Hi guys, marry Xmas to all of you, and I must say, anybody out there struggling with a "tiny beginner" amp such as a B15 or a LB30 and that "awful load note", I'm willing as a Xmas gesture to take over these amps!! 
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new amp day!!! Ashdown Little Bastard
- Thread starter DerekP
- Start date
What's that in English? You're not making any sense.
In case you hadn't noticed, I was cautioning the enthusiasts that they may need more power than 30W.
Stadium gigs with 30W is possible. Not likely, but possible, and the FOH sound would be the best ever. No doubt you are one of the rock gods that contributes to crappy FOH sound with their kilowatt rigs that can't actually carry the stadium.
Exactly,Downunderwonder said:
The Edge from U2 use a Vox AC 30 in stadium gigs, like many he mic them up and use in ear monitor.
Geddy manage just fine with the 0.5W his sansamp pushes his tone into the PA.
With good PA support there are many possibilities.
Jimmy M..... how does the upright sound through the tube head. The reason I ask is amongst the many amps I've owned were a Mesa 400+ and a Peavey Alpha 160w. I struggled with the upright being too warm with them and so went back to SS amps (plus I struggled with the weight of the Mesa!).
That's just as daft as saying I have 30 amp into a 1x10 30 watt handling cab but I can also drive an 8x10 with the same power and it will be eight times louder.
You've obviously discovered the perpetual motion dream where it costs no more to run eight one hundred watt light bulbs than it does to run a single 100 watt bulb.
Why not follow it through to your illogical conclusion and just use 30 watts for FOH as well if what you and other dreamers believe the tosh you're saying.
BTW 8x10s came out way back (probably before most of you were born) when speaker handling power was very low.
Like most of the massive FOH rigs of the past with JBL 4520s/4560s massive mids and tops loaded with at best 100 watt handling speakers which you don't see today at concerts.
Bassman62 said:
???
I think you missed JimmyM's point (and other's as well).
BECAUSE of high powered FOH systems and inear monitoring you CAN actually use a low powered tube amp on stage.
With my now defunct alternative rock/funk cover band I've been using inears without any amp on stage at all.....
As long we're talking about reasonably sensitive speakers (*cough*basson*cough*), actually it is possible to do so. Theoretically it is "eight times louder", but I think it's more like "damn, this is loud!"
Marty, I'll be honest...I am completely bewildered by the idea that a tube head is "too warm" for upright. Always have, always will. YMMV, but the best sounds I've ever had on upright were using my B-15 or SVT.
More like three or four times louder. So you start out with one 10", double it, and you gain 6db. Double it again, and there's another 6db you pick up. Double it yet again, and there's another 6db. I'm a little slow with algorithms to figure out just how much louder that is than one 10", but I'd estimate somewhere in the 3x or 4x region. Sound does not work like lighting. The science of sound has zero to do with the science of lighting and cannot be compared in any way.
What the hell does perpetual motion have to do with anything? Are speakers light bulbs? No they are not. In order for your perpetual motion silliness to hold any water, then that would mean that an 810 and a 110 would be the exact same volume when plugged into a head with the same amount of available wattage. I and a few hundred thousand other bassists have enough experience with doing it to declare without hesitation that an 810 will be a LOT louder than a 110 with the same wattage going through it. If you don't think it's possible, then you don't know the first thing about how speakers work. Neither do I
but I know that much.Now you're just being a PITA. Did you not notice the microphone in front of the cab in the pics of my B-15 stacks? Where do you think that microphone plugs into? My butt?
If I play a large gig where I have PA inadequate for anything but vocals, I bring a more powerful rig. But easily 90% of my gigs are with a good PA, so I take advantage of it, and I use a B-15 or a more powerful rig turned down to about the same volume as I turn up my B-15 rig, and I let FOH take care of it. And almost every gig I do without good PA is small enough to where I could get away with the B-15 and still have plenty on tap. I've done it plenty of times. For you to sit there and call me a "dreamer" is highly insulting and based on nothing but your own prejudices. It's certainly not based on any empirical evidence of your own. I do it on a regular basis. I have evidence I do it on a regular basis. I have played 10,000 seat arenas with a 25w B-15 and have been asked to turn down.
What does that have to do with anything? You mean to say an 810 made today can handle more power than one made 40 years ago? No kidding?
LOL! Dude, I think he's dead serious. And you know what? He's right...all those gigs I did with B-15's...I was lying. It's all a big scam. I knew that if I said I used a B-15 on gigs, then a few years later Ampeg would make a new B-15 and I would get big kickbacks. Never mind that when I started using a B-15 on gigs, Ampeg was owned by SLM and is now owned by LOUD.
I was going to respond to Bassman62's post, but Jimmy already said everything that needed to be said.
As was the light bulb analogy, which failed to account for the fact that eight 100w bulbs will generate significantly more lumens than a single bulb.
Never mind all that. It is a shame that TB has rained on your parade. Those who can't appreciate the value of a simple low powered tube head should probably find a different thread to read.
I say nice score. I'm very interested to hear how it works out for you!
Tricky to get a picture of the amp in low light - darn flash reflects of the chrome too much - but here is my Little Bastard with my new VS115 cab. 'll be using this setup for most of my gigs.
Here's just the cab:
Here's just the cab:
Nice rig.
Is the cab sealed or rear ported?
That cab would look great with my VJ. Looks like the EPI guitar cab.
Is the cab sealed or rear ported?
That cab would look great with my VJ. Looks like the EPI guitar cab.
Thanks!
I cannot compare to ABM cabs, have never played through any. The cab has a thin shelf port - look on the right side of the cab. Tone? Always hard for me to describe. It is not boomy at all. Very present sound. Lots of mids. No speaker breakup with the Little Bastard. All the distortion is the head. I guess the best way to describe it with the LB is punchy, good low mids (tight bottom?) and pretty loud. The cab is not very heavy and is easy to move.
I cannot compare to ABM cabs, have never played through any. The cab has a thin shelf port - look on the right side of the cab. Tone? Always hard for me to describe. It is not boomy at all. Very present sound. Lots of mids. No speaker breakup with the Little Bastard. All the distortion is the head. I guess the best way to describe it with the LB is punchy, good low mids (tight bottom?) and pretty loud. The cab is not very heavy and is easy to move.
Thank you! By no means am I a "rich kid" It took me almost a year to save up for a new amp. I'm a touring musician and I've been in the same band for over 10 years and things are finally looking up for us.... As far as the LB goes with a sealed cab (ampeg 4x10he) it can easily keep up with my fairly loud indie rock band. Bottom line is you cannot compare a 30 watt amp with say a 500 watt amp, obviously it won't be as loud but personally for me that cranked overdriven tone is bliss!
