I wish we had a room like that where we could play our instruments together without having to lug it all out and put it away again, very jealous mate droolAll this Rig talk reminds me that I still have to sell my barely gigged SVT-VR and Bergantino NV610 rig. It's just too much for anything I'm doing these days. I haven't even plugged it in more than once in the last 4 years. If I could figure out how to set my paypal account up to accept payments it would have already be sold.
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Thunderbird Club
- Thread starter TBird1958
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Haji
Supporting Member
The thing with Ampeg is that if you want a clean tone, you don't want an Ampeg. I find the SVT3P gets the sound I want at mostly straight up noon, while my GK requires some tweaking and some knobs need a LOT of turning. With my little Carvin ProBass 100-10 the bass is dimed, and everything in my Bumper Rumble 75 gets a little boost, except for the treble that gets turned waaaaay down.
That could be due to my band tuning drop C and my desire to be under everything else, but those settings stay pretty much the same when using my one, lone bass in standard tuning.
That could be due to my band tuning drop C and my desire to be under everything else, but those settings stay pretty much the same when using my one, lone bass in standard tuning.
Haji
Supporting Member
And each of my 410 cabs are near 100 pounds. Not sure what the head in the road case weighs, but it's heavy. Heavy is good. Heavy is reliable.
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Looks very nice there mate. I'll be getting Y tuners anyway. Been looking around and Hipshot don't seem easy to find here so it looks like another mailorder job.
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Loving all the Big Amps pics here. And here i am scaling DOWN! 
Sold off my 810, my QSC power amps and my Ampeg SVP-PRO and SVP-CL preamps. Still have two SVT-410HE's and two SVT-210HE's though.
Sold off my 810, my QSC power amps and my Ampeg SVP-PRO and SVP-CL preamps. Still have two SVT-410HE's and two SVT-210HE's though.
Marshall are scary expensive and I can't recall having seen a Hiwatt in the wild in these parts. The valve heads around in my day were Holden (Marshall-ish), Abbey (Vox clone) and Jansen (Bassman clone).
The only pure solid state class A/B head I ever liked was a Marshall 100 in a slimline case, no idea of the model number but it had a nice warm sound - unlike the (to my ears) horrible H|H gear. Supposedly it had been extensively modded, so I never even tried to find one for myself.
The class D stuff is amazing for the size and weight, but isn't what I'm looking for in a bass amp. The Traynor is 19kg and the 212 cab is 29kg = not ridiculously heavy. I must like the Ampeg sound well enough to be looking out for a VT Bass DI for backup.
The only pure solid state class A/B head I ever liked was a Marshall 100 in a slimline case, no idea of the model number but it had a nice warm sound - unlike the (to my ears) horrible H|H gear. Supposedly it had been extensively modded, so I never even tried to find one for myself.
The class D stuff is amazing for the size and weight, but isn't what I'm looking for in a bass amp. The Traynor is 19kg and the 212 cab is 29kg = not ridiculously heavy. I must like the Ampeg sound well enough to be looking out for a VT Bass DI for backup.
Lefty darkstar nonreverse? What the actual feck? Hotttt!
Gaolee
Official leathers tester and crash dummy
It might be kinda fun to just play left handed and see what happens. I might have to try that pretty soon. Being right handed but not strongly right handed means it might work eventually.
@Haji, the TC Elec stuff is cool. I bought my baby TC combo (2 X 8) on clearance, as a practice amp. The tone print stuff seemed like a nice "toy" but the other selling points were weight (250W at <30 lbs), headphone jack, tuner and XLR out. It also has a line out to power another cab (see "sissy rig" below in friend's messy basement). It is dwarfed by the cool Ampeg and Sunn rigs some of you have shown. But I live in a condo, which is not "thump friendly". So, I have to tote stuff out (9 floors) to jam or when I want to practice and crave feeling the rumble. So, I also have Markbass stuff, which is crazy light (a 5 lb F1 head that can push 500w and only weighs a few pounds). The brand doesn't have the "classic rock" vibe or reputation. It seems to be the go to gear of choice for funk and jazz players. That is not my style but I find that it still works for me. I really dig the Ampeg sound as it strikes me as this sort of nice "fat/plump" rock tone. As much as I love the sound, I just can't justify one right now, as it would be sort of a elephant gun for my current needs. I aspire to a "bass cave" like @GBassNorth!
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Kat - look carefully at the hipshot Y tuners, IIRC someone on another thread ordered a chrome set only to find out the Y portion is actually satin finish not chrome like the rest of the tuner. I know they carry a ton of different options but not sure if they have a chrome Y in the ultralight set.
Oh, I know all about humming and shocks. I've had all of mine except the 200s converted to a 3 prong. I used to get shocked all the time when using the 2000s and singing, not exactly fun. And they all seem to have a bit of background noise, which is nothing that's ever bothered me. Live you'll never hear it once you start playing, in studio you can use a noise gate or drop levels during quiet parts, and there's something about it I actually rather like. It's this background hum that let's people know that things are about to be very, very loud, nearly ominous.
Some years back I played down at Studio Seven in Sodo, and we were the last band to play that night. Soundman, was a bit startled when I rolled it all in, but mic'd my cab, no question, and told me he'd let me carry the room and just adjust as need be. After the show (there were only like, 15 people there, oh well) that sound man and engineer who was up in the booth both came over to say how great it sounded. That it was just big and gnarly, and that they wished more people would roll in with old Sunn rigs. There's actually some videos recorded that night too, I could post them if anyone is interested in hearing what cranked Sunns sound like in a band context, though, fair warning there's Fender content.
And to your point about them being some 50 years old, well I guess they were just built to last. Easily another 50 years of service in them. Plus, with valve amps, won't matter if the nukes drop, they'll still be going.
Colin - if you're ever in the states (near the Los Angeles area) be sure to look me up. It's a fun little jam room set up for bass, vocals and keyboard (shown in the pic) as well as two guitars and an electric drum kit (not shown in the pic). I'll buy all the pints you can drink!
Same here!! Ive played through a lot of different amplifiers (combos & rigs) & ampeg was decent. It does sound muffled, but took distortion or overdrives well to give me more mid focus & treble bite. Ashdown was a great amplifier for the tone i looked for & it delivered superbly!! Orange terror i didnt really give it all cause it was good but the distortion would cut my low end greatly which wasnt great. But with my current first rig the peavey century & the swr goliath II 4x10, its a match made in heaven for the tone i was seeking all these years & with every bass i own: i don't need to alter the amp setting to have a suitable tone for each
& as far as effects go I'm pretty limited in terms of effects pedals persay I do have the mxr 10 band EQ to give me a little evenness between basses in the bass & mids. Treble left flat & sub bass cut a tad. It also boosts in volume a bit more to give me a kick. other than that, i have my D.I. + with the distortion channel although i haven't had the chance to try it with my rig yet. But for effects i'm getting the MXR stereo chorus & the soundblox nemesis delay. I love those two effects on bass for the nice melodic fills & parts during some sombre songs of mine.
I've been blessed to have what I have but it took decades to get here and in spite of the gear or space I have I'd put money down that I'm not half the bass player many in this club are. I always enjoy listening to players knocking it out of the park with whatever equipment is in their hands regardless of what it might be. Besides you've clearly got the most creative bass stand I've ever seen, and it's leppard print to boot! I love it!
@GBassNorth (and others), I really hope my comments didn't seem like I was taking a swipe at you. I don't want to seem like a GenPop troll, as this thread is such a lovely civil group/community. I was being sincere, in that I really dig your setup. It was also more about constraints of me not living in a house. I know you can't crank a Marshall stack doing fiery licks in an apartment but it is so much easier to enjoy practing guitar at "bedroom volume" than it is to enjoy the bass that way (for me anyway). And thanks for the love on the tacky leopard chair. We jokingly refer to it as the "rock throne".I've been blessed to have what I have but it took decades to get here and in spite of the gear or space I have I'd put money down that I'm not half the bass player many in this club are. I always enjoy listening to players knocking it out of the park with whatever equipment is in their hands regardless of what it might be. Besides you've clearly got the most creative bass stand I've ever seen, and it's leppard print to boot! I love it!
I didn't take it as a swipe at all, actually I thought it was a compliment.
And I'm serious about your Rock Throne, it's so cool to see folks be inventive and make their practice digs a comfortable place to get away and be creative. Anybody could have just leaned the bass against the wall, but no, you cradled that beast in cozy leppard comfort and were smart enough to flip the chair ensuring no one would accidentally sit on your bass.
Between your Throne shot and our Queens Subie shots, I think there's some serious competition for best casual "bass in a place" photo.
Work hard, play harder and have fun!
Actually that subpac back brace thing further down the page looks interesting too. I've been in a few gigs where I just wasn't positioned right to feel the thump of my bass. Something like that would be cool to try!
