Need Opinion on EBS rig

[Ogge]

Hi, I'm about to buy a barely used EBS rig:

HD 350 + EBS neo 212 + EBS neo 210

I have no oportunity to try it out because of where I live (north of Sweden) and would like to hear what you folks think about this rig.

I play rock, pop, funk/fusion, jazz and need something that could do it all. Is there any better alternatives out there? My concern is that this rig wount produce the bottom I need. Am I wrong?

Feel free to feed me with your experiences even if you haven't played the exact rig above.

/Oskar

[Son of Bovril]

IME EBS rigs are very clean and punchy sounding. They don't have massive low end if that is what you are looking for, but can be used for all those styles of music

[Ogge]

Thanks for posting!

I would love to have a clean punchy sound, but I also like low end... :S

Does the EBS have "bad" low end, or just not as good as it is clear and pnchy? I realize it wount be as fat as a 810 with tube-amp, but compared to rigs similar in size, how does this one holding up?

[KJung]

Originally Posted by Ogge

Thanks for posting!

I would love to have a clean punchy sound, but I also like low end... :S

Does the EBS have "bad" low end, or just not as good as it is clear and pnchy? I realize it wount be as fat as a 810 with tube-amp, but compared to rigs similar in size, how does this one holding up?

Had the HD350 for a while... nice head. It is an honestly rated 350 watts... so a bit lower powered than most heads out there. However, at 4ohms, it sounds very full and wide. IMO, that rig will have more true deep low end (the HD350 is voiced very modern and wide), but not the punch in the low mids of some other rigs... that's not what this head is about.

This head is adored by many modern slappers like Marcus Miller, who until very recently used a TD650 (very similar in tone to the HD350). Tal Wilkenfeld also uses a TD650 and HD350 head and EBS410's (similar to the rig you are talking about).

So, to my ear, very wide, deep low end, VERY modern,crisp hi fi upper treble... smooth, polite mids. The on-board compressor is fantastic, and the tube emulation driver control works nicely to warm the mids up a bit. The semi-parametric mid control is nice, but seems very narrow Q... not really good for dialing in a lot of burpy midrange complexity that you get with some other heads and rigs.

If you are coming from an SVT/fridge, my guess is this rig will sound too wide and modern.

IMO and IME there.

[Ogge]

Great input!

What about the 350 watts when running the hd 350 with two 4 ohm cabs? That should mean 2 ohm right?

[KJung]

Originally Posted by Ogge

Great input!

What about the 350 watts when running the hd 350 with two 4 ohm cabs? That should mean 2 ohm right?

If you are running two 4ohm cabs, then yes, the total nominal impedance is 2ohms. The HD350 is '2ohm safe', but will not put out additional wattage at 2ohms versus 4ohms, so it won't make much difference (the amp will probably run a touch warmer at 2ohms).

The primary difference between the HD350 and the TD650 (besides a true tube driver circuit) is that the 2ohm output increases dramatically (the HD350 and TD650 sound about the same running at 4ohms). If you can swing the TD650 with those two 4ohm cabs, that rig would thunder quite nicely.

You will be find with the HD350, especially if you primarily use one cab or the other, and only use both for the rare, large, loud gig.

[Ogge]

Is it "bad" to run the hd 350 at 2 ohm or is it just the fact that it wount produce more power.

Becase, mostly I will be playing with booth cabs.

I'm not in need of any more power but want to be sure running at 2 ohm wount mean trouble to me. But it shouldn't right?

[KJung]

It is rated as 'safe for 2ohm operation', so you should be fine.

[Ogge]

Great!

I have another comparison to make

How would this EBS-rig hold up against: Ampeg SVT 7 pro + ampeg neo 410

or

Ampeg SVT 7 pro + ampeg svt 810 e

(I know its hard to compare the two, but its still about the same money)

If you get to chose, what would you have and why?

=)

[Son of Bovril]

I prefer the EBS tone to ampeg tone, but that's a personal thing. The 810 however is a much bigger cabinet, and paired with the SVT-7 should be louder than the EBS rig you mentioned earlier. With the 410 volume wise it should be pretty similar but the tone will still be quite different due to the inherent difference in tone goals between the two brands

The 810 is a sealed cab as well which will impart a certain flavor to the sound you may or may not prefer

[Ogge]

Okey!

The problem to me is that I dont really know what I want. I have played a couple of different rigs and amps the last years but the sound changes so much in different situations and different rooms/stages (different basses) so I have a hard time figure out what factor made those rigs/amps sound good/bad.

For the moment I play Hartke Ha7000 amp + 4,5 XL + 115 XL and sometimes I really like the sound I get from it and sometimes I dont like it all (as for now). I feel like the 4,5 XL has great highs but no bottom and the 115 has lousy high but still lacks on the bottom part. Not a good combination.

I would like to have a rig with clean AND warm sound that will work both when practice and at quite big stages without PA support. For that reason I dont want the quality of the sound to drop when increasing the volume. I like the sound coming from many gospel bass players, thats for sure

[Ogge]

One more thing,

On the Hartke amp I have both tube and solid state pre, but I almost never use the tube pre.

Does this mean I shouldnt go for ampeg with a tuby sound or does it just mean the pre-tube on the hartke sucks and the combination with the cabs just isnt right?