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Mesa Subway Plus preamp

#42
Maiden Bass said:
Should have included a tuner and compressor! :rollno:
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Good question here actually... from what you guys here have been telling me, you have your favorite compressors and very few of you can agree on what's the best. Tuners are cheap but take up panel space on an already fairly large pedal. Same goes for a compressor, pretty soon this pedal would grow another couple of inches and be "too big" ;)
 
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#43
nostatic said:
This will be my application (at least one of them). Just got a new K10.2 - loved the older K10 for PA use. The tv gigs with the Subway pedal running with IEM gave me a sound that I am preferring to amp/cab for the moment. The new preamp will give a bit more flexibility, and being able to just show up to a gig with a K10.2 and the DI+ will be awesome.
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Really interested to hear your experience. Those K series speakers are pretty special.

I'm not a "tweeter guy", and I kind of like that more "old school" tone, so I'm a little hesitant to go down that road. Checking out that Omnicabsim Mini now. The K.2 stuff also has some nice built in EQ voices that might be useful. I think there is something to having bass gear that looks like bass gear, and more traditional voicing built in - at least for some folks.

There was a thread a while back where the whole preamp/di with powered cab was being discussed. It makes a lot of sense with the way guys are using pedal boards, IEM rigs, plugging into fx returns, taking there "studio" set ups to the stage, etc... A pair of Subway 115 powered cabs with your preamp pedal of choice sounds pretty cool to me.

Enjoy your new gear!
 
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#44
hennessybass said:
Really interested to hear your experience. Those K series speakers are pretty special.

I'm not a "tweeter guy", and I kind of like that more "old school" tone, so I'm a little hesitant to go down that road. Checking out that Omnicabsim Mini now. The K.2 stuff also has some nice built in EQ voices that might be useful. I think there is something to having bass gear that looks like bass gear, and more traditional voicing built in - at least for some folks.
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I'm typically not a tweeter guy either. I've been mostly using Duke's Hathor cabs which have a 3" paper cone for the highs, and before that Roger Baer's 1-12 cabs that use a 6" paper cone. I like the way they present the mids better than a typical woofer/tweeter setup. That said, there are a lot of variables with the crossover, cab design, etc that make it hard to have sweeping generalizations.

In the past with the original K10s, I found that they would sound great at lower volumes, but get in with a somewhat loud drummer and guitar and it would struggle. That is only a single cab though so a separate head and 1-10 cab would similarly struggle. I think the 10.2 is a more robust design. I haven't messed with the voicing yet, sounds pretty good in the default setup.

There are so many good options these days - very fun (and expensive) time to be a bass player. I think the biggest problem is reigning in the experimentation after awhile so you can consistently gig a setup. Sometimes you end up spending all your time tweaking things and on a gig that isn't my favorite thing to do. I seem to go through phases where I settle down, then change a bunch of stuff, then settle down. And to be honest my broken ribs put me on the couch for a lot of hours, and that is dangerous with a laptop and a credit card :D
 
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#46
nostatic said:
There are so many good options these days - very fun (and expensive) time to be a bass player. I think the biggest problem is reigning in the experimentation after awhile so you can consistently gig a setup. Sometimes you end up spending all your time tweaking things and on a gig that isn't my favorite thing to do. I seem to go through phases where I settle down, then change a bunch of stuff, then settle down. And to be honest my broken ribs put me on the couch for a lot of hours, and that is dangerous with a laptop and a credit card :D
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Agree. I think (for me at least) there is something about consistency in your gear. It lets you focus on the music and your playing, and not the tweaking.

But boy it sure is fun to try new things.

Sorry to hear about your ribs! That sucks.
 
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#52
nostatic said:
I have an OmniCab mini ordered - plan to put it on my small board, but that combined with the Subway+ would kill for any IEM or direct stuff.

That said, the last direct gigs I did the original Subway DI made my basses sound fantastic, no speaker sim necessary. I might end up not needing the OmniCab but since I like to experiment...
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I don't consider cab simulator a neccessary part of a bass preamp.

I am glad that my current pre has one, though...
 
#53
agedhorse said:
from what you guys here have been telling me, you have your favorite compressors and very few of you can agree on what's the best.
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Exactly. I wanna pick a comp of my liking. I don't wanna preamp's manufacturer choose one for me...

agedhorse said:
Tuners are cheap but take up panel space on an already fairly large pedal.
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Exactly. Since clip tuner weights nothing and costs close to nothing, there is no reason to put one on a preamp...
 
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