Lower the volume and maintain tone of 100 watt combo?

[Blight]

Hey all,

So here's my situation: I currently play through a (now discontinued ) Pignose B100V combo. I adore the tone and love the amp so much I re-covered it in awesome purple (my favourite colour) fabric. I have one problem though: It's too loud for rehearsal.

I play solo, so unlike many bassists I don't need a 400 watt fridge behind me when live. But 100 watts is not only too loud to feasibly practice at home, it sounds crap when played at low volumes.

I've been reading up on all the options (attenuators, just buy a smaller amp, pulling output tubes, etc.) and none of them sounds very appealing. Attenuators are ridiculously overpriced, I'm wary of pulling output tubes, and the last thing I need is to buy more amps.

So what should I do? I wish I could just cut the wattage by 9/10ths with the flip of a switch, but I'm all out of ideas. Thoughts?

P.S.: the excessive smileys are at the behest of my lovely wife.

[JimmyM]

buy a b-15 or maybe one of those new ashdown little bastards.

[Caca de Kick]

One of the best buys I found for basement rehersals was a GK kickback 1x12 combo (or you can even do the 1x10 combo). They're always found cheap on craigslist.

[jknoxdmd]

Where can one find the little bastard in the states?

[Luke19Boarder]

Try out an aphex bass xciter pedal. It can really beef up the sound, even at low volumes. It's one of my two pedals that I use, both of which are always on kinda pedals.

here's a demo of it online: http://www.aphex.com/demo1402.htm

[JimmyM]

Originally Posted by Caca de Kick

One of the best buys I found for basement rehersals was a GK kickback 1x12 combo (or you can even do the 1x10 combo). They're always found cheap on craigslist.

i'm not sure, but i think he's digging the overdrive tone you get from cranking it...the pignose is an all-tuber. you won't get that in a kickback.

[JimmyM]

Originally Posted by jknoxdmd

Where can one find the little bastard in the states?

not out yet but is coming out soon.

[Blight]

Man, I love the people at TB. Thanks for the replies, fellas.

Well, it's not so much tons of overdrive (though it is amazing!) as much as it's a non-master volume amp, and as such the EQ is barely effective at low volumes, but becomes much more versatile when past 12:00.

Perhaps add a master volume after the preamp section? Or would that mess things up?

[LuvMusic]

Originally Posted by jknoxdmd

Where can one find the little bastard in the states?

Originally Posted by JimmyM

not out yet but is coming out soon.

The Bass Place in Tempe, AZ might be able to help you out. The production amps will be manufactured in the PRC and, as Jimmy pointed out, are not available yet. ETA is late April - June but you know how new product releases go.

However, according to a friend in the UK, the Limited Edition, hand wired and built in England version is starting to ship. My UK friend got #1 yesterday. The Bass Place seems to have a great relationship with Ashdown, They sold me the Little Bastard prototype from Winter NAMM!

[Bigjohn]

Amp-wise, I often find the tone to be inseperable from the volume, if you know what I mean. I'm not saying it has to be loud but it's just different.

[Thunderthumbs73]

Originally Posted by Blight

I have one problem though: It's too loud for rehearsal. But 100 watts is not only too loud to feasibly practice at home, it sounds crap when played at low volumes.

As you say it is PRACTICE. Leave the tone-hound ears and sensibilities for the stage. Sure, I love my Bag End sound for the stage, but at home or in practice environs, I'll play through just about anything that is workable.

[JimmyM]

Originally Posted by Blight

Man, I love the people at TB. Thanks for the replies, fellas.

Well, it's not so much tons of overdrive (though it is amazing!) as much as it's a non-master volume amp, and as such the EQ is barely effective at low volumes, but becomes much more versatile when past 12:00.

Perhaps add a master volume after the preamp section? Or would that mess things up?

it would mess things up. non-master volume amps have more character imho.

[megadan]

I don't mean this to sound sarcastic, but....


Earplugs!!! They make 'em for a reason. I'm not even kidding.
If it's the perfect volume for everything else, then just turn your ears down

[tombowlus]

I had a B-100V, foolishly traded it, and recently bought another one. I'm in the process of retubing my new one (the seller managed to break the plastic nipples off of all four power tubes when pulling them for shipping ), but I never had a problem getting a great tone at lower volumes. In fact, I consider it to be one of my "low volume" tube options. Though I agree with Jimmy, a nice old B-15 would be an even better, even lower volume all-tube option.

Tom.

[Thunderthumbs73]

Originally Posted by megadan

I don't mean this to sound sarcastic, but....


Earplugs!!! They make 'em for a reason. I'm not even kidding.
If it's the perfect volume for everything else, then just turn your ears down

+1

[UncleFluffy]

Originally Posted by Blight

So what should I do? I wish I could just cut the wattage by 9/10ths with the flip of a switch, but I'm all out of ideas. Thoughts?

P.S.: the excessive smileys are at the behest of my lovely wife.

How comfortable are you with a soldering iron? A homemade switchable attenuator to do what you want would cost less than $10 in parts.

[will33]

Sounds like you're in the market for a valve jr. Hook it up to the speaker in your pignose combo or buy some other 8 or 10" bass speaker to put in a little sealed box for it.

[T-Bird]

Hi.

Originally Posted by will33

Sounds like you're in the market for a valve jr. Hook it up to the speaker in your pignose combo or buy some other 8 or 10" bass speaker to put in a little sealed box for it.

^This.

Even though You said that you don't want another amp, that would be the most logical (and cheapest) solution. To me anyway.

If not already quite there, the B100V will reach a collectible status soon, and any extensive modding will lower its value considerably. And while some of the popular mods for tube amps are cheap, it's usually through an extensive trial and error to find out the best ones. For a high volume (production) amp it's easy, there's plenty of DIYers and techs working on those, but for relatively low volume amps, there may be none.

Regards
Sam

[Blight]

Great replies, everyone.

Well, I found a solution: Get a good attenuator for less than full price online. Got myself a Weber MASS for half price. This should make the volume at least somewhat more controllable.

As for the earplugs, I do wear them. The noise issue is more about other people than myself. And yeah, I suppose I should relax my tonal criticisms.

I'm fairly handy with a soldering iron these days, I can modify pedals (made my ODB-3 a Germanium/LED hybrid) and do guitar-electronics related stuff, but I fear amp modding may be beyond me.

We'll see how the Weber works out. If the results are not good, I'll probably sell some of my unused gear and go the practice amp route. Thanks again for all the replies!

[xjeremiahx]

Originally Posted by Caca de Kick

One of the best buys I found for basement rehersals was a GK kickback 1x12 combo (or you can even do the 1x10 combo). They're always found cheap on craigslist.

I agree with this if you're going to go w/ the smaller practice amp route. We had a used 1x10 of these in my store & it was 70 watts, and had a lot of punch to it, but didn't sound timid at a low volume. Great cab for the price if you can get your hands on one. I'm pretty sure it was a Backline 1x10 practice amp. Had the tilt-back design, rear ported & 2 channels at that. Great little amp.