"Backline bass amp"

Hi,

I don't think I've ever had a bad backline. Here are a few amps I've used lately.



























I haven't run into a backline rig that I didn't like. But maybe that's just because I don't have to haul it.


Thank you for your indulgence,

BassCliff

 

Hi Axtman

I am not picky! I play both kinds of backlines!

SVT on a fridge or V4B on a fridge!

Wise(b)ass

 

Which was your favorite @BassCliff

 

Hi,

Out of all those rigs my favorite was the 800RB and the Neo412. Unfortunately, in that room I wasn't able to turn it up enough to really let it sing.


Thank you for your indulgence,

BassCliff

 

Damn, I'm lucky. There's only a couple backline companies that get all the work. Unless you spec. something different, you will get an SVT and a fridge.

 

That's why my gigbag always contains ...





and just to be sure

 

I'm currently watching out for a deal on a GK RB line amp. I love that SS GK tone. Grit to clean, it dominates!

 

Any favorite(s) of those, Cliff?

 

Been playing more Backline gigs lately. This ones been my favorite thus far, especially since I didn’t have to move it.

 

Hi,

Out of all those rigs my favorite was the 800RB and the Neo 412. I hope I'm not speaking blasphemy. I do enjoy a fridge and SVT, who doesn't enjoy 400 tube watts? But there is just something about clean solid state power going into a that 412, clean, punchy, low end without being woofy, it sounds good to my ears.

Thank you for your indulgence,

BassCliff

 

I was looking at a two 2x12 vertical stack as an alternative to other combinations and that would give that tone you describe along with being modular.

 

Whenever I've played a gig with a provided backline I usually get an Ampeg setup of some sort. But at my gig two weeks ago I noticed the previous bassists were going through a small Hartke. No big deal. The FOH bass tone was decent enough. When it was my turn, I discovered that it was a Hartke keyboard amp. Ugh! The on-stage tone was crap, and not loud enough to hear over the drummer during the rockier songs. Pretty disheartening, especially since I was playing fretless.

 

Let's see....

#1 We played a very large outdoor amphitheater about a dozen or so years ago. Our crowd was in the range of 6k to 7k people. What was the backline? It was a Fender Bassman 25. That's right, a 25-watt practice amp that didn't even come up to my knees. Stage hand threw an SM-57 on it, but insisted that the mic be at least 1-2 feet away from the amp! For scale, just imagine using that amp when your two guitarists are provided with half-stack Marshalls and only the singer and drummer get a floor wedge. Needless to say, I have no idea if a bass signal was even getting to the FOH and I never once even heard my bass during a song.

#2 We played a small private party at a convention center maybe 15 years ago. There were maybe 40-50 people and the overall feel of the evening was that the crowd really wanted to converse with each other, so we took that as a sign that we should just be background music. No problem. Then, the promoter's sound guy shows up with the backline equipment. The guitarists each get modest low-wattage combo amps. The drummer gets a 4-piece trap and a set of brushes. What do I get? I get an Ampeg 810 with a CL sitting on top of it. Cool. Except we have a problem. The amp's preamp is all screwed up and it's locked at a specific output volume. I'm told to just use the volume control on my bass to adjust overall bass volume. However, I happened to have a bass with me that did not have a volume control. I had just picked this bass up secondhand from a guy that removed the volume control and replaced it with an on/off toggle switch. As you can imagine, the bass was just roaring loud no matter how slight of a technique I used. You couldn't really hear anything else over the bass. I felt sympathy for that audience. We were told to stop playing about three songs in.

 

The best local PA company is run by a personal friend. He does probably 80% of the gigs in my area. Whenever he knows I'm coming it's an SVT with a fridge.... at least.

It's good to know people.

 

I showed up for one, and the bass rig was an antique Peavey 6 channel mixer into a pair of old auto subwoofers (the see through plastic kind). It sounded awful, and the host band kept turning it up. Eventually it nuked itself and quit. The guy that owned it didn't panic, he taped a fan to the heat sinks and after 20 minutes it started to work again.. kind of. I was done by that point.