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Double Bass TC Electronics RH450 for doublebass?

#4
I tried out a TC Electronics RH450 and felt it too be too colored an amp for DB. It seems more voiced for EB. Darker and tubey.

I have a Tecamp Puma that I feel is way more transparent and lets the true sound of the instrument come through.

If you have a Headway Preamp (I have one too and love it) I would plug that into the effect loop return bypassing the preamp of whatever amplifier you are using. There's no need to preamp something twice unless you need more gain than what the Headway can already provide. I do this with my Acoustic Image Focus amp.

I guess you could do this with the TC Electronics RH450 if you liked it for EB. Or most any amp for that matter.
 
#6
I use one, and I have a Markbass F1 (essentially the same as the F500 without the semi-parametric mids and I believe the F500 has an adjustable DI output level).

For DB, I run the gear in my sig into the effect return on the RH450. I haven't tried this with the F1 (which is essentially a backup) because the effects loop is post-EQ. I don't find the preamp on the RH450 an especially good match with my pickup -- it has a 1 Mohm impedance which is theoretically sufficient, but it sounds a bit thin and quacky paired with the Soundclip. With the Fishman directly into the power section, it's certainly not "my bass only louder", but I have not been fortunate enough to hear or play any piezo/preamp combination that achieves this holy grail.

The RH450 sounds far better to me than the F1 for my EUB -- a much more "organic" tone (for whatever that wooly descriptor is worth). The F1 worked very nicely with an Aguilar ToneHammer in front of it, but I could achieve all that and more with the TCE amp. The 4-band semi-parametric EQ section is worth the entry fee, and the compressor and TubeTone are very musical sounding. The tuner is accurate and tracks pretty well (not quite as well as my Strobostomp), and the 3 presets make life easier when switching instruments or styles.

Hope that's of some use.
 
#7
I love my TC RH450 for all my basses. With double bass, I've only ever used my TC112. I think it would be a bit boomy with my TC212. The parametric EQ has been great at taming a resonance my old bass has, and I have the gain and preset volume set on preset #1 for this.
 
#8
I've done some more playing around with the EQ section on the RH450, and it continues to impress me.

The recent BassGearMagazine review shows the semi-parametric settings for a scoped flat response -- it's a long way away from "all the knobs nooned". I used this as a starting point and plugged in my Fishman Plat-pre to get a feel for how the EQ might be adjusted from there to get the sound I was after -- in this case, as close to an unplugged tone as possible in my practice room. My cabinet (BFM Jack 12) is best described as "mid forward", and this was borne out by the huge cuts I made in the mid frequencies -- most from the low mids, a little less from the mid-mids, and just a little from the high-mids, with slight boosts in the lows and treble. Marcus Miller, eat your heart out!

I was able to reproduce this very nicely plugged directly from the Soundclip into the RH450. What is also nice about it, is that the inherent voicing of the head (vintage tubey vibe) seems to add back much of what the pickup sucks out of the tone; a good deal of the "earth" and "woodiness", if you like.

In louder live settings, I will no doubt need to reduce the depth of the mid cuts somewhat if I'm to be heard, but it's a good place from which to start.

With all the furore surrounding this head (on the other side) since the power specifications were shown to be significantly massaged, I was keen to give my F1 another go and was really plumping for it. However, it couldn't touch the TCE head for tone or volume, is comparatively noisy, and has none of the extra features (the most useful in this case being the very accurate chromatic tuner).

Anyhow, I thought this might be of use to someone who may be considering this amp. In summary, it has a very powerful EQ, and for me at least, the "colour" it imparts is a positive feature.
 
#9
The most important think, that the imput impedance should be at least 1Mohms. MarkBass amps has 500Kohms, so a buffer preamp recomended. I don't know the TC amp's input. I don't agree, that you need a transparent amp, if you use piezzo. Piezzo pickups doesn't sounds like your bass, if your amp has a nice color, it could helps.
 
#11
The TC RH450 has a very powerful EQ section. You can adjust the frequency centres as well the degree of boost or cut you want. Find a really nice setting and store it into one of the three presets. Makes it dead easy to switch from DB to Ebass - just push a button. With the built in tuner and mute button it's a joy to use.

My MarkBass Little Mark 2 does a pretty decent job with my DB, but it requires a bit of tweaking to make the sound as natural as the RH to my ears. If I could only adjust the frequency centres of the EQ points on the MB I'm sure I could make it sound as good....

Goes without saying that your results will vary depending on the cabinet you choose to pair it with.
 

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