if you lay it on it's side.

[NickA]

My pjb flightcase ( plus pb300 for larger spaces) is great for uncoloured double bass and has a good high input impedance. It just makes the bass louder really. The two four is probably just too small.  My rig totals 10x 5" and 400W.

 

I presume a pjb head would be equally clean and work well into into a neutral sounding cab. Likewise I've found the small Mark bass combos good for dB ( turn off all that vfm vpf nonsense) so surprised the op isn't happy with it, maybe the nano isn't as good as the larger amps?

 

23 minutes ago, Paddy Morris said:

they are so rarely found incorporated

 

In fact (amost) all amps have an hpf built in ( even the fender rumbles) it's just not adjustable.  Only a few exotica  ( Mesa d800+ for instance) seem to have tweakable high pass. It's there to protect the speaker but being set around 40Hz ( usually) and quite a steep roll off, also controls boominess.

 

Whatever, for jazz in pubs etc ( which is what I do) I've not needed an external HPF but have sometimes turned the low bass EQ knob down to deal with room acoustics.