accidental discovery of my tone

[johnnyz]

I've been rebuilding my arsenal of equipment over the last few years after a decade of not playing much bass. It's been an expensive trial and error to find a tone I like. Last week, my amp was in the shop, so I went to rehearsal with my practice amp. Our guitar player scoffed at my tiny practice amp and dug out an old PA head from beneath some equipment, "Try this." I hooked it up to my 2x15... whoa! There it was, my tone! A 25 year old PA head that was sitting 6 feet from my cabinet, go figure.

[Bassman316]

Hey man, way to go. I've been searching for my sound for eight years now and I still can't find it. I'm still trying to scrap up the bread for a new rig, which is where I think most of my problem lies.

[KramerBassFan]

What kind of PA head was it?

[johnnyz]

You know, I didn't put that because I can't remember. Something I'd never seen before. Something like, kti? Six channels, reverb, not much to it. Crappy PA, vt bass, and a Peavey 2x15 seems to be my rig now.

[craig.p]

You want weird? Back when I was a guitarist playing an SG with humbuckers, I ran a Scott 299B with smoked output tubes as an overdrive unit into a Gibson Ranger 4x10. Terrifying.

[KramerBassFan]

Originally Posted by craig.p

You want weird? Back when I was a guitarist playing an SG with humbuckers, I ran a Scott 299B with smoked output tubes as an overdrive unit into a Gibson Ranger 4x10. Terrifying.

http://cgi.ebay.com/vintage-H-H-SCOT...#ht_500wt_1154

Like this?

No affiliation...

[craig.p]

Yep, that's the one. I can still recall those (shot-to-hell) 7189 plates glowing red in a dark room, bias settings regardless. And those white ceramic (housed) power resistors that would melt skin instantly. Mine was a second-hand freebie and already had been cooked from years of duty in an improperly vented "hi-fi" installation. All the components had turned brown and smelly. I got a couple more years out of it before I found another freebie stereo amp and moved the 299 to overdrive duty. Couldn't afford to replace the output tubes. I used a junk/torn Utah speaker as a dummy load. Anyway, thanks for the pointer & the memories.