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What can a rack give me?

R

remainthesame

Sep 24, 2008
818
48
#1
Hello everybody, pretty soon I will be in the market for a new amp. So far, all my experience with amps is limited to a simple head and cabinet, and its been working great so far.:bassist:

However I see a lot of people with racks lately and I'm wondering what the pros and cons are. I also have no idea what usually goes in a rack. So any rack users out there that want to tell me what I've been missing out on?
 
#3
A rack adds bulk and weight, but also protects well and may provide flexibility and ease of setup. If you go straight from head into cab, it won't offer much unless the head you absolutely want is a rackmount. If you want to use different preamps with a poweramp a rack is great, and you can have a tuner and power strip all integrated. I used a rack for a bit, but for me, a small head, pedal tuner and ext cord/power strip fit easily into a small bag, so I am not using a rack at all. Keep in mind racks became popular before you could get a full-featured 800 watt bass head the size of a paperback book. I doubt they would become popular if they were introduced now.
 
#4
I went back and forth with rack setups and stand alone heads. The rack system, as has been mentioned, gives you alot of versatility. Don't like one preamp, switch it out for another. It also opens up a world of more power than you could ever want, or get with a stand alone bass head, up to 3000 watts, last time I checked, in power amps, that also feature DSP functions, and in some cases,are just as light as some lightweight bass heads. Yes, you need to rack this stuff, and that adds weight and bulk, but some feel that's a small burden to bear when it comes to a versatile, and, these days of 10 lb power amps, a very powerful bass rig.
 
#5
If you use a regular SS head but want it to be as heavy as an SVT, get a rack ;) Actually, they do make life a little more convenient if you have a bunch of other rack gear to go into it, but if you don't, meh...I ditched mine in 2008 and I'm glad I did.
 
#8
A rack will enable addiction. I've sworn off racks. Too bulky, too heavy, in general they are just a pain. I started with a small rack. Eventually sold it. Later I got a bigger one and lugged it around. Eventually came to my senses and sold it. Was joyfully rack free for about 3-4 years. A week ago I bought another one. Ya see, there's this amazing preamp everyone's been yacking about that I just HAD to try. So here I am again, dragging a rack to a low-volume corporate jazz gig tonight that ordinarily would be a clean, lightweight schlep. Long story short: this amazing preamp had better be REALLY AMAZING or there will be yet more gear appearing in the for-sale forums!
 
#9
I don't get the agita over the weight thing. These days, you can get a mega watt power amp around 10-12 lbs, a preamp around 7 lbs. lightweight rack bag around 10 lbs. The whole rig could be close to under 30 lbs, if you shop right. That's about 10 times the power of an SVT with less than half the weight ! Where does the hernia come in ? :hmm:
 
#10
jnewmark said:
I don't get the agita over the weight thing. These days, you can get a mega watt power amp around 10-12 lbs, a preamp around 7 lbs. lightweight rack bag around 10 lbs. The whole rig could be close to under 30 lbs, if you shop right. That's about 10 times the power of an SVT with less than half the weight ! Where does the hernia come in ? :hmm:
Click to expand...

+1

I have a 13 pound, 3,000 watt power amp. With a decently light pre, and rack case, it tops out at maybe 30 pounds.
 
#11
The advantages are one can cop about any tone profile imaginable, and PA style amplifiers are true bargains when it comes to Watts vs. $. Another advantage is big headroom. By using a PA amp, the amp stage is arguable massive overkill. That ends up sounding good to some players ears - even at low volumes. There are some great deals that pop up from time to time in used preamps, take advantage of one of those and you can put a killer rig together pretty inexpensively.

Ukiah is right though, racks also further fuel gear procurement addictions. And, the weight does have a way of adding up.

I ran a rack for a few years. I liked how it sounded, but got tired of hauling it. For me, the tone advantages were swamped out by the joy of light weight. I move my rig three or more times a week. How many times it gets moved becomes a question you need to ponder.
 
#12
OP, first and foremost racks give you extra expense, weight and bulk.

My 4 space (4RU) Road Ready cab is full ATA certified as protection against airline gorillas.
3/8" plywood construction, lots of Penn metal latches, corners, protectors, and rivets.
Add in front and rear rails made from thick angle-iron steel.
The price paid for all this is 25.0 pounds empty.

You can opt for an SKB 4RU Standard plastic rack at 12.2 pounds.
They are durable, but not as durable as the ATA cases.
If you plan to use yours at a bull-fight, you might want the heavy case.

SKB Standard and Ultimate Strength come with rear rails.
I use this with my 21 pound PLX amps, to tie down the amp rear to the rear rack rails.
Beware the XRack series, which is less costly, smaller, and a PIA with the rear panel.
I own the XRack3 and it suits my unique purpose well enough.

Figure out what you want installed before you buy the rack.
Too big = waste of space, additional weight.
Too small = ~!@#$% I need more room.

I run two Sansamps: RPM and VTRM, a 2RU power amp, optional 1RU crossover, and two racks.
Rack #1 is a 2RU ATA for the preamps (26.5 pounds).
Rack #2 is a 4RU ATA for a power amp + 1RU crossover, and 1RU wasted space (51 pounds).
Two racks is less weight per trip, but twice the trips to the truck.

I'd like to replace the 4RU ATA with an SKB Standard 3RU.
I'll trade straight over for a mint SKB 3RU for my mint RR 4RU ATA. I own three.

IMO, anything else in a rack is just eye candy.

Separates let you mix and match preamps, crossovers or power amps.
They are more expensive than a single head, but more flexible if a component dies.
You can use larger amplifier wattage with rack gear.
I use rack gear because I mix and match between keys, basses, and large PA support for outdoors.

The Ampeg PF800 is an 11.8 pound head, Ampeg tone, and but only produces 400w into 8 ohms.
My bass player uses an LM-III head and slips it into a carry bag at the end of the night.
FWIW, so many guys get lost in gear and forget they are there to play their bass.
 
#13
jnewmark said:
I don't get the agita over the weight thing. These days, you can get a mega watt power amp around 10-12 lbs, a preamp around 7 lbs. lightweight rack bag around 10 lbs. The whole rig could be close to under 30 lbs, if you shop right. That's about 10 times the power of an SVT with less than half the weight ! Where does the hernia come in ? :hmm:
Click to expand...

Another +1. My current power amp weighs 17 pounds, which keeps overall rack weight less than 50% SVT. I could shave even more weight by getting a lighter amp, and also by using solid state preamps instead of all-tube.

SansAmp preamps are solid state and light weight. Another advantage is that they emulate the sound of warm power tubes. Few all-tube preamps give that kind of tube warmth. Note: no preamp will give you the glory of an all tube amp in full throat, but the SansAmps come plenty close enough for my ears... and my back is MUCH happier.
 
#14
I love rack rigs because of modularity. I own a half-dozen bass preamps, and I like them all. I keep two in my rack (though I typically use just one at a time) so I can alternate depending on my mood. And when I feel like it (typically just for variety's sake) I can swap 'em out for the other preamps I own.

In short: instead of owning multiple amps for variety, I have two power amps (one kept at home as backup) and a variety of preamps.

Sure, these new teeny-tiny heads are super easy to move around, you can throw some in the pocket of a gig bag. But I do worry a little about theft, and also clumsiness: the singer for one of my bands likes to prance around and on more than one occasion has tripped over my instrument cable. Without proper precaution a teeny amp will go flying :eek: a lot farther than a 30 pound rack rig (though mine have stayed put).
 
#16
You can usually get higher quality components in racks. Take a compressor for example. You can put a prosound grade compressor in there that allows you to adjust all the various parameters and will generally be of higher quality than the one or two knob jobs they put in bass heads. Can also keep adding on more extensive eqs and other effects if you want. Can also change preamps while keeping the same poweramp. Can also get more power with a prosound poweramp than you can with typical bass heads, and that will be essentially a pair of 2-ohm stable amps, so you can do things like bi-amp, or just string along a lot of speakers without worrying so much about low impedance.

The downsides are size, weight and cost.

If you like having a lot of versatility and options and running a lot of effects and stuff, a rack may be for you.

If you get tone and power you like out of a regular bass head, then the rack may just end up being a lot of expensive, un-needed hassle.

Some people use small racks just as a carrying case for their amps and/or preamps that aren't built into a headcase of their own.
 
#17
Protection. A rack offers protection, for those of us who constantly transport their rigs.

If your amplifier fits in a 2 space rack, and you travel with it, even if you don't need more gear than just your amp, put it in a 2 space rack. The plastic roto-molded type are very light and offer great protection against falls or bumps.
 
#18
There are other positive aspects to a rack.

You can put multiple components inside one enclosure, which makes setup/teardown faster. Examples: amp, preamp, cab cable, XLR cable for DI, power strip/cord, other misc. cables.

Another benefit is configuration flexibility. The classic setup is stacking the amp gear on top of the cab. But some cabs, especially the newer lightweight cabs are more narrow than the amp/etc. My Fearless 110 is a tilt-back, so when used in that configuration it's impossible to put anything "on top." When gear is rack mounted, you can put the rack on the ground next to the cab and have the rack on its side pointing up. That's a nice, compact configuration that can't get knocked over by gyrations of guitards et. al.

If your bass gig bag has enough pockets, a rack will often enable dispensing with schlepping an extra, larger gig bag holding cables, etc.

A rack stacks easier on top or bottom of the cab than multiple components/bags when using a portacart. That makes for a safer carry, especially when going up or down stairs.

If I like my new preamp enough, I'll probably think of at least six more benefits to using a rack. :)
 
#19
Ukiah Bass said:
There are other positive aspects to a rack.
If your bass gig bag has enough pockets, a rack will often enable dispensing with schlepping an extra, larger gig bag holding cables, etc.
Click to expand...
This might be an okay good idea, provided your rack gear doesn't have any small switches on the back panel that can be accidentally thrown by a cord, when the rack is jostled around. I wouldn't mention it, had it not happened to me. A power cable once hit a switch on the back of my compressor and created a tense moment right before the start of a show.
 

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