Let's see your rig!

[John Schoen]

Bedroom bassplayer here with some pictures of my small "rig" to compensate for the heavy artillery that was just shown. 



It is an Ashdown LB-30 Drophead, the combo version of the Little Bastard. A fliptop design that was heavily inspired by the Ampeg B15. 30 Watts of tube power into a 15" cab with tweeter.



... and the obligatory shot of glowing valves.

[gearHed289]

Cool little Ashdown!

[fealach]

Weight isn't too bad, I haven't weighed them but it seems no worse than my old  8X10, maybe even less.  The sound is pretty bass-shy.   One of the original speakers blew shortly after I bought it, it has had 4 15" Fender OEM 16 Ohm speakers in it for years.  I really couldn't tell the difference in tone when the band is playing.  It sounds like a huge guitar cab.  Pretty good with guitar actually, with the big Fender amp.  It's in the drummer's garage because I have no room for it at home.  I liked the Fender rig better with a Carvin 10.2  NEO in place of the Sunn,plus I could put the whole thing in my car.

 I loved the Sunn with a distorted Sound City amp and an Exploiter, but clean it leaves something to be desired.  The 2 Bag End cabs don't have any highs to speak of, so the 3 sound good with the Fender. 

I like having an excuse to show the pic, on that other forum they threw stones at me for owning this stuff, and worse than stones for daring to play non-identical cabs together.  No doubt it would be a nightmare onstage with a PA, but that isn't likely to ever happen.

[Psycho Bass Guy]

I like having an excuse to show the pic, on that other forum they threw stones at me for owning this stuff, and worse than stones for daring to play non-identical cabs together.  No doubt it would be a nightmare onstage with a PA, but that isn't likely to ever happen.

If you've ever played out with it at all, you're far more experienced than most of the "expert" posters there. If you omitted the Sunn cab, the Bag Ends ought to be pretty stage-friendly, even with a PA. I never gigged my 400PS with the Bag Ends and it disappeared when I sent it off for cosmetic restoration. Heavy low mid voicings of most bass cabs are what makes onstage wash with bass cabs a problem. Around the second octave, frequencies are less directional and things like individual speaker phase and delay aligment makes a difference. That's one of the reason the SVT 8x10 is so successful. It's a phase coherent line array.

[dadagoboi]

Until two weeks ago I didn't know this amp existed.  After Jess Oliver left Ampeg he designed the Powerflex 500 to compete with his Portaflex B-15.





Uses 7027A power tubes, 8 or 16 ohm load.  Speaker is a CTS.  J.O. claimed 60 watts, it is LOUD with just the internal speaker.  Tone knobs on channel 2 are treble, ultrahigh, midrange and bass.  I'm digging the way it sounds.  Somebody at the Portaflex thread alerted the forum to it's availability at Guitar Center in Ft.Worth.  I immediately snapped it up @5AM.  They shipped it to the Ocala GC for $12.50.  I built a dolly to match my B-15 for it, Oliver used the same mounting hardware as Ampeg.

The front panel is black until the amp is powered on, then the lettering lights up.  Here's the wacko part:  Ampeg owned the fliptop patent so J.O. designed a lift to raise the head out of the cab.  See it here:




The lift isn't working at the moment but even with all that extra hardware in the cab the weight is still under 100lbs.

[Basvarken]

Wow, does yours look as pristine as this one?
I saw the video before and remember thinking it was only a showpiece model for the NAMM or something




Does it sound anywhere near as good as a B-15 Portaflex?

[jumbodbassman]

I had that amp many moons ago..  a louder b15 but IMHO not as sweet sounding at lower volumes.  I always preferred my  old 66-8 b15N
A guitar playing  friend of mine has a 2 15 version of that amp..   The 'elevator" raising the head still works but is rather noisey sounds like it is on its last legs like it may just get stuck halfway.    but it sounds pretty good.  Nice tube sound.    he won't won't sell it to me but i will keep asking.  he had the head serviced by jess about 6 months vefore he passed. 

[dadagoboi]

Mine has one small rip in the grill cloth.  The tolex is in good shape, superglue gel works great for regluing the seams.  Color came back to the tolex after a good cleaning and a liquid wax similar to 'Back to Black'.  This is the only one I've seen that still has the back grille.  Original tubes.  It sounds different from '64 B-15N, it's more aggressive.  The B-15 is great with flats, this one sounds better with rounds.  Jess didn't forget what he wanted an amp to sound like when he left Ampeg.  Big iron makes a big sound.

Recently read an interview with J.O.  He had to buy his P-500 off Ebay.  This one cost me, w/tax and shipping and 2 bulbs for the panel lights, less than $500.

Before pix:





I carefully removed as much of the spray paint as I could from the chassis and reshot the grill.





I'll be sending the chassis to Steve for a check up.   Just got my B-15 back from him, it sounds great.

[jumbodbassman]

you don't see these sell often but IIRC they seem to be  higher priced than that though much less than the 60's b15 which are now getting to be stupidly expensive.  enjoy its a great amp.    Aggressive is a good way to explain it versus the b15.  with the 2 15's its sounds  amazingly full but less agressive as it is too loud to really push it when i use it.   I  actually haven't played with that guitar player in about 2 years but we are actually playing a get together BBQ  at an old friends huge home on the water in CT sometime in july so i will get a chance to maybe play it a few times...  

[dadagoboi]

Considering what Ampeg is getting for their "heritage" B-15, used ones are a bargain...Hey, Jim, do you know this guy?  He's out of Danbury:
http://www.ebay.com/itm/MATCHED-PAIR-CTS-15-INCH-SPEAKERS-8-OHMS-AMPEG-/151045304640?pt=Vintage_Electronics_R2&hash=item232b007140

The tone circuits on P500 channel one and two are very different, channel one is very similar to the B-15, channel 2 has a lot more grit, Steve said it's close to Marshall/Fender preamp circuits.  If you get a chance try them both on your friend's.

[jumbodbassman]

Dusty.   thats the guy that does my recone work.  Good guy,  so far great work.  have had him rebuild  a few old JBl's,   2 CTS and 2 EV 400 pros.  I actually need to get up to him in the next few weeks and have him look over a old EV speaker that seems to have a vibration but not a broken cone.  seems like something is restricting the movement.... Let me  know if you want me to go look at stuff you want to buy and make sure they are done well.  I have his dirst email somewhere if you want it.

jim

i actually bought  an orphaned 70's remake fliptop b15N  cab from him   several years ago and when i picked it up i saw his shop and started giving him stuff to work on.  He rebuilt the EV400 pro that i changed to 4 ohm for the musicman 15rh cab i love so much.   

[dadagoboi]

Thanks, Jim!  Nice to know where to get quality work done.  I don't need anything at the moment, appreciate the offer.

[drbassman]

Carlo, that amp is so freekin cool looking.  The only Oliver I ever saw before was a tractor!

[dadagoboi]

Carlo, that amp is so freekin cool looking.  The only Oliver I ever saw before was a tractor!

Sounds as good as it looks!  A company called Oliver used to make incredible industrial woodworking machines, but no connection.

Probably going to build a 1/4 size 'SVT' cabinet (based on the first squareback one) using a pair of Eminence Legend 810 32 Ohm speakers.  The Legends are supposed to be very similar to the CTS used in the original SVTs.  Judging by the Legend guitar speakers they should be pretty close.

[Highlander]

...  Took this last night, let's see if I can get it to post...

Missed this one... took the AD for an outing... I'd be curious to hear some sound bites of that beastie to hear what mine would have sounded like and what she will sound like once I finish the rebuild...