Head Hunting, Continues

Mesa is really good... well, in my opinion at least. Some of my favorite gear, and I know there a few other Mesa enthusiasts around here.

You should just go find an old Acoustic 370 head in good condition... best head I've ever owned :D

I had d.i. issues on my Hartke -- it didn't work at all.

Traded it for a Mesa Venture combo.

Great amp w/no issues.

Check out some mark bass stuff...

jrug's mesa carbine was smokin....

the working pro SWR's don't have tubes, so there is no way they will sound the same as the pro series. i liked the 350x i had, but the DI was jacked (most likely from phantom power).... besides the tube i liked the parallel FX loop since you could blend it with the dry signal.

also, you could go w/a separate preamp/poweramp if heads don't impress you...

Can you get Trace Elliot amps because to me they cannot be beaten

but the DI was jacked (most likely from phantom power)....

Tell me more about the phantom power issue. Our mixing board has phantom power out to the inputs for the microphones. I recall when we were setting things up that things seemed to work better when we turned it on. I belive its left on all the time. We don't have a sound engineer; it been the twanger and myself buying the gear and setting it up; learning as we go.

Is the phantom power a problem for DI outs from amps?

Now that you bring it up, I recall reading somewhere on an amp mfg. website something about phantom power rejection. Its been a while, don't know where it was.

The DI out being clean is important for what I do. I play in a church during the service. While its not a big sanctuary, and my amp and cab could easiy fill the building; we want a more even balanced sound, without being overly loud up front.

thanks

Jeff

the DI's on the SWR heads do not have the phantom power rejection circuitry, AFAIK... Not a whole lot of info out there on it, last i checked. i never did send an email to their support, though. i traded the head away, mainly due to the DI. i do not know if it is a problem for most amps, although for safety's sake i would turn it off except for mics.

I wouldn't mind having one of its older siblings (550x or 750x) as an alternate to my tubeworks/behringer setup.. or if another one came around again and i traded for it...

the DI on my carvin R1000 was super quiet and clean.. the head itself was too stale though, since i like tubes. the latest catalog i got from carvin had a few more tube preamped heads in it besides the bx500.

Our mixing board is a 32 ch. peavy. To the best of my knowledge, the phantom power is either all on or all off for the whole board.

I have to do some more reading. Tommorow morning I'll hook my DI back up and turn off the phantom power and see if it makes a difference in the noise in my DI output from the Hartke head.

Anyone know of a good forum for live sound?

thx

jeff

I would say look for a used Eden wt-500, but thats just my brand love taking over.

Although, anything from mesa is almost guaranteed to sound amazing!

The SM series from SWR are probably some of the best amps out there... traded out my SM400 awhile ago, but I just got a BBII combo a lil ago and it is THUNDEROUS (especially with the new Long Throw 8s in it).

AFA I'm concerned, most of the current SWR stuff is bleh... but their SM line is still great from what I've tried...

Pick up an SM-1500! ;)

Trace ElliotTrace Elliot

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Trace ElliotTrace Elliot
Trace ElliotTrace Elliot
Trace Elliot

:D

Nuff Said!

H

O.K. I must be loosing it. Or rather the Hartke is. At church rehearsal this morning it seemed like the tone pot on my Fender was shorted through.....all the high frequencies were gone. No matter what I did with the tone knob, it was all dark and muddy. Played around with the Hartke head, didn't seem to make much improvement. I called the wife and had her bring the 5 string Spector when she came in for the service, at first it seemed like an improvement, but the more I played I realized it was just that the Spector is such a brighter, edgier sounding stick.

Got home and plugged into my practice amp, nothing wrong with the fender. The Hartke is not long for this world.

Went shopping at the local GC, took the Fender P/J with me. That was an enlightening experience. I'll never shop for amps again just playing the basses at the store. I guess its like shopping for home stereo gear; you always bring in your own CD's to listen to. (at least I do) :)

Anyway..... now I really, really like the Ampeg SVT3Pro. Played through a Markbass as well, it nice, but almost sterile sounding...too clean. The Ampeg had a sound with some soul to it. I'd like to see one of the Markbass units that have a tube front end, but it seems GC has the sales and distribution of these locked up; and not much selection at my local branch.

I notice Ampeg is now mfg. overseas in Asia somewheres. Anyone have bad experience with this? Is it worth shopping for a USA-Made clean used piece?

Get a used one and get it serviced.

Or get your current one serviced. Might just be dirty pots, and some servisol will fix it.

Asking advice on amps seems pretty much like asking advice on strings. Seems like every one has different taste when it comes to the power plants. Eden, Mesa, Ampeg, Trace, Mark Bass,......there are just too many options. I love my Mesa, and would never switch to another brand that I can see any time in the near future. Still, I say that without knowing what the market for us will produce. I have found things I like about alot of differnet brands. Sometimes it's looks, power, weight, functions, controls,.....or above all SOUND. I swear by my Mesa, but I think part of that was mostly due because I wanted one for way too long before I decided to drop the money on it. There is nothing like getting the amp you've been gassin' over for a few years. I think because of that I think I am satisfied, and don't even look at any other brands. Before that point I was using the Ampeg SVT-3 Pro, which I liked alot but could never find that certain tone I was looking for. I've had Hartke, SWR, Carvin, etc. All of which were sold for one reason, or another. So I guess what I'm saying is........ If there is a certain amp you are wanting....Hold out for what you really want. Don't jump on something that you find yourself settling for. Shop around for awhile, and when you find the amp you were meant to have..... You'll know it.

Nuff Said!

H

H - do you have any idea what a major postrior discomfort it is to scroll thorugh that on a blackberry?

:y

Ampeg has announced that they going to build a limited number of high end custom units in the U.S. in Washington State somewhere.

The U.S. made units will be almost three times as much as the St. Louis Music models were.

I think the Asian Ampeg stuff will be okay for a gigging bassist, but if you're really going for that old school ampeg sound, you'll have to spring for the U.S. stuff.

So called vintage stuff is a risk at best.

The U.S. made units will be almost three times as much as the St. Louis Music models were.

I think the Asian Ampeg stuff will be okay for a gigging bassist, but if you're really going for that old school ampeg sound, you'll have to spring for the U.S. stuff.

So called vintage stuff is a risk at best.

LOUD's just down the road a bit from me in Woodinville, WA.

I should go there and poke my head in the door to see what's up with this.

Just need to budget a good teching into the purchase price. Ampegs are fiddly to work on though.

I'll toss out a recommendation for Genz-Benz.

I'm thrilled with my Shuttle 6.0.

If the tone works for you, they're definitely tops on quality and customer service.

You nailed it on that one for sure. The shopping has been fun though, and created some enjoyable dialog here. Meanwhile, last night I pulled my amp and cab out of the church and hauled it up to my local tech (Hy-Way Music if you are ever in central NJ and need service). John at Hy Way is a real old school guy, real easy going and will never steer you wrong.

He fiddled around with it, pulled the crossover out of my cab, tightened up on the tweeter adj. pot mounting and put it back together, plugged it all in and it sounded great. I guess it just needed to go for a ride in my truck, needs more gigs. I left the head with him to check out the DI out for noise.

Meanwhile, the Ampeg is claiming dominance at the top of my want list at this point, and I really loved the way the 410HLF cab sounded. Yeah, I know.....I wasnt shopping for a cab, but; this thing just oozed sound like basking in a warm glow of tone. However my back is already screaming at me for the mere though of 78 lbs worth of cabinet.

before long I'm sure I'll buy something, and then I will post PIX!

Jeff

had planned on shopping some more tonight, hoping finding a store that had the mesa and the 'peg and comparing them.....

what the hey - I loved the tone of the ampeg. sitting in front of that SVT410HLF cabinet and giving the tube bias knob a judicous twist put a smile on my face from the inside out.

found a nice USA made model on GC's used listings out of state. Ordered it up, might have it by the weekend. Got home this evening, check my cc account. They are charging me sales tax on an out of state sale! Be aware if you buy from an out of state GC; they dont really treat it as mail order. The girl who took my order made no mention of this.

My initial reaction was to reject the order....now I'm thinking I'll see how the condition is and re-asses my feelings after I play through it on my cab, wtih my bass.

thx to all who weighed in with yer ugly comments.

will post pix soon assuming its a keeper.

jeff

O.K. So I bougtht this Pre-Owned SVT3Pro head from an un-named out of state G.C.

It shows up in yestardays' BBV.

They double boxed it, as requested; but rather hastily so, with a paltry job of packaging.
The front panel took a hard sideways hit to one of the D-handles that project off the front panel so that the thing bent sideways, partially obstructing the input jack. (Yeah - I want to keep this thing now.....):mad:

To add insult to injury, what they promised (and I paid for) was a USA made head....they shipped me a Vietnamese made head.
:mad:
So I returned it to one of the GC stores near me, guy at the counter says.....so what's wrong with it.....

Sometimes I think its just me; all I can do is laugh about it at this point.

roll with it

GC is doing a number on themselves

in times like these customer service is making and breaking a lot of businesses

good luck finding what you're looking for

O.K. it has been a while, I was offline for about a week.

The last snowstorm we had took out my landline phone & internet service. phone wire lay in the snow ripped away from the house for 8 days before Verizon would fix.

Meanwhile they fixed my next door neighbor's in 1 day becase their's was down in the driveway. Lesson learned, if your phone line is down, you have to LIE to verizon if you want it fixed in any decent amount of time.

At anyrate ..... I finially got a new SVT3Pro amp.

I don't think I'll ever buy mail order from GC's used resource again. I may use it to locate something within driving distance, but this is the second time I've done this and they just don't get the concept of how to pack anything.

Band practice this afternoon, I remembered to bring a camera.

The New Ampeg, the old Hartke and my Epifani cab.

Here's our new drummer checking out our guitar player's 335

Nice rig

aerodyne looks awesome too

That Aerodyne looks sweet!

I may end up with one eventually as I seem to really like a P/J configuration.

Being a closet twanger, I really like that ES335 too!

Nice finish on that one.