What kind of bass amp do you use with your Rickenbacker?

[T28]

Phil Jones M500 head with either a single or pair of C8 cabs. Extremely small but 16 -5" speakers will peel the paint off the wall. Deep, thick but extremely clear. Sounds good with all of my basses but it kills with my Rics.

[Kiddwad57]

Thanks JPS. It's strange to feel lucky when your favorite amp is rendered useful only as a paperweight. On the other hand, given that I bought it new in '92, it's entirely possible that a problem could have come up anyway, without the support of a third party. So, yes, lucky. Walter is a nice guy and must be getting up there in age. It may be possible
to get it fixed down the road.

I did lots of research in the process of deciding on a replacement. There are many choices available, but nowhere for me to try most of them. I believe this one is coming from Gollihur Music and they have a good trial policy. The new amp has to be great for amped double bass and truly fun for electric as well. The EA has had mixed reviews, but I'm hoping it will be fantastic. Most of the negatives center on the fact that they are designed to be high fidelity rather than having a baked in tone. This sounds okay to me. It took a while for me to find my way around the Woods so I wouldn't be surprised if my experience with the new amp will be similar. The EA seems close in features and power to a two channel, mono WW.

I really am excited to play the fretless through it!

[drummer5359]

I'm running an Ampeg SVT 3 Pro head through a SVT 212 AV cabinet.

I'd love to pick up an all tube SVT head one of these days.

[squirebass]

For my needs the V-4B I have with a 1-15 and 4x10 cabs is plenty, not as manly as a vintage SVT but I just don't need that kinda wattage...

[jdogric12]

Recently bought my first "real" bass amp... sold my Ampeg PortaBass 228, which had somehow been sufficient for the last few years, and bought a used Ampeg PortaFlex 500 w/ a pair of PF115's. LOUD.

[jps]

Recently bought my first "real" bass amp..a used Ampeg PortaFlex 500...

Good luck with that.

[jdogric12]

Recently bought my first "real" bass amp..a used Ampeg PortaFlex 500...

Good luck with that.

You lost me. What's up? Not a good amp? The Shergold and 4001v63 sound great through it. The Minitaur as well.

[henry5]

Sorry to hear about the drop of water. How lucky for you! What year and model is the WW amp? I had an Electacoustic Super that I bought new (it was delivered to me the beginning of April 2001) which sold a few months ago. Sonically, it was quite close to my Aguilar Tone Hammer 500. I have never tried any EA gear, none of it around here.

I'll admit EA are some of my least favourite amps ever, but I put that down mainly to the speakers. I find them very polite (and a little plastic)-sounding, which of course may be just what you're after.

[jps]

Recently bought my first "real" bass amp..a used Ampeg PortaFlex 500...

Good luck with that.

You lost me. What's up? Not a good amp? The Shergold and 4001v63 sound great through it. The Minitaur as well.

Have you read the 1000s of posts on TalkBass about all the reliability/failure issues with the PF500?

[cheyenne]

Depends on the Ampeg PF500. If your concerned about it, and handy with a screw driver, pop it open (unplug it first),, and look and see what revision you have. Look on the green motherboard for something that says "Revision J".

The problems with the PF-500 dramatically dropped after Revision "J". Previous revisions had problems.

I had a J and never had a problem.

[Kiddwad57]

So my Woods is a dual input mono pre with a crossover into the stereo 350 watt a side power amp. I used the biamp facility once or twice. 2x10 on top of a deep 1x15, both bag end cabs. I quickly found out one side of the amp into the 2x10 kicked major butt and sold the 15.

Funny story: I previously had an Ampeg SVT...I love Ampegs; but I'm playing an outdoor show which had an SVT with the 8x10 cab as the back line amp. The band playing before us had a bassist playing a Jazz, which I was playing at that time as well (still do, although the RIC fretless sees more playing time these days). I could tell from the sound exactly how that tone was dialed, the volume, etc. and I couldn't wait to start our set. I popped the Woods (8 lbs) on top of the SVT (85 lbs), plugged into the cab and it proceeded to wipe the floor with that SVT in every way. Volume, tone, the works. A simple fact.

Like I said, best single amp I've ever owned, now a memory. Can't speak to the EA. I hear they faithfully amplify the sound of the instrument and I love the sound of my basses. I'll still be using the same 2x10. We'll find out soon enough.

[jps]

Did Walter explain to you why he could/would not repair your amp? He was always changing and upgrading his amp designs so possibly there are no parts available to do the repair on that amp. Many years ago I had a late '70s/early '80s MI-100-8 that was noisy; Walter sent me a package with a few transistors in it to replace those that may have been the source of the noise. Now those transistors may not even be made anymore. If your amp is one with an Class A/B power amp (not the current Class D amps) someone good should be able to figure out the problem and repair it so long as the issue is not Walter's proprietary SMPS.

[Kiddwad57]

After sifting through forums here and "there" I found phone #s that worked, left a message explaining my situation and kept trying. Eventually he picked up; I asked if he was repairing amps these days and he said yes, but to give him a call after such and such a date when he would have more time, which I did. No response since then. From what I understand this is no longer an unusual thing with Walter. I've heard that he sometimes will call out of the blue weeks and months later, so I'm not giving up, just taking care of my needs.

The main tech guy around here doesn't want to deal with it, but it wouldn't surprize me if there are people elsewhere that are qualified to do the work. I haven't looked that hard yet. It became obvious that I needed to find another builder that I could rely on.

[squirebass]

Depends on the Ampeg PF500. If your concerned about it, and handy with a screw driver, pop it open (unplug it first),, and look and see what revision you have. Look on the green motherboard for something that says "Revision J".

The problems with the PF-500 dramatically dropped after Revision "J". Previous revisions had problems.

I had a J and never had a problem.

Very interesting, I just saw a PF500 on craigslist for something like $250, which sounded like a heck of a deal! But there was no mention of a "Revision J"
FWIW, that would be a great band name, Revision J...

[Okabass]

HI

I use DIY SVT-clone and DIY 8x10 cab.

http://okabass.suntuubi.com/?cat=8