Deciding between 4 different heads

Papersen · #1 08-07-2011, 02:57 PM

My former teacher is currently planning to upgrade his equipment. He asked for help and I guess that TB is the right place for input/suggestions:

1- Modern sound (Alain Caron as reference)
2- Suitable for good slap tone (no rolled off highs or lows)
3- Matched with a 4x10 + 1x15 cab.
4- Clean, transparent sound with plenty of power.
5- Main bass: MM Stingray 4

Right now, he`s considering these options:

A- Aguilar Tonehammer 500
B- Markbass LM III
C- Genz Benz Shuttle 9
D- Genz Benz Streamliner 600

Suggestions ?

Mirios · #2 08-07-2011, 03:01 PM

When I had a Genz Benz clean and transparent were good words to describe the sound. I think the shuttle would do just fine.

AwkwardLoudness · #3 08-07-2011, 03:16 PM

Out of those, I'd go with the Streamliner 600 or the Tonehammer.

For slap bass, you want a cab with a good adjustable tweeter. fEarful 15/6/1 cab would be my choice. Very transparent!!

Why would you want to pair a 1x15 with a 2x12 cab? Makes no sense.

KsPiNeSh · #4 08-07-2011, 03:22 PM

Of those 4, I would not consider the Aguilar or Streamliner to be clean and transparent - they're voiced to be thick and wooly, with a vintage vibe. I'd personally choose Genz Benz over Markbass for a variety of reasons (customer service, aesthetics, and features to name a few) and would choose a ShuttleMax 9.2 over the Shuttle 9.0. The Max 9.2 will do everything the Shuttle 9.0 does, but has both FET and tube preamps that cna be run individually or mixed to taste, high gain switchs for both channels, and dual semi-parametric mid controls for each channel instead of just one.

Papersen · #5 08-07-2011, 04:11 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by AwkwardLoudness

Out of those, I'd go with the Streamliner 600 or the Tonehammer.

For slap bass, you want a cab with a good adjustable tweeter. fEarful 15/6/1 cab would be my choice. Very transparent!!

Why would you want to pair a 1x15 with a 2x12 cab? Makes no sense.

Sorry, it was 4x10 + 1x15. Edited.

RickenBoogie · #6 08-07-2011, 04:22 PM

410/15, even worse pairing. Picking an amp should be done with ears- and pairing a 410 with a 15 is discussed here on a daily basis. It's a BAD pairing. Read up.

lomo · #7 08-07-2011, 04:51 PM

I totally agree with above posts. GB over the other brands and Shuttlemax over Streamliner for transparency (and flexibility, big-time) and forget about mixing 2 different cabs. If he is starting from scratch there are no good reasons for mixing cabs. Pair of 410s, or even better :vertically stacked pair of 212s or 15s.

scottfeldstein · #8 08-07-2011, 05:20 PM

Does no one recommend GK for the kind of sound described?

PSPookie · #9 08-07-2011, 05:21 PM

There's not a dog in the bunch. Which is your favorite flavor of badazz?

thudfromafar · #10 08-07-2011, 05:25 PM

Would he consider a pre/power setup? Can get a decent used preamp and big watts in bridged power (xls drivecore) for around 500 buks. Add a few hundred if getting a new preamp. That would be very clean, powerful, and transparent.

Dark Barn · #11 08-07-2011, 05:36 PM

Ask him if he's looked at the Shuttlemax series over the Shuttles, the FET channel is a smidge more transparent/modern than the tube channel. Both are pretty clean at normal gain settings, having the 2 channels allows you to dial in a great modern tone on the FET channel and with some high gain/low volume on the tube channel dial in a little or alot of grit and some tube compression. With the Shuttlemax you get the added FET channel, the ability to so A/B/A+B the tube and FET channels, a 2nd semi-parametric mid EQ (I don't use this often, but it's there), and amount controls on the 3 pre-shape filters (I really like this feature).

There's the cost and the larger form factor (and almost 3 lbs heavier, lol) to consider but apart from that it just has a lot of added utility that made it more attractive to me when I bought one just recently. I'm quite happy with it so thought I'd share.