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Best Amps for Slapping

Bassart1 said:
EBS FAFNER

Heard Victor Bailey with his sig. Fender, a Fafner and a 410 by EBS. Well.... I was really disappointe by the tone and sound... :hmm: The highs were there and smooth or harsh, but the lows broke up too easily, and sounded distorted in a bad way.

IMO slap goes better with Hi-fi SS amps. Like GK. Or the solid states from EBS, HD 350 or rather 650, or their preamps with a good SS power amp. Also, there are a lot of not-so-mainstream amps that do that very well, too.

As for slapping with tube amps, well, the tone you get is distorted, not clean, nowhere near that Hi-fi lows and highs, and uneven sometimes. Go to Invalid Link Removed for some of TB member vanselus's clips and compare the tones.
 
Frank Martin said:
...

As for slapping with tube amps, well, the tone you get is distorted, not clean, nowhere near that Hi-fi lows and highs, and uneven sometimes. Go to Invalid Link Removed for some of TB member vanselus's clips and compare the tones.
From what I've heard about the all-tube Trace Elliot V4, V6, & V8 heads, they would probably sound great for slapping.
 
How about a Walter Woods? :)

The qualities I look for in a good slapping amp are:

1. excellent dynamics (SS amps tend to be better in this area)
2. clear highs (usually some kind of parametric EQ is helpful)
3. solid lows without mud ("lower midrange" is more important than "extreme lows" in this regard)

One of the most important things in slapping is the "attack" of the sound, when you're thumping with your thumb or popping the G string. I look for an amp and speakers that can deliver the attack without compromise. :)