Your Favorite "One Night Stand"?

[MHensleyJr]

I played through an Ampeg SVT 5 Pro & 410 HE cab years ago. Totally surprised me how much I dug the head!

 

[micguy]

We’re talking music here, right?

….sorry

So far. In a couple pages, though….

I predict the thread goes South with the inevitable:

weight?
neck width?

 

[Slevage]

I auditioned for a band. They said they had a full studio with a bass amp. The bass amp was a Crate combo with a single 15. It was a higher end Crate than the typical ones I’d seen. I plugged in my Elrick and it sounded great. The studio was acoustically tweaked with baffles.
When we started playing, the leader put me through their Soundcraft board and EAW wedges. That made it even better. I gave the amp a lift and knew I wouldn’t want to move it every weekend, but it did sound great. I declined the offer for the gig because the band needed too much work to get out gigging. They led me to believe they had material ready to gig.

 

[BOOG]

Katie's!

The only missing in this pic is you, standing on your head

 

[MVE]

Martyrs in Chicago has a wonderful Trickfish head and matching 4x10 backline. It sounds glorious and the board is already EQ’d for it.

All the hourly practice rooms at Music Garage in Chicago have top shelf gear. Bass amps I remember include SVT’s, Thunderfunk into 2 Acme 212’s, etc…
Its worth the fee just to play with the gear.

 

[Pings Bass]

Not a bass rig, but first pro studio session singing into a Neumann U87 with good cans. Absolutely ruined me for crappy stage monitoring for quite some time. (I pretend my Rode NT1A is close enough, but I don't want to A/B test lest I am ruined for that, too.)

That same session, the producer wanted a DI straight from my bass "just in case." I don't think he ever intended to use the DI or mic from my rig, and it turned out I didn't want it in the end, either. That was my first "aha" moment with regards to bass guitar amplification. Straight from a Fender P to the console (with a little EQ) was the quickest route to "the sound in my head."

 

[jimmydean]

A famous actress I met in Toronto........oh sorry about that . It was a backline of four SVT cabs and four SVT amps .I felt the Earth move and SVT's were pretty good too .

 

[burgerdj]

Trace Elliot AH600SMX with a 410, 115 and a bright box. We opened for an endorsing touring band back in the late 90s and to my amazement the bass player offered me his rig. It was thunder! And completely took me by surprise. I had never heard and felt my playing like that before.

 

[burgerdj]

You'll forgive me if I don't remember the model number but it was the OG Trace Elliott black-light lit stereo head, 600w a side IIIRC, sitting on top of two TE single 15's and two TE 410's. Holy Smokin' Joe, it was Earth moving.

Similar experience - noted below!

 

[whero]

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[whero]

My favourite one nightstand, although they usually come in pairs.

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[Max Blasto]

Oh, that would be a few years ago playing the Viper Room in Hollywood. Plugged into the GK Fusion 550 with the fridge cabinet they had in backline.
I could have cut down a tree with that sound. That rig was no where near portable enough for my current needs, but boy did I think about buying one for a few weeks after that.

 

[DaveParker39]

It's never happened to me on bass, but on guitar once I plugged into a Marshall 6100lm Anniversary and it just blew me away.

 

[Inara]

Mine was at the Nashville Guitar Center around 10 years ago, I guess. I was trying out a bass, can't recall what, and the amp I plugged into was a Markbass SD800 into a Markbass 106HR 610 cabinet, both now discontinued. I didn't need or want an amp setup that big, but omg the tone was amazing.

 

[slam dunk]

Ever play an amp/combo/stack ONE time and never again? Be it a backline at a gig, a bandmate's at rehearsal, at a music store, or in a recording studio....Which one of these would you say was your favorite "One night stand" and how did you two "meet"? Any saucy details you'd like to add are very welcome



My Answer:
I was at a guitar store and ran across an Orange AD200B with matching 1x15 cabinet. I'd heard a few Orange guitar amps and was impressed, never heard their bass amps. I tried 4 or 5 basses through this rig and LOVED it. A Ric 4003, USA Spector, fretless Fender P-bass, a recent Fender Jazz, an Ibanez Prestige SR...all sounded fantastic though it! Haven't run across one since then, and didn't have the scratch to get myself one either

An honorable mention was a previous bandmate's Trace Elliot with 1x15 cabinet. I couldn't tell you the model, but I believe it was either an 80s or 90s model with graphic EQ and compressor built in....heavy SOB too. This one got disqualified because I used it several times at his house. Sounded GREAT though!

I played a gig in the ‘80s where two bands alternated sets. The other bass player and I were acquaintances from the same general area. He had a new Hartke rig with a head, an aluminum 4x10 cab and a 15 cab. I had a bi-amped Peavey beast with two 18/10 cabs, two power amps and preamp. Headroom. We were early for sound check and we had both rigs set up, in place ready to go. We played through each other’s rigs for fun and decided each had different qualities and strengths. In short, Hartke was smoother with a warmer midrange, and the Peavey rig had a hard rock bite that was intimidating. Then we experimented using them both at the same time. The seas parted! I mean no comparison, we were in bass heaven. Both rigs running together was totally pegged out on the bass funmeter.
Combining gear often yields great results.

 

[pbass2]

I once had a backline of a classic series 1 GK 400RB and an Amped 8x10 fridge. Was KILLER. I actually liked it better than with an SVT head, which is usually what I'd encounter backline.

 

[Dr. Keebs]

Back in 2005 I think, played a show opening for Los Lobos. Their gear was our backline, which was extremely generous. Conrad’s old Ampeg SVT/810 rig made me very happy.

 

[willddd]

Aguilar TH500 and 2 x oldish SWR 15s. Bassist's from headline act. The 15s sounded amazing, so much clarity.

 

[Passinwind]

Ever play an amp/combo/stack ONE time and never again? Be it a backline at a gig, a bandmate's at rehearsal, at a music store, or in a recording studio....Which one of these would you say was your favorite "One night stand" and how did you two "meet"? Any saucy details you'd like to add are very welcome

Mine was actually on keys and I'm not really even a keyboard player. I was hanging out with a roadie friend during setup for an Allman Bros concert at the New Haven Coliseum in the late 70s and he asked me to show him the knarliest ARP synth patch I could come up with for the new keyboard player they brought in. I had been a QC tech at ARP a few years earlier, so I had a few doozies in my pocket for sure. Then he patched it through the FOH system at full chat. Many people were not amused, especially the union crew who had tried to keep me off the stage, but my buddy and I had a pretty good laugh.

 

[LBS-bass]

Backline SVT and matching cabinet. I wanted to take it home but I couldn't pick it up.