For some time I've been trying to work out what I wanted as a small amp for home use. While a Microbass or similar is cheap and seems well regarded, it seems that it's a one-trick pony: home practise. I wanted something the size of one of the 8" speaker practise amps, but something that could actually be heard for more jazzy jams etc at mate's houses or even quite coffee shop gigs.
Last week I went to pick up a bass that had been getting some work done on it at the local bass specialist... and there were a couple of AI Contra EX cabs in the second hand section. After a bit of haggling, I brought one home to match up with the AI Focus SA/Phil Jones Bass Buddy power and pre combo I've been using with my bigger cabs. I did a bit of research on these previously but everyone talked about how great they were for acoustic basses, but no comments on how they worked with electrics so I'd kind forgotten about them as an option. Now that I've got one, I've got to say that it's fantastic. A great full and loud sound - I'm pretty sure mine is the previous generation so 200w @ 4hms (I think they now come as 300w). I guess there should have been no surprises with a clean sound, so I played around with various effects and switchecd to a BDDI as the pre - again, fantastic results.
What really grabs me is that for effectively the same price as a little 20w practise combo was going to cost me, I've got a monster. Okay, already having a Focus SA that can sit comfortably on top helps, but it did make me think that it'd work really nicely with the iAmp300 or similar little heads.
Happy days!
Last week I went to pick up a bass that had been getting some work done on it at the local bass specialist... and there were a couple of AI Contra EX cabs in the second hand section. After a bit of haggling, I brought one home to match up with the AI Focus SA/Phil Jones Bass Buddy power and pre combo I've been using with my bigger cabs. I did a bit of research on these previously but everyone talked about how great they were for acoustic basses, but no comments on how they worked with electrics so I'd kind forgotten about them as an option. Now that I've got one, I've got to say that it's fantastic. A great full and loud sound - I'm pretty sure mine is the previous generation so 200w @ 4hms (I think they now come as 300w). I guess there should have been no surprises with a clean sound, so I played around with various effects and switchecd to a BDDI as the pre - again, fantastic results.
What really grabs me is that for effectively the same price as a little 20w practise combo was going to cost me, I've got a monster. Okay, already having a Focus SA that can sit comfortably on top helps, but it did make me think that it'd work really nicely with the iAmp300 or similar little heads.
Happy days!
