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Are the big amps history?

#686
BassmanPaul said:
If a low output heavy tube amp gets you where you want to be good luck to you! ;)

I'll just stick with my tube pre-amp and honking great 2KW Class D power amp. :D

Edit: That said I do get pleasure from my B15N practice amplifier. :roflmao:
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Yeah, i have a B-15S I really like, i had a late 70's B-15N years ago that I had bought brand new as a left over during the early 80's, that thing sounded unbelievable, clear as a bell, I used to plug an old mono KLH tuner in it with a tweeter plugged into the extension jack with a cross over and it sounded like a hifi. SVT's are surprisingly loud, don't think they'll keep up with a 2KW power amp though:laugh:
 
#689
lfmn16 said:
Clearly no condescension in that. I don't know what I was thinking. :rollno:
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#691
There was a time when every musician in a band played through a big tube amp and an even heavier cab. Who though that would ever change!!

Manufacturers will always cater for niche markets so tubes, big cabs and SS amps will never go away.

The mainstream is already D class and that will remain. Look to the PA business for emerging technologies and the next big thing in bass gear.

In the meantime D class will continue to evolve. It's all good news for bass players.
 
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#692
I'm totally with Jimmy M on this one, this is a small to medium club and we're doing the blues thang, the guitar player and harp guy are using small 1x12 amps I'm using a 68 Sunn 200s with a 2x15 original cab. It's all about that glorious wrap it's arms around you feel, the volume was on maybe 3 on my amp ... the sound was glorious a couple of patrons even cominted on it, the band noticed too. Full disclosure it was an easy load in, my normal long schlep rig is a neo 1x15 cab and a Mark Bass LMII and it sounds good but it is a compromise.
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#693
chris_b said:
There was a time when every musician in a band played through a big tube amp and an even heavier cab. Who though that would ever change!!

Manufacturers will always cater for niche markets so tubes, big cabs and SS amps will never go away.

In the meantime D class will continue to evolve. It's all good news for bass players.
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Tube amps will probably go the way of coal fired power plants, banned because they weren't efficient enough.:laugh:

It would be interesting to know how much coal would be required to generate enough power to run an SVT for 4 hours at 15% Duty.
 
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#697
I'm still digging my old school style hybrid heads and medium to lower tuned 4x10 cabs. I feel like my Trace head over a couple Genz XB cabs would be lethal. Or my GBE 750 through 4 Goliath IIs. Is that practical? Not so much. Is it awesome? Yes. I don't have anything against lighter class D stuff, but most of those available just dont grab me (MB500... yawn. PF500... yawn. Rumble 500... yawn.). There are some less common ones that I'm intrigued by, like the Laney Nexus (but I'd rather have the big Nexus all tube amp).

Music is art, so to me, practicality is really the last thing to consider, because art is not "practical" at all. If it sounds good, and hopefully looks cool, as long as it's not too insanely impractical, I'm down. If I needed a team of roadies to play a $50 gig, that doesn't work. But if I need a bandmate to help me carry a cab in or out, that seems to be within the bounds of what's reasonable. My 43 pound head would certainly be cooler if it was 15 pounds lighter, but I'm not aware of too many amps out there with the array of features it has and that have as interesting a sound as it does. And I also tend to like gear that isn't trendy and super common (ie fender, etc...), so stuff like the Trace line from about 8 or 10 years ago that nobody seems to have even though it's awesome is right in line with what I like. My main basses are a carvin and a yamaha (plus another yamaha that's 35 years old, plus another carvin that's about 30 years old, and then a kramer aluminum neck). I never owned anything "fender" until a couple weeks ago when I traded a pedal for one, because why not. So trying to fit into the "zomg I needz to carry my whole rig in one hand in half a trip" crowd completely falls flat for me because WHAT DOES IT HAVE TO DO WITH THE MUSIC? If it's not making the music better, I'm not interested. And my killer "old" amps and cabs that I get for half what they should go for because they're no longer "cool" but are in fact actually amazing, make my music better and I'm happy to have them, and I really only think about how heavy they are for about 2 or 3 minutes on any given practice or gig day. The rest of the time I'm just smiling at how great the stuff sounds.
 
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#699
I'm sure they're great, although the 750 is already probably too much power for my needs. If the 600 had all the same features I probably would have gone with that. Although I suppose 400w at 8 ohms is pretty much right in the zone. I must be one of the very few here who doesn't have watts fever and would rather have more speaker than more power.
 

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