Amp Heads vs Components?

[Al Kraft]

Like they say, every plane that goes up will make a landing. Some landings are just more destructive than others…

There are a couple of old sayings in aviation related to this thought.

The first is that aircraft always have enough fuel, airspeed, and altitude to make it to the crash site.

The second is that we've never left an aircraft up in the air, they always come back down....the corollary to which is that what goes up must come down unless it orbits or reaches escape velocity, and even then coming down is still a potential eventual outcome.

 

[vlsmith]

I have not played the Ultra, but have doubt it is as spectacular as all the Bergantino products I have played and owned.

I wanted to offer a thought from an aviation perspective relative to systems that have the inherent ability to operate outside their design performance envelope with potentially catastrophic results. In the aviation world we often have capabilities that need to be used judiciously and appropriately by the operator. In some cases we have control laws in fly-by-wire systems that limit how the aircraft will respond and we have things like weight-on-wheels switches that limit or prevent certain things from happening either on the ground or in the air.

However, at the end of the day, it's the operator who is responsible for keeping aircraft out of operating conditions that would be deleterious or catastrophic. The greater the pleasure of operating an aircraft with a very high thrust to weight ratio and/or an exceptional aerodynamic performance, the easier it often is for someone to get into an out of limits situation that may not be recoverable or will overstress the aircraft to the point of structural failure.

Regardless of the machine in question, IME the higher the performance capabilities, the more important it is for the operator to be on top of their game. As a final thought, it is also easy for an operator to fall behind the power curve on a marginally capable system (or aircraft) especially at its operating limits and suffer equally devastating results.

Are bass amps and cabs and the instrumentalist playing them all that different?

Love the analogy. I have an aerospace systems and manufacturing background, so this speaks to me. Thanks.

 

[Jim Bergantino]

Only on talkbass can we get into the dangers of thrust to weight ratios on aircraft when discussing headroom in power amps!;-).

So let me help put anyone's concern to rest who feels they may be too incompetent, too deaf, or just not be able to control their enthusiasm when playing thru our Ultra amp as it pertains to the highly unlikely possibility they will blow up their speakers. Not exactly a life ending experience, but I'll play along.

For a very small nominal fee, I can email you a firmware update which can limit the amp to any power rating under its 2000watt@4ohm rating you want, and all in under 12 seconds! And all the while still being able to enjoy its extended feature set including a one knob (BSD) adjustable compressor and Drive circuit, VHPF, VLPF, Punch, and 2 selectable Bright frequencies. Maybe our resident engineers and other TB'ers would like to compile a list of other bass amps on the market you can do that with! ;-)

 

[Al Kraft]

Only on talkbass can we get into the dangers of thrust to weight ratios on aircraft when discussing headroom in power amps!;-).

So let me help put anyone's concern to rest who feel they may be too incompetent, too deaf, or just not be able to control their enthusiasm when playing thru our Ultra amp as it pertains to the highly unlikely possibility they will blow up their speakers. Not exactly a life ending experience but I'll play along.

For a very small nominal fee, I can email you a firmware update which can limit the amp to any power rating under its 2000watt@4ohm rating you want, and all in under 12 seconds! Maybe our other resident engineers and any TB'ers would like to make a list of other bass amps on the market you can do that with! ;-)

It's hard for me to not to think of the aviation world when talking about your products Jim, they are as cutting edge and precision made as the finest jets flying today.

And your offer to provide an update to the "flight control control laws in your amp to limit operational excursions beyond certain limits" isn't helping me think about anything other than flight control computer updates we make in modern aircraft.

I've never heard a Bergantino product that didn't impress me, and if you decide to get into the aviation business, I'd fly in anything that contained systems you designed and built!

 

[Jim Bergantino]

It's hard for me to not to think of the aviation world when talking about your products Jim, they are as cutting edge and precision made as the finest jets flying today.

And your offer to provide an update to the "flight control control laws in your amp to limit operational excursions beyond certain limits" isn't helping me think about anything other than flight control computer updates we make in modern aircraft.

I've never heard a Bergantino product that didn't impress me, and if you decide to get into the aviation business, I'd fly in anything that contained systems you designed and built!

I appreciate the kind words but the only thing I would trust flying that I made would be a kite on a very windy day!;-)

 

[FugaziBomb]

Who has put together a bass rig based on just components; i.e. somebody's amplifier i.e Crown, (or any body else, I only used Crown so I don;t know the names of any other brands), with a pre-amp either generic or high end, as opposed to just an amp head; regardless of the brand, which there are many, many good ones. The reason I ask is that I came across a couple of musicians who where 25 to 30 years old who were amazed that that I could put this type of rig together. Is the component rig a '70/'80's thing? No diss to the younger gents; just a curious question.

It's definitely an 80s thing. The only people that typically still do it are bands touring large venues and arenas. Even when I was touring with this thing in the late 00's, it was kinda dated to have a rack. I'll also admit that my rack rig is a nightmare to move. I used to have people to do it for me, but these days it's just me and it can be a chore. The only reason I still use the rack rig is that it accomplishes a very specific goal for me and the buy in to try to replicate it on a smaller scale isn't worth the investment.

 

[BassNugget]

Asked & answered.

Ampeg SGT-DI + Straight Ahead Power Amp.
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Very cool setup!

 

[2saddleslab]

Very cool setup!

Thank you, sir!

 

[darev]

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It's definitely an 80s thing. The only people that typically still do it are bands touring large venues and arenas. Even when I was touring with this thing in the late 00's, it was kinda dated to have a rack. I'll also admit that my rack rig is a nightmare to move. I used to have people to do it for me, but these days it's just me and it can be a chore. The only reason I still use the rack rig is that it accomplishes a very specific goal for me and the buy in to try to replicate it on a smaller scale isn't worth the investment.

In the 90s the only outward differentiator between how my PA case and my bass amp case looked was that the PA had wheels. Furman, pre, graphic, dbx. I also loved the flexibility but not the weight.

Now one of those Bergantino Ultras would look good w one of my Eden 210XLTs.