Hotone Loudster (and NPAD!)

[Mayo Fan]

A line level signal into an instrument level input is not going to work. Probably due to the impedance mismatch or something.

Get yourself a GSS Baby Sumo. It seems to be the go to power amp these days to match with (tube) preamps. Or get another Tonehammer (maybe the 350 is within budget?) so you have the backup option of playing without the Oracle.

 

[gtirard]

Cool! Thanks for the info on setting levels. The bam does have gain and master so I’ll try your recommendation. It might be a power issue but it’s always felt like plenty of head room for what I was using it for, and then if I needed more I’d bring in the ampeg. The cab is a custom revsound 112, new double ported design, super efficient and sensitive, so I have never needed more watts to get a volume I’m happy with. I LOVE that cabinet and have really enjoyed its voicing overall so I don’t think that’s my issue. I’ll try some balancing act with the gain/master situation. I do think the Bam is the “issue”.



thanks for translating that info for me! I was looking at that one as well as an option, but figured the Hotone would be a better choice because I have the impression that the EQ on the TC BAM is what was sucking all the tone out of my sound through it, so I thought the Hotone because I wanted to avoid and EQ section that didn’t have an EQ defeat. Have also considered the Seymour Duncan power stage amps, but then I’m up into the Sumo price point. The real answer might be to try and sell the ampeg and TC and save some dough for a sumo. But I figured if the Hotone could be used as a cheap fix for small gigs then I would just try that. Any reason the Harley Benton would be a better choice than the Hotone besides the brands reputation? I guess cause I had the same thought as the French comment when it came to, if it’s just a power amp why not for bass etc. etc. might just be worth it to purchase one of these options and return it if the results are no good.

I haven't tried any of them, but it corresponds to what you are looking for with the Hotone, except that there is at least a happy bassist. Without this customer feedback I wouldn't have sent you the link.

the fact that the HB and the Seymour Duncan have an EQ doesn't mean it will suck your tone.

I use a Quilter Bass Block for the same need, and the EQ at noon sounds flat. Sometime I use the Quilter EQ to compensate for the room's acoustics, in addition to my preamp's EQ, it's not a bad thing.

 

[Mayo Fan]

P.s. congrats on the NPAD! I'm a Broughton SSDI owner, but before I bought that I strongly considered the Oracle as well. Seems to be a killer preamp from what I've read and heard.

P.p.s. I missed your remarks on the Baby Sumo being out of your budget. If I were you I'd try to sell the TC as there's no decent way to combine it with the Oracle without a power amp in of FX return. Maybe that could give you the extra budget needed to upgrade to the Baby Sumo or another Tonehammer?

 

[InkCow]

I was always under the impression that BAM200s had a pretty neutral tone? I haven’t had the opportunity to play one, so that could be way off.

How are you setting the BAM? I’m assuming it compresses/limits automatically, which the pedal pre could be kicking into if the gain is up.

BTW, I don’t know where you’re located, but the HB is 220v, which may be a non-starter.

 

[mobeme23]

Just trying to figure out a compact way to power the tone from this Oracle! New to the preamp/power amp thing. Happy to hear any suggestions! Thanks!

i love my Quilter Bass Block 800.
heaps of headroom, and very transparent for my preamp/DI tone shaping.

i do not have experience with the Quilter Interbass, though i suspect it will be similar character with much less headroom to push.

 

[Smokey P]

I haven't tried any of them, but it corresponds to what you are looking for with the Hotone, except that there is at least a happy bassist. Without this customer feedback I wouldn't have sent you the link.

the fact that the HB and the Seymour Duncan have an EQ doesn't mean it will suck your tone.

I use a Quilter Bass Block for the same need, and the EQ at noon sounds flat. Sometime I use the Quilter EQ to compensate for the room's acoustics, in addition to my preamp's EQ, it's not a bad thing.

Cool! Thanks so much for all your help on this one! It’s appreciated

P.s. congrats on the NPAD! I'm a Broughton SSDI owner, but before I bought that I strongly considered the Oracle as well. Seems to be a killer preamp from what I've read and heard.

P.p.s. I missed your remarks on the Baby Sumo being out of your budget. If I were you I'd try to sell the TC as there's no decent way to combine it with the Oracle without a power amp in of FX return. Maybe that could give you the extra budget needed to upgrade to the Baby Sumo or another Tonehammer?

Man, yeah the Oracle is really great! I went with it cause it checked all the boxes I needed it to, lots of color, good DI, and an easy HPF. Really loving it. But yeah, looking like I will be trying for a sumo if I can. I couldn’t honestly sell the ampeg as well in that case cause the sumo would be plenty of power for even my louder gigs. I actually got the Oracle partially because I do so many gigs backlined with tonehammers and their EQ is very confusing to me. There’s lots of other reasons but that was definitely a deciding factor. But the form factor on the tone hammers great, if I could get a 350 cheap enough that’s definitely a move.

I was always under the impression that BAM200s had a pretty neutral tone? I haven’t had the opportunity to play one, so that could be way off.

How are you setting the BAM? I’m assuming it compresses/limits automatically, which the pedal pre could be kicking into if the gain is up.

BTW, I don’t know where you’re located, but the HB is 220v, which may be a non-starter.

The TC BAM does have a very neutral tone! That’s why I was surprised to have this issue, could be an impedance mismatch like someone mentioned. I had the EQ at noon, the treble rolled back just slightly but I don’t remember my gain/master settings I was trying, probably just my usual which is gain at a bout half and volume according to need. Going to try tonight cranking the volume and just using a tiny amount of gain. And I am indeed in the US so good to know the HB is on euro power!

 

[JeezyMcNuggles]

After wanting an Arkham Oracle something bad for about 2 year I now have one and it is BEAUTIFUL! Thru the “power amp in” jack on the back of my ampeg PF500 it is totally glorious! However, for most gigs and rehearsals I just use a tc bam200, plenty of power and unremarkable for what I use it for. My problem is that when I plug the Oracle into the main input of the TC bam200 the preamp of the TC absolutely SUCKS ALL THE TONE out of the Oracle and makes it basically sound like the TC with maybe a little something, very different from the 3D extra warm slamming tone I get when using the power amp section of my ampeg. So I perceive the problem to just be that the TC’s preamp EQ just doesn’t jive with the Oracle. So I am looking for a very compact power amp for small gigs and rehearsal and the Hotone Loudster seems like it would fit the bill. Does anyone have experience using the Hotone Loudster for bass? Any reason to think that it wouldn’t work or would be tuned with an eq curve that’s unfriendly to bass? Or any reason to think it wouldn’t sound more similar to the power amp section in the ampeg (just obviously with ten times less power). Seems like it’s advertised for guitar because it’s relatively low power, but the 40watts into 8ohms should be fine for the small stuff.

View attachment 4841138

A power amp, with no preamp, is just an amplifier. The signal strength it will accept, and how clean it pushes it back out, are the deciding factors. Pretty much, do you want a cheap power amp, or do you want a nice one? Money is the main factor in that decision.

For me, peavey has always suited my power amp needs just fine, for a modest price. Reliable, but not top shelf signal.

There are much better, at far steeper prices.


I have zero experience with any hotone products. But people seem to love their little desktop amplifiers and such.


I plugged into a Duncan Power Stage once, it was awesome. Price fit the bill though.

 

[JeezyMcNuggles]

After wanting an Arkham Oracle something bad for about 2 year I now have one and it is BEAUTIFUL! Thru the “power amp in” jack on the back of my ampeg PF500 it is totally glorious! However, for most gigs and rehearsals I just use a tc bam200, plenty of power and unremarkable for what I use it for. My problem is that when I plug the Oracle into the main input of the TC bam200 the preamp of the TC absolutely SUCKS ALL THE TONE out of the Oracle and makes it basically sound like the TC with maybe a little something, very different from the 3D extra warm slamming tone I get when using the power amp section of my ampeg. So I perceive the problem to just be that the TC’s preamp EQ just doesn’t jive with the Oracle. So I am looking for a very compact power amp for small gigs and rehearsal and the Hotone Loudster seems like it would fit the bill. Does anyone have experience using the Hotone Loudster for bass? Any reason to think that it wouldn’t work or would be tuned with an eq curve that’s unfriendly to bass? Or any reason to think it wouldn’t sound more similar to the power amp section in the ampeg (just obviously with ten times less power). Seems like it’s advertised for guitar because it’s relatively low power, but the 40watts into 8ohms should be fine for the small stuff.

View attachment 4841138

Oh, you're looking at Thomann? Get a Benton Bass Block. It's cheap, powerful, and you can bypass the preamp with the click of a button.

It's like a knock off quilter block.

 

[Smokey P]

My dearest low end dwellers! The issue has been resolved! @basscooker pretty much had the solution. It is a ‘clean headroom’ issue that was resolved by following Cookers advice on how to set the gain and master on both the Oracle and the TC Bam200. In case anyone else ever has a question about this, here’s how to set it up IMO YMMV and so on, but it’s worked pretty well for me. Set gain on the Oracle to taste, I feel it shines tonally when the gain is set just below the point of break up. It’s awesome with my stingray cause if I want to put it into some pretty noticeable grind I just either roll my volume up to max on the bass (usually sits at 75%) or I can switch from parallel (my usual) to series and that increase in output from the bass plus diggin in with the fingers puts it into hairy mode. Set the EQ on the Oracle to your preferred settings and then crank the master on the Oracle to be sitting between noon and 3 (mine starts to get noisy beyond that but I run a lot of treble in my sound). Then into the input on the TC BAM200, crank the master volume on the bam to between 12 and 3 o’clock, the higher the better, and then CAREFULLY AND BARELY turn up the gain on the TC BAM (or ELF or gnome or other micro head with no FX return) just to the point that it starts picking up the signal, I mean BARELY on at all with the gain. That’s what is working very well for me. Still doesn’t have the low end of the Ampeg 500 due to the headroom, I compensate but leaving the low switch engaged on the Oracle when using the TC and also using the EQ on the TC to add a little bit of low end, just to about 1 o’clock maybe 1:30 on the dial. Also, with the ampeg I have the HPF switched on nearly all the time on the Oracle, when using the TC it depends on volume, how much low end I’m pushing, being careful with my speaker etc.. In all instances once I have it all set up I am primarily using the master on the Oracle to adjust my volume level thru both set up’s. That’ll change if there’s a FOH involved I guess but good enough for me!

Thanks to everyone for your help! Much appreciated, glad I got some good advice before I just threw what little money I have to throw at the problem. Still sounds better thru the ampeg but the TC gets really close when I run it like that, at least its really letting the Oracle shine thru much MUCH more and I can hear all the versatility that the Oracle eq has thru the micro head now. Happy with the set up!