Power Amp Recommendations with Rusty Box

[Fraser100]

Hello folks!

First time poster and hoping some of you can help me out with some advice. I play in a rock band and I use a Rickenbacker 4003 with my friend's Tronographic Rusty Box preamp pedal. I play with a pick and I'm all about aggressive, mid range-focused tone similar to the likes of Geddy Lee and Chris Squire, along with underground heroes like David W. Simms of the Jesus Lizard and Bob Weston of Shellac.

I've yet to purchase an amp of my own and for the last year I've just been using whatever bass rig is in the room in the rehearsal studio complex we go to (we're a new band and have yet to play our first show). Most of the rooms have bass heads with effects loops, so I just plug into the Rusty Box and then go straight into the effects return. The Rusty Box gives me the colour I'm looking for, but more often than not I find I'm left with a tone that's just a tad too dark for my tastes and could do with being a touch brighter.

Tonight at practise I was using a Hartke 250 head with a couple of 4x10 cabs. As usual I had the RB going straight into the effects return, but much to my delight the Hartke had low and high pass contour controls which allowed me to dial in the EXACT tone I'm after.

My question is whether anyone can recommend a power amp unit that would work well with the RB and offer similar contour controls? The Harke head is relatively cheap and I know it would do the job, but I was curious as to whether there were any alternatives available? Any insight would be greatly appreciated

 

[jw23mind]

I can vouch for the VT Bass 500 (Tech 21), but into the preamp not effects return. That preamp makes pretty much everything sound better, plus I found having the post-eq and low-pass filter very helpful as the Rusty's EQ is pre-clipping. Shocked that you had a dark sound coming from the Rusty though! Another plus of the VT is the "bite" switch if you want still more brightness.

 

[Fraser100]

I can vouch for the VT Bass 500 (Tech 21), but into the preamp not effects return. That preamp makes pretty much everything sound better, plus I found having the post-eq and low-pass filter very helpful as the Rusty's EQ is pre-clipping. Shocked that you had a dark sound coming from the Rusty though! Another plus of the VT is the "bite" switch if you want still more brightness.

Thanks for your reply and recommendation! Yeah, I should probably state I like my tone to be super bright and 'zingy', so I suspect 'dark' by my standards is anything but to most folk. I've been reading elsewhere Tronographic are making plans towards developing a RB rack unit, so I'll probably hold off on buying my own until I hear more about this.

 

[Spupilup]

I spoke with one of the guys who created the Rusty Box this morning. He said "anything with an effects loop to bypass the preamp but a cheap old Crown D-150 would sound amazing." I can vouch for the Crown whether it's an older D-150 or a D-150 B. They are monster amps.

 

[Fraser100]

Thanks man!