Rickresource Rickenbacker Forum

I am up to my proverbial neck in amps, have to learn to let go of equipment sometime. I use as my main bigger performance rig a Mesa Boogie 400+ and a Carvin single 15" and an Bullfrog Alumapro 4x10" then I also have an old Ampeg V4B a Carvin Redline 600, Ampeg B100R and a Ashdown 2x10" Blueline combo.

Bob,
Loading an acoustic suspension cab with Acousta-Stuf fiber is an upgrade that is invisible. It's $10 per pound at Parts Express. Sure helped my AVT20. You'd think Marshall would let go of a few bucks per cabinet in order to smooth out the sound, but they didn't even have a decent coat of paint on the particle board back. You can also coat your cabinet interior with a yellow brush-on borosilicate ceramic damping material called Soundcoat that reduces spurious cabinet resonances by 10 dB for even smoother sound. Works like the coatings used on the body panels of expensive cars to reduce road noise. VMPS used it in my new Ribbon Monitor 1 tower loudspeakers. It was a $150 option. You can go to the VMPS Audio website and maybe they will tell more than I know about it. The Ribbon Monitor 1 costs a little more than the Vandersteen Model 2ce, but it weighs quite a bit more and has very serious bass response and doesn't need stands.

www.vmpsaudio.com

When you look at his designs, you can understand why they are noted for their SLAM and high sound levels with low distortion. Another one of the bass freak brands. He got his start in subwoofers. Another good brand to get experimenter ideas from. Look at that tower model with all the 7" ribbons lined up vertically to make a line source driver. You can see where Bose gets their beanpole tower idea. VMPS Audio has been around quite a while, but it's strange how the company survives so well with almost no advertising and very few dealers. Like I said, the ideas for instrument cab designs lies in the high end audio designs. Musical instrument cabinet designers are fairly brain dead for the most part. The guy that builds the Acme Low B2 cabs told me that, and he's right (He is also an audiophile. We talked turntables when I called him about his bass cabs.). He prestresses his cabinet walls to prevent resonances, and he took that idea from the aviation industry. Anybody with common sense can grab ideas from others like Bose does and come up with their own "unique" stuff. The coaxial driver design that "state-of-the-art" Bag End uses in their bass cabs was invented 50+ years ago by the English pro audio Tannoy company, and done better as well.

My B-15's are ported Phil and actually sound pretty good for their size with the SVT. Kind of like a big B-15.

pretty much any amp sounds better with a processor or preamp between the bass and the amp ... I am hooked on my bass pod ... I forgot to pack it in my stuff the other day ... big difference ... With a bass pod or sans amp or something similar it is like my passive Ric is now active ... I can get my compression, distortion, sustain, and tone that I want ...

The bass pod ... don't leave home without it ...

I 100% disagree. I go from my Rick straight into my '73 SVT and (either one or two) 810s. Tried the pods and the sansamps and absolutely hated them.

I have never tried the Pod, but I have used the Sansamp for a DI for recording, and I've found that to be extremely useful for amp modelling. But most bass amplifiers available on the market have a preamp section that allows you to shape your tone when you plug into the amp, which makes the Pod or Sansamp unnecessary. Also I believe the Pod has a lot of effects and other cool toys for sculpting your sound. I know that a lot of folks use them live though, especially players that use just a pure power amp as part of their rig, or those that use solid state amps. But I agree with you Rob, if I had an SVT to play live with, I wouldn't put ANYTHING between it and my Rick!

Yeah, I guess I'm kind of spoiled... I have three early 70's heads and two 70's cabs.

Like many things, it's a matter of taste. I'm quite happy with the tone shaping options on my Trace amplifier and don't have a need for any sort of processor between my bass and the pre-amp input on my amp. If I want to add something like chorus I use one of the effects loops. I do use the Sansamp bass DI when recording direct, it's a great little tool.

when I play without the pod I miss the digital tuner, I miss the compression, I miss the distortion, I miss the emulation, I miss the modeling ...

I really don't like my basses without the pod ... Geddy always has some sort of effects, Chris Squire always has some sort of effects, that is why active basses are popular ... they have on an onboard amp ....

Rob, I have three heads and two cabs also, all are 70's except for one reissue skunkworks head, 1987. My heads are late 70's and my cabs are early 70's. the only thing I put between my Ric's and my heads are cords.
I thought a pod was something little round green vegetables came in? (or something on the moon?)

I don't get the connection between a bass having an on board pre-amp and effects, but I can be thick sometimes. I have no problem with using effects at all by the way.

I like the way my basses sound through my amp, it took me years to find the best amp for the sound I wanted so I'm happy. It has blendable tube and FET pre-amps, 12 band EQ and dual compressors (high/low frequency compression). I find that between all those tone shaping tools I can dial in any sound I want. It's all in what works best for you in my opinion.

Many times I play direct for a church service due to size of venue and ease of gear transport. You simply can not run direct without some pre-shaping or you will have a thin lazy sound at the mercy of room dynamics and mix. I have found nothing better and more versitle for the money that the Sansamp for tube imulation and tone shaping. When doing a big room or outdoor I simply plug my pedal board (w/sansamp) into my GK RB1001 combo + one 15" for stage reinforcement. I then send the DI out from the Sansamp + mike the 10's to the house. I just don't play stadiums where I need a wall of 10's and a million watts of tube power on stage. Everyone's situation is different.

Jeff: I've tried a POD at GC and was dissatisfied with the sound but I'm sure I wasn't using it to its capacity. The sales guy wasn't much help either. I typically layer chorus and compression and sometimes add a bit of octave. I couldn't figure out how to get multiple effects working simultaniously. For now I have seperate effect pedals + DI + tuner + power supplies. I look at the POD as a much more convieniant solution if I could make it go. Do you feel strongly that the POD has an acceptable, recordable sound.

Jeff - do you use the rackmount or the little box pod...and would there be major differences between the two, soundwise?

I use the blob kidney bean shaped thing ... as far as I know the electronics are identical in both ...

The pod is a little confusing at first ... I almost took it back ... but I stuck with it and now I have some good presets ...

I don't run direct from the pod or from my xlr out in my ampeg ... I prefer to mike a 10" speaker ... I use the pod as a tone shaper between my bass and amp ...

Essentially my bands live sound and studio sound is pretty much the same ... we play through small amps and mike everything ... we use in-ear monitors and main speakers ... no ****** little speaker wedges on the stage feeding back ... we record the same way ... we just tap out of the main board or in ear monitor system ...

So I use the pod all the time and the same way live, rehersing, and recording ... I can get a similar sound for all of those scenarios ...

The problem with old school big tube head and big speaker cabinets approach is the sound varies a lot with volume ... those wonderful alive full aggresive tones you get when you "Air it out" aren't there when you turn it down ... or you get a great clean tone and when you turn it up it is too dirty ...

That's why I use the pod and play through a small amp (350 watts and 4x10's) I get my optimal sound at a fairly low volume and mike it into a big pa with 6000 watts ...

New product: Bass Blob!