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800 Watt compact bass head?

#23
Echovox said:
problem is this. all those extra buttons, switches, and control knobs affect the tone of the amp regardless of if they are turned off or not. It is adding more to the signal chain and taking away from the purity of a simple amp.
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Man, as picky as I am, there is NO way you would hear the impact of a couple more tone controls, even in a quiet studio situation, much less playing live. There would be more tonal impact by your strings having a few extra hours on them than the impact of, for example, the two Markbass filters turned off, or one extra midrange control set to neutral.

Sorry, but you are worrying about the last 1/100th percent of your tone, and throwing out some MASSIVELY pure, transparent and good sounding amps, due to a couple of more pots in the signal chain:hmm:

However, if you really want it 'pure', again, look at the Momark. You can have an 800 watt power amp with just a pre gain and master volume... nothing else. That would be silly IMO, but hey, you'd basically have a power amp that you could plug your bass directly into.
 
#24
You want purity? Better run away from bass rigs, PA, or even electric instruments. Because they all do things that mess with the virgin purity of the plucked string. This might get you a little closer:

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Seriously now: you need to evaluate the electronic designs on a per-item basis. A lot of stuff isn't really in the chain unless it's switched in, and a lot of other stuff can be designed to be out of the way at detent or full-CCW settings.

But hey, commission a purist amp or build one (and get the ol' wallet ready for some real weight loss!) if this is still open to objection ; }
 
#25
well, I guess we just don't agree on things. Am I being too picky? Probably, but why settle for something? Why not find what you want? Maybe I will just have to find a custom amp builder somewhere. KJung, you might think I am nuts but I know what I wna't and I just have not found it yet. Maybe I would be better off just going straight into a power amp and making my own preamp.
 
#26
Echovox said:
well, I guess we just don't agree on things. Am I being too picky? Probably, but why settle for something? Why not find what you want? Maybe I will just have to find a custom amp builder somewhere. KJung, you might think I am nuts but I know what I wna't and I just have not found it yet. Maybe I would be better off just going straight into a power amp and making my own preamp.
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More power to you. Sometimes, what we 'think' we want or 'think' we need is actually not really what we actually need.

Again, more power to you, and I assume you've scoped and tested all these other heads, or listened closely to them via a studio board and reference studio monitor dialed in flat to the room to verify the horrible things those three or four extra knobs or buttons are doing to your so called 'pure input signal' when they are in neutral or off position ;)

Gosh help me, but I'm out of this one. I wish I had the last 10 posts back if I knew this was the topic at the start:hmm:
 
#27
love that picture! Look, I have experience with electronics. Pots bleed regardless of if they are turned off or not.
No reason for people to get huffy over what i am looking for. I was just asking for suggestions, and you all have given me some great ones. Just not what I am ultimately looking for. If I can't find exactly what I want I will either have to make it, have it made, or settle for an amp with extra bells and wistles that I don't want.
 
#32
Echovox said:
the less pots and switches in the signal chain and you have the natural sound of your bass, I am not looking for much to color that sound.
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OK, one more comment. Just because a preamp doesn't have a lot of knobs does not mean that it is uncolored. Why would you think a simple preamp with a three band EQ (which is what you said you are looking for) would be more 'transparent' than a simple preamp with a four band EQ!?!

That being said, go to the Markbass Momark site and be happy.... 800 watt power chassis.... simple solid state preamp with a gain knob, no EQ (blank module), and a simple 'post' module with a master control, and you will have your 'pure' signal chain.

Now, will that be 'flatter' and more transparent than my TecAmp Puma set flat... I doubt it... but, you will feel better by having fewer knobs:D

Again, don't mean to be snitty, and you are entitled to what you prefer. Just trying to help a bit.
 
#36
kerryg said:
I just bookmarked this thread, you guys are laying out info that's going to help *someone*, even if it's not the OP.
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Glad to hear it, kerryg. The Acoustic Image amps--especially the single-channel versions without onboard effects--have been criticized in some circles for not permitting enough tone-shaping or added color. I actually own two of them because I think it's very easy to get too much tone shaping in the signal chain (though I don't go to the OP's extreme) and I liked their simple design and uncolored sound.

OP, I must also agree to disagree with you; but as Passinwind properly points out, you're entitled to want what you want and to seek it--whether it's currently manufactured or not.

P.S. I guess the Line 6 products are out of the question ! :D
 
#37
Echovox said:
the less pots and switches in the signal chain and you have the natural sound of your bass, I am not looking for much to color that sound.
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That's not necessarily true. Even in the absence of any user adjustable EQ an amp can be voiced.

The speaker, cabinet, room, and even the number of people in the room will also color the tone.

I use EQ mostly to compensate for deficiencies in the room. Take that away and you're stuck with whatever the room gives you.
 
#38
this thread is starting to sound like one you'd find in the FX forum about true bypass vs buffered bypass or something. or god forbid, in an "audiophile cable" thread.

i doubt very much that any head out there is going to give you a 100% uncolored tone (including a power amp, for that matter), and even if it somehow did, if you want to hear said tone you'd have to run it through some form of speaker, which again, no matter how you shake it, will color your tone. you may want a flat sounding amp, but its not like the treble/bass/mid pots are sucking hideous amounts of tone from the source signal, in all likelihood there wouldn't be any audible difference if you were to bypass those pots. i totally understand the desire for simplicity and purity, but i think the heads listed in here really would do what you want.
 
#39
Bluesy Soul said:
OP, I must also agree to disagree with you; but as Passinwind properly points out, you're entitled to want what you want and to seek it--whether it's currently manufactured or not.
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As a long time tech, I generally tend to look at extraneous switches and knobs as needless potential failure modes more than tone sucks per se. But that's just me, and I do also see simplicity as a good thing in terms of sound quality in some cases. But OTOH one of my rigs does up to 150 bands of parametric EQ if desired. ;)
 

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