• TalkBass has been independent since 1998. Add your voice.
    Create a free account to reply to discussions, view embedded media, and browse with fewer display ads.
    Join free Log in
    Want zero display ads or expanded classifieds tools? Compare plans.

Stoner/Doom Bassist Thread Part 13: The Lost Thread

#521
It definitely sounds like something is more wrong with your 1200s than I would know how to diagnose, I have never got anyhting but wanted gain from the OD channel, never any weird clipping or clicking. Same with the low end, it's never wooly for me, always clear and pronounced, with more than enough mid/treble to balance everything out.

Nick has a Sound City 200, which was modded but I forget how. It's an awesome amp, an absolute beast for guitar, real loud and clean and takes pedals amazingly. I love 200 watt tube amps for guitar, they just have so much heft to them.

I have used it on bass, it sounds good, but not my cup of tea. Passive EQ and not enough headroom for my tastes. If I found one on the cheap I'd pick it up though, unfortunately Sound Citys are getting really expensive anymore.
 
#522
beebassdude said:
haha, am i THAT predictable!? lol

honestly im not sure. i took off the grills on my cabs to see if the speakers were getting pushed too hard, and even at loud volumes they were barely moving, so i know it wasnt a power issue. but when id dig into the strings (especially the 2nd string, a D for me on frets 3-5) id get this nasty click/snap noise after a few seconds of hard picking. we tried killing off the gain but it was still doing it. maybe thats just SS distortion which i think sounds terrible, but i dont know. it wasnt expensive enough for me to have my tech look it over, and even at mid volumes where i wasnt trying to crank it, the tone just wasnt for me. Even my drummer noticed how much better the SVT sounded with my setup on clean. the bass response on the SVT is much smoother and musical, whereas the 1200S could get bassy as all hell, but it was more muffled and wooly sounding lows.

Ron if you read this, i know a dude in your band uses a sound city, which model is it, whats your take on that and have you ever run your bass thru it? im eyeing one of those as id like to try one as my secondary amp. i might just go the SS sunn/acoustic route again, but i just have a mad boner for tubes with my setup haha.
Click to expand...

I had some nasty stuff happening when I used the Omni, but I think that was due to the active electronics running the input too hot.

And yes, the day you switch to class d and featherweight gear is the day this thread closes down. :D We expect certain things here, Bee. Bee's cabs look like stone henge, Laz will get Lazzed on atleast one more custom something. (even if he doesn't, we are all mentally prepared for it). Dunwich will continue to build GAS inducing gear. MC will continue to find cheap gear at music go round. Sam will have another masterpiece record. Corey will eventually record his own solo record after tired of dealing with cancelled practices... We will talk about Weedeater and if Dixie uses pedals or not.

Like I said, we expect certain things. :D


Alright, back to the grindstone.
 
#523
Ron Now said:
It definitely sounds like something is more wrong with your 1200s than I would know how to diagnose, I have never got anyhting but wanted gain from the OD channel, never any weird clipping or clicking. Same with the low end, it's never wooly for me, always clear and pronounced, with more than enough mid/treble to balance everything out.

Nick has a Sound City 200, which was modded but I forget how. It's an awesome amp, an absolute beast for guitar, real loud and clean and takes pedals amazingly. I love 200 watt tube amps for guitar, they just have so much heft to them.

I have used it on bass, it sounds good, but not my cup of tea. Passive EQ and not enough headroom for my tastes. If I found one on the cheap I'd pick it up though, unfortunately Sound Citys are getting really expensive anymore.
Click to expand...


im looking at a Mark IV 120 (L or B not sure, but theyre almost the same from ive read). it has the active EQ in it, and theyre supposedly super loud. 6 EL34s and partridge transformers cant be a bad thing. might pull the trigger. not too pricey considering what big tube heads go for. we shall see. thanks for the info.
 
#524
Alright, since we came up with a band name, my guitarist has the fire. He listened to some of our jams from last practice. B*tched about one being to slow, as in not progressing. Of course he doesn't like that one, it was the coolest non heavy riff :rolleyes:
We will use that riff, it's awesome ;)
Either way, he's ready to start piecing stuff together, write some actual songs.
I guess he's come to terms that ole 8string who is never there anyway is just dead weight, so drop him. And pickup our other buddy who's chomping at the bit to get involved with us. So that's cool I guess.
Sloppy garage/psych/doom/thrash/post-rock here we come.
Ready for Friday :hyper: :bassist: :hyper:
 
#525
JoeVictim said:
I had some nasty stuff happening when I used the Omni, but I think that was due to the active electronics running the input too hot.

And yes, the day you switch to class d and featherweight gear is the day this thread closes down. :D We expect certain things here, Bee. Bee's cabs look like stone henge, Laz will get Lazzed on atleast one more custom something. (even if he doesn't, we are all mentally prepared for it). Dunwich will continue to build GAS inducing gear. MC will continue to find cheap gear at music go round. Sam will have another masterpiece record. Corey will eventually record his own solo record after tired of dealing with cancelled practices... We will talk about Weedeater and if Dixie uses pedals or not. Kawai will still pine for Mothgirl and be old.
Like I said, we expect certain things. :D


Alright, back to the grindstone.
Click to expand...

fixed it for you.
 
#526
beebassdude said:
im looking at a Mark IV 120 (L or B not sure, but theyre almost the same from ive read). it has the active EQ in it, and theyre supposedly super loud. 6 EL34s and partridge transformers cant be a bad thing. might pull the trigger. not too pricey considering what big tube heads go for. we shall see. thanks for the info.
Click to expand...

Ok, I'm not familiar with that model, but my friend owned a SC 150B which was pretty cool, never used it for bass, but it was definitely a cool guitar amp.

Also the SC200 must have been modded from active EQ to passive tone stack, I know that in the end it was more fender-esq than hiwatt. But it's been so long since he got it and took it to a tech I really can't remember.
 
#529
The Sound City 120 and 200 have a odd EQ originally in them where they sort of filtered out the main signal into 3 bands and fed the 3 band into their own gain stages and then summed the signals back together with each band having its own control. So it is a passive filter fed into a gain stage to make what you might see is an active filter. Generally people think they are very touchy and tend to have soo much range. Most guitarists are used to passive EQs as mentioned in the EQ thread so that kind of mod is normal. The 120s ran 6 EL34s and probably puts out like 150W. Not bass material unless u love it dirty and have some efficient cabs to handle it. The 200s ran 4 KT88s and probably are closer to bass duty but the amp has a similar preamp in it and probably gets dirty a bit 2
 
#530
ampegfuzz said:
I was under the impression that modding the sound city to passive made it more hiwatt-ish. And the active models are pretty undesirable. But it could rule and you could possibly get it cheaper since people don't want the active tone stack.
Click to expand...

That could be, I'm most likely just making things up anymore. I probably was involved in one too many star war's.

dunwichamps said:
The Sound City 120 and 200 have a odd EQ originally in them where they sort of filtered out the main signal into 3 bands and fed the 3 band into their own gain stages and then summed the signals back together with each band having its own control. So it is a passive filter fed into a gain stage to make what you might see is an active filter. Generally people think they are very touchy and tend to have soo much range. Most guitarists are used to passive EQs as mentioned in the EQ thread so that kind of mod is normal. The 120s ran 6 EL34s and probably puts out like 150W. Not bass material unless u love it dirty and have some efficient cabs to handle it. The 200s ran 4 KT88s and probably are closer to bass duty but the amp has a similar preamp in it and probably gets dirty a bit 2
Click to expand...

And Nick for the win. Thanks!
 
#533
JoeVictim said:
Oh yeah,the original reason I came over for a second, this Conan- Monnos record is pretty heavy. So, Conan is the heaviest band after Bongripper (and they are a little ways behind you guys, Ron). If anyone has any other suggestions, I'm all ears.

*disclaimer. Not trying to diss anyone here or outside of this thread. No disrespect to any bands, I just think Bongripper has a certain heaviness that will be the benchmark of heavy for me to judge all other bands.. Some bands are heavy in their own way (Torche for example with the Z note). As always, IMO, YMMV.
Click to expand...

Got a present for ya'
http://primitivemandoom.bandcamp.com/
 
#535
The Sound City is somewhat of a precursor to the Hiwatts but I believe the Mark 4 versions came out after Hiwatt started up. Reeves did work for Sound City but left when they would not build amps to his level of quality. They wanted to produce faster and that needed low quality to achieve where as Reeves wanted higher quality (this is to the best of my knowledge). Some SCs do have Partridge Iron and the phase inverter and phase inverter driver is very similar to the late 60s and early 70s DR103 models. However the active EQ is way different from the Hiwatt EQ (this is covered in the EQ thread FYI) which was passive and somewhat similar to a FMV.
 
#537
beebassdude said:
so this Sunn 1200S is not for me, and its not working properly on top of it. tone just isnt geling with my cabs or my bass, and my VR just sounds so much more "musical" if you will. i think im back to being a two tube head guy, so my search begins.

mr dunwich, have an amp question for you when you get a sec. get on FB when you can.
Click to expand...

i just hit u up on FB, get back to me soon. Sorry its a slow day for me im kinda tired today. blah blah so get back to me when u can
 

Latest posts

Top Bottom
Back