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Bergantino IP112 - Holy @*#&!

#102
tombowlus said:
That was nuthin! You should have seen how meager I felt after watching Mike play! :(

Tom.
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Dude, you so full of it your breath stinks. I'm still a bit sick and lost a step. Gimmie another month.

OK everybody, make no mistake that Tom can play. His thing is solid ass groovin' booty shakin' rock and roll (you should see the video of him with long hair!! :bassist: ).
 
#104
tombowlus said:
That was nuthin! You should have seen how meager I felt after watching Mike play! :(

Tom.
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Hallelujah brotha. Mike is one of the baddest (in a good way) players I've ever heard, and I've heard a LOT of pros. The dude just flat out smokes, sick or not. It was compounded by the fact, for some reason, at the GtG, I felt at my most incompetent. My fingers refused to do anything I wanted them to do. I drove home thinking..."man, I need to practice. A lot". Don't let Mike fool ya. Tom and I can play and fill in the bottom end in our bands, and throw in an occasional semi tasty fill, but that Mikebass dude is on another planet!
 
#105
My Ampeg SVP-CL should be here today and I'll give it a whirl with the IP112 tonight at rehearsal. It'll be interesting to hear if it is a 10x improvement (in terms of price/value ratio) over the ART MP.
 
#106
1st rehearsal with the SVP-CL fronting the IP112 was fine. It's not as "gritty" as a full tube vintage Ampeg, but I had the gain all the way up and the master up a little, and I got that classic Ampeg sound.

Having used the newer Ampeg tube stuff, this preamp does the old Ampeg sound better than any of that (such as the B-15R). I don't know why Ampeg didn't incorporate this pre into other things.

I'll have a better feel after a few more rehearsals and a gig, but the SVP-CL gives me a bit more of a tonal spectrum to work with over the ART MP. The MP is definitely more laid back and gets the job done, but the sound of the Ampeg is well ... like an Ampeg.
 
#109
FenderP said:
Where'd you find it in the Boston area?

Although considering for this particular band I want my Ampeg sound ... ;)
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I ordered it online from www.pedalgeek.com. They have free shipping and it got to me really quickly. I was considering that same Ampeg preamp but decided I wanted the smaller, non rack SIB. I have a feeling that Ampeg kills though.
 
#110
SMASH said:
I'm confused. The charm is that these combo amp are clean and supposedly (no simple little box is truly close) flat, but the thing to do is to put Ampeg, Art MP, or pedal preamps for luscious tube sound in front of them? Seems counter-intuitive to me.

I was expecting to read more about people plugging active basses stright in.
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That's the beauty of them. You want to plug your active straight in? Go for it! Looking for some coloration or variation in tone? Pick your pre.

I'm not an active guy and I *really* like the tones I get with the SVPCL. I just got my SVPPro out of repair and am eager to compare.

...and also waiting patiently to get Jim's line driver.
 
#111
SMASH said:
I'm confused. The charm is that these combo amp are clean and supposedly (no simple little box is truly close) flat, but the thing to do is to put Ampeg, Art MP, or pedal preamps for luscious tube sound in front of them? Seems counter-intuitive to me.

I was expecting to read more about people plugging active basses stright in.
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Smash, the IP's are not combo amps. What they are are speaker cabinets with thier own dedicated power section. Each different cabinet is tuned with DSP processing, through the use of a computer, to be nearly flat. So yes, it is possible for a cabinet to be eq'd flat, and no, it is not a simple little box. With Jim's line driver, which is simply a clean gain stage, you can drive the power amp sufficiently without a dedicated preamp. However, you can use any preamp that you like, depending on your taste, to alter the sound of the cabinet. It's no different than if you were to use a preamp, individual poweramp and a seperate cabinet, at least until you get to the much more involved DSP technology within the power section of Jim's amps.
 
#112
Very interesting thread.I'm a doubler(Kay MIB + 63 Jazz) that plays a variety of styles (old-new country,classic rock,rockabilly slap,bluegrass,etc) thru a Focus 2R series 2 + Schr 1212+1210.The IP's sound interesting.On Tom's online suggestions I phoned up Jim.The closest shop to me is Atlanta.Is this line of amps that much better than what I have to be worthy of a road trip?
 
#113
countrybass said:
Very interesting thread.I'm a doubler(Kay MIB + 63 Jazz) that plays a variety of styles (old-new country,classic rock,rockabilly slap,bluegrass,etc) thru a Focus 2R series 2 + Schr 1212+1210.The IP's sound interesting.On Tom's online suggestions I phoned up Jim.The closest shop to me is Atlanta.Is this line of amps that much better than what I have to be worthy of a road trip?
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You owe it to yourself. This really is something worthy of a road trip.
 
#116
SMASH said:
I'm confused. The charm is that these combo amp are clean and supposedly (no simple little box is truly close) flat, but the thing to do is to put Ampeg, Art MP, or pedal preamps for luscious tube sound in front of them? Seems counter-intuitive to me.

I was expecting to read more about people plugging active basses stright in.
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I plug my active basses straight in. It's tone heaven.

That being said, I'm eagerly awaiting the release of the line driver so that I can use something besides my Sansamp for my Ric.
 
#117
SMASH said:
I'm confused. The charm is that these combo amp are clean and supposedly (no simple little box is truly close) flat, but the thing to do is to put Ampeg, Art MP, or pedal preamps for luscious tube sound in front of them? Seems counter-intuitive to me.

I was expecting to read more about people plugging active basses stright in.
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As emjazz said, the IP112 is a cab with a power section. If you have a non-active bass, you need some sort of preamp stage that has gain.

All but one of my basses are passive, and my active bass is only active because it's a piezo. Other than that, I hate active basses.

The nice thing about the IP112 being flat is it will take on the tone of what you put into it - bass via DI, a preamp like the Ampeg, etc. It won't really further color the sound like some cabs do.
 
#120
SMASH said:
Fair enough. Thanks.





Well, a cab with an amp in it is still a combo amp in my book regardless of the marketing. Powered speaker, if you prefer. It's not a slag, we're talking about the same thing ultimately.

The DSP is an interesting idea, again stuff onboard that could previously be done but normally outboard. I.m still pretty dubious of the "flat" claims, if only because everything else that is claimed to be flat both in marketing and by the fans of the gear isn't vaguely close. Is that stuff flatter than other stuff? Maybe so I suppose that's semantics.

Are IPs even more flat? Probably, but for me that's not even a selling point. If as-is it equates to a great sounding combo amp (my terms for it) and it's reasonably portable and of manageable weight then I think the price is ok and I'd be interested. I wouldn't be keen on having to add much in front of it other than perhaps a line driver or for me it defeats the purpose (function?) of a self-contained box.

Thanks everyone for the good replies.
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I agree, nothing in the bass world with claims of being flat has been even close. Try an IP.

Oh, and nothing outboard or otherwise can do what the DSP does internally. Give Jim a call. He'd be happy to explain it for you. Again, my number one suggestion is to try the IP's. They're not for everyone but I can assure you that you've not heard your bass before like you will through the IP's.
 

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