Here's my initial thoughts from trying it out in the shop, and mucking about with it for a while at home:
Pros:
- I can lift it with one finger.
- It's loud!
- Switchable graphic EQ and Character knob makes for versatile tone.
- Retractable stand underneath for subtle tilt-back.
- Tuner out, headphone jack, 3.5mm audio in, DI (pre/post EQ).
Cons:
- The pre-amp does NOT like being clipped; there's a nasty thud/pop artefact when you do. The power section seems to handle clipping a lot nicer.
- No fx loop.
- No parametric EQ (gimme a 2 dial semi-para over a graphic any day)
My '51 in particular frightened this amp a little - I'm going to recommend an external limiter or compressor be used in front of these amps. Something which compresses more musically than the preamp would be a good idea (and easily achievable).
The EQ sliders are centred on 50 / 120 / 400 / 800 / 3.2k / 10k, so it's very easy to get a nice low-mid bump @ 400hz. With a bit of added mids at 800, you should be able to cut through a mix in a fairly subtle way. That's the main thing I'll be listening for on friday's gig.
Took it out on both of last weekend's gigs, here's the review as promised. Both shows I was playing passive P basses with D'Addario Chromes. The 2008 MIM Standard has a Lindy Fralin pickup, the 1976 Aria Pro II has the original pickup.
Ibanez Promethean P5110 250/500 watt combo
Friday night - Hotel CBD, 96 dB noise restriction.
If this isn't the perfect gig for a 110 rig, I don't know what is! Setup the Promethean in the corner of the stage on a foldback cradle, pointing towards me and the drummer.
Settings:
- Preamp gain set to avoid clipping, around 9.30 - 10 o'clock.
- Bass & Treble flat.
- Graphic EQ dialled in to a pleasing lopsided frown:
A little boost to 400 and 800 Hz helps to cut through the mix and add definition without getting muddy. It always strikes me as funny that we play bass, but it's an instrument that fails or succeeds on it's midrange presence
- Vibe dialled all the way to Vintage.
- Master volume to about 10 o'clock.
Saturday night - the Pavillion, Albion.
Private function for an insurance company - we ended up attracting the attention of the office black sheep, a rather interesting lass with tatts and piercings, who turned out to be a bass player. (Oh crud - I hate knowing there's another bass player in the room!)
I kept the same settings, but this time I set it on top of the Trace Elliot 1518T cab (Kye brought it in, but I didn't use it). Quiet start, but we were rocking it pretty loud by the end of the night. I can happily report that the Promethean more than held it's own. I'd dialled in a tad more Master volume, and could see that the peak limiting was working lightly on my hardest notes. Generally speaking, I had a great tone for most songs.
Incidentally, we've got the gig again next year, no worries
Thoughts:
I don't trust this thing yet - my Fender TB600 has done about a hundred shows this year, and over 10,000 kms on the road. Yeah, it weighs a tonne, but it's really built like a shick brithouse. The Promethean looks and feels like a toy (in terms of weight) in comparison, and my prejudices are kicking in pretty strongly.
I do miss the 1.4 kHz boost that the TB600 offers by kicking in the Parametric EQ circuit - "When I come Around" by Green Day was not quite snarly enough for my liking on the first night, but on the second night I dialled in about 11 o'clock towards the modern side and it was great. Sadly, for the song after, I mistakenly wound the Master Volume down instead of the Vibe! The Ibby footswitch controls Mute and Vibe on/off, so it's conceivable I can dial in my perfect tone without the Vibe control, then kick it in for punkier numbers.
I'm looking forward to running a subtle compressor in front of it, just to even out some of my heaviest notes. The power stage clipping is unnoticeable, however, unlike the preamp clipping. The preamp doesn't like thumbed notes so much, but isolated pops like in the solo to "Steal My Kisses" or the chorus to "Blister in the Sun" sound great.
Running my SansAmp ParaDriver as a tube-overdrive got me very close to the Overdrive channel sound on my TB600 - again, dialled in some more Modern on the Vibe knob to taste, and I got perfect grit.
The one real problem with using a 110 combo is that it's too short to put your beer on
Overall, I'm just as impressed now as I was instore. This makes an excellent monitor for those gigs with decent FOH systems, and would easily handle any acoustic gigs all by itself.
c-
