I played a small gig today at a local music school, for a friend of mine who teaches there.
Usually the students from the previous year do a concert for the season opening but they don't have enough this year. Anyway.
In the corner of the music room there was a Torque T100B.
I know this amp very well. I started on a Peavey Rage guitar amp and this combo was my first real bass amp.
I used it for daily practice and early gigging, until I bought an Ampeg SVT 3 or 4 years later.
Needless to say, it saw a lot of playing and abuse, hazardous storage and transportation, sound experiments.
It was an extremelly simple amp. Volume, general bass-treble, 4 band EQ, compression and sensibility switches, that's it. Its selling point was a 15" Celestion driver.
Torque was a small brand, quite successful in these years, known for sturdiness and good price point.
It is very heavy upon standards of today, about 30kg.
I plugged in of course and I really liked what I heard. I don't know how I managed to play so much on it without a PA because it really doesn't have a lot of clean power. It crunches very pleasantly though with solid low mids that carry well.
The EQ is actually efficient and clever, something I didn't understand back then.
Bass and treble and of the shelving type and help getting rid of rumble or enhancing it.
The 4 bands are quite extreme band pass, so that if you turn them all counterclockqise so sound remain. They let you taylor the tone of the instrument. A bit noisy on boost.
Comp is a tad boomy and actually more of a limiter.
One thing for sure, I was able to get very good tones out of this little box. Experience probably showed here. If not for the lack of power and weight, it is amp aI could still see myself using today.
Pretty much perfect for a practice room.
I remember paying 3800 FF for it circa 1992, which would be 580 € back then or 984 € in today's money.
We are very lucky to have so much gear accessible for so little money today.
Usually the students from the previous year do a concert for the season opening but they don't have enough this year. Anyway.
In the corner of the music room there was a Torque T100B.
I know this amp very well. I started on a Peavey Rage guitar amp and this combo was my first real bass amp.
I used it for daily practice and early gigging, until I bought an Ampeg SVT 3 or 4 years later.
Needless to say, it saw a lot of playing and abuse, hazardous storage and transportation, sound experiments.
It was an extremelly simple amp. Volume, general bass-treble, 4 band EQ, compression and sensibility switches, that's it. Its selling point was a 15" Celestion driver.
Torque was a small brand, quite successful in these years, known for sturdiness and good price point.
It is very heavy upon standards of today, about 30kg.
I plugged in of course and I really liked what I heard. I don't know how I managed to play so much on it without a PA because it really doesn't have a lot of clean power. It crunches very pleasantly though with solid low mids that carry well.
The EQ is actually efficient and clever, something I didn't understand back then.
Bass and treble and of the shelving type and help getting rid of rumble or enhancing it.
The 4 bands are quite extreme band pass, so that if you turn them all counterclockqise so sound remain. They let you taylor the tone of the instrument. A bit noisy on boost.
Comp is a tad boomy and actually more of a limiter.
One thing for sure, I was able to get very good tones out of this little box. Experience probably showed here. If not for the lack of power and weight, it is amp aI could still see myself using today.
Pretty much perfect for a practice room.
I remember paying 3800 FF for it circa 1992, which would be 580 € back then or 984 € in today's money.
We are very lucky to have so much gear accessible for so little money today.
