Just brought home my brand new B200H and B410. I'll post the obligatory pictures this weekend.
With a new band in the works, I was looking to upgrade my diminutive Carvin PB100-10 (an amazing little combo, btw) to something that could hold its own against a drummer and a guitarist with a half stack. I had originally planned on running my Tech 21 SansAmp Bass Driver straight into a Carvin DCM1000 power amp feeding one or two 4x10s, depending on volume needs. I had been generally dissatisfied with the tone of most amps, and the amps I actually liked were far outside my budget (coughAmpegcoughSWRcough). I had come to rely on my SansAmp to "fix" my tone, so I figured why not just run a pure SansAmp signal?
I hadn't heard of Acoustic before, and I have to admit that I wrote them off before even plugging in. "I'm looking for a good amp," I naively thought, "and good amps cost more money than this!" It was this thread and the recommendations of two Guitar Center employees that got me to actually test one out.
I'm playing an [Invalid or Expired Link Removed], which IMO has a very unique midrangey growl completely unlike your standard P or J tone (which is part of the reason I liked it). When I first plugged into the Acoustic stack at GC I was not impressed. Then I started fiddling with the EQ knobs, specifically 150Hz and 5kHz, and BAMF! The JTKB's relatively weak low end bloomed, and the 5k knob cleared up a lot of its muddiness. I turned to the employee and told him with a big satisfied grin, "So that's what everyone's talking about!"
I agree with the general opinion expressed in this thread: The Acoustic sounds how a bass amp should sound. I've not had much time with it yet, but it's doing a great job shattering my preconceived notions about price and wattage in relation to performance. For being "just" 200 watts (140W or so in my current setup), it's pretty friggin loud with a single 4x10 cab. I can't comment yet on the durability, but I know one owner that will vouch for its tank-like properties. If they're still making them like the old Acoustics, I'm certain I'll own this one for a very long time.
Now the big dilemma I'm facing is whether or not my SansAmp is even necessary any more. I'm finding for the first time that my amp has a great tone by itself, and the SansAmp is really just adding a bit of sparkle and oomph* instead of carrying my entire tone. I'm thinking I'll keep it, but maybe turn that Blend knob back a bit.
Anyway. I'll take on of those there numbers if ya got one to spare. That makes me #92, right? Cool. 1992 was a good year.
I met another TalkBass member at GC, but I can't remember his forum name. If you're reading, give me a shout!
* "Sparkle" and "oomph" are measurable scientific terms. Really.
