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Double Bass Tube Amps (DB750)

phippsyg

phippsyg

May 28, 2007
277
0
Sydney
www.myspace.com
Disclosures
Endorsing Artist: Aguilar Amplification, Optima Strings
#1
Does anyone use a tube amp to amplify their upright?

I used the Aguilar DB750 for an electric gig and loved it but I find tube amps generally have too slow a response for upright. If I was to purchase this amp it would be to use with electric and upright, so I'm wondering if anyone actually favours the slow response of a tube head.
Thanks
 
#2
A lot of players used the Ampeg B15 and still swear by it.

I think it comes down to issues of weight more than how fast a tube amp responds for the majority of DB players.

If tube and transistor amp weighed the same it would be interesting to know which one would most upright players would want.

We know most likely what the slab players would want. :rolleyes:
 
#3
I use an Aguilar AG500 solid state amp with my bass. I also own a db750, and use it only on electric gigs. I suppose if they weighed the same I'd take the tubes every time, but I find the improvement in tone from the tube amp is greatly exaggerated with electric, while the with double bass it becomes more of an apples vs. oranges thing.
 
#4
I've been using my Genz GB 750 and loving it. I use it with a 1x12 cab, so the weight isn't too annoying. It sounds amazing with double bass as well as electric. I use the tube channel most of the time, but it has a solid state channel with it's ownEQ and the ability to mix the 2 channels with a footswitch. I always used a pre with my GK, but with this, I don't bother. I really like the shuttles with tubes although I only tested them with my EB.
 
#6
I've found that Glockenklang amps have all the warmth that I'd want in a tube preamp but all the benfits of a solid state power section.

While the Glockenklang HR is about the same physical size as a DB 750 it's smaller brother the Soul is a fairly light weight 2 space rack head that sounds equally as great for DB and electric.

It does however come down to what your willing to carry to a gig and how much power you need. Any of these amps including the DB750 are just silly to lug into a small quartet or trio type gig. I am pretty comfy using a Glock Soul and EA VL208 for all DB gigs outside of those that only barely need amplification. In that case a weight/tone/schlep compromise
is probably a better move.
 
#7
Brian Kobayakawa said:
I use an Aguilar AG500 solid state amp with my bass. I also own a db750, and use it only on electric gigs. I suppose if they weighed the same I'd take the tubes every time, but I find the improvement in tone from the tube amp is greatly exaggerated with electric, while the with double bass it becomes more of an apples vs. oranges thing.
Click to expand...

Thank you, totally the opinion I was looking for, as in the long run this is what I would prefer to do. As I get Aguilar stuff quite cheap though, I was looking to get the DB750 now and use it for both and get the AG500 later.
 
#8
phippsyg said:
Does anyone use a tube amp to amplify their upright?

I used the Aguilar DB750 for an electric gig and loved it but I find tube amps generally have too slow a response for upright. If I was to purchase this amp it would be to use with electric and upright, so I'm wondering if anyone actually favours the slow response of a tube head.
Thanks
Click to expand...

I don't believe it is correct to attribute whatever you are experiencing with tubes when you say they are "too slow for upright" to be a characteristic that is inherent in tube amplifiers. The B15 mentioned by Hensonbass is the archetypical vintage sound of a tube bass amp. But there are great hifi tube amps that don't sound like that. I have a preamp with a twin topology where the preamp and eq sections can be independently selected to be SS or tube. In tube mode this preamp doesn't produce a very vintagey sound. It is more characteristic of hifi or studio tube gear.

I guess what I'm saying is that many tube instrument amps were designed to have a certain type of sound, but that doesn't mean that all tube amps have that sound. There is a certain warmth that tube amps typically have but, as Peter mentioned above, the Glockenklang amps have a warmth that is reminiscent of tubes, but are solid state. I spoke with Udo, the designer, one time and he told me this was a deliberate design decision.

But in general, from what I've seen on this forum, there don't seem to be many DB players using tube gear.

Jim
 
#13
phippsyg said:
Does anyone use a tube amp to amplify their upright?

I used the Aguilar DB750 for an electric gig and loved it but I find tube amps generally have too slow a response for upright. If I was to purchase this amp it would be to use with electric and upright, so I'm wondering if anyone actually favours the slow response of a tube head.
Thanks
Click to expand...

I used a B-15 for several years. Then I got one of the Walter Woods MI-100-8's. They certianly have the warmth of the B-15 IMHO with a lot more flexible and variable preamp voicing IMHO. The GK 200MB amps were great too. I gigged with that amp for several years. My first real bass amp was a Kasino 200 (one of the early solidstate amplifiers) the B-15's preamp sounded so much better than the Kasino. I think it's more a matter of how well designed the amp is, expecially the preamp. Just slapping a 12 AX7 into the preamp dosen't necessarily produce a warmer more musical sounding amp and full on tube amps are definitely heavier. Augilar is a state of the art amp it has a very "transparent" uncolored sound IMHO. There are four tubes in that preamp and that's why it sounds so good. On the other hand there are some pretty great sounding solidstate amps these days.

Ric
 

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