Ibanez Promethean Combo

[wateroftyne]

Cheers!

It's just a shame flats sound so boring out-of-context....

[eude]

[quote name='wateroftyne' post='910027' date='Jul 30 2010, 10:52 AM']Cheers!

It's just a shame flats sound so boring out-of-context....[/quote]

I dunno dude, I think it sounded really cool, nice bit of growl, and that's through my bloody MacBook speakers!
I'm currently resurrecting a 6 string fretless I built a long long time ago, was thinking about putting half rounds on it, but I might go flat now

[wateroftyne]

[quote name='eude' post='910071' date='Jul 30 2010, 11:18 AM']I dunno dude, I think it sounded really cool, nice bit of growl, and that's through my bloody MacBook speakers![/quote]

Cheers!

Here's another clip, this time with rounds:

[gafbass02]

my trigger is pulled...incoming!

[wateroftyne]

[quote name='gafbass02' post='917985' date='Aug 7 2010, 02:12 PM']my trigger is pulled...incoming![/quote]
Cool.. you won't be disappointed. When's it landing?

[Spoombung]

[quote name='wateroftyne' post='909660' date='Jul 29 2010, 09:23 PM']I made a - admittedly pretty crappy - video of mine this morning:

[/quote]

That sounds like quite a compressed tone; is that the video camera or the amp? Where's the hiss from too?

[wateroftyne]

[quote name='Spoombung' post='918135' date='Aug 7 2010, 05:03 PM']That sounds like quite a compressed tone; is that the video camera or the amp? Where's the hiss from too?[/quote]
Hello!

Compression & hiss is from the camera. The amp is dead silent at normal working volume. FWIW. there is a note about the hiss if you view the clip in YouTube itself, but you won't see it when it's embedded. I'll add a caption to make it clear.

[Spoombung]

[quote name='wateroftyne' post='918137' date='Aug 7 2010, 05:06 PM']Hello!

Compression & hiss is from the camera. The amp is dead silent at normal working volume. FWIW. there is a note about the hiss if you view the clip in YouTube itself, but you won't see it when it's embedded. I'll add a caption to make it clear.[/quote]

Ah, I see. I notice the amp has a limiter - can you here that working at all? Also what's the high end like?

I'd be very tempted to get this combo if it had a proper compressor in it...

[wateroftyne]

[quote name='Spoombung' post='918143' date='Aug 7 2010, 05:12 PM']Ah, I see. I notice the amp has a limiter - can you here that working at all? Also what's the high end like?

I'd be very tempted to get this combo if it had a proper compressor in it...[/quote]
It does have a limiter, but I've yet to hear it in kick in...

The high end seems quite sweet. Some people on TB have mentioned they find it on the old-school side, but that surprises me. If you turn the taste knob to modern, it gets pretty... uh... modern.

[Marvin]

I've only heard good things about these little amps from the people who have bought them on BC. Ibanez seem to have really come up trumps. Great clip WoT.

[derrenleepoole]

I couldn't be happier with mine, a superb investment

[gafbass02]

No idea when mines coming, the tracking link is all in german! But it was 60% of the way here earlier??!

[SisterAbdullahX]

[quote name='wateroftyne' post='906924' date='Jul 27 2010, 12:10 PM']Hi folks

It was ordered from Thomann a couple of weeks ago, shipped as soon as it came into stock on Friday, and it was there waiting for me at my desk when I got into work....





It's following in the footsteps of my recently-departed Walkabout Scout.

Now I'm not expecting it to approach the WS in terms of heft and volume, but I can't wait to see what it can do...

More to come![/quote]

Looks great, just interested to know why you got rid of your Walkabout Scout, as I was thinking of getting one. Would you say the Promethean holds it's own against the Scout?

[wateroftyne]

[quote name='SisterAbdullahX' post='919076' date='Aug 8 2010, 09:10 PM']Looks great, just interested to know why you got rid of your Walkabout Scout, as I was thinking of getting one. Would you say the Promethean holds it's own against the Scout?[/quote]
Hello!

The Scout had been a loyal servant, but when I got my TC head, the TC & a single Berg pretty much as easy to carry.

What I needed was something for smaller rehearsals, sometimes in living rooms, acoustic open mics, and low-volume rehearsals. For this stuff, the Walkabout was just on the awkward side to lug about, so I let it go. Great, great combos though.

Anyway, as mentioned above the Promethean isn't as loud as the Scout in combo form. Smaller box, smaller driver, no passive radiator. It's pretty astonishing for it's size, though.

In a parallel universe, I'd run one of these with the extension cabinet for a LOT of my gigs.

[gafbass02]

Well it came but child and another massive pain in the a$$ have prevented me from much more than a fifteen minute fiddle (ooer!)
Initial impression is that it's fab, seems loud and sounds great. Not as well built as my little mark 2 but I'm grateful for a graphic again being a trace boy at heart.

Now to the cons .. The speaker cable from the cab is very short meaning you can't sit the amp on top of the cab, useful for stacking I've already messaged obbm about a male-female speaker lead. Once the warranty had expired I'd fit a jack plate tbh.
The really irritating con is the HISS it's as someone once described the cmd102p 'like a nest of hissing vipers'.
I know WOT didn't find any hiss on his which has me concerned, although it may be due to our vibe preference, if the vibe control is on the vintage side it's fine, but on the modern side it really hisses a lot! That along with the normal background tweeter hiss that's present it's quite noisy in operation. It also hisses through my bfb compact (sounds even better though, really suits it) and hisses when nothing is plugged in even with all knobs flat and vol and gain down. I'm sure when playing at volume it won't be a problem and I'm being picky but i dont want lots of hiss between songs. We'll see on fri as I have a backline gig.
The tiny little tweeter has me eyeballing my bfb compact and a powerdrill though, that would make that cab just perfect!!
(I can hear Alex's palm hitting his face from here hee hee)

I'll update as I get time with it and to turn it up etc

Running it in stereo from my zoom b9.1 with my lm2>bfb sounded sweeeeeeet.

Edited August 11, 2010 by gafbass02

[wateroftyne]

Hello!

Hmm.. a bit of mixed news there!

I've just spent five minutes with mine to double-check the hiss situation with mine, and this is what I've found:

With everything flat, there's barely any discernible hiss. If I crank the volume to LOUD, there's noticeable hiss but it pales into insignificance relative to the volume of the output. At those kind of volumes I'd probably have two cabs running, and I wouldn't be driving it so hard.

If I crank the 10K slider, it gets hissy pretty quick - but I'm not likely to do that.

The vibe control is hiss-free until about 3 o'clock - at that point a bit of hiss is noticeable but again, it's low compared to the output volume.

The main thing to note, though - mine is virtually hiss-free when there's nothing plugged in, regardless of EQ settings.

Hope this helps...

[derrenleepoole]

All amps have some sort of hiss in one way or another, so I wouldn't be surprised by it. I certainly not noticed any loud hiss on mine, even at volume, but even then if I am at gig volume there will be other noises to mask it. Is it possible that those experiencing loud hiss have active instruments, or instruments with particularly loud outputs in some way?

[eude]

I've really not noticed much hiss at all, however I don't use much of the EQ section or Vibe Control, just a bit of bass boost and I'm good to go.
Got my first proper test for the little combo today for a Festival gig, planning on using it to feed the PA and as my onstage monitor, will let you know how I get on.

Cheers,
Eude

[gafbass02]

Hmm concerning. Mine is really quite hissy even when just sitting there with nothing plugged in and everything flat no vol or gain :-/

[gafbass02]

I think the gain control is the culprit. The hiss increases enormously when the gain control is at one o clock- typically my perfect peaking point. Infact in the tiny turn between 12 and 1 there is a huge increase in gain sounds like at least three db and with it the hiss.


Ok, oddly the hiss gets louder if I turn my bass volume right down????
I do have quite a bright sound so maybe it's just a fact of using a cheaper head compared to my lm2.
Incidentally I plugged my lm2 into the prometheans cab and all quiet so it's not the tweeter.


Update: I emailed thomann to ask about it and with typical ruthless german effciency I got a reply saying (adopt german accent) it's faulty here is a ups docket it will be collected and returned to us at once etc.


Blimey! A bit different from the music shop in Cheltenham that made me set up a bass in store before I bought it because they wouldn't give me a refund if it was buggered!! (it was buggered, I didn't buy it, shoulda charged for setting it up lol)

Edited August 11, 2010 by gafbass02

[derrenleepoole]

It's not the fan is it

[gafbass02]

No that's a quite different sound good thinking though boss, buts it's def good old hiss. Ah well I'm not too concerned strangely, having kids has chilled me out on such things! And davemuadib is happy to lend me a cab to assist my compact at fris gig should it need assisting. (sorry for threadnapping WoT!)

[eude]

[b]gaf[/b] - it does sound faulty to me, not an oddle of hiss from my amp, even at pretty serious volume, get it sent back

Well did my first proper gig with the little Promethean last night and it totally rocked!
It was in one of the Spiegeltents as part of a "Fringe" event to the Edinburgh Festival.
Crowd of about 100 people, unfortunately in a space that would've easily held 250/300, but a great test for it.
I used the amp to feed the PA via the DI (had to use the -20db switch as it was breaking the desk ), and used the combo for on stage monitoring for the whole band, so the bass wasn't through the stage monitors at all, quite a contrived but a very specific test.
I was competing with a full drum kit which was mic'd up, two vocalists and an electric guitar going through a Fender 2X12 which was also mic'd up and through the PA.
Very pleased to tell you The Promethean passed with flying colours! Everyone could hear the bass very clearly on stage, the tilt back feature and the middy nature of a 10" speaker really gave my sound a lot of presence, but man it throws out a lot of lows at volume too.
The best bit was the sound guy asking me to turn the stage volume down as it messing with the PA and it was pointing across the stage, not out front!

I also managed to lug everything, bass, amp, effects and stand, in one go over a half a mile walk, without dying, to the venue as it was right on the harbour and there was nowhere to park my little Fabia anywhere near!

All in, I'm very very happy.

Eude

[wateroftyne]

Just an update to say I've used this in a few different situations now, and it totally surpasses what I expected of it.

I used it last night with a very loud acoustic band, and although I put a little in the FOH, out sound chap said he barely needed it. It sounded great, too...

[gafbass02]

Yeah it's going for swap but I used it on fri anyway and it's just amazing. I'm so getting the extension cab too just for kicks!