Enjoy the benefits of a premium membership!
Upgrade Account
-
TalkBass has been independent since 1998. Add your voice.
Create a free account to reply to discussions, view embedded media, and browse with fewer display ads.
Join free Log in
Want zero display ads or expanded classifieds tools? Compare plans.
Double Bass Acus One for Bass
- Thread starter day82
- Start date
just when i thought my GAS was on the decline....i'd love to hear the 2x8 version
seems reasonably priced compared to the schertler stuff.
seems reasonably priced compared to the schertler stuff.
Using the one for bass for a while. I never say BEST GEAR I EVER and all that less or more stupid stuff, we all know that these honeymoon - reviews aren´t really real. In germany, we say in the soccer´s slang: important is on the playground.
What i can say after a few shows and rehearsals: not extremely loud, f.e. the aer amp one is way more louder, but loud enough for maybe all the situations you have to serve as a gigging upright player. Very lightweight, bigger than the amp one, smaller than the aer basic performer, too big for subways. It has everything on board you need: hpf, phase invert, phantom power on the mic inputs, notch filter, effects, don´t know. Most of the combo amps out there miss at least one or two gimmicks: no phase invert, no fx or whatever. This acus has everything you need, input is 2 megOhm, the tweeter is very fine!! From my european point of view, it´s a cheapo, half the price of comparable upright amps. In two years, i´ll tell you more about the quality ...
What i can say after a few shows and rehearsals: not extremely loud, f.e. the aer amp one is way more louder, but loud enough for maybe all the situations you have to serve as a gigging upright player. Very lightweight, bigger than the amp one, smaller than the aer basic performer, too big for subways. It has everything on board you need: hpf, phase invert, phantom power on the mic inputs, notch filter, effects, don´t know. Most of the combo amps out there miss at least one or two gimmicks: no phase invert, no fx or whatever. This acus has everything you need, input is 2 megOhm, the tweeter is very fine!! From my european point of view, it´s a cheapo, half the price of comparable upright amps. In two years, i´ll tell you more about the quality ...
I also play this amp, bought it last summer. Before this, I played the AER Amp One.
The idea behind buying this thing was: we play lots of small sessions in the living room etc with a small band setting. The Acus One is basically a small portable PA and we run the guitar, the vocals and bass through it. It sounds fine and is lightweight. It's output is nowhere near that of the AER Amp One, and it does not function as well as an electric bass guitar amp. I don't feel like the EQ points are properly set for electric bass. I usually put a preamp pedal or EQ pedal like that Empress ParaEQ to make it work tbh. For guitar and vocals its really great actually. Our guitar player even plays electric guitar without a preamp over the Acus.
So yea, mission accomplished, since the little sessions do sound better now, and we could also power much larger sit ins with it. I bet it would make quite a nice stage monitor, too.
The tweeter is indeed awesome. It's hard to get a bad sound out of it, but much of the bass guitar warmth and punch and (thats the worst part) character gets lost. It always sounds a bit bland and uninspiring. Never had that feeling with the AER, and even the Roland Cube 100. In fact, I used the Roland in the last session while the rest played over the Acus, and I feel like the sound was better. Maybe I just know the Roland much better and was able to dial in good sounds in seconds. Maybe I still need to learn more about the Acus.
What I feel is crucial with the Acus is getting the right setting of that BSS knob. It's basically a HPF. So you can neatly control each connected instrument and deal with boomyness. It also drastically affects the bass' overall tone. Set this too low and you will drown out the other players with mud.
I don't get the notch filter yet. I feel like it could be absolutely vital, if I just understood how it works. Right now, I try to find a setting that sounds good most of the time - and it does then - but at the cost of some notes being drastically subdued in context. Like everything is fine, until I play a C. That C will act like a really bad deadspot, like, no energy at all, quickly disappearing in the mix.
If I would need to use this one as a stand alone electric bass guitar amp, I would most likely be disappointed by it. It just lacks the heft and authority of the AER Amp One, even the Roland Cube delivers more of that on lower volumes. I haven't tested the Acus yet in a loud band setting, but I feel like the 50% setting on gain and all volumes is absolutely much much too low for even the most disciplined drummer. That AER shook my whole house if I turned it up to ~50%.
The idea behind buying this thing was: we play lots of small sessions in the living room etc with a small band setting. The Acus One is basically a small portable PA and we run the guitar, the vocals and bass through it. It sounds fine and is lightweight. It's output is nowhere near that of the AER Amp One, and it does not function as well as an electric bass guitar amp. I don't feel like the EQ points are properly set for electric bass. I usually put a preamp pedal or EQ pedal like that Empress ParaEQ to make it work tbh. For guitar and vocals its really great actually. Our guitar player even plays electric guitar without a preamp over the Acus.
So yea, mission accomplished, since the little sessions do sound better now, and we could also power much larger sit ins with it. I bet it would make quite a nice stage monitor, too.
The tweeter is indeed awesome. It's hard to get a bad sound out of it, but much of the bass guitar warmth and punch and (thats the worst part) character gets lost. It always sounds a bit bland and uninspiring. Never had that feeling with the AER, and even the Roland Cube 100. In fact, I used the Roland in the last session while the rest played over the Acus, and I feel like the sound was better. Maybe I just know the Roland much better and was able to dial in good sounds in seconds. Maybe I still need to learn more about the Acus.
What I feel is crucial with the Acus is getting the right setting of that BSS knob. It's basically a HPF. So you can neatly control each connected instrument and deal with boomyness. It also drastically affects the bass' overall tone. Set this too low and you will drown out the other players with mud.
I don't get the notch filter yet. I feel like it could be absolutely vital, if I just understood how it works. Right now, I try to find a setting that sounds good most of the time - and it does then - but at the cost of some notes being drastically subdued in context. Like everything is fine, until I play a C. That C will act like a really bad deadspot, like, no energy at all, quickly disappearing in the mix.
If I would need to use this one as a stand alone electric bass guitar amp, I would most likely be disappointed by it. It just lacks the heft and authority of the AER Amp One, even the Roland Cube delivers more of that on lower volumes. I haven't tested the Acus yet in a loud band setting, but I feel like the 50% setting on gain and all volumes is absolutely much much too low for even the most disciplined drummer. That AER shook my whole house if I turned it up to ~50%.
Well Basster, it´s been more than two years now... What are your thought now on Acus One for bass?
well, i was using it for one season, playing a theatre show with it, only upright and mandolin. in such a setting you don´t need high volume and you have to keep everything simple: as less stuff as possible on the floor and so on. it made a good job, loud enough, versatile enough. i really don´t like it with the electric bass, it doesn´t have enough body or cojones, never comparable to my amp one which is way smaller. after that season, i had to work as a doubler with upright and electric and i took the amp one plus an extra preamp for the upright. this is from my point of view a better solution, i like the way the sound is directly glued to your fingers when using that amp one. then covid came to town. one year ago, i had the vision that it will stay for a very long time and i started to sell everything i didn´t need. i could get good prices for some amps and basses and some other stuff, happy to have this done last year, because now the market for used stuff is totally shaged up. good times to go for new stuff, bad times for players like me. need some old uprights?? LOL
so i agree 100% with that what djaxup said. using the acus in such a situation is very nice, it´s more a small pa than a bass amp. i can´t hear the difference between class d and oldschool amps, but i realise a very big difference in attack and the way it reacts on what you´re doing with the string. for me, using a small qsc for rehearsing is o.k., but i need the real thing to make the stage burning. this has nothing to do with being very loud or something like that. it´s the way the amp can transfer my power to the air. take a drumstick and give the drum a kick, that´s class a-b. then divide the stick in two parts and put them together with a peace of rubber, give the same drum the same kick and you hear maybe the same noise, but a little bit later, and the feedback to your hand and muscles and body isn´t the same, too. that´s class d. just my 2 cents.
be careful. covid sucks. are there any live shows in the u.s. with audience?
so i agree 100% with that what djaxup said. using the acus in such a situation is very nice, it´s more a small pa than a bass amp. i can´t hear the difference between class d and oldschool amps, but i realise a very big difference in attack and the way it reacts on what you´re doing with the string. for me, using a small qsc for rehearsing is o.k., but i need the real thing to make the stage burning. this has nothing to do with being very loud or something like that. it´s the way the amp can transfer my power to the air. take a drumstick and give the drum a kick, that´s class a-b. then divide the stick in two parts and put them together with a peace of rubber, give the same drum the same kick and you hear maybe the same noise, but a little bit later, and the feedback to your hand and muscles and body isn´t the same, too. that´s class d. just my 2 cents.
be careful. covid sucks. are there any live shows in the u.s. with audience?
