Cool. Thanks. I was at GC the other day and played a P bass through a 200 watt Orange all tube head and GK neo 4x10. I was like HOLY CRAP, there's the tone! Now, I just need a bigger vehicle and a roadie and I would be all set.
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Does anybody just plug and play anymore?
- Thread starter MJ_Sotti
- Start date
Bass, cord, tuner, cord, amp.
I've been plug and play for years now. Less is more.
Every time. I keep buying pedals, playing with them like twice at home and then selling them before I ever get them on stage. Heck, I don't even break out my boss tu2 most of the time. Tune up by ear at soundcheck and away we go!
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I know most bassists are totally dubious about a 100 watt head being able to handle loud rock gigs, but not only can it handle it, for most of our small and medium sized bar gigs I use the 100T in 25 watt mode, and it absolutely kills! So now here I am 62 years old, and all the kids have their little 2 pound 5000 watt class D amps with every effect known to man built in that you can fiddle with using your iPhone, while I'm lugging my 60 pound tube head around. But I've finally got the sound I always wanted.Cool. Thanks. I was at GC the other day and played a P bass through a 200 watt Orange all tube head and GK neo 4x10. I was like HOLY CRAP, there's the tone! Now, I just need a bigger vehicle and a roadie and I would be all set.
That's really cool. I could totally see getting one. Have you ever compared with the Traynor? It's about the same weight and 200 Watts. Invalid Link Removed
Used to be huge into pedals. These days I go straight to the head, head to cab, done. On rare occasion I'll turn a knob on the amp or bass but for the most part I just play.
Always plug and play. I don't even own any pedals. I do have a wireless but it takes too much time to set up so just a 20' cable to the amp these days. Damn , I'm getting lazy in my old age.
buldog5151bass
Kibble, milkbones, and P Basses. And redheads.
Yep. I've used pedals in the past when a specific sound was needed to cover something, but other than that, never.
Never owned, nor even played through a pedal.....what are they for
Well, I need the tuner most of the time because the guitar player keeps noodling with his pedal setup (worth more than a used car) so I can't tune in the face of all that sound.
Over the years I've gone from only a Roland chorus --> to a full on rack system with a synth bass (what was I thinking?)--> to bass, cord, tuner, cord. I still have some modern pedals at home, tho...old habits die hard.
The kind of music I play these days doesn't lend itself to bass effects much. I'll use a compressor or occasionally an octave. Would be fun to get into another project that would let me use filters and flangers and ring mods and stuff but right now it's not in the cards.
They are for making fun noises. They're fun. Not always appropriate but fun. Sometimes they're mandatory.
haven't had the extra cash to get a new (even a cheap one) cable and haven't had the extra time to see if the old one is broken at the connector(s) or in the middle.
Man... I once made the mistake of admitting that I don't use pedals in a thread and immediately, the effects enthusiasts appeared and started acting like I shoved their grandmother or something. Definitely a forum that I avoid entirely now.
Actually no, I just made a wild ass guess and dove in with the 100T without comparing or listening to anything else. I think for the sound I want the Traynor is too much power. To explain as briefly as I can, what I figured out (guessed at actually) was this near-distorted sound I have always wanted and was trying to simulate with overdrives and distortion pedals was not that kind of distortion at all (preamp distortion, which is a buzzy 'fuzz tone' sound), but was instead the sound of power tubes being driven just below the point where they totally break up. That sound is a throatier, gruntier sound compared to the buzzy preamp distortion, if that makes sense. So I've found that matching stage volume with a loud drummer, the 100T sits beautifully exactly at that point. Even though there is actually very little difference in the output of a 100 watt vs. a 200 watt amp, I just feel the bit of extra headroom the 200 watt Traynor head would have would defeat my purpose, and to get to the volume where the power tubes begin to sing would be too loud. And as I said previously, the 100T in 25 watt mode is a beautiful thing, you just have to be ballsy enough to try it that way at a gig.
One final thing - I know this isn't a low powered tube head discussion - but just any old low powered tube head will not necessarily achieve this, especially vintage heads. Some tube amp designs will go totally mushy and soft when you approach the max output of the power tubes, and that is a horrible sound. Others like the 100T ease into the distortion without going soft, and instead will give you an aggressive bark.
The only time I put anything between me & my tube amp is when I use higher treble settings & pop in a AB/Y switch with a isolation transformer, to kill the noise.
