I just wanted to post this for other first time rig builders. I've been a bass player for over 25 years but never owned my own rig. I do have an SVT-C and a 410HLF, but only used them 3 times about 8 years ago. All my gigs I've played for years were coffee house sized in which I've only used the PA or borrowed someone's (little) combo. I know it seems odd, but I just never really needed a rig. Anyhow, to make a long story short, this is my first time building a rig and I just wanted to post some of my own personal observations that I've gleaned over the past several month. I've been to lots of forums, I've been to at least a dozen stores to try out equipment, I've PM'd tons of people from different websites, I've perused youtube quite a bit, I've read schematics, read articles, etc, etc. I even spoke to some professional sound engineers. So yes, I've done my research, and yes, it seems a little obsessive. But really, I just enjoyed the experience. So here it is.
- Asking the question "which amp head and cab should I get" is almost equivalent to asking "what should I wear to tonight's gig".
- No one can hear "your" sound that's in your head no matter how hard you try to describe it.
- Guitar Center is not the place to go if you don't know what you want.
- Sound coloring is a way bigger problem than I thought. Each and every component (i.e. preamp, amp (head), and cab) can color (change) the sound of your bass if you're not careful. Although some equipment can color quite nicely. But remember, you bought your bass for its great sound, why would you want to change it?
- More speakers will generally give you more volume. This is mostly due to the amount of cone area and also the impedance change as you add more speakers. The lower the impedance, the more wattage you can get from your amp.
- Tube amps don't require as much wattage as solid state. Tube amps also sound better when the volume is up high while the solid state amps sound better when the volume is low. This tells me that if I were to buy a solid state amp, I'd get one with a lot of wattage so that I don't have to turn the volume knob up all that much. As for the tube amp, turn it up to 11.
- Lighter equipment doesn't always mean lower quality. But be careful; there's always something being sacrificed with lighter equipment, but it's starting to get better.
- Be careful on forums. There's a lot of helpful, knowledgeable people. But watch out for the people who are "religiously attached" to their equipment. You know the type.
- The quality of the components inside each device makes a HUGE difference! Unfortunately, the higher quality you go, the more money you pay. Unless someone is trying to rip you off.
- Commercial components aren't always the best, especially when it comes to speaker cabinets. If you can find a cab builder that knows what he/she is doing, you can get something that will truly blow you away. Let's face it, there's always something that can be built better.
- Be careful with product hype or product hate on a forum. Some of these people are there to do just that.
- A studio engineer is a great person to ask for advice when building a live sound.
- Lightweight PA/DJ power amps actually sound good now and can produce a whole lot of power for not much money. I've tried a few out and they blew me away.
- Speaker positioning can change your sound quite a bit. The reason 2x15s can sound just as loud as a 410 (which has more cone area) is because the speakers are positioned vertically and there's only one edge close to another speaker.
- Always have more power than you'll ever use. There's always a chance that when your volume is up too high, your sound will change for the worse. Also, if you're in a full band with a loud drummer, you don't want to struggle to cut through. Setting your level to 4 - 5 and feeling you're loud in the mix is a good thing (i.e. lots of headroom). Bassists NEED headroom. Try not to let anyone tell you otherwise!
- Aim to hear your bass. If you use this as your goal, the end result will be more satisfying.
- A bass head is generally a pre-amplifier and power amplifier in one box. These can also be purchased separately from different manufacturers.
- Bass heads can be a hybrid of tube and solid state. Most configurations is that the preamp is tube and the power amp is solid state. The general reasoning is that tubes have a musical quality when overdriven while solid state's quality degrades when overdriven. Although some SS manufacturers have found ways to fix this problem.
- Just a little bit of compression can add a HUGE step up in sound quality. Consider a head with a built-in compressor or even better, a fairly high quality one. On the other hand, too much compression can dramatically kill your sound! It's an expensive boost, but personally I think it's well worth it for both live and recording. I've tested pedals, racks, built in, and found that compressors differ quite a bit, so choose wisely (sorry, a little off topic).
- Rigs can be fast response to slow response. During my store hopping, I've noticed certain setups having a delay in sound. When I played I felt that the notes were dragging. This became a big concern to me especially when I realized that the best sounding stuff was dragging. I've found that most of the tube equipment dragged a bit. Some more than others. I don't want to be one step behind the band while playing, so I had to be careful with each of the components; mostly the type of preamp and the cab.
- Not pairing up your head and cab correctly can cheat you out of volume or change your sound for the worse. Some amps don't support specific impedance loads. So if your amp can only handle 4 or 2 ohm loads, connecting an 8 ohm cab will have unpredictable results depending on the amp and cab. Make sure you know the impedance of your cab and what your amp can handle. Also, when adding cabinets to your rig, in general, your impedance is cut by half. Example: 2 8 ohm cabs paired up equals roughly 4 ohms, and that's the new target load for you amp.
That's about all I can think of right now. I've already settled on my rig and will be posting it here after a few live gigs. I hope this experience helps some first time rig builders.
