Hello!
So I am a guitar player and I was asked to be part of a band as a bass player. I do have a low budget bass (Jay Turser 5 strings) to do some recording at home but I don't have an amplification rig. So I would like to have some help choosing a good rig for my needs. I'm on a budget of roughly 1200$, so I look for second hand items.
I need a kit for practicing, rehearsals and live playing. We will mostly play in small bars. For bigger venues, I will use the direct out to the house PA. We will play mostly modern rock and some full band acoustic rock songs.
Some of the local ads I may get are :
SWR Redhead combo 400w (725$)
Eden D410T-D (280$ +tx)
Ampeg SVT-410HLF (650$)
Eden D212-XLT (600$ +tx)
Eden D410-XLT with Eden Time Traveler 400w (1200w)
Eden D210-T (400$ +tx)
SWR WorkingPro 4x10 (400$ +tx)
Eden 410TN (550$)
Roland Serie Bass-100 combo 100w (600$ +tx)
Mesa Fathom 600w with Mesa 1x15 cab 600w (1200$)
Mesa Bass 400+ (1500$)
Those are the trusted brands I know of and I am open to other suggestions.
Thanks!
Let me give you some info on the Eden gear as I am pretty thoroughly familiar with it (was a moderator of the Eden forum before it died)
• The David sereis "
T" cabs were the earliest cabs that David Nordschow (aka: David Eden) produced under his own brand for bass players. They are excellent all around cabs but use an old type of connection called banana plugs. They also have 1/4" plugs, which work fine up to about 300 watts or so.
• Next came the David Series
XLT cabs. These cabs have a built in low-mid hump in their frequency response and are some of the very best sounding cabs that Eden produced. That bump in the low-mids gives your bass great definition and presence when playing in a group. The early ones used the banana plugs for connectors and the later production ones used the speak-on connectors, which are much better connectors.
• The next model of Eden David Series cabs were the
XST series cabs. These cabs had an extended frequency response (down to 30Hz on the D210XST), higher power handling, but were about 3db lower sensitivity. Basically that meant that the D-410XST could handle more power than the XLT, but because the sensitivity was lower, both the D-410XLT and the D-410XST had about the same maximum SPL (volume). The XLT was just as loud as the XST but didn't have as tight and focused a bottom end because the XLT's lowest frequency response was typically around 48HZ while the XST's were all in the mid-30Hz area. Both actually sound great with a 5-string but the bottom end of the XST is noticeably tighter sound. for a number of years after the XST's were introduced the SLT cabs still out sold them.
All of those cabs were top-of-the-line cabs when they were first made. Eden made a Nemesis Series for many years that was considered their mid-level and mid-priced product. The cabs had lower power ratings than the D-series but still sounded great. They later came back as the E-series.
Things get confusing after David Nordschow left Eden (sold Eden in early 2000's to USM, left in 2009). These David Series Cabs changed after David left Eden. They changed the name of the David-series cab to D-series cabs and that's what everyone typically refers to them now regardless of when they were made.
The
Nemesis cabs directly morphed into the EN series and then just E-series cabs after David left. Before that David had an E-series of cabs that were specifically made to match up with his E300-V all-tube amp, which turned into his WTB-300V amp in 2009 (same amp, different name, different cosmetics).
• The
TN series of cabs are the Terra Nova series cabs. In 2012 (actually last day of 2011) Marshall bought Eden and not too long afterwards both the
TN series (Terra Nova series) and the "new"
E series cabs came out. Both are lower priced and lower power handling than D-series. After Marshall bought Eden they came out with the TN series, which are arguably the direct replacement for the Nemesis series cabs. They are very nice cabs and although there is still a fair distance in the prices between the TN series and the D series, there's not that much difference in sound. Typically there is a decent difference in power handling. So are good sounding cabs
Marshall actually contracted David Nordschow to design some new compact cabs for them and although I don't know it for a fact, the very compact additions to the "E-series" cabs using whizzer cones instead separate tweeter horns appeared. I actually have two of the EX-112 cabs myself. Bought one for use in a small venue where my 410 cab scared them and it sounded so good the first night I used it that I bought a second one. It is/was about $600 less than the top-of-the-line D-series but there's nowhere near that much difference in sound.
• Of the Eden items you list, the best set up would be the
D410XLT with the WT400 amp. That amp however produces nowhere near 1200-watts, nor did it ever claim to. There should be a "max watts" box next to the power cord and that shows how many watts it can use, not the output. The output is in two boxes near the top of the back panel. One box has a hand-written number (400) in it and the other has the ohms spec in it (4). That amp was last offered in 2004. The WT550 amp with more watts and able to handle a 2Ω minimum load replaced it in the Eden line-up although they were both offered in 2003 and 2004. Both used the same chassis but different insides.
That
WT400 amp will produce 235-watts rms into 8Ω or 400-watts rms into 4Ω (hence the name WT400). It is not one of the most powerful amps that Eden ever made although it is generally considered by "Edenites" to be the best sounding amp of all. The D410XLT cab will handle up to 700-watts rms and that combination will sound great. If it's an 8Ω cab it will get up to 235-watts rms out of that WT400 and if its a 4Ω cab, all 400-watts will be available. Whenever someone put a WT400 up for sale on the Eden forum classifieds, it typically disappeared within one or two days. Thw WT400 does NOT go below 4Ω though. It will handle either two 8Ω cabs or one 4Ω cab. Many of the later Eden amps could handle 2Ω, but that one was not designed to do so.
The
D212XLT is also an excellent sounding cab and it would handle 400-watts rms. Later that handling power changed to 600-watts rms. That cab disappeared from the catalog in 2012. The D212XLT would definitely be a better choice than the D210T (handles 250-watts rms).
Hopefully that helps with the Eden stuff...
