Hey, Talkbass
I want to thank IntrepidCellist for hooking me up with this amp at a good price.
I recieved the head this past week and got to give it a try on a sub gig last night with my old band ht. Here's just a little background: I've never been one of those guys who has to be playing through all-tube gear. I dig both tube and solid state equipment. I have a Mesa 400+ that I totally dig. However, I wanted an all-tube amp that was a bit manageable as far as transport and tube configuration. I've always dug Eden gear, so I decided to pick up the E300T. Anyways, my impressions from the gig...
I played the head with a Carvin Icon 5 through a Hartke HyDrive 4x10. The material consisted of accessible modern rock, ranging from heavier stuff such as Disturbed and Pantera to poppier stuff like Green Day and Finger 11, as well as some 80s offerings like Billy Idol and Motely Crue.
My first impression with this head when compared to the Mesa is how much more "old school" it is. Wooly would be a great description. However, the Eden has a tight, focused sound and articulation that is missing from a lot of vintage tube stuff, IMO. It's a pretty detailed amp and can reproduce harmonics well. It's not quite as detailed as the Mesa and definitely not as detailed as Eden's hybrid stuff. That's to be expected though. It does have an Eden vibe to it. The highs are more subdued compared to the amp equipment I normally use. That's not necessarily a bad thing, as I found finger noise was not a problem at all. The lows are very solid, and you have to hit a low B to really appreciate the amp. It's thunderous! The amp has that signature Eden mid-bump, which I dig.
I DIed to the board. The signal was clean and pure. The infamous unmutable DI was a little bit of a pain as far as tuning goes. I wonder if it's possible to have a tech mod that. The sound through the FOH was awesome. As many know, the Mesa has a high impedance DI that takes the signal after the output transformer. Does anyone know if the Eden is the same? The sound through the FOH didn't sound much different from what was coming out of my cab.
My former guitarist, whose quite a tone freak, really liked the amp. We both agreed that it sounded great. The sound was huge in a single guitar situation; yet it was not just a bunch of boom and mud occupying the normal bass guitar frequency range. Finger style was fat and warm. Slapping was punchy and articulate. I would have liked to have heard some more attack when using a pick, but again, thats probably a result of the more subdued highs. I really liked grind the overdrive setting added when engaged. Setting up the amp for clean and overdrive is a lot easier than setting up the two channels on the Mesa for a similar effect.
The Eden met my goal of being easily transportable. For an all-tube offering, it's relatively light and easy to carry. I'm glad that the engineers decided to put two side hands on it rather than a top handle.
So all in all, I really dig this head. It's different from what I'm normally used to: Whether we're talking solid-state or tube, I lean more towards modern and hifi equipment. Sometimes, though, a different flavor is a good thing! I have some more sub gigs coming up, so I'm looking forward to using it some more.
