bass amps: tube, solid state or both?

[Hellion]

Re: bass amps: tube, solid state or both?

My bass rig is 950 watts and a SS rack system. I wasn't aware, though, that I could have been blowing panties off women. Hindsight's 20/20, I guess...

Personally, I don't know any bass player that wouldn't prefer SS to tube. The attack is crisper, the bottom end is tighter, and bass systems are designed to be lazy (who really NEEDS 1000 watts all of the time? It's on demand.) so you're never really pushing what you have.

 

[GLJazz]

Re: bass amps: tube, solid state or both?

I've actually got an old Hartke USA TA3500 that is tube/SS blend. Its freakin killer. Different than the SWR, but tasty none the less.

 

[Hellion]

Re: bass amps: tube, solid state or both?

I'm with Hellion.
I always prefered solid state for bass,felt it was a lot cleaner but I had a chorus on a lot of times if I wanted it to be a bit warmer sounding.
But for recording I always tried to go dry direct.

And I'm with you. Recording, I'm always direct, straight into the machine and dry as a bone. Let the mixer handle the EQ, but make it sound good going in!

 

[guitfiddle]

Re: bass amps: tube, solid state or both?

I like the way a tube amp shaves off the clacky parts of the tone, so you don't make people cringe. One of the reasons I'm going for an Acoustic combo is that the preamp has a tube emulation going on.

In my experience, direct to the board lets everyone hear the crashes and fart-outs, whereas a tube amp compresses them into something useable.

IMO, YMMV, etc.

 

[Hellion]

Re: bass amps: tube, solid state or both?

I like the way a tube amp shaves off the clacky parts of the tone, so you don't make people cringe. One of the reasons I'm going for an Acoustic combo is that the preamp has a tube emulation going on.

In my experience, direct to the board lets everyone hear the crashes and fart-outs, whereas a tube amp compresses them into something useable.

IMO, YMMV, etc.

I've never had that problem, but it may be because I dial the fart outs and crashes ahead of time. Who knows? I spend a lot of time getting the levels right in the preliminary stages and leave the rest to our mixing engineer.

 

[Wattage]

Re: bass amps: tube, solid state or both?

It's not an svt, but it's still an ampeg!

http://bass-guitars.musiciansfriend.com/product/Ampeg-583101MicroVR-Bass-Amp-Head-and-SVT210AV-Bass-Speaker-Cabinet-Stack?sku=583101

Cab only weighs 25 lbs. and the head is pure SS with 200w.

These sound awesome fwiw

 

[Wattage]

Re: bass amps: tube, solid state or both?

My fave bass amp was my old Acoustic B320 with a matching 2x15 cab. It was a great amp, totally SS and I would really love to get one again. The new stuff isn't made the same way unfortunately, they are owned by Samick now.

I have a 320 waiting for me if I want it but I would need to get a bass again. I like the B version better but...

Well the SWR stuff is really impressive sounding when I have used it but I never looked under the hood. I love SVT's but come on who the hell wants to deal with the weight.

The quality of tubes these days would make me leery of having a big time tube bass head rattling the crap out of them.

Hear you go = http://longisland.craigslist.org/msg/2190771044.html