the micro bass amp trend....

[MOONDOGGY]

A few months ago, master Kent sent me some info on this sweet TC Electronic bass rig.

http://www.tcelectronic.com/bass.asp

I can't stop thinking about it and would love to replace my Hartke combo with this thing. I did some shopping around and found that these have become quite the trend, both in the guitar and bass worlds. My bro's been using one of those Crate Powerblocks for practice and some of his smaller shows and he loves the power and portability.

I saw that Genz Benz (Shuttles), Eden (their WT500 keeps getting smaller and smaller), and Epifani are hopping on this solid state high power wagon. Acoustic Image and Phil Jones I guess have been doing this all along.

http://www.eden-electronics.com/product ... index.aspx
http://www.genzbenz.com/?fa=category&cid=95
http://www.epifani.com/products/ul_series
http://www.acousticimg.com/compare.html
http://philjonespuresound.com/PJWeb11_Bass.aspx

I also saw that Eden now has an all tube head. I usually love the balls and growl from tube heads, but these impressive little micro amps have me re-thinking what I want in a bass rig. I've already gone with smaller-than-normal cabs (Schroeder baby!), but do I want a tiny solid state head and even smaller cabs? The days of needing a 15" to handle the lows are gone.


- Have any of you bassers tried out these micro rigs?
- Would you take one and replace your 410/115 cabs and colossal amp?
- Anybody have a large rig for big shows and a smaller amp for practice/recording?
- How many think bigger is better as far as speaker size and amp wattage? (I love my SVT4, but I don't think 1200W is needed for most shows. And to get that Ampeg tone, you gotta play loud and use them watts!)
- Thoughts?

[slackin@dabass]

i played some of the markbass stuff at guitar center awhile back and it sounded good. 500 watts through 4 ohms and it weighs like 6 pounds! it's not a tube sound, it's clean, hi-fi solid state, but it didn't take very long to dial in a good tone. but, on the other hand, rainbow music has a mesa m9 carbine set up with the 4x10 1x15 all in one cab (i forget what it's called... powerhouse?) and i played through it and absolutely loved it.


i think it's still all about what you prefer the sound of. if the only thing i liked the sound of was an ampeg svt through an 8x10, then i'd deal with lugging one around.


on the other hand it would be nice to only make one trip into a venue and be done loading in. i think the smaller/lighter amps and cabs are supposed to be geared towards guys that live in cities that take the bus or the train to shows. you gotta admit, lugging an 8x10 onto a subway train would be a little awkward

[JackANSI]

- Have any of you bassers tried out these micro rigs?
- Would you take one and replace your 410/115 cabs and colossal amp?
- Anybody have a large rig for big shows and a smaller amp for practice/recording?
- How many think bigger is better as far as speaker size and amp wattage? (I love my SVT4, but I don't think 1200W is needed for most shows. And to get that Ampeg tone, you gotta play loud and use them watts!)
- Thoughts?

1. I've tried the markbass, genz-benz, and the TC. They all sound 'good'. But they are no different than any other amp, except their size and weight. But I highly suspect they all suffer from 'power inflation' as far as their specs and cranking the volume up.

2. Unless the venue had a good PA, and a sound guy who knows whats up, I wouldn't trade a 410 for a smaller cabinet.

3. These lighter rigs were meant for practice, small 'pick-up' gigs, and big city places with good house sound. The makers of the smaller rigs praise their power output to size ratio, and their XLR outs just as much...

4. If you want to make noise, it takes power


If I were to pick one it would end up being a close between the TC and Genz-Benz ones.. But the TC just has more features that are useful and allow you to leave more stuff at home.