combo bass amps: controls & input on top vs on front

[dg27]

I've been looking at a lot of combo bass amps strictly for practice.

Can anyone hazard guess as to why so many of them have the controls and the input jacks on the top rather than the front?

A quick scan @ the Sam Ash page seems to indicate that many more have controls on the top, which is a deal breaker to me.

 

[GuitarStv]

Re: combo bass amps: controls & input on top vs on front

So you can stick the amp on the floor and adjust the controls from your chair?

 

[dg27]

Re: combo bass amps: controls & input on top vs on front

So you can stick the amp on the floor and adjust the controls from your chair?

Can't one do that when they're on the front? (I do.)

Having the input jack on the top in particular smacks of bad design to me. It could put unnecessary stress on the guitar cord or necessitate a right-angle jack.

 

[SlyFoxx]

Re: combo bass amps: controls & input on top vs on front

... It could put unnecessary stress on the guitar cord or necessitate a right-angle jack.

:smack:

 

[Liko]

Re: combo bass amps: controls & input on top vs on front

So you can stick the amp on the floor and adjust the controls from your chair?

Can't one do that when they're on the front? (I do.)

Having the input jack on the top in particular smacks of bad design to me. It could put unnecessary stress on the guitar cord or necessitate a right-angle jack.

It depends on your relative position to the amp and the style of the combo. The basic idea is that the cab points out at the audience, not up at you. In that position, controls and inputs at the top rear of the cabinet are easier to get to until the full rig is about chest height, and so for these smaller combos it's becoming popular. A kickback design, OTOH, is designed to be pointed up at you, and in that situation a front-loaded panel is preferred as the top-loaded panel would end up at the back of the unit. Front-loaded controls are also preferred on your more powerful combos (600W+), that are designed to support building the rig out to a full stack by adding a second big cabinet. When you do that, the control panel's now right in your face.

As far as stress on the cable, in any position, if you jump around enough for that to be a problem you should have learned to loop your cable through one of your stack's handles a long time ago (preferably the bottom cabinet if it makes a difference, as yanking on it from there will be less likely to make the whole rig topple).

 

[DrNewcenstein]

Re: combo bass amps: controls & input on top vs on front

Not seeing how anyone would buy such a cheap cable that it would stress out from its own weight going into a top-mounted jack vs a front-mounted jack. If you're that concerned with it, perhaps you should only use right-angle cords at both ends.