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Bass Amps & Effects / My first “Real” bass amp, a history.
« on: December 19, 2019, 10:02:46 AM »
Mom and Dad gave me a 1969 Fender Bassman for my 16th birthday. It was huge. 50 watts and 2X12 cabinet. It was cool to finally have an amplifier. One of the other reasons I chose the Framus over the Hofner was it’s acoustic volume was better. It wasn’t until we moved back to the states that I needed an amp. In Germany our drummers father had a band and lent us equipment for gigs and rehearsal. It was stollen when my buddy and my house got broken into.
I purchased a Fender Bassman 410 a few years later when I got a gig in a blues band in Pittsburgh. I used this Bassman up until 1985. I was really happy getting these two amps, but it didn’t take long to realize how anemic they were for stage work.
Shortly after I got a real job, from which I retired 30 years later, I started looking for a real bass amp. There was a music store in Miami that had some great stuff, he had a new amp deigned by Steve W. Rabe “SWR” named the Studio 220, the SWR labeled speaker cabinet was loaded with 4 David Eden speakers. This was a great amp, I still have it and use it at the rehearsal studio. It developed a problem early on and I had to use my guitarists Acoustic amp head. Steve was very supportive, I loved the amp, he sent me the schematics that allowed me to run the problem down. It was intermittent but it made the amp unreliable. It took some time but eventually I found a cold solder. Never a problem since. I consider this my first true bass amp.
The SWR covered everything I needed, the XLR out handled the big events like the out door River Walk Blues Festival in Ft. Lauderdale.
I was hanging out at a buddies guitar shop and saw this petite little amp and asked him about it. He told me he initially bought it because it was a great amp but it was just sitting around gathering dust. He thought it would sale immediately. He offered it to me at his cost. It had way more head room than I would likely ever need but man was it light, like 4lbs and like the SWR it had a tube pre-amp. This was the Genz Benz Shuttle 9.0, 500 watts into 8 ohms 900 into 4 ohms, Crazy. I use If for gigs along with the SWR Golight 2 by 10” neodymium speakers rated at 400 watts, total weight 42 lbs, amp and speaker. If I ever need the head room of 900 watts I could pair it with the 4X10, the 2X10 or the Hartke 15. It’s nice to have options.
The only venue I didn’t have satisfactorily covered was off grid bass amplification. I purchased A used Roland MICRO CUBE BASS RX on the recommendations of other bassists but never bonded with it. I don’t like the way it sounds, it kind of sucks the tone right out of the instrument. Might be OK for a guitar or harmonic but it’s an amp of last resort for me. I’ve recently added the Phil Jones Double Four battery powered amp and I have to say it covers all acoustic opportunities and low volume rehearsals really well. I’ve used this with the reasonably priced Ibanez PNB14E Parlor Acoustic, 24.75 scale, Bass Guitar with very satisfactory results. Many times when I pack up, I get comments from others that they had no idea I was using an amplifier. I keep the volume just in the mix, so as to not stand out. I also use a wireless link between the bass and the amp. A very natural sound. Even acoustically this Ibanez has better projection than my Guild B50 fretless. Thank D’Adderio for the strings developed for the Taylor GS Mini-e Bass. This new bass string technology is making ABGs viable.
I purchased a Fender Bassman 410 a few years later when I got a gig in a blues band in Pittsburgh. I used this Bassman up until 1985. I was really happy getting these two amps, but it didn’t take long to realize how anemic they were for stage work.
Shortly after I got a real job, from which I retired 30 years later, I started looking for a real bass amp. There was a music store in Miami that had some great stuff, he had a new amp deigned by Steve W. Rabe “SWR” named the Studio 220, the SWR labeled speaker cabinet was loaded with 4 David Eden speakers. This was a great amp, I still have it and use it at the rehearsal studio. It developed a problem early on and I had to use my guitarists Acoustic amp head. Steve was very supportive, I loved the amp, he sent me the schematics that allowed me to run the problem down. It was intermittent but it made the amp unreliable. It took some time but eventually I found a cold solder. Never a problem since. I consider this my first true bass amp.
The SWR covered everything I needed, the XLR out handled the big events like the out door River Walk Blues Festival in Ft. Lauderdale.
I was hanging out at a buddies guitar shop and saw this petite little amp and asked him about it. He told me he initially bought it because it was a great amp but it was just sitting around gathering dust. He thought it would sale immediately. He offered it to me at his cost. It had way more head room than I would likely ever need but man was it light, like 4lbs and like the SWR it had a tube pre-amp. This was the Genz Benz Shuttle 9.0, 500 watts into 8 ohms 900 into 4 ohms, Crazy. I use If for gigs along with the SWR Golight 2 by 10” neodymium speakers rated at 400 watts, total weight 42 lbs, amp and speaker. If I ever need the head room of 900 watts I could pair it with the 4X10, the 2X10 or the Hartke 15. It’s nice to have options.
The only venue I didn’t have satisfactorily covered was off grid bass amplification. I purchased A used Roland MICRO CUBE BASS RX on the recommendations of other bassists but never bonded with it. I don’t like the way it sounds, it kind of sucks the tone right out of the instrument. Might be OK for a guitar or harmonic but it’s an amp of last resort for me. I’ve recently added the Phil Jones Double Four battery powered amp and I have to say it covers all acoustic opportunities and low volume rehearsals really well. I’ve used this with the reasonably priced Ibanez PNB14E Parlor Acoustic, 24.75 scale, Bass Guitar with very satisfactory results. Many times when I pack up, I get comments from others that they had no idea I was using an amplifier. I keep the volume just in the mix, so as to not stand out. I also use a wireless link between the bass and the amp. A very natural sound. Even acoustically this Ibanez has better projection than my Guild B50 fretless. Thank D’Adderio for the strings developed for the Taylor GS Mini-e Bass. This new bass string technology is making ABGs viable.