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Head suggestions

slipknotmaggot3

slipknotmaggot3

Feb 23, 2014
129
163
Florida
#1
Hello Talkbass! For starters, after a long hiatus from performing due to a career change, I’m finally able to get back into it. I recently was very blessed to find a Marshall DB 7215 Cabinet in great condition. The guy who I bought it from was the original owner so I count myself very lucky.

While the cab sounds great with my Eden Time Traveler head, I am looking for another head to pair with it. My new band plays hard rock and metal covers so I'm looking for a growling type of tone that fits that. I play a Rickenbacker 4003 and Warwick Corvette $$ with my band and we downtune our songs. E becomes Eb and drop D is tuned to Drop C#
Ideally I want something in the 450w-600w range.

I’ve been looking at the GK Fusion 550 or the SVT III, but I’m wanting to hear other suggestions. I’ve budgeted $600-$800 toward this new head.
 
#4
slipknotmaggot3 said:
I've heard good things about the Mesa and Darkglass, but they push more power than the Cab's 600W rating.
Click to expand...
That’s headroom.
Trick is to turn up until it starts sounding bad and then turn down a little and that’s your limit.
You can absolutely destroy a 600W speaker with a 400W amp so don’t convince yourself those published ratings need to be the same.
 
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#6
"My new band plays hard rock and metal covers so I'm looking for a growling type of tone that fits that."

I suggest looking for a clean sounding bass head and adding pedals to get the edgier tone you are looking for. That will open a lot of options for you and make the search less stressful.

I play a Mesa D800 and love it! Clean, loud, easy to dial in, can do some emulated tube growl through the Gain knob.
 
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#13
slipknotmaggot3 said:
I've heard good things about the Mesa and Darkglass, but they push more power than the Cab's 600W rating.
Click to expand...
If you're worried about the 800 watts, you could always run a Mesa at 2 ohms and that would limit the head to 600 watts at 4 ohms. Another excellent amp for Rock and Metal is the Orange Terror Bass 500 which can go from clean to pretty crunchy. I own the Terror and a Mesa WD800 and I play Rock and Classic Metal, those two amps are excellent for that type of music. :bassist:
 
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#17
Wicked G said:
If you're worried about the 800 watts, you could always run a Mesa at 2 ohms and that would limit the head to 600 watts at 4 ohms. Another excellent amp for Rock and Metal is the Orange Terror Bass 500 which can go from clean to pretty crunchy. I own the Terror and a Mesa WD800 and I play Rock and Classic Metal, those two amps are excellent for that type of music. :bassist:
Click to expand...
As he often does, Wicked G offers the perfect solution. Run a D800 or D800+ at two ohms. The 800 has a built in set HPF. The 800+ has a variable HPF to give you a bit more control. The HPFs will help protect the divers in your older cab.
 
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#18
Personally I would go with a small tube amp of about 50 watts or better but that will set you back a bit more money. I love that 215 though and I believe with that ric/corvette you'll get a great tone with any head...might as well stick with the eden. IMHO it's the bass..then the speakers..then the head in that order.
 
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