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Most Disappointing Experience (Amps)

#41
There was a house gig that I used to sub in with where, the bass player would leave his 750 and an Ampeg 610 at the venue. With a passive Fender, it sounded awesome. With a Stingray however... super duper no mids. And as someone else pointed out, the EQ controls are really subtle until the edges of max and min (and to my ear centered in the wrong places to fix things). I couldn't get anything out of this rig that I had used many times before with great success.
The takeaway, If your bass is mid scooped, a mid scooped amp and cab will not be your friend.
Midrange is almost always the solution to terrible bass tone, and if not your Les Claypool.
 
#42
When I first started playing and making decent $$$ for gigs. I wanted to buy a Markbass rig. I saved and bought a Little Mark Tube 800 and a 4x10 4ohm cab. I really loved the bedroom tone of the rig, but when gigging, I found the tone lacking. I ended up selling the entire rig and kept going back to different Markbass heads, but have since sold them all. I did not like the tone when gigging.
 
#43
Also, to the guys who tried an SVT and couldn't get it to work. Here's is a secret that I'll let out of the bag, If you have a CL into an 810, take the mid knob and PIN it. It will sound a lot better starting from there.
 
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#44
Gluvhand said:
Ashdown MiBass 2.0. Bought it when I was looking to go back to gigging after a 25 year break. More than powerful enough for what I was doing but the most vanilla amp I've ever used. Couldn't get any grit out of it. Probably my fault. I keep it as a backup.
Click to expand...

I've just traded my MiBass 220... I don't think it's a "grit" amp at all, mine was either super clean or nasty clipping if pushed too far in the preamp stage. Very loud though and I liked the EQ. The cooling fan, not so much.
 
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#46
For me it was a Rumble 500 head . I read all the glowing reviews on Talkbass and figured it would make a great backup to my Ampeg PF800 . I used it with a bunch of different cabs of mine and with my band at practice and it just didn't do it for me , too boomy and indistinct . I flipped it and got a Genz Benz Shuttle 6.0 for what I sold the Fender for . Used it at practice and Boom , there was a great tone that I liked .

Also back in the early 70's when Peavey came out I was fairly stoked . Good prices and power . Several times I sat in with bands that used the standard Bass head and 215 cabs and just couldn't get a tone I liked . Always sounded kind of distorted and was hard to hear myself . The tone was usable but not what I wanted . At the time I was using either a Fender Bassman 100 or a Sunn Concert Bass head through JBL D-140 speakers in various cabinets .
 
#47
For me it was Acme cabs. Really liked the build quality and such, sounded great at home, took it with a Shuttle 6.0 to a full rehearsal and it just disappeared in the mix completely. I really wish Andy would put out a cab designed for SPL rather than trying to get a ruler flat response, but it's an option for those that like that I guess.
 
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#48
We had this one practice room that was completely furbished. It was owned by a church and one of our guys knew a guy who knew a guy and we were a jazz/funk/reggae band, so our practices were pretty civilized and our loudest player was the trumpet.
However, I remember entering this room and discovering something that passed as the classical SVT+Fridge combo at first glance. Closer inspection however yielded that this rig was more like what you would expect when you ordered an SVT+Fridge from wish.
The head was, if I recall correctly, labeled as 450W and solid state. The cabinet had mixed drivers and I've never seen one like this ever again. I've spent half a year of weekly practice sessions with that rig, trying any trick in my book to make it sound at least halfway decent.

The lows were muddy.
The mids lacked definition (which is their only job IMO)
The highs were shrill, not sparkly.
Nothing about this combo sounded even remotely good.
 
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#51
I unfortunately bought an E**n Metro and E**n 115 extension cab . . . . . at the time of transition from the Nordschow ownership period to the new buyer. The first set had to be returned immediately, and the brand new replacement was the worst money I ever spent on an amp. I took a HUGE loss just to get shed of the damned things. If I hadn't found a buyer when I did, it was on its way into the back yard and destruction by 12 gage, and only 00 buckshot (after a couple of slugs) was the only thing that would calm the monster they'd turned me into, knowing I'd blasted that pile of junk to the infernal regions.

The funny thing was I bought the E**n gear for tone after years of budget-conscious Peavey gear, all of which had the tone of a box of corn flakes, but were i-n-d-e-s-t-r-u-c-t-a-b-l-e, never had an amp problem once.
 
#52
MultiScaleMale said:
For me it was Acme cabs. Really liked the build quality and such, sounded great at home, took it with a Shuttle 6.0 to a full rehearsal and it just disappeared in the mix completely. I really wish Andy would put out a cab designed for SPL rather than trying to get a ruler flat response, but it's an option for those that like that I guess.
Click to expand...

Blasphemer!

Nah, just kidding. The mids (presence) can get lost when using the stack pic'd below. I have to roll-off the lower enclosure (no mid-range or tweeter) significantly to achieve some semblance of balance. That's one of the nice things about using a dedicated dual-channel power amp.

AcmeCabs.jpg


Riis
 
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#55
drumvsbass said:
Also, to the guys who tried an SVT and couldn't get it to work. Here's is a secret that I'll let out of the bag, If you have a CL into an 810, take the mid knob and PIN it. It will sound a lot better starting from there.
Click to expand...

The 810 cab is the issue in my view. I had a flatback for a while, and it worked for me with an ampeg style amp (V4 or SVT) with a bit of a mid boost but I hated it with other amps. Cabs that I like with other style amps will work with the ampegs just as well with less fiddling of the dials.
 
#56
Finally, an excuse to vent! Due to renting a rehearsal place with my band we're stuck with playing the "backline" there. It's not too bad. Rent is cheap, come and go all hours of the day, PA, recording studio, kitchen, s'all good, man. Except the bass gear. The guitarists of course get top of the line Mesa and Engl gear, the gold standard for playing metal.
The bass gear? EBS Evolution Proline 2000 4x12. It is the absolute worst piece of garbage I have ever had the misfortune of plugging in to.
No matter what I do, no matter how new my strings are, no matter how I set my MB800, no matter how much the guitarists turn down, NO MATTER WHAT I am either way too boomy and muddy or too shrill and trebly, there is no in-between.
I've always wanted to try a 4x12, believing them to be the perfect speaker arrangement for bass. Now I more than anything can't wait for the warm embrace of my 8x10.
 
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#58
el murdoque said:
We had this one practice room that was completely furbished. It was owned by a church and one of our guys knew a guy who knew a guy and we were a jazz/funk/reggae band, so our practices were pretty civilized and our loudest player was the trumpet.
However, I remember entering this room and discovering something that passed as the classical SVT+Fridge combo at first glance. Closer inspection however yielded that this rig was more like what you would expect when you ordered an SVT+Fridge from wish.
The head was, if I recall correctly, labeled as 450W and solid state. The cabinet had mixed drivers and I've never seen one like this ever again. I've spent half a year of weekly practice sessions with that rig, trying any trick in my book to make it sound at least halfway decent.

The lows were muddy.
The mids lacked definition (which is their only job IMO)
The highs were shrill, not sparkly.
Nothing about this combo sounded even remotely good.
Click to expand...
I did an outdoor memorial/tribute show, went to play my part and had the same experience: "Oh good there's an SVT. Ummmm where's the standby switch?" I thought there was something wrong with the amp, and soldiered through. When I got off stage and saw the back of the amp, I realized it was that solid state SVT shaped object Ampeg produced for a while.
 
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#59
I may have gone through 85% of all the brand name and boutique gear that's offered out there. With over 40 years of playing and gigging, I've plugged into a vast combination of amps, cabs, and combo's. And I still wonder and think about how pairing certain amps and cabs will sound, as compared to others.
Some hi-end gear that I owned, did disappoint my expectations. Much to my chagrin. Those items were either sold or traded. Only to be replaced with other gear that may also be replaced. It's like a revolving door - gear comes/gear goes.....
 
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