Amp Head Suggestions

[MattyH]

Hey everyone. My LH1000 just isn't cutting it anymore. I get major hiss out of my Ampeg 410HLF when my horn is on. My horn turned off sounds like crap. Kills my tone. Who's got some suggestions on a nice, QUIET head? Here are my MUST haves.

-Must fit into a 2-3 space rack
-Must be able to use my horn!
-Can't be TOOOO heavy
-TONS of headroom needed! Less than 500 watts of destructive power need not apply.
-Reliable
-Reasonably priced (Not dirt cheap, but I don't want to have to take out a loan or sell my car either)
-Must have a reputation of no hiss. Silence is key.
-Must be clean. People like the grit, but I play weddings. I need a clean tone. I can get grit with a pedal.
-Did I mention head room?!
-Preferably one without a 12ax7 pre amp. But if you swear by it, I'll take your word.

I'm looking for responses from people who have paired a head with the Ampeg 410HLF with fantastic results, or have good suggestions head wise either way. Can't stress enough how important the criteria above are. I know there are tons of reviews for heads, but hey, there are tons of heads out there. I trust you guys the most!

[MattyH]

Also, I don't usually do stacks, or giant cab configurations. So I'd be looking for a 4 ohm, to match my 4 ohm cab. But, I'm not ruling out bridgeable heads either, like my LH1000. So if I really needed or wanted to, I could run my 4ohm 410 and my 8ohm 1x15 parallel, un bridged.

[bassplayerken]

I bought an Ashdown Little Giant 1000W from Thomann Cyberstore (germany) for roughly $350 including shipping. It has two speakon connections that are unbridgable, however each side runs 500W and can go down to 4 ohms. You would be able to run both of your cabinets, but probably more like 500W to the 4x10 4 ohm cab and 350W to the 1x15 8 ohm. It has a very clean and hi-fi sound (uses the MAG preamp). I love mine, and you won't be able to find anything comparable in that price range. Semi-parametric EQ (It's more of a 3 1/2 band than a 7 band like they say it is) and shape/deep filters.

[MattyH]

Originally Posted by bassplayerken

I bought an Ashdown Little Giant 1000W from Thomann Cyberstore (germany) for roughly $350 including shipping. It has two speakon connections that are unbridgable, however each side runs 500W and can go down to 4 ohms. You would be able to run both of your cabinets, but probably more like 500W to the 4x10 4 ohm cab and 350W to the 1x15 8 ohm. It has a very clean and hi-fi sound (uses the MAG preamp). I love mine, and you won't be able to find anything comparable in that price range. Semi-parametric EQ (It's more of a 3 1/2 band than a 7 band like they say it is) and shape/deep filters.

Damn that thing is sweet. Almost too good to be true. Any clipping on yours? Or is the power and rating pretty dead on? Like I said sometimes I don't always have PA support and headroom is important.

[MattyH]

I'm reading you have to really max out the input to get volume out of the the Little Giant, but the tone is great. I don't want to have to fight for volume, and see that red light flash on the clip meter! Haha.

[Marko5657]

A three-space rack will accommodate a preamp and power amp.

Just a thought…

[MattyH]

Originally Posted by Marko5657

A three-space rack will accommodate a preamp and power amp.

Just a thought…

Never a huge fan of that set up. I'm not ruling it out though. Any suggestions for a kick ass pairing?

[Marko5657]

I guess that would depend on your budget. There are fantastic preamps and light amps that put out a ton of power.

My rack (Grundorf six-space full of crap and weighs a ton, and haven’t used it in quite a while) has a BMAX pre and QSC GX5 power amp.

I can’t say I’m crazy about the BMAX, it’s okay, but there are far better. The QSC GX5 kills, not particularly light or heavy…

Then I went to a couple different heads…

now I go DI and in-ears, and tune with a Snark clip-on tuner, and don’t even want to lug an amp or cab, haha…

Hey, I’m old.

[Gearhead17]

Originally Posted by MattyH

Hey everyone. My LH1000 just isn't cutting it anymore. I get major hiss out of my Ampeg 410HLF when my horn is on. My horn turned off sounds like crap. Kills my tone. Who's got some suggestions on a nice, QUIET head? Here are my MUST haves.

-Must fit into a 2-3 space rack
-Must be able to use my horn!
-Can't be TOOOO heavy
-TONS of headroom needed! Less than 500 watts of destructive power need not apply.
-Reliable
-Reasonably priced (Not dirt cheap, but I don't want to have to take out a loan or sell my car either)
-Must have a reputation of no hiss. Silence is key.

The LH1000 hissing? What are your settings on the LH1000 and your bass? Most bass cabs hiss because somewhere down the line you are boosting way too much high end above 5khz. In reality, high end at 5khz and above is just about useless for live bass guitar tones. It's basically emphasizing every ounce of noise you are making on the bass. Fingers moving, fret buzz, and so on. You will barely hear the extreme high end if you move to the right or left of the tweeter. A little bit of that clarity is nice, but in reality you need to focus on the 1khz to 3khz range of high end for bass guitar. You can really hear this frequency range and generally 10" speakers put these sounds out. Along with that, 1khz to 3khz is a great place to get clarity for finger style playing and to make pick playing sounds pop out.

The tube in the LH1000 may be microphonic/not working correctly.

At this point, I think you need to figure out what is going on with the LH1000. Are you possibly looking for a different overall tone?

[4-string]

Originally Posted by MattyH

Hey everyone. My LH1000 just isn't cutting it anymore. I get major hiss out of my Ampeg 410HLF when my horn is on. My horn turned off sounds like crap. Kills my tone. Who's got some suggestions on a nice, QUIET head? Here are my MUST haves.

-Must fit into a 2-3 space rack
-Must be able to use my horn!
-Can't be TOOOO heavy
-TONS of headroom needed! Less than 500 watts of destructive power need not apply.
-Reliable
-Reasonably priced (Not dirt cheap, but I don't want to have to take out a loan or sell my car either)
-Must have a reputation of no hiss. Silence is key.
-Must be clean. People like the grit, but I play weddings. I need a clean tone. I can get grit with a pedal.
-Did I mention head room?!
-Preferably one without a 12ax7 pre amp. But if you swear by it, I'll take your word.

I'm looking for responses from people who have paired a head with the Ampeg 410HLF with fantastic results, or have good suggestions head wise either way. Can't stress enough how important the criteria above are. I know there are tons of reviews for heads, but hey, there are tons of heads out there. I trust you guys the most!

Lots of good stuff to choose from these days, but the first that came to mind reading your description was TC Electronic. From your description of how you feel turning off the tweeter kills the tone, I would say RH750 so you get the tweetertone feature.

I've had mine just a few days, so I am not an expert in any way, but the RH750 really impresses me. Dead silent even with the tweetertone maxed and the treble boosted. Plenty of headroom, small size and weight, tube-free, amazing features, and great tone. Goes for $999 I believe.

The fan is more audible than expected, but no more so than your regular ss amp.

[georgestrings]

I can tell you from plenty of experience that G-K's 700rb-II matches up great with that cab, and meets all your requirements...


- georgestrings

[Melvin7822]

How about a Markbass Little Mark III? It's just under 7 pounds, puts out 500 watts at 4 Ohms, is super clean, works well with your cabinet, and is only roughly $550 new.

[xUptheIronsx]

Originally Posted by MattyH

Never a huge fan of that set up. I'm not ruling it out though. Any suggestions for a kick ass pairing?

I use a Yamaha P3500S power amp, and a rack mount Sans-amp pre-amp. It is very versatile! I play in a Crossover Thrash metal band with it, (VERY LOUD) and also do musical pit orchestra gigs and jazz gigs with it. VERY CLEAN sound. The pre-amp is what makes the difference, but the Yamaha power amp is just simple and good...a workhorse like all Yamaha stuff.

Comes out of an Avatar B410 Neo cab...which is also a freakin beauty!!

[Bass_Pounder]

Pick up a used Carvin B1500 in the classified section, or get a new Carvin B2000

[dukeisdog]

Is it possible that the hiss is coming from a bad preamp tube? Maybe change the tube first before writing the head off.

[deeptubes]

My GK 1001RB-II is plain old brutal. I've been playing for 25 years and would recommend it to absolutely anyone. Sold my Ampeg rig, I'm not pissing on Ampeg, to pick up my GK head and an SWR Workingman's Tower (8x10). Sounds phoenominal - very, very, clean - and when I crank it up stuff falls from the ceiling. No exaggeration! Takes up 2 rack units. It's bi-ampable, 4 ohm, 700w. You can set it up to sound however you want - bass, mids, treb, growl. Brand new for about $750. I've never felt it get hot. It's freaking awesome! I love it like I would a child.

[jeff7bass]

Originally Posted by dukeisdog

Is it possible that the hiss is coming from a bad preamp tube? Maybe change the tube first before writing the head off.

I agree. Try to determine the source of the hiss first. That head should cut it.

[MattyH]

Originally Posted by deeptubes

My GK 1001RB-II is plain old brutal. I've been playing for 25 years and would recommend it to absolutely anyone. Sold my Ampeg rig, I'm not pissing on Ampeg, to pick up my GK head and an SWR Workingman's Tower (8x10). Sounds phoenominal - very, very, clean - and when I crank it up stuff falls from the ceiling. No exaggeration! Takes up 2 rack units. It's bi-ampable, 4 ohm, 700w. You can set it up to sound however you want - bass, mids, treb, growl. Brand new for about $750. I've never felt it get hot. It's freaking awesome! I love it like I would a child.

This was actually the head on the top of my list. I always hear rave reviews, and I hear these and the 700 RB's match great with Ampeg, and really anything else. Sound like you've got some serious time behind this head, and I appreciate the input! You're only feeding my growing GAS for a 1001 RB

[MattyH]

Originally Posted by dukeisdog

Is it possible that the hiss is coming from a bad preamp tube? Maybe change the tube first before writing the head off.

Changed a microphonic tube out already. Tried 2 more tubes and the hiss remained. Definitely not the tube. But thanks for the suggestion. If it wasn't a good one, I wouldn't have tried it!

[MattyH]

Originally Posted by Melvin7822

How about a Markbass Little Mark III? It's just under 7 pounds, puts out 500 watts at 4 Ohms, is super clean, works well with your cabinet, and is only roughly $550 new.

I actually had one and got rid of it. I'm in no way knocking MarkBass. I think they're fine, fiiiine pieces of bass genius. It's just not for me. I really wish they were more to my liking tone and sound wise. They're just so sweet!