new amp day!!! Ashdown Little Bastard

[DerekP]

How big are your shows? Do you mic it up? Do the soundguys still ask you to turn it down?

Ive only used it for one show because we're recording not gigging right now, it was around 300 people with PA support (direct out from head) I had the volume just over half way and I had plenty of stage
Volume! I would normally have it mic'ed but the sound guy insisted he DI it.

 

[DerekP]

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 really liked the vs 212... I'm waiting for the 15 to come in so I can compare them both and I'm sure I'll walk out with one of them!

 

[dustinfennessey]

I love my little bastard!

 

[shwashwa]

so how does this amp sound with upright?

 

[rodl2005]

so how does this amp sound with upright?

I've done a few shows- mainly restaurant, small clubs- with upright & elec(use a BOSS A/B/Y switcher & Realist pup - Fishman Plat.+ PRO pre on the upright- but only add a little comp. & EQ ONLY IF room needs it- usually it's almost bypassed)

Even used the Li'l B. with upright plugged straight in-no Fishman- & sounds LOVELY! Rich warm lush tone - remember the LB-30's EQ is totally interactive- all EQ off = NO volume at all.

 

[sad_katz]

I've done a few shows- mainly restaurant, small clubs- with upright & elec(use a BOSS A/B/Y switcher & Realist pup - Fishman Plat.+ PRO pre on the upright- but only add a little comp. & EQ ONLY IF room needs it- usually it's almost bypassed)

Even used the Li'l B. with upright plugged straight in-no Fishman- & sounds LOVELY! Rich warm lush tone - remember the LB-30's EQ is totally interactive- all EQ off = NO volume at all.

Thread hijack:

Do you use different cabs with the upright or the same setup?

 

[Bassman62]

Tried one out last week at our local music store in the UK, it was quite a nice sound at shop levels but when cranked up it made you realise that it would need augmenting with FOH on all but the smallest of live gigs

 

[rodl2005]

Yeah, for me it's only loud enough for my 4 piece blues/jazz gig. But it does that SUPERBLY!
IT just handles our motown show, but we've FOH PA support. But it holds it own on a pretty loud stage.

I do use same cabs for upright as electric bass too. Usually Berg AE212 or AE112

 

[shwashwa]

is this head based at all on the ampeg b15 amp? i know they make a flip top version, but is that where the similarities end? i noticed in the pics in this thread that there is some printed circut board. not a huge fan of that...

 

[JimmyM]

PCB's are here to stay. They seem to work well for the most part. I see a lot of old amps with PCB's. Not too shabby performance if you ask me.

 

[KPJ]

is this head based at all on the ampeg b15 amp? i know they make a flip top version, but is that where the similarities end? i noticed in the pics in this thread that there is some printed circut board. not a huge fan of that...

Not at all. Completely different tone circuit. No sound passes with the tone controls fully counterclockwise as well as the bass and mid frequency shift switches.

 

[KPJ]

My phone is an iPhone 3g, so it only takes crappy low-light photos.

This is a fill in gig I did last night. First gig I played with the LB where I wasn't running sound. Soundman took a line direct but at the end of the night he told me he didn't put the bass in the house mix. Kept up with guitar, drums, keys loud harp.

 

[Bassmec]

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.

Which produced extraordinary efficiency by todays standards making as much as (with the horn loading of the 4560 cab)
The 106 dB 1 watt 1 meter with a K130 driver, of course
loudspeakers actually assist each other in a physical relationship called coupling. So yup add another in close proximity you get the equivalent of increasing amp power by a factor of two, equating to about 3 dB increase in level.
In the seventies watts were expensive so everything that could be got was got from speaker efficiency, horn loading and coupling. Now all we do is chuck huge power at massive yet lightweight motor structures in basic lightweight reflex cabinets. Its not big and its not half as clever.
Get an efficient 8 X 10 or a 4 X 15 for your little B and get quite loud.
Or get a Small block 427 and a 1x10 for a very short cab life and about the same sound level.
Thats how it really works.

 

[Bassman62]

In the seventies watts were expensive so everything that could be got was got from speaker efficiency,

Watts have never been expensive (yet more tosh), efficient speakers and their handling of power has always been the limiting factor.
They've always been able to produce more watts and build speakeras to handle them but it has taken time to develope the efficiency that is required.
In the 70s Gauss were turning out 200 watt handling 15s but what a letdown when you bought one as I found out to my cost.

 

[Bassman62]

The 106 dB 1 watt 1 meter with a K130 driver, of course.

You missed out the misleading bit about the 106 dB @ 1khz @ 1 watt @ 1 metre frquency used in those days.
How many singer, guitarists or Bassists played at 1khz?

 

[Korladis]

As I recall, the SVT and similar high powered (for the time... 300 watts was high power) amps were quite pricey.

 

[Bassman62]

My phone is an iPhone 3g, so it only takes crappy low-light photos.

This is a fill in gig I did last night. First gig I played with the LB where I wasn't running sound. Soundman took a line direct but at the end of the night he told me he didn't put the bass in the house mix. Kept up with guitar, drums, keys loud harp.

Very unorthodox positioning of gear, quite frankly never seen anything like it on an actual gig.

 

[KPJ]

Very unorthodox positioning of gear, quite frankly never seen anything like it on an actual gig.

That's the whole stage, sort of a cubby. It's hard to tell, but my amp is set up in a corner and the drum throne is in the opposite corner. That probably helped with the bass projection. The guitar and harp amp had to be in front of mine because there was no place else to go!

 

[Bassman62]

As I recall, the SVT and similar high powered (for the time... 300 watts was high power) amps were quite pricey.

The 60 watt Ampeg head I tried in the 70s was way above the price of similar Marshall, Orange and Hiwatt (how much do you pay for a nameplate?).
As with speaker cabs the speakers in the 4x10 £499 $790 Trace Elliot bass cab cost a total of £40 $63 which made it £459 $729 for a wooden box.
Like computer parts they milk the price originaly.

 

[Korladis]

That was a lot more money then than it is now.

Also, the Ampeg would have been imported from the USA, making it more expensive.

Here, Orange gear costs more than Ampeg.