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Micro Amp With The Most Tube Growl?

jnammy

jnammy

Sep 23, 2000
993
253
Orange County, CA
#1
Can someone tell me which micro amp (or light combo) comes closest to producing the most tube growl?

I'm not looking for the warm vintage tube sound nor the fully electric guitar distortion tube sound either; just slightly overdriven, growly, tube sound.

An example of the tone I'm looking for is on "Black Velvet":


How much does compression come into play with this sound?

I've had both ver. 1 & 2 of the VT Bass pedal and no matter how I set it, it just sounds mushy and distortion guitarish to me instead of a tight, growly tube sound.

Can the Aguilar Tone Hammer pedal do this? What about the TH 350?

I understand I will be getting a lot of responses that say "A real tube amp is the only way!", but I'm really looking for a micro amp that comes close.
 
#2
I think that if you wanted the "black Velvet" bass sound. Your going to have to put on a set of flat or round wounds to get a (less ting) sound. The tone seems to be cut significantly. Regarding the amp.... I don't know. I've got a Micro Vr that might do the trick, although if your looking for more than 200 watts you'd have to think away from Ampeg.
 
#6
Genz Streamliner - Wide open tube tone... deep but warm
Mesa Walkabout - lots of pleasant growl with that tube like deep, bloomy low end
Aguilar TH500 - deep, open bass, and lots of tube-like midrange complexity... it GROWLS
TC RS750 - lots of mid warmth, low end kind of emulates a sealed 10 sort of vibe (warm mids, tight bass)
 
#8
bassgod0dmw said:
The Walkabout can do a nice job. I'm not really sure if that's considered micro though.
Click to expand...

Agreed. If you can't handle the 1-12 Walkabout, you are looking for one tiny rig. You can even get a little overdrive if you have the right pre tube installed.

By the way, the bass sound on Black Velvet is a keyboard. Just saying.
 
#15
Roadkill said:
The album version is a synth.
Click to expand...

5 string maple neck fretless synth..........with flatwounds! :hyper:

I just went through the same thing you're going through and looking for the same tone. I wanted something to offset the 45 pound Kilo.

I went with the Streamliner 900. I tried to head in a different direction. None of my music friends (whose opinions I trust) would let me.
 
#16
I read a lot about the bass on that song, when we learned it several years ago. It was a keyboard, but was likely playing bass samples, probably of the songwriter's bass, who was a bass player and played with Alannah.

My fretless is a 5 and we did play it in Eb. Most of the time, I used a flat wound setting on my Line 6 Variax 5 and got close enough...again, if I dug in a bit at the right places.
 
#17
Steve Dallman said:
I read a lot about the bass on that song, when we learned it several years ago. It was a keyboard, but was likely playing bass samples, probably of the songwriter's bass, who was a bass player and played with Alannah.

My fretless is a 5 and we did play it in Eb. Most of the time, I used a flat wound setting on my Line 6 Variax 5 and got close enough...again, if I dug in a bit at the right places.
Click to expand...

For emulating that tone on bass, that is all about a strong low mid presence with lots of 'complexity and harmonic distortion'. A bass with big old classic Bartolini soap bars (like a Roscoe), with the blend favoring the bridge pickup, and the player digging in relatively close to the bridge (fretless or not) will get you there.

Of the amps mentioned, if that was the vibe I was going after, it would be the Aguilar TH500 all the way.
 
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