Custom SS Bass Head Maker?

[Gearhead17]

I am looking for a company that makes custom Solid State bass heads in the Chicago area. I have no interest in tubes. Can anyone make a recommendation as to which company I should be looking at? I have already contacted Specimen Guitars in Chicago.... I live in the NW suburbs of Chicago and prefer to drive to a location to hear other products they have created. Obviously to determine what my amp can/should sound like. I will do a road trip if necessary....

The amp would be a simple lighter weight head, Class D power section, specific tone controls without a built-in compressor, Bass knobs, Treble knobs, effects loop, crossover controls, built in distortion, bottom enhancers and so on. Weight of around 25lbs. 10 band EQ, 3 EQ knobs with frequency control knobs. Nothing majorly fancy here. MOSFET Power section (or whatever the heck it is) 1100 watts at 4 ohms and 750 at 8 ohms or something close to that.

Any help is appreciated. If I missed a thread with this information, please provide a link.

 

[jonnybass1]

Have you looked at the Markbass MoMark amp? You buy the chassis with the power amp and you have 2 slots to get different modules for whatever you want your amp to be. Just a thought.

 

[fdeck]

I've designed and built the whole kit and kaboodle: Preamp, power amp, and speaker, albeit at lower power levels.

In my view, there's very little reason to design a custom SS power section, Class-D or otherwise. A mainstream power amp or bass head from a reputable maker will have all of the subtle things designed into it, such as electrical safety, thermal protection, overload handling, testing under adverse conditions, and so forth.

My suggestion is to get a good lightweight head with the power that you need, and customize via the preamp. I'm not doing this kind of work commercially right now, but my most fruitful ventures into custom SS design have focused solely on the preamp, because a SS power amp done right should not color the sound.

 

[T-Bird]

Hi.

10 band EQ, 3 EQ knobs with frequency control knobs. Nothing majorly fancy here. MOSFET Power section (or whatever the heck it is) 1100 watts at 4 ohms and 750 at 8 ohms or something close to that.

So basically a combined one channel 10 fixed band graphic EQ plus a 3 band semi parametric EQ + generic (class-D + SMPS) power amp?

I probably understood the requirements completely wrong, there's very little sense in custom making that arrangement, other than for a fancy face-plate/box.
IMO anyway.

What I'd look into instead is the classic SWR semi parametric EQ, enhanced with Q controls for every band.
You'd then have the visuality of the sliders, and the pretty much unlimited controllability of the Freq. and Q controls.

3-5 bands is usually what's needed with a parametric EQ unless used as an effect, but thanks to todays low noise OP amps, summing 10 (or 20 for that matter) won't be a much of a problem in a live MI application.

Unless You want a discretes design and/or studio quality that is, then it becomes a whole lot trickier.
And A LOT pricier.

My suggestion is to get a good lightweight head with the power that you need, and customize via the preamp.

+1 to that.

Regards
Sam

 

[CL400Peavey]

Sounds like you want a Peavey Max Pre combined with a Invalid Link Removed.

 

[oerk]

The amp would be a simple lighter weight head, Class D power section, specific tone controls without a built-in compressor, Bass knobs, Treble knobs, effects loop, crossover controls, built in distortion, bottom enhancers and so on. Weight of around 25lbs. 10 band EQ, 3 EQ knobs with frequency control knobs. Nothing majorly fancy here. MOSFET Power section (or whatever the heck it is) 1100 watts at 4 ohms and 750 at 8 ohms or something close to that.

Methinks that you and I have different definitions of nothing fancy

 

[Gearhead17]

My ideal amp is the Carvin BX1500. Minus the Carvin name and reliability.

I recently sold my Carvin BX1200 heads because I could no longer trust them and even after having them repaired, both heads continued to periodically work and not work. Sometimes they would not even turn on. I don’t trust the reliability of Carvin and refuse to buy another one of their products. They survived many gigs, yes, but switching between both heads at every other show was quite annoying.

However, the BX1200 was really clean sounding and I felt the sound of my bass was quite similar to what studio monitors usually do to my Spector tone. I was not fighting a built-in low end boost or inherent mid-scoop. I felt it was fairly close to a neutral sounding amp tone. The Carvin heads gave me lots of tone control and it came in handy for weird sounding rooms.

I was hoping going the custom route would save me money since I would be avoiding: Effects Loops, Crossovers, Octave Enhancers, Tube emulation, preamp & power tubes, Contour controls, other pre-set boosts, rack ears, super lightweight requirements, and other bells & whistles.

See the attachment for what I am looking at making. The drawing is not exactly to scale, but this encompasses what I want to do. The knobs can move around as needed. It’s not going to be a micro head, maybe 30lbs when done, and I was looking at having it painted black with white lettering. Green LED’s in a few spots to light the unit up. Rubber feet on the bottom, no rack ears. Ultra sonic protection for 30hz and lower.

If an amp like this exists, let me know. I wanted to save money, have something reliable, and use something that gives me the tone I want right away. I like the tone of my Spector Euro’s and wanted something that would not impart a huge amount of color to my overall sound.

I have checked Markbass’s Mo Mark setups and I really like the idea. However, I am not fan of the Markbass tone.

 

[CL400Peavey]

Screw your head on right. Going custom is never about saving money.

What issues were you having with your carvins? Ribbon cable issues?

 

[wave rider]

Even without "features," a custom amp is bound to cost lots more. Economies of scale and all that.

Peavey is supposed to have their new amps out later this year, I think the Tour 1000 would have the graphic EQ you desire. The current Invalid Link Removed has the graphic EQ.

=wr=

 

[KevInDaBassment]

My ideal amp is the Carvin BX1500. Minus the Carvin name and reliability.

I recently sold my Carvin BX1200 heads because I could no longer trust them and even after having them repaired, both heads continued to periodically work and not work. Sometimes they would not even turn on. I don’t trust the reliability of Carvin and refuse to buy another one of their products. They survived many gigs, yes, but switching between both heads at every other show was quite annoying.

Good decision, they are also rather dismissive of any product faults past their amazing 1-year warranty

Had a BX500 that bit the dust hard, they told me I could send it in with $250 to repair it or go pound dirt. The thing didn't even have any dust on the insides, it was straight ridiculous in my opinion. Got me into a good GK head though, very glad that happened

 

[Gearhead17]

Screw your head on right. Going custom is never about saving money.

What issues were you having with your carvins? Ribbon cable issues?

Ribbon cable issues and who knows what else. Both amps ended up doing it and they were always in a case. I was hoping to find someone doing a simple custom setup or at least have interchangeable parts to choose from. Since I did not want many bells and whistles, I was hoping to save some money. The idea was to spend less than $1000. I don't think I can get there at this point.

 

[CL400Peavey]

Ribbon cable issues and who knows what else. Both amps ended up doing it and they were always in a case. I was hoping to find someone doing a simple custom setup or at least have interchangeable parts to choose from. Since I did not want many bells and whistles, I was hoping to save some money. The idea was to spend less than $1000. I don't think I can get there at this point.

It's too bad you had issues with those amps. It is also too bad your tech didn't know to use a bit of deoxit to fix the ribbon cable issue. Cheap and easy.

Take a look at the upcoming Peavey MiniMega. 1000 watts, 1500 burst. No GEq but lots of other nice features.

 

[Gearhead17]

On the flip side, I don’t have to go custom if I can find a simple clean pedal preamp (with very little added color) to add to my pedal board for a simple connection to a clean power amp. I am trying to avoid a heavy rack setup. I also trying to figure out what pedal output levels match up with certain power amp inputs. I have done enough reading on here and have talked to Tech21 about this. I can’t figure out how to guarantee if the pedal preamp will deliver a strong enough signal to a power amp. Tech21 told me the ouput level of my bass combined with the VT Bass DI may or may not work well with a power amp – they can’t guarantee anything. Which drives me nuts, because I am looking at buying a used power amp and will not have a chance to check if everything works – I need to go by specifications at this moment.

I am hoping I missed something here because this process seems way too difficult. Can someone tell me a few simple guidelines on how to do this pedal preamp and power amp matching?

 

[Passinwind]

I am looking for a company that makes custom Solid State bass heads in the Chicago area. I have no interest in tubes. Can anyone make a recommendation as to which company I should be looking at? I have already contacted Specimen Guitars in Chicago.... I live in the NW suburbs of Chicago and prefer to drive to a location to hear other products they have created. Obviously to determine what my amp can/should sound like. I will do a road trip if necessary....

The amp would be a simple lighter weight head, Class D power section, specific tone controls without a built-in compressor, Bass knobs, Treble knobs, effects loop, crossover controls, built in distortion, bottom enhancers and so on. Weight of around 25lbs. 10 band EQ, 3 EQ knobs with frequency control knobs. Nothing majorly fancy here. MOSFET Power section (or whatever the heck it is) 1100 watts at 4 ohms and 750 at 8 ohms or something close to that.

The fact that you want such a non-standard feature set is going to be a killer price-wise, not a cost cutter in any way. Custom circuit board layout and prototyping costs are serious business, and "hand-wired" construction for that much solid state circuitry is not a very realistic prospect IMHO. All but one or two proven robust pro audio grade Class D power modules with that sort of power rating that I know of are OEM pieces, and very few custom builders have that sort of buying power. The gray market's a possibility, but no serious pro builder is going to be too happy about liability issues and potential repair headaches down the road.

You could consider modding a blown up Carvin by disconnecting the sometimes problematic power amp and protection sections completely. Plumbing in a whole new low voltage power supply would likely leave you with a perfectly reliable preamp with a feature set that's pretty close to your spec, and a good tech could remove a few sections you don't want fairly easily. I acquired a BX500 with just this in mind, but it turned out that I could fix it and I ultimately put the money from selling it (and a ton more) toward a DIY build instead.

I can think of a handful of prospective builders, but none are anywhere near Chicago I'm afraid. Please keep us posted on what you end up doing, as I'm always interested in seeing cool custom builds. Link Removed

 

[CL400Peavey]

Go with a Peavey IPR2. They are very easy to drive with any source.

 

[rumblinbass]

The fact that you want such a non-standard feature set is going to be a killer price-wise, not a cost cutter in any way. Custom circuit board layout and prototyping costs are serious business, and "hand-wired" construction for that much solid state circuitry is not a very realistic prospect IMHO. All but one or two proven robust pro audio grade Class D power modules with that sort of power rating that I know of are OEM pieces, and very few custom builders have that sort of buying power. The gray market's a possibility, but no serious pro builder is going to be too happy about liability issues and potential repair headaches down the road.

You could consider modding a blown up Carvin by disconnecting the sometimes problematic power amp and protection sections completely. Plumbing in a whole new low voltage power supply would likely leave you with a perfectly reliable preamp with a feature set that's pretty close to your spec, and a good tech could remove a few sections you don't want fairly easily. I acquired a BX500 with just this in mind, but it turned out that I could fix it and I ultimately put the money from selling it (and a ton more) toward a DIY build instead.

I can think of a handful of prospective builders, but none are anywhere near Chicago I'm afraid. Please keep us posted on what you end up doing, as I'm always interested in seeing cool custom builds. Link Removed

what he said!
Let's not forget about the amount of time it would take to design and develop a completely custom amp.

 

[Gearhead17]

Based on the consensus that I am crazy and a custom amp would cost way too much , I am looking at alternatives. 3 Leaf Audio The Enabler - I am looking at this for my clean preamp tone for a straight feed into a power amp. Besides the Peavey IPR series, what other power amps should I be looking at for matching the signal level here? The Peavey IPR are great, but I am not seeing any of them with bridging capabilities. I am looking for a good amount of clean headroom to run through a Mesa 810. I am going to download a Peavey manual and see what I can find.

 

[Passinwind]

Based on the consensus that I am crazy and a custom amp would cost way too much , I am looking at alternatives. 3 Leaf Audio The Enabler - I am looking at this for my clean preamp tone for a straight feed into a power amp. Besides the Peavey IPR series, what other power amps should I be looking at for matching the signal level here? The Peavey IPR are great, but I am not seeing any of them with bridging capabilities. I am looking for a good amount of clean headroom to run through a Mesa 810. I am going to download a Peavey manual and see what I can find.

You might want to take a look at the Basswitch IQ as well. It has some of the features you're looking for, put probably too many bells and whistles for your taste? All the 3Leaf stuff I've heard was pretty ace too though.

IIRC all those Peaveys can be bridged, but some require a special cable to make it happen.

 

[CL400Peavey]

Based on the consensus that I am crazy and a custom amp would cost way too much , I am looking at alternatives. 3 Leaf Audio The Enabler - I am looking at this for my clean preamp tone for a straight feed into a power amp. Besides the Peavey IPR series, what other power amps should I be looking at for matching the signal level here? The Peavey IPR are great, but I am not seeing any of them with bridging capabilities. I am looking for a good amount of clean headroom to run through a Mesa 810. I am going to download a Peavey manual and see what I can find.

You have to build a special bridging cable. @BbbyBld can help you with that if you dont find it yourself.

You could also look at a crest prolite. Look for input sensitivity. A low number is easier to drive, a higher one will be harder.

 

[Zooberwerx]

On the flip side, I don’t have to go custom if I can find a simple clean pedal preamp (with very little added color) to add to my pedal board for a simple connection to a clean power amp. I am trying to avoid a heavy rack setup. I also trying to figure out what pedal output levels match up with certain power amp inputs. I have done enough reading on here and have talked to Tech21 about this. I can’t figure out how to guarantee if the pedal preamp will deliver a strong enough signal to a power amp. Tech21 told me the ouput level of my bass combined with the VT Bass DI may or may not work well with a power amp – they can’t guarantee anything. Which drives me nuts, because I am looking at buying a used power amp and will not have a chance to check if everything works – I need to go by specifications at this moment.

I am hoping I missed something here because this process seems way too difficult. Can someone tell me a few simple guidelines on how to do this pedal preamp and power amp matching?

Well, give your stated weight restrictions and need for a guarantee that the pre will actually work with your power amp and you like the VT Bass DI, may I suggest (takes deep breath):

Buy a VT rackmount and mount it in a 3-4 space rack with your choice of power amp. The VT is not going to add much in terms of weight and will light up the power amp with no problems. On the downside, the VT doesn't offer a a GEQ but, trust me, it won't be missed. It is also not programmable. FWIW, the SansAmp / power amp combo is a longstanding favorite among the more prolific, talented, and handsome TBers...

...like me.

Riis