• TalkBass has been independent since 1998. Add your voice.
    Create a free account to reply to discussions, view embedded media, and browse with fewer display ads.
    Join free Log in
    Want zero display ads or expanded classifieds tools? Compare plans.

Genz Benz ShuttleMAX 9.0 Now A Reality

#181
RocketMusic said:
I've got several MAX 9.2's in stock now. Yesterday, I sat down and A/B'd the Shuttle 9.0, the Shuttle MAX 9.2 and the Streamliner 900. The Shuttle 9.0 and the MAX 9.2 were quite similar tonally. The MAX 9.2 might be a little smoother down low, but I could also be imagining that. Whatever tonal differences are there are subtle at best. The main thing to me would be the addition of the FET preamp channel and the included footswitch. I imagine some of the power supply changes might also make a bigger difference at higher volume, but I wasn't cranking really loudly when I was doing my testing.

The Streamliners are clearly a different animal than the other two. I think of the Shuttle series as a modern, edgy tone, and the Streamliner is more on an old-school, round, fat, warm tone. You can warm up the Shuttle tone to some degree, and you can bring quite a bit of edge & drive/dirt to the Streamliner. But the two have very different starting points.
Click to expand...

Thanx for posting this. I do see the error of my ways. I really do belive the Shuttle 9.0 has the warmest tone of all the Shuttles and even those dry sterile lifeless MarkBass amps.

But now I can hear how much warmer/rounder the Streamliner is over my 9.0. That being said I use a 1955 Mullard ECC83 Long Plate in my 9.0 and I EQ the heck out of it. With the Streamliner I run it straight out flat.
 
#191
lo-freq said:
I'd love to hear that rig!
Click to expand...

I received a couple requests for some sound clips comparing the Shuttle 9.0 and the Shuttle MAX 9.2, so I decided to do one. I also included the Streamliner 900 just 'cause I could. And I did it all through an UBER 410. :bassist:

What I did was put a new bass line on the "Fine Little Mama" session that Danny (Rocket Music's co-owner) and I did a while back. Each pass through the verse's chord progression gets a different bass head (or a different setting on the same head). And I recorded both the mic'd signal and the direct signal, so we can listen for any differences in the DI's of the various heads. I'm not sure there are any design differences, but it was easy enough to capture... so I did!

Just FYI - all I did was overdub the bass line. I recorded the fretless lead bass that you hear quite a while ago on my fretless Roscoe. I believe that was recorded direct through my Alembic F1X preamp.

Here's the setup for the new bass lines:

RED-HOT-MAMA-SETUP.jpg


The mic'd signal chain was:

My Roscoe Century Sig V -> head -> Genz-Benz UBER 410 -> MXL Genesis Large Diaphram Condenser mic

And here's what you'll be hearing:
Shuttle 9.0: Intro
Shuttle MAX 9.2 Tube: First sung verse
Shuttle MAX 9.2 FET: Second sung verse
Shuttle MAX 9.2 BOTH: First pass of dobro solo
Streamliner 900: Second pass of dobro solo, last verse & outro

And to give credit where credit is due:
Danny: dobro (rhythm and lead) & vocals
Me: bass (rhythm and lead) & drum programming

Here's the complete mix:
"Red Hot Mama" (Elmore James)

What you hear in the mix above is a combination of the mic'd & direct signals. It's mostly mic'd, the direct signal is roughly 6 dB lower.

And here are the various bass tracks:
"Red Hot Mama" (Mic'd & Direct)
"Red Hot Mama" (Mic'd)
"Red Hot Mama" (Direct)

How' bout them apples?!?
 
#193
RocketMusic said:
OH, and I should mention that everything was set flat on all of the amps. I was trying to do an apples-to-apples comparison of the "starting" tone of the heads. On the "mixed" MAX pass, the FET and tube chanels were equal in power.
Click to expand...

I need to listen again at home on better speakers. My work computer speakers suck and can't pick up any tone difference. :(

But thanks for putting all this together. :bassist:
 
#196
Great clips! Yeah the tube verse on the 9.2 sounds exactly like the Shuttle 9.0, which is to be expected, and the Streamliner sounds completely different, which also makes sense. The surprise to me is that the tube and FET channels on the 9.2 sound so close to each other.
 
#197
vision said:
Great clips! Yeah the tube verse on the 9.2 sounds exactly like the Shuttle 9.0, which is to be expected, and the Streamliner sounds completely different, which also makes sense. The surprise to me is that the tube and FET channels on the 9.2 sound so close to each other.
Click to expand...

There might be more variation in the tone of the tube vs FET sections if I had been slapping... just a guess...

And I think the Quad cab might expose the differences a little more strongly than the UBER-410 that I used here...
 
#198
RocketMusic said:
OH, and I should mention that everything was set flat on all of the amps. I was trying to do an apples-to-apples comparison of the "starting" tone of the heads. On the "mixed" MAX pass, the FET and tube channels were equal in power.
Click to expand...

Thx man, that is a most helpful post :)
I have always been a great fan of Genz's FET preamp. Now I can compare all four pre's.
I'll need to give it a proper listen thru my cans... on my laptop I cant hear any difference at all....


Nice playin and nice basses, I must to add...
 

Latest posts

Top Bottom
Back