Hotone Thunder Bass into Reactive Load Box...

[dustbunnies]

Hi Gang,

I was wondering if anyone here had experimented with using the Hotone Thunder Bass nano-amp into a reactive load box. If so, how did you find the results?

I'm thinking about using my Thunder Bass for some recording. I know it's possible to use the headphone output directly into a DAW interface. But in general, the headphone outs in other devices don't tend to yield the best quality sound. So I'm thinking about running the standard speaker out into a reactive load box (perhaps something like a Torpedo Captor, Suhr Reactive Load, or similar) then taking that output directly into the audio interface.

I was wondering if anybody had tried this previously, and were the results worth it when A/B'd against the headphone out.

TIA!

 

[Wasnex]

Hi Gang,

I was wondering if anyone here had experimented with using the Hotone Thunder Bass nano-amp into a reactive load box. If so, how did you find the results?

I'm thinking about using my Thunder Bass for some recording. I know it's possible to use the headphone output directly into a DAW interface. But in general, the headphone outs in other devices don't tend to yield the best quality sound. So I'm thinking about running the standard speaker out into a reactive load box (perhaps something like a Torpedo Captor, Suhr Reactive Load, or similar) then taking that output directly into the audio interface.

I was wondering if anybody had tried this previously, and were the results worth it when A/B'd against the headphone out.

TIA!

It seems a bit counter intuitive to spend USD $250 on a Torpedo Captor when street price for the Hotone is $140. I think you would be better off saving up for a nicer amp or perhaps a decent preamp.

A reactive load box would be effective in attenuating the Hotones output, but consider the following: A reactive load box is meant to simulate the variable impedance of a speaker. Tube amps tend to interact more with this variable impedance than solid state amps. Pretty sure the little Hotone is not a tube amp, so there may be little benefit to using a reactive load box.

You should be able to use the FX Loop Send for recording purposes rather than buying an expensive load box.

 

[dustbunnies]

Yeah, I'm well aware of just how utterly crazy this sounds.

FWIW, I mentioned the Torpedo and Suhr boxes primarily because a lot of people aren't familiar with load boxes at all. But truth be told, I've got a source on a well-reviewed private vendor who sells these things on Reverb for 1/4th of what they come in at the standard music stores. I figured $60 might possibly be worth a gamble here.

But you're entirely correct about the push-pull interaction on the speaker impedance primarily reacting with a tube architecture. You're right; it may not be much of a difference at all using a solid-state amp in such a setup. That alone may be worth sending this back to the drawing board.

And I may try it using the Send out of the effects loop. That one didn't occur to me and is likely worth an A/B test, thank you!

 

[lz4005]

Definitely try the effects send into a DI before you spend money on a load box. Unless you already have one.

I've noticed with mine that the headphone out seems to have less headroom than the speaker out. They definitely sound different.

Is there a reason you can't just mic a speaker?

 

[beans-on-toast]

What you are proposing will work. I suspect that you will find that the Hotone is noisy when used that way.

If you like the sound of the amp, use a mic on the speaker cab.

 

[P-oddz]

FWIW, I just recorded some scratch bass tracks with my Thunder Bass (first time using it outside of home practice), and with some minor post-production tweaking, the recorded tone was really solid on its own.

 

[JKos]

FWIW, I just recorded some scratch bass tracks with my Thunder Bass...

Through what configuration?

- John

 

[P-oddz]

Through what configuration?

- John

My bad... strike my first answer from the record.
I actually was sending the headphone out through a Radial DI (Pro DI, I believe).

 

[dustbunnies]

I've noticed with mine that the headphone out seems to have less headroom than the speaker out. They definitely sound different.

Thanks. That's what I'd suspected might be the case. Although, not being able to do consistent tests of this myself (see explanation directly below), I was hoping that I might get exactly this sort of feedback from other users here.

Is there a reason you can't just mic a speaker?

Well, the biggest reason would probably be that there is a very large ocean separating me from my main speaker cab. Much of my gear is in storage on another continent.

Also, Hong Kong apartments are super small (and super expensive!), so I don't have any room to spare for keeping a cabinet in our digs.

I've been working predominantly with preamps and speaker sims for the past few years. And while you can get pretty good results overall, I'm always looking for better. Most of my basses are likewise away in storage. But recently I couldn't help myself and picked up a new bass over here in HK (Ibanez Workshop SRAS7). So I'm putting together a tiny rig to record it with, and don't want to throw the $$$ or waste floor space on a traditional amp setup again.