Which Amp for what? For Newbie..

[fhm555]

Sorry, but what your are asking is no different than asking me to describe red to someone blind from birth.
I could go into exhaustive detail about the physics of refraction, the visible spectrum, even the associative terms like warm and cool as applied to color, but I could never make their minds eye “see” red.

 

[Maulraizor]

Can you please describe the characteristics of these different amps? I will not be able to try any of the real ones out any time soon.. I'm just wanting to have an actual discussion about the characteristics of each of these amps. I hear you that a modeler is not as good as the real thing. We can talk about the real things and their differences, that is fine.

I play through an Ampeg SVT 4 pro. This is a pricey Amp but has a lot of functionality and versitility.

Characteristics, where to begin....
Let’s start at compression. The compression dial turned all of the way up provides a very smooth, very clean tone. Turn it all of the way down, and now you are rocking a punchy tone with much harder attack.
Next, the EQ. This amp has traditional bass, treble and mid eq knobs, but with a twist. You can actually select the mid frequency that you wish to boost or cut. The amp also features a 9-band EQ that can be activated/deactivated by pedal. This can be used to establish a “solo” channel or just keep it always on to maintain your customized, desired EQ
My settings: i play in a rock band and keep the compression turned down all of the way. I boost the bass and treble along with the higher mid frequencies for a punchy/groovy tone.

Functionality: I could go on and on about what this amp is capable of, but Im just going to talk about what I do. My pedal board contains some pedals that I feel cut my low end (overdrive pedal, freq box, synth pedals). I send my high gain output from my amp to my pedals and return that to the channel B. That channel goes to a 410 cab. In order to maintain my lows, i send my low gain output from my amp to channel A, which powers a 115 ulf driver. At the end of the day, even when my cab is screaming highs, my ulf driver makes sure that youcan still feel the bass. The crossover knobs allow me to blend the high and low channel to my desire. The result is that I have the tone that I want and I have it at very high volumes.

 

[gln1955]

If I understand correctly, you have a modeler that can emulate all of these amps to some extent and you intend to use this and not actually buy one of those amps. You have a very versatile system there, so just use it. Spend some time and find the tones that work for you in your playing situation. Don't worry about which virtual amp it ends up being. Don't make this more complicated than it needs to be.

 

[Fynn]

I am a new bass player. I am trying to get a handle on how and why certain PreAmps/amps/combos have a certain kind of sound compared to others and when or why I'd want to use one of another. I see a lot of comments on this forum about the "SVT" sound or whatever...or people like a certain thing..but really most of that commentary assumes I have the slightest clue what an SVT sounds like vs some other like a Fender Bassman...or why one might be preferable over another for certain kinds of music or whatever. Or what rigs certain famous players are using, as a guideline.

I do have a modeler, THE GT-1B and I am fooling around with it and definitely can hear lots of differences between different preamps and cabs...but honestly...I have no idea how or why one would be preferable over another for certain situations...

Can we have a discussion that gets into the nitty gritty about the characteristics of the various popular amps out there? What specifically is it about each one that gives it its characteristic sound?

My modeler has models for SVT, B-15, Bassman, SWR SM-400, Acoustic360, GK 880RB, Little Mark III, and then some generic things like a flat response amp and and acoustic bass amp. I'm just wondering what are the actual characteristics of these different amps that would make me want to choose for different situations.

I've found that there's really only like three general popular bass tones. The SVT tone is a pretty punchy, slightly distorted and sort of dull sounding tone. There's not alot of clarity in that. Similar to what an Acoustic360 is in my eyes. Then there's a more hifi tone that developed a couple of decades ago. You have loads of clarity with that. Meaning many high frequencies come through pretty well and there's not really much distortion by itself. That's what I think the Gallein Krueger and Trace Elliot sort of amps sound like. And then there's the real modern tone, which I see mostly with metal players now. Where you have a very clear almost guitar like tone, that can be pretty mid scooped and sound very fast and direct (also seen with some of the more modern slap players).
When people talk about tube amp tone, I found that it's mostly just more low end. Tubes sound warm to people, often because they just give more low frequencies in general.
The sort of amps that got really popular with that hifi tone (Mesa, Trace Elliot, Gallien Krueger, Eden...) give you a pretty wide variety of tones. And I believe if you need to have many different tones for different situations, then it might be best to get a modern equivalent of such an amp and just add different pedals / preamps to it. Mesa Subway series appears to be a pretty good allrounder in that respect.

All that being said, I have not played through many amps in my times (listened to alot on the internet and music formats), but those are the sort of associations that I have with bass tone in general.

 

[Maulraizor]

The sort of amps that got really popular with that hifi tone (Mesa, Trace Elliot, Gallien Krueger, Eden...) give you a pretty wide variety of tones.

I don’t have a lot of experience with many different heads, but I rented a Gallien Krueger once and it had amazing attack and clarity. Very punchy in all of the right ways. It is true that I have not been able to get that tone from my SVT.

 

[Dincrest]

What about the Lamborghini Urus? It’s an SUV and it’ll carry all that… kind of.

Well played, friend. Well played.

Of course, the fact that it costs more than my house and has atrocious fuel economy is stoking the ire of my inner grumpy old man.

Anyway, some stuff related to the "real" discussion:





(In terms of bass YouTube channels, I think Ivan Carranza's is fantastic. And there are probably more videos he's done that are relevant).

 

[Dewdman42]

You need this .. <end of discussion>
View attachment 4681345

Can you describe why?

 

[kesslari]

This thread is done.