TELL ME WHAT AMPS TO BUY

[theavondon]

This:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=by7nNwQe_Sc

Pretty sure the guys at EGC own this actually.

[McSpunckle]

What's your bass amp budget, Spunk?

If I was still doing bar gigs, I'd still have my GK 700rb-ii and Aguilar GS112 speaker. That thing at 300w at 8ohm was the loudest amp setup I've ever had. Ever. Ever.

Hmm... the GS112 isn't much more expensive than the Avatar...

I've used the GS112... it's a sweet cab.

My budget is basically as little as I can spend without compromising too much. I'm gonna get the guitar amp really soon (need it more), then get the new bass cab, and a new amp if the Acoustic doesn't improve with the new cab.

Honestly, I could probably copy the dimensions of the Avatar and use the same speaker and make a cab that's just as good in an evening... but I think I remember pricing it a while back and deciding Avatar was practically the price as the parts to build one, so what's the point?

[theavondon]

Plus, Avatar lets you get a giant box on your doorstep! And, fun colors!

[one bad monkey]

Plus, Avatar lets you get a giant box on your doorstep! And, fun colors!

Aguilar has fun colors now. Their "White Hot" color combo is exactly that.

[McSpunckle]

Word. I'm leaning toward the Aguilar, no matter the colours. I'll have to research that stuff more.

I bought a Darkhorse. Demos and reviews made it seem like exactly what I was looking for, so we'll see when it gets here. I wanted to get out and try stuff out, but since that probably wasn't going to happen, I just made sure to buy it from a place where I could send it back if I didn't like it.

Huge bonus points that Traynor posted their service manual (with schematics, layouts, etc) for download. And I still think it's really cool that they make their own stuff.

[oldangelmidnight]

Tell us about it when you get a chance. I'm considering it, too.

[McSpunckle]

Will do! The amp should be here like Friday...

[Officer Bukowski]

What if you killed two birds with one stone and got a Fender Bassman or something? I play guitar through a bass amp (with a 15) all the time and I dig it.

Edit: I just saw you already bought an amp.

[McSpunckle]

Traynor Darkhorse just got here. It's really sweet. As someone who's never personally played through a Fender amp, I think it sounds like a Fender.

It does clean to just-kinda-broken up the best. The distortions are fine, especially in the 2 watt mode. In 15 watt the amp is a bit too loud to really push the power tubes, which is basically exactly how I wanted it. I imagine it's loud enough for small clubs... especially if you got a 2x12 cab, or a second 1x12. I just got the matching 1x12, which is a pretty sweet cab. It has a nifty removable panel to go between openback and closed... I like open the best. The whole thing seemed to come "alive" when I took the panel off.

Build quality on both the amp and cab seems really good. I'd have to open it up to really tell you how good it is. I predict it'll look like a production amp on the inside. A couple of less-than-perfect things that, overall, don't matter much. Yup.

Thanks, ILF! It's just what I wanted. ^_^

[oldangelmidnight]

How do you feel about not having a mids knob?

[McSpunckle]

I haven't had a mid knob in so long that I don't really care. Last amp I had that had one, I just left it flat and adjusted the bass and treble. I really only use the EQ to tame harsh highs or clear up the lows a bit. The tone stack switch on this thing is pretty handy... USA is cleaner and more scooped, Brit has more mids but it's dirtier. Pure is what you'd expect from lifting the tone stack.

The cleans to sorta overdrives tones on this thing are great. and it takes fuzz realllly well. TGP says it loves overdrives too. I'll try it later. The higher gain sounds are pretty meh with the back of the cab open. Closed back they're pretty good, but I think the cab is more set up for the cleaner sounds. In the 2 watt mode, when I can actually push the power amp, it gets a lot better, so I think it's just that it's all preamp distortion. Different tubes could help too... I couldn't tell ya, cause that's not what I use this thing for. From what I understand, the Vox is better at that sorta thing.

-edit-
I take back what I said about the higher gain tones. I had the bass set too high, and it was making it sound kinda buzzy. And I'm thinking it might have been the new tubes... I don't know if they break in or just need to run a bit before sounding just right. Either way, that buzzy character is gone.
-/edit-

Anywho, now that I have the guitar amp settled, for the bass, I'm thinking I'm just cut off one of the preamps on my Acoustic 150 and shorten the cab. And fix its innards to better-than-new condition, and put that on a 1x12. Maybe a 15. Yup yup.