The Needlessly Oversized, Inconveniently Excessive Bass Amp Thread

[aus_bass]

If I were AC/DC or Mettalica bass player, the rig could'nt be held on 2 trucks !

Ah, you mean this...

 

[Kaa]

Oh god.

Yep, that stack is pure-d shexy.

 

[JimmyM]

If I were AC/DC or Mettalica bass player, the rig could'nt be held on 2 trucks !

If you were in AC/DC you could run up to 3 cabs and heads to compete with Angus and Stevie’s 15 cabs apiece . But I’m afraid that if you were in Metallica, you’d be running a Helix. I thought for sure their no amp phase wouldn’t last, but here they are years later and still doing it.

 

[Arthur U. Poon]

Gig Update: I looked at the club’s photos online before I made my decision which amp setup to use. The club had been renovated and they made the stage there even smaller.

So, I took my smaller setup, which did a great job.

This photo was taken during my Christmas Party gig, but here’s my far from needlessly oversized Aguilar TH500/GS112x2 setup.

 

[toothguy]

Someday I’ll plug them all in at once.
What could possibly go wrong?

 

[PhatBottomBass1]

View attachment 5487094 View attachment 5487095Someday I’ll plug them all in at once.
What could possibly go wrong?

The Colossus of Rigs...

 

[Wasnex]

What could possibly go wrong?

I find it a bit humorous how small the DB751 looks next to the other monsters.

 

[vvvmmm]

View attachment 5487094 View attachment 5487095Someday I’ll plug them all in at once.
What could possibly go wrong?

Azza guy who just last week went out and bought 4 6' 1x1"s and cut 'em to size for the same purpose, I salute our great minds.

 

[Clark Westfield]

The rig I have is not overly extraordinary, but overkill for my bass room.

When the 610 is blasting, the family leaves the house.
View attachment 4898714

Updated with a Darkglass 212 cab and Bergantino HP2 head.

 

[J.Wolf]

View attachment 5487094 View attachment 5487095Someday I’ll plug them all in at once.
What could possibly go wrong?

So much awesomeness lurking in there!!

 

[Pontiac Thrasher]

View attachment 4898184

Behold, the world's biggest, dumbest bass rig. This is two 18" subs powered by a 2x450 watt Crown XLi and a 2x10 Peavey headliner powered by one 50 watt side of a Mesa Stereo 2:Fifty tube amp.

This came about because of playing in reggae and hip hop bands where I couldn't get enough low end to compete with the DJ between sets. At the time, I was playing an 8x10 and an 8 space rack head with the Crown powering the whole thing and the damn DJ was still hitting so much harder than I could below 100hz. So I decide in lieu of a traditional bass amp, I'd carry around my own PA with a sub. I eventually added the Mesa to run my pedal board through and left the Crown to handle the clean lows. It sounded great!

Then one night for a laugh, I added in another Peavey 18 I had lying around. Sure it was a lot louder, but the thing that was really nice about it was that I could just wheel each stack in and out without having to carry anything. You get to the gig, drop an 18 cab and put the 210 atop it, dolly it in and then do the same thing with the other cab and rack. It might seem counterintuitive, but adding the 2nd 18" cab actually made load in and out easier. So that's what I did for a few years. Carting all this BS around never bothered me, up until the bands I was working with started to dissolve. That was about 2 years ago. Now I just sit and play this thing in my home while my neighbors weep.

18's clean and pedals to upper cabs did it for me too : )

 

[TTA]

Doesn't seem all that excessive to me. If you are willing to do the work, it's all good .

My first biamp rig was similar in some ways, and probably significantly heavier. I started with a new MTI era SVT and 810. Did not like the sound, so I added an Orban 672A and a Fender Twin Reverb loaded with a pair of JBL E120s crossed over at 200hz. Sometimes I subbed a pair of cabs loaded with EVM18Bs for the 810. The pair of EVM cabs were about the same size as the 810, but much lighter.

This rig is probably bigger and dumberer in some ways . Even worse, I have no intent of ever gigging it.
View attachment 4898315
The cabs are a quad of (3-way) Genz Benz 1288T Uber Quads. The amp in this particular configuration is an Epifani UL902C with 1800W on tap. I have several amps in my collection that can push all four cabs, including an Ampeg SVT 8Pro with 2500W.

This rig was obviously inspired by the Grateful Dead's Wall of Sound. I bought the cabs primarily to satisfy my curiosity. I leave two of the cabs set up in my basement. I would stack all four but the ceiling is not high enough down there. So the other two cabs are just dust catchers for now.

As a touring pro I typically ran 200-250W through a decent 210 and let the PA do the heavy lifting. My last touring rig gave me the option of running an additional 410 with a second channel of 250W, but I did not feel the extra work to transport and set it up was justified....the 210 was plenty. I might have felt different if we had roadies. Everyone in the band pitched in with loading/unloading a 28' box truck and setting up all of the gear.

very cool cabs. just looked em up. i am north east if you need a home for a dust catcher.

 

[TTA]

one amp missing.

with my anagram and a rickenbacker i can stereo into a stack and my anagram. the anagram can be dual output also and thus i can run 3 stacks at the same time. both my yba300 and v4b can go down to 2 ohms so i can link up a lot of silliness. i have never done it… but if i ever get angry at the neighbourhood i might do it someday.

I could do something like neck pickup into the yba300 into the orange 410, orange 115, traynor1510 (handles lows better than all my cabs).

anagram could split my bridge pickup signal into highs which might go into the deluxe 20 and the c8 on full overdrive (lead).

mids could go into one of the v4b which could run into the genz benz uber 410t and the markbass standard 410 hlf.

if only i had a double neck bass to make it all work even better.

 

[H Nighttrain]

Not mine, but a guy I know still carts this rig around on occasion (he's been using a similarly old, big, and heavy GK rig a lot lately). Badass player, heavy funk.

 

[EASonBass]

 

[TTA]

View attachment 7384342

i like the hiwatt style box for the ampeg head

 

[agedhorse]

View attachment 7384340

Not mine, but a guy I know still carts this rig around on occasion (he's been using a similarly old, big, and heavy GK rig a lot lately). Badass player, heavy funk.

That rack has seen better days, the valence edges are trashed!

 

[H Nighttrain]

No kidding! Still sounds killer though...

 

[EASonBass]

i like the hiwatt style box for the ampeg head

Thanks. I ultimately put the T21 dug in similar. Just ‘cause.

 

[TTA]

Thanks. I ultimately put the T21 dug in similar. Just ‘cause. View attachment 7384700

my yba 100 is getting similar in white