Reiner Amplification Megathread

[MarkA]

Kirk, you can't have a crush on me. We haven't even met. I do have a pretty hunky avatar, though, it's true.

EDIT: Sorry to give you a hard time, Kirk. I don't think I've got a man-crush on JGR, but I'll have to see what my analyst says. I have bugged him off and on (about a rackable preamp, orginally) since I got to play an early version of his Box O' Tone at Mike Arnopol's place when we were discussing my first cab build. I played it and the Sonic Farm 2di4 there -- both seriously impressive boxes -- and I've followed the related threads about both and the amps they've spawned on here, since. If I'm interested in an instrument or amp and can talk to the guy who built it, I think that's pretty cool.

Are you calling it splits with your Power Jazz Bass Special, then? (Cool bass, long name.) I have considered picking up a second PJBS as a backup to my one-and-only (makes, sense, right?), but my attention is already divided among too many amps and cabs -- don't think I could handle bass sibling rivalry on top of that. Your mention of the affordability of the amp (the Studio 1200, or the BoT?) gives me an idea, though. I've been playing it through a power-amp. I should see what kind of magic it will work with a micro.

Good luck with your bass decision (I'm trying to make one, myself, but it doesn't involve the PJ) and with everything else!
-Mark

 

[MarkA]

VARIABLE IMPEDANCE CONTROL (EQ FLAT)

Okay -- this is a subtle set, for the geeks. Recorded the other night. There's a more full write-up in the description on Soundcloud, but here are the basics: Same bass, cab (MAS 112) and recording setup as before except that the mic is maybe 8" or so from the grill and pointed at the woofer, a little off center, instead of out in the room. I feel the mids and highs of the cab are more present in real life than they are here, but I think this is a better sound and more true to the feel of the cab. Since the mic is closer to the cab, it's harder to hear my narration of settings in the mic-ed recording, but that's just as well. It's harder to hear the cicadas outside and the clank of my fingers on the strings, too.

Neck -- impedance at noon, gradually dialed fully down, back to noon, then gradually dialed fully up, then back to noon.

Bridge -- impedance at noon, then gradually dialed up. Back to noon to finish.

Both pickups -- same riff, repeated with the impedance at 7:30 (not quite fully down), 9:00, 10:30, 12:00, 1:30, 3:00, 4:30 (not quite fully up). Back to noon to finish.

Direct recordings are the same thing, but direct from the BoT into the interface.

 

[MarkA]

Okay, I guess the subtleties of the impedance control are less exciting than some of the other stuff.

I don't have a recording of it, but I played an active six string through the BoT and dialing the variable impedance on the Box O' Tone down into the "Active" range (dial goes from "Active" in the first third of its travel, to "Passive" in the middle, to "Piezo" in the last third), while it loaded down the passive Fender some (I think I've got that right -- made both the articulation and the treble response feel softer, more rounded), felt like it gave the Active bass a little room to bloom -- bass felt more full and the sound less brittle with the dial down there. Not really a tone-shaping thing -- though you can use it as such at the extremes -- so much as an optimization thing, IMO. I'm thinking of this primarily as a bass preamp, but it's worth remembering that it's a D.I. that can be used for other things. In that context, the variable impedance thing is very cool. Don't know that I'll have a chance to try it with a piezo pickup (as on an upright bass), but I will if I can.

 

[MarkA]

Before I forget, the gain boost is a "stepped response" -- i.e. there's a little boost everywhere, but a little more in the mids, I think, than the bass. JGR can correct me if I'm wrong. At any rate, I hear the mids fill out a bit when I engage it and the bass boost is already engaged. I dig those two in combination.

 

[N. Kentucky Bass]

Hey Jonathan -

With the Studio 1200, can the DI and preamp out jack be used simultaneously without causing issues? I've got a hybrid application where I want to take the DI's XLR feed directly into a digital recorder's XLR input, and feed the 1200 's preamp jack into a powered headphone amp. I know ... weird! But if I can use what I've got without buying yet another device I'll be a happy camper!

 

[JGR]

Hey Jonathan -

With the Studio 1200, can the DI and preamp out jack be used simultaneously without causing issues? I've got a hybrid application where I want to take the DI's XLR feed directly into a digital recorder's XLR input, and feed the 1200 's preamp jack into a powered headphone amp. I know ... weird! But if I can use what I've got without buying yet another device I'll be a happy camper!

Yup, you can use them all simultaneously - just keep the unbalanced preamp out cable as short as possible so it doesn't pick up noise.

 

[N. Kentucky Bass]

Yup, you can use them all simultaneously - just keep the unbalanced preamp out cable as short as possible so it doesn't pick up noise.

OK, thanks. Due to my home studio/gear configurations, I have to use a 20-foot connector from the preamp out to the headphone amp. Just tried it and as you warn, this does create some noise but it's not a big deal because I'm only using the setup for monitoring as I record (easier to get the basslines right when the cans are on as opposed to dealing with open-room sound). I could have injected another DI box in front of the chain and grabbed a signal from that to the headphone amp but wanted to keep the bass-to-S1200-to-recorder link pure for highest quality recording signal.

 

[MarkA]

Exhausted, so I'll keep this quick. First gig with the Super BoT prototype: Killed, killed, killed, killed, killed.

 

[MarkA]

I had a days-long geek-out while hanging out with my brother last week. I made a bunch of recordings of my MAS cabs while I was at it -- those clips feature the cabs more than the BoT, as I'm going through the different cabs and flipping the mid/tweeter switches on each while keeping settings on the BoT flat, but they were all made with the BoT and they do let you hear the BoT with three different cabs.

All the clips are made with the EQ flat on the BoT and the same Fender I used above. Normally, I'd have the Variable Impedance on the BoT set between noon and 1:30 with this bass, but I was messing around with it and forgot it set at 8:15 or so, which softened up the attack and tone somewhat, but it's that way for all of the following clips, so it's at least consistent in that regard.



The above will play through all seven tracks in order (again, the BoT is set identically for all of them). You can read notes on the recording and look at the tracks separately and read their descriptions here Big E Speakers Part 4 - Quadraphenia | Page 102 | TalkBass.com or (soon) on their respective Soundcloud pages.

 

[John D Harris]

I had a days-long geek-out while hanging out with my brother last week. I made a bunch of recordings of my MAS cabs while I was at it -- those clips feature the cabs more than the BoT, as I'm going through the different cabs and flipping the mid/tweeter switches on each while keeping settings on the BoT flat, but they were all made with the BoT and they do let you hear the BoT with three different cabs.

All the clips are made with the EQ flat on the BoT and the same Fender I used above. Normally, I'd have the Variable Impedance on the BoT set between noon and 1:30 with this bass, but I was messing around with it and forgot it set at 8:15 or so, which softened up the attack and tone somewhat, but it's that way for all of the following clips, so it's at least consistent in that regard.



The above will play through all seven tracks in order (again, the BoT is set identically for all of them). You can read notes on the recording and look at the tracks separately and read their descriptions here Big E Speakers Part 4 - Quadraphenia | Page 102 | TalkBass.com or (soon) on their respective Soundcloud pages.

Very Nice; thanks!

 

[MarkA]

Very Nice; thanks!

Thank you. I'm glad if you found it useful.

Tiny update: BoT drives a micro (at least the Kustom KXB 500) well and easily through the effects return. Way more power on tap than you need to drive that -- or any poweramp ever touched by bass player, for that matter.

 

[JGR]

Indeed, there is a lot of juice on tap, but headroom is king!

 

[MarkA]

Even as a child, I was fond of juice.

 

[kd5uwl]

Geez guys .. I don't know what to say. This is what happened:

I packed away my Studio 1200 in its seemingly-made-to-fit Gigskinz bag for a couple of weeks and played my other amps: '67 B15, '14 V4b, '15 Ashdown CTM-15 (you gotta hear one to believe it .. this is a fantastic amp), and now a '01 Mesa Dual Rectifier (all-tube guitar amp) I'm working on for a friend.

All through my '11 Ampeg Heritage 810 (except for the B15 of course).

Today I pulled out the Studio 1200 (s/n 04) and plugged her back in. Geez. I just don't know what to say. Nothing can touch her in terms of tone or power. Now, the B15 .. there is nothing quite like its tone for recording. But it is a 30-watt amp at best, maybe less. And the Studio 1200 is a great studio amp .. who would have thought that from a 1200 watt ss amp. I've really enjoyed recording with it!

The Studio 1200 tone is just fantastic. I don't have anything else quite like it. And it stays that way from bedroom volume to arena volume. Dang, does it ever deliver the goods. I just love watching my neighbors down the street look this way and shake their heads. But none has what it takes to come knock on the door. What if they do? Just turn up until I can't hear the knocking. My house is paid for.

Jonathan, thank you so much. My wife even likes it. She only suspects I paid as much for it as I did my first car, which I did, but she has a good idea. But she thinks I got my money's worth and then some; coming from her, that's really saying something.

I feel sorry for the great majority of folks who will never have or even get to play one. This is really a limited set of production runs, right? JGR, how many of these do you think will ever actually end up in the wild? I'm truly curious about this and have wanted to ask for quite a while now.

I just wanted to check back in since I've been away for a while and say I'm still loving my amp and someone would have to offer me twice what I paid for it to even consider parting with it. Which I wouldn't.

Oh .. and if my neighbors ever have any complaints, I'm going to give them Jonathan's number. c:

 

[JGR]

Geez guys .. I don't know what to say. This is what happened:

I packed away my Studio 1200 in its seemingly-made-to-fit Gigskinz bag for a couple of weeks and played my other amps: '67 B15, '14 V4b, '15 Ashdown CTM-15 (you gotta hear one to believe it .. this is a fantastic amp), and now a '01 Mesa Dual Rectifier (all-tube guitar amp) I'm working on for a friend.

All through my '11 Ampeg Heritage 810 (except for the B15 of course).

Today I pulled out the Studio 1200 (s/n 04) and plugged her back in. Geez. I just don't know what to say. Nothing can touch her in terms of tone or power. Now, the B15 .. there is nothing quite like its tone for recording. But it is a 30-watt amp at best, maybe less. And the Studio 1200 is a great studio amp .. who would have thought that from a 1200 watt ss amp. I've really enjoyed recording with it!

The Studio 1200 tone is just fantastic. I don't have anything else quite like it. And it stays that way from bedroom volume to arena volume. Dang, does it ever deliver the goods. I just love watching my neighbors down the street look this way and shake their heads. But none has what it takes to come knock on the door. What if they do? Just turn up until I can't hear the knocking. My house is paid for.

Jonathan, thank you so much. My wife even likes it. She only suspects I paid as much for it as I did my first car, which I did, but she has a good idea. But she thinks I got my money's worth and then some; coming from her, that's really saying something.

I feel sorry for the great majority of folks who will never have or even get to play one. This is really a limited set of production runs, right? JGR, how many of these do you think will ever actually end up in the wild? I'm truly curious about this and have wanted to ask for quite a while now.

I just wanted to check back in since I've been away for a while and say I'm still loving my amp and someone would have to offer me twice what I paid for it to even consider parting with it. Which I wouldn't.

Oh .. and if my neighbors ever have any complaints, I'm going to give them Jonathan's number. c:

Hey Eric, good to hear from you - I was going to drop you a line and see how things are going (I harass all my customers if I don't hear from them periodically )

I'm working on the second run of five - #6 which is going to WRP, is almost done. My goal was to get ten done this year which I should be able to. I'm having a great time so I plan to just keep chugging away.

 

[thumbs&fingers]

It has been said over and over many times.......how natural and beckoning the studio 1200 is. But I'm gonna chime in and said again because it's true and because Jonathan is so cool to deal with. This amp is so EASILY tweakable and easy to dial in with regards to room, amp, and bass. There are other awesome amps, but they don't weigh this much (heavier) or the eq takes more skill to use (not stupid proof). I love products that are over thought by mad scientist types......instead of suits only looking at market share per cost of dollar.

Thank you Jonathan for your attention to detail.

 

[kd5uwl]

You nailed it, thumbs&fingers, everything you said there is what I was really trying to say.

Jonathan IS so cool to deal with. And every little detail IS so well thought out .. like the physical protection scheme ALL the way around the amp. And I like the fact that he chose HIGH QUALITY components, inside and out! Every part, knob, fastener .. instead of making compromises to hit a certain profit/price-point to make shareholders happy.

And the EQ and voicing are fantastic. But everyone just keeps saying that .. however, it cannot be overstated.

And Jonathan has provided a very personal touch, before AND after the sale. I just can't say enough about how pleased I've been with the whole deal. From watching the development come together to when I was eagerly awaiting mine to arrive, it has been such a pleasurable experience.

Those of you who have one coming -- you will find that the rest of us are not exaggerating, not in the slightest.

 

[MarkA]

I can't match that, but as I was giving the BoT prototype a final play today I noticed one more thing I like about it - it's nice and even across strings and across registers. It doesn't get thin high up on the G and doesn't start to compress more as you get low on the A and E. Nicely executed, there.

 

[Fuzzbass]

Shot from Saturday's parking lot gig with the loud rock band. It was a hot summer afternoon, however the breeze coming from my Reiner-powered NV610 kept me nice and cool. FOH was used for vox/kick only, so I was cranking pretty good.

I found a killer light OD setting on my B7K. Hard to see, but the EQ on the Reiner is noon across the board -- the rig sounded glorious with the B7K switched in and out! (I brought the VMT for extra/different dirt, but didn't really use it).

 

[Fuzzbass]

Backline, shmackline. The cab is mic'd because there was a problem with the DI on the Fender head. Unfortunately the stage crew was too busy to switch from mic to the Reiner's DI (and no, I wasn't about to "help" them with that).

If access to the stage wasn't such an ordeal I would've used my Berg NV610 as well.