Wow your fingers must be sore from typing.Quite the post.I have an A bass and I really like it.You seem to be up on its function. Mine has a 12AX7EH.Is the EH an abbreviation for Electro Harmonix? That's the brand of tube.You stated a 12AX7 was a good match for this pedal if I read things correctly.Do you know if AMT changed the tube in it at some point? Lastly, what does it mean to have the tube after the EQ ?since that was pointed towards me:
No, not exactly. he did not say he wants clean,....he wants a "clean warm" sound.
(i´ve read it up on the previous page / on top / ......check yourself !)
also: @Phaidrus has posted demos of the Reggae sound he is after.
That is definitly NOT aynthing clean
Just, the question is here: how do we want to define "clean" ? and how "overdriven" ?
there is a forums wiki btw. , and i had a look at this a few weeks back.
Myself very confused with this terms, and recognising that folks use this terms quite differently.
anyway.
I have a A-Bass, and i just remembered that my Bass has a active-passive switch
i had a quick check, with EEC83 and EEC81 ( 12AX7 and 12at7).
See the gain numbers in my above post !
(my A-Bass was used standalone. Bass directly into it / listened with (Good) headphones, tough / no AMP afterwards)
My opinion: you *definitly* want to have a 12AX7 tube in the A-Bass !
at least when feeding it with a passive Bass.
My pickups in this Bass have btw. a quite hot output.
Could easily be that another passive Bass has less gain coming in.
With 12AX7 was the most useful range between 12 and 3 o´clock.
Bevore 12 makes no sense at all......since nobody needs tubes to drive them that low,
and to make this point also, nobody wants to have tubes to run them "really" clean, no ?
From 1 o´clock could you consider the sound to be "overdriven", dependend on playing style.
I´d claim the overdriven range starts at 2 o´clock.
Again: my Bass just set to passive !
BUT: even at full CW did i not had too much overdrive, that it would no longer suit some Reggae
also, -me, beeing a sounddesign guy in fact-, can i tell you, that you allways want to have a tad bit too much of what you´re surching for, ......so you can dial it a bit back, and you´d exactly know its right, .....and you also know, you´re not missing out on anything
For Reggae do you want to drive your tube hot to some degree. At least my standpoint on this.
I tryed to create a Reggae sound the other day ( and also opened a own therad on this, since i have no flat wounds). You want to have some or even much* compression coming from the tube. * much / would be my claim.
And: on my attempts to create a fat Reggae sound did my compressor NOT feel right ! Not for the "compression-feel" as such.
It was the tube compression which made it way more sound like a real Reggae Bass from the good Bands.
ok, my A-Bass with my 12AX7 ( not the original one, i run a TAD RT0010 right now / and i have no spare Gold Lion right now, i could check) is delivering from 1 or 2 o´clock on, more and more and more compression, turning the gain pot finally to complete CW.
at some point the overdrive becomes noticeable and more, but its in the Bass and it is warm !
even at full CW.
I found the whole sound range perfectly well suited.
AND: i like the 3 band EQ ! i took the highs out, mids at 9 or 10 o´clock, cranking the Bass !
(and: its seems the EQ is bevore the tube ! so, taking out highs and mids made the tube act differently when driving her !......from there my feel of a warm and nice overdriven sound.
its a very nice sound range this way.
Now, for completness:
i swaped the tube to a ECC81, the one from my O-Bass.
This works also, yes !
With my Bass ( in passive mode) do i still get into "overdriven" terrain.
it could be sufficient.......but if you only had that tube, would you never know what you miss,
and: you win nothing vs. just using a good 12AX7, other than that you just could crank up the gain to full CW, and it would never be too much OD ( such setup could be nice for a live Bassist, if such full CW setting IS a perfect match)
for a fat Reggae sound, as per the demos posted by @Phaidrus in his thread, do you definitly want to check out that whole saturation/compression/warm overdrive terrain.
my A-Bass with my 12AX7, the TAD RT010, has the perfect settings for such a sound at around 1 - 3 o´clock.
12 o´clock is very clean, further CCW do you lose all the gain. It starts then quickly to dim down the gain.
Volume knob is past the tube. perfect to dial in the final gainstaging, for example whne feeding your amp.
if you want to look for tubes to roll: i´d say, look for 12AX7 and NOT 12AX7. 12AU7 is a nogo here.
the TAD RT010 works good, sounds warm. Can´t compare to the goldlion right now.
I´d take a Genalex gold Lion. ( the TAD RT010 is the same soundfamily i´d say).
A-Bass is a great device for shure.
edit: strings used were: pureNickels
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Yes, I received this email myself, where it even says "big sale up to 40%". So I suppose all items will be discounted at least 20% and some even more. Looking forward to it!
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