Genz-Benz Streamliner Part 5

[Chef]

Nice

 

[svtb15]

I come from the school of.. if you really need to EQ the HE77 out of something. try another bass or another cab...
I like Jazz basses but P basses have been my main recording , gigging thing for the past 10 years.. My alleva kbp4 is a damn near 63 P bass tone that i have ever played.. But if i need more brightness, i will use my 71 P with a Maple neck. Or the 68 RW. A wider more hifi-ish i try a jazz bass with little bits of of EQ.
Then the Sadowsky does the JJ sound differently than the fender. And the Alleva does its thing..
Dont really need much EQ at all...
In my opinion the Freq points on the SL900 are very user friendly and if EQ is needed , is what most engineers will use to boost or cut..

Also in my opinion any Ampeg player that is used to the Ampeg Selectable Mid Freq would feel very At Home with the Streamliner interface and tone.

I guess what im trying and of course in my experience is to say is if you need tons of EQ to get your sound perhaps try another bass, String, Cabinet combo.. Because when you start to EQ drastically you are going more for an Effect ... ..

Para EQ is good for desperate things most of the time...such as Acoustic basses where you may need to fix a feedback issue

 

[Chef]

Or, try another head.

 

[svtb15]

If anyone would like a selectable mids, the Shuttle 9 or 9.2 are real nice options..

FWIW, I still think that a sweepable mid would have been better than a three-position mid switch, and without adding significantly more complexity to the design. That would have given people like Eublet the ability to dial in the midrange as needed.

From what has been written, it is sounding like the SL is more suited to those who want their bass to sit underneath with a big cushion that supports the band, and not so good for players who want their tone to ride on top of the mix.

 

[svtb15]

Yes that too...

Or, try another head.

 

[GRoberts]

I respect Eublet and Chef for their candor. Its so easy to jump on the "OMG this amp is the "Be-all/End-all" bandwagon. And it's not always easy to share a dissenting opinion. Clearly these opinions do not discredit the SL900. But rather speak to different preferences and tonal goals.

I have a feeling my tonal True North is more inline with Chef and Eublet as I favor punch, articulation and a full but well focused sound. .... with a punchy well defined bottom. I am playing a Nordy VJ5 through a Bergantino AE410. My bass and bass cabinet choice sort of speak to my tonal preference. Right?

 

[Tunaman]

Eublet: Keep on posting son... I'm hoping more people approach the Streamliner with reservations so they avoid future disappointment. 5 threads & a lot of hype but the reality is this bass amp, ANY bass amp can't do EVERY tone perfectly.

The hype around the Streamliner is justified as it is the only micro that brings fantastic tube warmth... but that reduces its ability to be versatile & cut like the Shuttle.
I tried the LM Tube, thats NOT tube, thats solid state, the Streamliner is all tube & no SS.
A versatile SS like the Shuttlemax 9.2 will be a MUCH better choice for MOST bass players. I know I could never have just the Streamliner, no way.

 

[Chef]

If you're a P with flats guy, this amp is probably going to work really well for you.

I'm a J with rounds guy; and while I have P basses, they're all ash/maple with rounds

I like trying new stuff, and I'm not at all sorry I did.

Tunaman: to say the SL cuts like a Shuttle, I think is not accurate. They're pretty different heads.

 

[Saluki]

Jason,

I don't beleive KJ has tried his thru his AE212 yet. I have and even though mine probably has a bad tube, I was able to play around with it just with lower input volumes. I tried my Nordy VJ5 with reverse P and sadowsky preamp first and my skjold after that. I found the Nordy sounded better in passive mode, and it did muddy up a bit through the AE212 a bit when I engaged the preamp. I had to cut lows and I boosted around 2.5k and that gave me pretty good clarity. I also feel that there is some additional clarity with the gain button depressed. Maybe the only one but sounds more clear to my ear. I am not totally sold on the AE212 yet and this may not be the best pairing for the SL900. SOund great with my GK MB200 and I bet the AE410 is going to sound great with the SL900. With my test through the AE212 it will punch but with that cab and depending on your bass it requires some work. It is not like M6, AE410, J bass flat and punch your head off with no tweaking. I was hoping the AE212 would be a good cab for it, but I am thinking a pair of AE112s would actually be better. 2cents.

 

[Eublet]

I'm still confused with this one. Just fired it up again, and man it sounds fantastic to me through the AE212. The problem is that I'm not getting the tone I want through the headphone out which is where most all my comments are coming from. So here's my next question. Could it be that the headphone out is different from what the head itself sounds like via the speaker or DI? To get the tone I want through the headphones, I'm cutting bass completely counter clockwise. Through the AE212 though, around 9 or 9:30 sounds great to me. This seems to jive with what most of you are posting.

Upper mids are still somewhat tame, but there's plenty of grunt and grind with those settings. And that oh-so-wonderful tube give that I love is there in spades. I REALLY want this head to work for me.

I'm going to try hooking up the DI to my recording setup later today, and try getting the tone I want through the DI to see if it helps. If it records well with the mid character I like, then I'll hang on to it long enough to try it on a gig, which might be a month away at least. I gig 20-25 hours a month, but 99% of it is IEM use. I might try taking the SL900 for use as a DI in place of the Tone Hammer or JDI I normally use. I'd have to wait another week for that.

 

[BluesMagoo]

Hi All,
Drooling reading about some of you lucky guys getting your SL's.

I can't find any up here in the Great White North so I think I will order directly from the U.S. Any thoughts on a good price for shipping to Canada?

Any help much appreciated.

Cheers ooops GAS reflux.

 

[adivin]

I totally agree. Tastes, interpretation, and semantics of description. You can feel this thing hit you in the gut when you strike a note. I guess some would call that punch. For me though, without that upper mid agressiveness, it feels like I'm being walloped instead, if that makes sense.

Like being hit with a bat instead of a crowbar?

 

[Eublet]

Tunaman: to say the SL cuts like a Shuttle, I think is not accurate. They're pretty different heads.

Agreed completely. The Shuttle 9.0 starts of cutting and slicing, which I dig. In fact, over the last month I was actually engaging the HF Attack filter on my Shuttle to get it to bite even harder. Combined with the LF Extension, the result was a big, wide sound without the mud (thanks to the wonderful Genz HPF), and plenty of upper-mid snarl that jumped out when technique asked it too. I got this idea from watching Doug Johns demoing the Shuttle. The Streamliner can not be made to do this. Here's the clip I'm referencing:

 

[svtb15]

The headphone out is coming off the poweramp.. So whats going to your cab is also going to the headphone out...

I'm still confused with this one. Just fired it up again, and man it sounds fantastic to me through the AE212. The problem is that I'm not getting the tone I want through the headphone out which is where most all my comments are coming from. So here's my next question. Could it be that the headphone out is different from what the head itself sounds like via the speaker or DI? To get the tone I want through the headphones, I'm cutting bass completely counter clockwise. Through the AE212 though, around 9 or 9:30 sounds great to me. This seems to jive with what most of you are posting.

Upper mids are still somewhat tame, but there's plenty of grunt and grind with those settings. And that oh-so-wonderful tube give that I love is there in spades. I REALLY want this head to work for me.

I'm going to try hooking up the DI to my recording setup later today, and try getting the tone I want through the DI to see if it helps. If it records well with the mid character I like, then I'll hang on to it long enough to try it on a gig, which might be a month away at least. I gig 20-25 hours a month, but 99% of it is IEM use. I might try taking the SL900 for use as a DI in place of the Tone Hammer or JDI I normally use. I'd have to wait another week for that.

 

[djshawn47]

If you're a P with flats guy, this amp is probably going to work really well for you.

I'm a J with rounds guy; and while I have P basses, they're all ash/maple with rounds

I like trying new stuff, and I'm not at all sorry I did.

I became a P with rounds guy after 2 weeks with this amp.

I play Sabbath worship rock and was looking for a portable alternative to my 250lb main rig. We tune to Drop C and with flats on my P (and even with a while lot of mid freq tweaking)..haha...it was pretty sloppy, so I slapped some roundwounds on yesterday and it has helped bring some of the definition back.

I completely agree that this amp does a great job of producing that tubey "fill in the sound" vibe as opposed to cut through the mix tone. I love it as it does exactly what I was hoping it would at about a quarter of the weight of my other rig, but I also can see why Chef and others here aren't feeling it. It def won't give you the tonal goals they have described.

 

[Eublet]

Like being hit with a bat instead of a crowbar?

Maybe, I don't know. It feels punchy through the AE212 right now. Trying to mix the bass tone in with my IEM's it just feels to deep for my tastes. Not punchy at all. Just thick and wallopy, like it's dominating the mix. Maybe it's the headphone out I'm using because again I don't really get that impression of it through the AE212, although I have to cut the bass a good bit. I need to try it through the DI to see what happens.

 

[12bass]

The SVP-PRO's five-band midrange was mostly what I had in mind for comparison - I've found it useful for tone shaping, but often not quite "on target" for what I was looking for. You can play around with bass and treble controls to try to get an interaction which approximates the curve you want. And if that isn't satisfactory, on the SVP that leaves the 9-band graphic for more serious sculpting, and losing the pure-tube signal path as a result - all of which could be avoided by adding a simple semi-parametric midrange control. IMO, parametric is the most sensible, most precise, way to EQ (at least for mid voicing).

If anyone would like a selectable mids, the Shuttle 9 or 9.2 are real nice options..

Yep... ShuttleMax is definitely more of tone-sculptor's dream!

As for Eublet's experience, it may be that the SL is just too colored for his needs. Strong tone color can a wonderful thing if it accentuates and flatters... and not so wonderful if that color clashes with your wardrobe.

 

[kesslari]

Interesting to read the posts in this version and find some of my own still-half-formed thoughts reflected.

I took the SL to rehearse last night, with both my LDS 15/6/1 and my BFM Omni 10.
I expected that I'd like the O10 better - the mid-hump in that cab balances the scoop of the SL, while the SL's warm lows fill out the low end on the O10. It really is a lovely pairing. But it's also a lovely pairing with the nEarful, and I wound up liking both pairings about the same.

It was much harder to jump from a good fretless sound with my Zon to a good slap sound on my ATK (than it was on my NeoPak or Shuttle 6). Call me lazy, but I miss the presets, and the voicing on the Shuttle seems to have a bit more of the zing that I like.

There's a lot of loveliness in the SL, for sure.
But I still have a few ??? before I settle in on it being "the one" for me.

I'll have an opportunity to A/B it with a Shuttle 9.0 in a week or so - I expect that will answer a lot of questions for me.
I was planning on getting the 9.0 (the nEarful needed more juice than my 6.0 provided) just when the SL was announced. So I thought, waited, and got the SL - without having had a chance to try the Shuttle 9.0
I'm looking forward to playing them both - perhaps I too am a "modified SS kinda guy" at heart - or perhaps I'll find my voicings in the SL with more time on it.

 

[Tunaman]

perhaps I too am a "modified SS kinda guy" at heart - or perhaps I'll find my voicings in the SL with more time on it.

Many people will be battling with this including myself.

 

[Gab124]

I'm still confused with this one. Just fired it up again, and man it sounds fantastic to me through the AE212. The problem is that I'm not getting the tone I want through the headphone out which is where most all my comments are coming from. So here's my next question. Could it be that the headphone out is different from what the head itself sounds like via the speaker or DI? To get the tone I want through the headphones, I'm cutting bass completely counter clockwise. Through the AE212 though, around 9 or 9:30 sounds great to me. This seems to jive with what most of you are posting.

Upper mids are still somewhat tame, but there's plenty of grunt and grind with those settings. And that oh-so-wonderful tube give that I love is there in spades. I REALLY want this head to work for me.

I'm going to try hooking up the DI to my recording setup later today, and try getting the tone I want through the DI to see if it helps. If it records well with the mid character I like, then I'll hang on to it long enough to try it on a gig, which might be a month away at least. I gig 20-25 hours a month, but 99% of it is IEM use. I might try taking the SL900 for use as a DI in place of the Tone Hammer or JDI I normally use. I'd have to wait another week for that.

I think the headphone out and direct to cab tones are very different. Knob tweaking does not seem to do much through the headphones for me. Just good for practice, but hooked up to a box in the mix just love it. Weird I can't stand p-bass tone and never liked ampeg stuff, but this head with my jazz and rounds makes me smile! Different ears I guess. It is great we all have different tone goals though