This is my follow-up on the Fender TB-600 Pro head. I have used it for a few months now and have played it at a number of rehearsals and shows and am really happy with it.
Regarding the weight, yes it is heavy. I have it mounted in a 4 space rack with a tuner and power conditioner as well so I am probably pushing 60+ lbs but that is fine with me. I, like the some of the other members do not understand what the fuss is about weight. Simply put, heavier bass heads have always sounded better to me; case in point: the SVTs being the best sounding heads I have ever heard. I played GK heads for years and have tried out some of the little micro amps which to me seem kind of embarrassing, and something was always missing from lightweight, primarily solid-state heads. After playing an SVT for a while and lugging that around, I'm fine with the weight of the head. Lifting it is good for upper body strength & when I am really happy with the sound of an amp, the weight is worth it. I just can't buy into all these little 'micro heads' floating around; they don't stack up. Case in point 'Mark Bass' etc. = total bummer to me.
This amp is ideally paired with a 4 ohm speaker load for maximum grindage & wattage but I have been using it with an ampeg 410(400w into 8 ohms) in clubs 350-500 capacity with big sound/PA's and I barely have the master up past 3. When I hear players talk about certain seemingly high powered amps not being 'loud enough' I wonder where they are playing. If you are playing anywhere with a decent p.a. & front of house guy and not some bar somewhere, you're never going to really tap into the headroom of your amp and will never have nearly as loud as it could be. A lot of pros use in-ears with very low stage volumes, and if not, you can get plenty of bass in the side-fills and wedges to hear yourself. So this head is plenty loud. The most common sign of an amateur band is usually, for starters, too much stage volume; too loud.
Re: tone, if you want straight up 'clean' bass tone, I don't think this head is for you. Even with the 'tube overdrive' section completely off w/very little gain, this thing is still very warm and creamy. Its basically the old Fender Bassman sound with a more punchy modern edge due to the solid state power amp, so for me, the best of both worlds, but if you want really piercing high end and slap & pop studio guy tone without tube growl, you'd be better off with GK or SWR even.
Lastly, the direct signal out of this head is great. I got rave reviews from various sound guys about it. I always used to use a sansamp driver for the d.i. but that can be a little farty, but the d.i. out of the TB-600 is really nice pre or post eq. Also the 'room balance' is a nice touch. Depending on the room, weather its muddy, boomy, eats up low end, whatever: you can adjust the room balance to get more perceived low end, or less w/more clarity and mids, without effecting the direct signal out of the head at all, so thats a nice feature.
Btw, I don't work for Fender or anything like that and blindly ordered the amp from them without trying it out so i didn't know what to expect but I am very happy with it.
Hopefully more players catch on to this amp, though I'm seeing more of these amps pop up here and there these days.
