I recently ordered a TecAmp 1x12 combo amplifier. And I figured that I may as well document my impressions on the unit, given that there is very little that has been said about it. Plus, the unit is a beautiful piece of gear in its own right, and I figured that I may as well feed the collective TB GAS by posting some photographs of some fine German engineering.
My goal in purchasing the combo was to get something that I could take on the streetcar in Toronto, and a rig that could also play smaller gigs and rehearsals with rock bands. I am very happy with my current Aguilar DB750 amplifier, plugged into a pair of GS112 / GS112NT speakers. So the purchase was never intended to serve as a substitute to that rig.
I had initially thought that purchasing an AG 500 SC to pair with one of my GS 112 speakers. My teacher rocks that setup occasionally. But the truth is that the schlep is too heavy to make taking the streetcar convenient. The head is 18 lb, and the cabinet is about 39 lb, not to mention that the cabinet is bulky. The weight is nothing to whine about if you own a car, but, like many other bassists in my urban demographic, I made the life decision to own nice gear over owning a vehicle. So I just figured that 57 lb without a car would be too heavy for hour-long city treks in packed transit. A dolly would not really abate my transportation difficulties, since streetcars have three massive steps, and very narrow entrances.
I began to look into the usual suspects in lightweight combos: Markbass and Genz-Benz in particular. But as much as I liked the Little Mark II head with my Aguilar cabinets, I was not particularly fond of the combo enclosures that get paired with that head. The Genz-Benz gear was good and portable, but never ended up meshing with my tonal tastes entirely, for whatever reason.
Then after reading the TecAmp threads here, someone mentioned that they had a combo. I looked up the stats, and it seemed to be perfect fit for my needs: 12" driver accompanied by a 4" midrange driver, 270 watts into 8 ohms, an amazing 27.5 lb and powered by the Puma 350 head, which pumps 350 watts into 4 ohms when paired with an extension cabinet. Moreover, the Puma series seems to have been garnered with what appears to be unanimous appeal here (price notwithstanding). So I saved up my money, and pulled the trigger on a new unit.
The aesthetic engineering is outstanding. The combo is covered in a sleek vinyl tolex, and fitted with a nice top handle. The feet are chunky, rubber and round, and it has tightly fitted chrome corners. It also has little rod which stores under the cabinet, which you can plug into the back to provide easy tilting back. Nice little addition. The grill logo is gorgeous bushed metal -- far out of the league of the plastic Markbass or Aguilar grill logos -- and has a clean, tight fit with the enclosure. There is a rear port at the bottom left of the combo.
The Puma head is, unfortunately, not detachable. Well, maybe it is, but it would require a little bit of ingenuity to get it out and possibly rig a new top plate onto the unit. I read somewhere online that someone had had success doing this, but I cannot speak for its efficacy.
The combo is equipped with two neo drivers: one 12" woofer, and one 4" mid-high range driver. No idea what the crossover is. One very mild annoyance is that the 4" driver has no attenuator. However, the absence of this feature does not seem to be much of a problem, as the smaller driver sounds smooth and natural; it does not sound harsh. And so despite that fact that I often place my tweeter volume at a 1/4 way up on my GS 112, the lack of attenuation did not bother me whatsoever. In fact, I never really found the need to tone down the high frequencies in my EQ to compensate for the lack of attenuation, so this tells you something about how silky smooth the little driver sounds.
What strikes me about the enclosure itself is how full-range it seems to sound. It does not have the woolly depth of my GS 112, but it gets very close. But it is drastically more even throughout the entire EQ frequency spectrum, especially soaring into the highest highs. I would not describe the cabinet as overly present in any frequency field. I would not describe it as mid-pronounced or mid-scooped. It is very, very even, and impresses me with an air of studio-monitor clarity throughout the entire audible range.
Now onto the amplifier. 'Creamy' -- which is KJung's word for the Puma line -- is an apt descriptive adjective for the amplifier. It it not entirely dissimilar from the Little Mark family to my ears, and this might be on account of it's class A/B power amplifier. (In contrast, the Puma 500 and 1000 have class D amplifiers.) It has a warmth and swiftness of response that is nearly identical to the LMII, though not as warm as my DB 750. But where it differs -- and this might partly be on account of its well-designed enclosure -- is its extension into the bottom and lowest range of the frequency spectrum. Moreover, the quality of what gets reproduced at the higher frequencies is very high. I never really liked way my upper frequencies were reproduced with the LMII. Now maybe this is on account of where the EQ points were chosen on that unit; I don't really know. But there is something about the Puma 350 which powers this combo that just sounds so alive. With a drummer, it cut through better than my DB 750 rig. It was punchy, but not in an overly mid-present way, like I found with the Markbass 2x10 combo that I was using for a little while. It was punchy in an authoritative, natural way.
I also liked it when paired with my GS 112 cabinet. My impression is that this would be an excellent pairing -- at least for someone with my darker Aguilar tastes in sound. The Puma is much more alive at the top of the frequency range, and breathes the GS 112 with a new life. It maintains a lot of the characteristic low-mid growl of the Aguilar line, but has a liveliness that sounds like it would cut through in performance, but retain that ominous, encompassing Aguilar deepness. Part of me thinks that I might prefer a higher-powered Puma head with my Aguilar cabinets. But I might just need to wait until I win the jackpot or pull a good trade off to try that one out.
My main issues with the amplifier are the chosen EQ frequencies. The 'Lo' EQ point is almost useless to my ears -- far too low, and too subtle to make much of an effective difference. The 'LoMid' is helpful. It beefs up the bottom end, and it is chosen at a high enough EQ point that it adds a supportive clarity, not muddiness. (Not sure of the exact EQ points here, regrettably; we'd have to ask an expert.) The 'HiMid' control is incredibly helpful. Dialing it down has the effect which (to my ears) mirrors raising the 'LoMid'. You can get a sort of additive effect which is very cool by raising the 'LoMid' and turning down the 'HiMid' that gives the combo a nice vintage vibe. Raising the 'HiMid' gives the combo an unmistakable hi-fi upper range that sounds natural and cuts. The 'Hi' EQ point I found worked best when untouched. Like I said, the upper range of the enclosure is represented so gorgeously smooth, that it never seemed to require alteration at the amplification level. The 'Taste' when turned to the right worked a little bit like the VLE on the Markbass heads -- something like a mild low-pass filter. Turning it to the left bumps the mids, and reduces the highs and lows.
You might have noticed that I put a trade feeler up on this amplifier. The truth is that it sounds different from my area of comfort. Not better. Not worse. Just different. Different in the way that Genz-Benz amplifiers sound different from Aguilar amplifiers. Both are different strains of excellent. And I am trying to come to terms with whether this is a strain of excellent that fits my tonal goals. The difficulty, of course, is that tonal goals vary from context to context, and at different points of time. So one can never be certain that what sounds unfamiliar now is not something that will sound like home in the future, or on different gigs. Regardless of whether I choose to keep this, one thing is certain: I am happy to have tried this out. The Puma has an unmistakable character with which I might never have been acquainted had I not gambled with the purchase and taken the plunge. No one around me -- not even anyone on TB -- has seem to have published any thoughts on the combo, so it was nerve-wracking making this large purchase, but I am happy to have done it.
This little box is wonderful. Its portability is a joke. This thing is hilariously small. But it sounds big. It sounds alive. And it animates the room with a robustness that is really difficult to replicate. My Aguilar stuff -- as much as I love it now -- just doesn't seem to be as animated or as aurally striking as the TecAmp combo. But I love Aguilar, and I love it for its warmth and depth. The trick for me is going to be to find some way to merge these two opposing tastes.
Many thanks, as usual, to all of the Talkbassers who took the time to feed my GAS. (Especially KJung, Tom and The_Owl.) This has been fun.
My goal in purchasing the combo was to get something that I could take on the streetcar in Toronto, and a rig that could also play smaller gigs and rehearsals with rock bands. I am very happy with my current Aguilar DB750 amplifier, plugged into a pair of GS112 / GS112NT speakers. So the purchase was never intended to serve as a substitute to that rig.
I had initially thought that purchasing an AG 500 SC to pair with one of my GS 112 speakers. My teacher rocks that setup occasionally. But the truth is that the schlep is too heavy to make taking the streetcar convenient. The head is 18 lb, and the cabinet is about 39 lb, not to mention that the cabinet is bulky. The weight is nothing to whine about if you own a car, but, like many other bassists in my urban demographic, I made the life decision to own nice gear over owning a vehicle. So I just figured that 57 lb without a car would be too heavy for hour-long city treks in packed transit. A dolly would not really abate my transportation difficulties, since streetcars have three massive steps, and very narrow entrances.
I began to look into the usual suspects in lightweight combos: Markbass and Genz-Benz in particular. But as much as I liked the Little Mark II head with my Aguilar cabinets, I was not particularly fond of the combo enclosures that get paired with that head. The Genz-Benz gear was good and portable, but never ended up meshing with my tonal tastes entirely, for whatever reason.
Then after reading the TecAmp threads here, someone mentioned that they had a combo. I looked up the stats, and it seemed to be perfect fit for my needs: 12" driver accompanied by a 4" midrange driver, 270 watts into 8 ohms, an amazing 27.5 lb and powered by the Puma 350 head, which pumps 350 watts into 4 ohms when paired with an extension cabinet. Moreover, the Puma series seems to have been garnered with what appears to be unanimous appeal here (price notwithstanding). So I saved up my money, and pulled the trigger on a new unit.
The aesthetic engineering is outstanding. The combo is covered in a sleek vinyl tolex, and fitted with a nice top handle. The feet are chunky, rubber and round, and it has tightly fitted chrome corners. It also has little rod which stores under the cabinet, which you can plug into the back to provide easy tilting back. Nice little addition. The grill logo is gorgeous bushed metal -- far out of the league of the plastic Markbass or Aguilar grill logos -- and has a clean, tight fit with the enclosure. There is a rear port at the bottom left of the combo.
The Puma head is, unfortunately, not detachable. Well, maybe it is, but it would require a little bit of ingenuity to get it out and possibly rig a new top plate onto the unit. I read somewhere online that someone had had success doing this, but I cannot speak for its efficacy.
The combo is equipped with two neo drivers: one 12" woofer, and one 4" mid-high range driver. No idea what the crossover is. One very mild annoyance is that the 4" driver has no attenuator. However, the absence of this feature does not seem to be much of a problem, as the smaller driver sounds smooth and natural; it does not sound harsh. And so despite that fact that I often place my tweeter volume at a 1/4 way up on my GS 112, the lack of attenuation did not bother me whatsoever. In fact, I never really found the need to tone down the high frequencies in my EQ to compensate for the lack of attenuation, so this tells you something about how silky smooth the little driver sounds.
What strikes me about the enclosure itself is how full-range it seems to sound. It does not have the woolly depth of my GS 112, but it gets very close. But it is drastically more even throughout the entire EQ frequency spectrum, especially soaring into the highest highs. I would not describe the cabinet as overly present in any frequency field. I would not describe it as mid-pronounced or mid-scooped. It is very, very even, and impresses me with an air of studio-monitor clarity throughout the entire audible range.
Now onto the amplifier. 'Creamy' -- which is KJung's word for the Puma line -- is an apt descriptive adjective for the amplifier. It it not entirely dissimilar from the Little Mark family to my ears, and this might be on account of it's class A/B power amplifier. (In contrast, the Puma 500 and 1000 have class D amplifiers.) It has a warmth and swiftness of response that is nearly identical to the LMII, though not as warm as my DB 750. But where it differs -- and this might partly be on account of its well-designed enclosure -- is its extension into the bottom and lowest range of the frequency spectrum. Moreover, the quality of what gets reproduced at the higher frequencies is very high. I never really liked way my upper frequencies were reproduced with the LMII. Now maybe this is on account of where the EQ points were chosen on that unit; I don't really know. But there is something about the Puma 350 which powers this combo that just sounds so alive. With a drummer, it cut through better than my DB 750 rig. It was punchy, but not in an overly mid-present way, like I found with the Markbass 2x10 combo that I was using for a little while. It was punchy in an authoritative, natural way.
I also liked it when paired with my GS 112 cabinet. My impression is that this would be an excellent pairing -- at least for someone with my darker Aguilar tastes in sound. The Puma is much more alive at the top of the frequency range, and breathes the GS 112 with a new life. It maintains a lot of the characteristic low-mid growl of the Aguilar line, but has a liveliness that sounds like it would cut through in performance, but retain that ominous, encompassing Aguilar deepness. Part of me thinks that I might prefer a higher-powered Puma head with my Aguilar cabinets. But I might just need to wait until I win the jackpot or pull a good trade off to try that one out.
My main issues with the amplifier are the chosen EQ frequencies. The 'Lo' EQ point is almost useless to my ears -- far too low, and too subtle to make much of an effective difference. The 'LoMid' is helpful. It beefs up the bottom end, and it is chosen at a high enough EQ point that it adds a supportive clarity, not muddiness. (Not sure of the exact EQ points here, regrettably; we'd have to ask an expert.) The 'HiMid' control is incredibly helpful. Dialing it down has the effect which (to my ears) mirrors raising the 'LoMid'. You can get a sort of additive effect which is very cool by raising the 'LoMid' and turning down the 'HiMid' that gives the combo a nice vintage vibe. Raising the 'HiMid' gives the combo an unmistakable hi-fi upper range that sounds natural and cuts. The 'Hi' EQ point I found worked best when untouched. Like I said, the upper range of the enclosure is represented so gorgeously smooth, that it never seemed to require alteration at the amplification level. The 'Taste' when turned to the right worked a little bit like the VLE on the Markbass heads -- something like a mild low-pass filter. Turning it to the left bumps the mids, and reduces the highs and lows.
You might have noticed that I put a trade feeler up on this amplifier. The truth is that it sounds different from my area of comfort. Not better. Not worse. Just different. Different in the way that Genz-Benz amplifiers sound different from Aguilar amplifiers. Both are different strains of excellent. And I am trying to come to terms with whether this is a strain of excellent that fits my tonal goals. The difficulty, of course, is that tonal goals vary from context to context, and at different points of time. So one can never be certain that what sounds unfamiliar now is not something that will sound like home in the future, or on different gigs. Regardless of whether I choose to keep this, one thing is certain: I am happy to have tried this out. The Puma has an unmistakable character with which I might never have been acquainted had I not gambled with the purchase and taken the plunge. No one around me -- not even anyone on TB -- has seem to have published any thoughts on the combo, so it was nerve-wracking making this large purchase, but I am happy to have done it.
This little box is wonderful. Its portability is a joke. This thing is hilariously small. But it sounds big. It sounds alive. And it animates the room with a robustness that is really difficult to replicate. My Aguilar stuff -- as much as I love it now -- just doesn't seem to be as animated or as aurally striking as the TecAmp combo. But I love Aguilar, and I love it for its warmth and depth. The trick for me is going to be to find some way to merge these two opposing tastes.
Many thanks, as usual, to all of the Talkbassers who took the time to feed my GAS. (Especially KJung, Tom and The_Owl.) This has been fun.
good luck finding a used one. I for one will NOT be selling mine. I've used a YAMMY BBT110S extension cabinet w/ 8ohm Neodymium driver and horn and it sounds great. I hope to purchase the matching TecAmp X112 at some point. Cheers!
