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Amp match for Bag End stack

C

chetmz

Dec 4, 2006
85
8
Hartford, CT
#1
I have a Bag End S15D and S12D that I am quite happy with. They are portable and give me a nice tight, generally smooth sound (with a little tweaking) when paired with PF500 and an old P bass with flats and a Rob Allen Mouse. (I always play both in my current band). We play a mix of jazz and pop material and obviously are not terribly loud.
I am wondering if moving to either an Aguilar TH500 or Genz Benz Streamliner or Shuttle 6.2 would be a reasonable upgrade to my sound and which are a good match for the Bag Ends. I am not looking for grind, grit or 'wooliness'. I am looking for the best clean 'modern tube' tone I can get.

Thanks in advance for your input.
 
#5
B-string said:
" best clean 'modern tube' tone"? I don't know how to interpret that?
Click to expand...

It is always tough to describe sound. I would say I like the roundness of the tube amp sound but I am not looking for what others consistently describe as grit, grind or wooliness they seem to look for in a tube amp. For example I have heard that the TH500 has a 'tubey' quality to it or that some amps sound like a good tube pre-amp you would find in a recording studio.

I hope that is clearer. Thanks for your input.
 
#7
chetmz said:
It is always tough to describe sound. I would say I like the roundness of the tube amp sound but I am not looking for what others consistently describe as grit, grind or wooliness they seem to look for in a tube amp. For example I have heard that the TH500 has a 'tubey' quality to it or that some amps sound like a good tube pre-amp you would find in a recording studio.

I hope that is clearer. Thanks for your input.
Click to expand...

Makes total sense, and IMO and IME the Streamliner is the closest thing to an all tube head like the Sadowsky SA200 run clean. Big, open low end, very tubey top end (unique treble tone), and a tone stack that reminds me of old school, interactive tone stacks on older amps (i.e., you need to twist the knobs a lot.

My buddy TBer Mikebass uses a Bag End 15 and a Streamliner, and it sounds killer... almost like an SVT/Fridge run at low, non break-up volumes... warm, punchy, organic.

Highly recommended... Streamliner900. Just realize it is not a 'set it at noon and forget it' amp... lots of tone in the combination bass, mid, gain, volume settings. Push that input stage a bit to tighten it up, and if you have a reasonably tight, mid present rig like the Bag Ends, it is really something.

The Aguilar TH500 is cool also, but a bit more rough in the midrange. Nice and warm and fat, but it won't do that 'crystal clear tube' sort of thing like the Streamliner IMO and IME.
 
#10
I used a Shuttle 6.0 with my Deep Red 2x12 and 1x15 for quite a while, with loud, clean results. Very small and portable head, and quite versatile. Good eq options; headphone out, DI, etc.

It's now in storage after I bought a Tiny Terror 500. I like it dirty. :D
 
#11
I have the sam cabinets as you--an S12-D on top and an S15-D on the bottom. I use them with my Mesa Walkabout head and love the tone. Granted I play a different kind of music from you, but I think that the WA could do the "modern tube" sound quite well. I find that my cabs are loud, but also very warm and organic-sounding.
 
#12
I have 2 SD12's and run a Peavey Max Bass preamp and Carvin power amp through them. I'm getting a great full, clean sound out of this combination. I like to have plenty of bass with some punch to it but without driving the tube too much to the point I'm distorting it.
 
#13
MrLenny1 said:
I pump my Bag End S-15 with a Eden 400.
This combination with my Stambaugh chambered is bass nirvana.
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Gigged the s15 and s15x (I always get those names wrong... the little 15 cubes, one with and one without the coax tweeter) with my 'modified to WT400 model WT300' Eden for years. State of the art back in the day, and still impressive sounding today.

+1 to the Walkabout with these cabs also... a bit more mid complex and punchy, but still as tubey as the Streamliner.
 
#15
MichaelVee said:
Good, Ken. And when I had my S15D-X/S15D stack, I really liked the sound with my Eden WT405.
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+1 Another classic stack from back in the day that still sounds great today. I always felt the WT400 and the 405 were the best sounding amps Eden made. There 'original' WT400's were an 'Eden custom shop' mod when you sent your WT300 in. They put a limiter defeat, beefed up the power supply and a couple other little things. Couldn't really hear the difference, but it made me feel good:D). It think they then replaced the WT300 with a production WT400 that was produced for many years (maybe still!).
 
#16
MichaelVee said:
Good, Ken. And when I had my S15D-X/S15D stack, I really liked the sound with my Eden WT405.
Click to expand...

I remember your original thread on the Bag End stack. That is in part why, when I was looking for new equipment (after having not played out in a number of years) I went with Bag End.
I actually have a WT330 I picked up along with the first cabinet but it developed some issues and I bought the Ampeg. I did like the Eden though. Maybe I should put an old WT405 on the list of heads to consider.
 
#17
I'll confirm that an Eden amp is great with a Bag End stack. When I first got my pair of Bag End 15s I was using an Eden WT-300...good stuff! I currently have a Thunderfunk 420, which is very similar to the Eden heads, and I also picked up a Genz Benz Streamliner 900 about a year ago. I've been using the Streamliner for the most part out of necessity of playing in a loud cover band and I run it much like KJung suggests...hitting the front end hard with gain and volume up and using EQ liberally (aka massively rolling off lows).
 
#18
Great input!! Thanks to everyone. So the Streamliner (with some intelligent tweaking) along with an old Eden head or possibly a Walkabout(which I have tried in a store and found pretty cool) are the consensus good matches. I realize this isn't definitive but appreciated.

Interesting that there was not much on the TH500. I know it is a good head but maybe just not a match for what I'm looking for.
 
#19
I have dual Bag End 15s, and probably my favorite head that I have used with them to get the kind of sound you are "probably" describing was the Tecamp Puma. I only sold mine because I wanted more headroom.
I'm not a fan of the Streamliner, which to me holds the less than coveted place of biggest amp disappointment. Just to me of course, but I had convinced myself that I was ready to buy one until I actually tried it.
I currently use a PF500 with my Bags, and I have a Markbass LMII that I used for a year, and I thought sounded really good with them.
 

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