Gig Report with the PF-350...
Here is a gig report with my new PF-350... Not a detailed analysis, but something about how I felt playing my PF first time in a live setup.
I played two concerts in a row this past Friday and Saturday evenings. As we had PA support in both performances and the venues were relatively small, I decided to take the PF-350 with me to give it a try with a Trace Elliot Elf 10" speaker.
The first gig was at an old Greek chapel and the place is known for its crazy reverb levels. I was the first one to arrive at the venue and when I did my line check with my amp as my personal monitor, I decided to play at a very low level, which the PF-350 is pretty good at. Despite the reverb, the notes sounded clear and well-defined with good enough bottom and some very articulate mids.
When the rest of the band (a vocalist on the piano and a guitar player) joined me, the acoustics started sounding better (I do not know how and why), and when the hall was full with the audience, it sounded beautiful. Both my gain and volume were set at around 10:30.
The following day, we had an out-of-town gig at which we were provided a much bigger backline, but I still had the PF-350 and the Elf 10" in my car from the previous evening. At the venue, I was provided with a Fender Bassman 250 (2 x 10") which I wanted to give a try. I am not familiar with Fender amps at all; the last time I played one was back in early 90s. Anyway, when I plugged in the amp, I remembered why I always take my own setup to pretty much all the gigs. Unfortunately, in Turkey, I do not have the luxury to ask for specific brands of bass amplification because they do not have most of the stuff I would ask for. Some backlines have Aguilars or Ampegs or Markbasses or some SWRs back from the day, but it is always a hit or miss, and changes from company to company. So I gave up asking for specific brands of gear years ago. Unless it is a big-scale festival production, I always arrange using my own gear...
Anyway, in this case, I decided to use my PF-350 and Elf instead of the Fender and what a correct decision... Gain at noon and volume at 3:00, the amp delivered some amazing level of clean volume and definition. I fed the FOH via my Telefunken TDA-1 as I was not sure about using the DI of the PF-350 for which I needed to talk to the FOH guy re: line levels, mic levels, etc. This is a very small town, so the local guy is taking care of business. He was a very nice guy with big ears and did a good job at the end, but I was not sure if he had proper equipment, cables, etc.
Now, one thing that is different with PF-350 in comparison to all the other gear I have... Even at the loudest gig, I never set my gain and volume at more than noon and most of the time it is less. Not as a principal, but that is how it turns out. So, most of my gear actually seem to reach high volume levels in the earlier stages of volume tweaking. With PF-350, it looks like the controls are more linear than my other amps. So, at the beginning, I was not comfortable setting my master level at 3:00, but I had no problem at all during the gig with two 55-minute sets.
The amp had a bit of fan noise, but that faded away as soon as I hit the first note. So unless you are using the amp for recording and you are mic'ing it with a condenser, it should not be an issue (even with a condenser, it might be negligible).
Now, the kudos also go to the Elf 10". I bought this speaker just for some cafe gigs in NYC where I had to take the subway, so the form factor was the critical criterion for me to buy this. And maybe the price as well... I have been using this cabinet since 2018 even in some loud performances and it delivers very clean tones without farting and it easily competes with larger cabinets. I am not sure if it receives much love here on TB, but each time I play a gig with it, I am loving it more and more. So, for any smaller gigs that you do not want to haul heavier and chunkier stuff, give the Elf a shot! Interestingly, it also works great with the PF-350 and the PF feels like the heavier one between the two!
Cheers,
Alper
