help piecing together an abnormal modular set
 

Hello everybody, first thread (be gentle)

I am looking to go to a modular setup due to some recommendations from my personal local heroes.

Some helpful info. I play in a heavy blues trio with the world's loudest drummer :). I play finger style only with a heavy hand, using a peavey grind 5 string going through a markbass super synth and a bass muff. My current amp is a 76ish music man hd-130 into an ampeg 810e and occasionally also a hartke 215.

Now the abnormal part. Through a few days of research, I have only found "clean" preamps. What I do now is a mild overdrive on the muff and I run the butt off the musicman's power tubes to get a trebely John entwistle tone that I love. Oh, and my budget is about 700-1000, I have access to power amps already

Only thing I want to change is volume level. Musicman is pretty loud, but I play outside often with no pa other than for vocals. With a drummer as loud as mine, I need a bit more umph

So my questions.
1. Worth the swap to modular vs getting a bigger tube head ($$$)

2. Preamp that can give me that mean tubey entwistle sound?

3. Am I better off just getting a DI out of the musicman and some tube distortion pedal running into a power amp?

Thanks in advance and I look forward to your response!

Why not try out a big all tube amp, like an Ampeg SVT CL. Perferct match for you 810, and double the power you have now.

Ya, good solution.

Sansamp Leeds pedal as a preamp, into a power amp, that's Entwhistle tone, and they have the juice to be a preamp.

I was going to suggest this as well. More specifically, the Fender Super Bassman. It is over the budget though.

An SVT CL can be found in the budget though.

I do like the all tube monster amps, but they require some upkeep as well as initial cost (retubing, etc.). In your guys personal opinion, is it worth the money to maintain as well as stretch the budget for a 300w monster, or to get a good preamp to pair with a power amp.

(I apologize as I'm sure this has been asked before)

On a side note, when I tried the svt-cl, I liked the tone but was disappointed in the craftsmanship. Crooked, cheap plastic knobs were particularly worrisome, so my question to you, is the vr any better quality wise? I can find some decent used svt-vr' s (they just don't have a warranty) for about the same as the svt-cl.

Appreciate this guys, loving the opinions and suggestions

Contrary to popular belief, an all tube amp is not that big of a deal to maintain. If used properly, preamp tubes can last for decades, and power tubes for several years. So long as you get an amp that's fully functional, and biased properly, it should require very little maintenence over the course of it's life.

Thank you sir! Refreshing to hear!

On another note, just got a chance to look at that sansamp Leeds. WOW. That is awesome! Now does anyone have an opinion cl vs vr just as far as quality is concerned?

Maybe I missed something here.....you like the tone you have, want to go modular and are already using an 810e which is not enough oomph for outdoor gigs and no PA? At this point, Keep the head, use half the 810e or downsize to a 410. Invest in a good mic for your cab, and find some good PA gear. I am baflled as to why you would downsize your rig when you don't have enough volume.

Doing the Sansamp Leeds pedal into a power amp would be a great modular rig. You can use any cab with that setup and get the same tone at low and high volumes. When workign with a PA system, you would be able to get the tone you want with a volume everyone can live with. I am not sure if you will miss the power tube breakup though.

Unless you're extremely hard on tube gear and crank it insane, or happen to get a bad one, you'll do a lot fewer tube changes than you think you'll do. Every now and then you have to spend money on a couple tubes. When I have a tube problem, I change only the tube that's broken. Anything else is a waste of money IMHO.

So whatever you get, the amount of playing you'll do will be based on your playing and networking/people skills, but while sometimes I wig out over the schlep, there's still nothing like a great all-tube rig. I'll be getting a Heritage SVT rig my own self when everything settles down from NAMM.

As for workmanship, I use a lot of rental CL's and VR's of all eras when I do fly dates, and while it's possible that a head might get out that isn't perfectly tweaked, by and large they all look and feel very solid to me.

You might try using your HD130 and 8x10 as normal and run a line out of input 2(assuming you're plugging into #1), run that line into power amp for the 2x15. I'm not sure if you would need to boost the signal for the second power amp at all but...it might be worth a try?

Appreciate all the responses again!

Sounds like I am getting a small pa to Mic the cab and the tech 21 Leeds to keep a consistent tone at low volume. I would run an out from the musicman, but the ss preamp is ok... the angry power is what I like. The pedal is cheap enough to try out with my power (crown 2000) and look for a cheap little pa. Thanks guys!

Edit: looked up the vt bass deluxe. Holy cow. That thing is just sick. Thank you Mr. Foxen for bringing up tech 21. I love the Leeds too, but the deluxe options are hard to pass up.

Gearhead17, I'm not searching for something smaller, the musicman is 130 watts and plenty with a pa in some bars that have them, but our drummer is soooo freaking loud live that I can't hear myself with the sound man making me turn down, let alone the poor guitar player. I'm looking for more of a "I don't need the pa, set the mix to me" approach like the good old loud bands. I'm sure this all streams from dealing with amateur sound men, but it's whatever.

Also on a side note, the musicman's all I got, and 46 year old amps act up occasionally ($$). The modular approach or new tube amp seem more reliable (and warranties rock).

Hope that clears it up a little... apologies if I'm ranting, it's therapeutic to open up to people that understand! :-)

I don't think that a small PA is the answer here.

I see where you're going,
Giant royal Albert hall pa with 8 full svt's and the dang guitarist can fend for himself! I like how you think...

Seriously though, don't tease, what's your idea? I'm open to all criticism and ideas including changing my mindset because that's just not how the world works. Everyone sees stuff differently, and I love getting a good cross section of knowledgeable people, so bring it on! :)