Ahoy there!
I've just received my new amp (again) in the mail after it went back to the manufacturer for repairs. Bloody thing killed one of it's power tubes and 2 of the 4 fuses after 2 hours of playing at rehearsal volume one day after I bought it brand new out of the box. Company was more than happy to help, and it's now working fine! Except for one thing...
The amp has, by design, an INSANE amount of low end. I'm not talking ENGL-Powerball-turned-up-to-10 levels, I'm talking BASS GUITAR levels. The angry bastard of a thing is rated at 160W with 4xKT88's in the power section and 4x12AX7B's in the pre, with a switch to operate at both 40% and 100% power-amp capacity.
Here's the big hitter though; before I bought the amp, I gave it a good thrashing at a gigging volumes. Sounded amazing, low end was easily controllable, overall sound was fat and delicious. When I took it to rehearsal the next day however, it was impossible to keep the bloody thing in check! The power-amp section does not actually have any controls other than a very interesting contour dial that shapes the upper-mids. No presence, no depth controls; so when I give the power-amp the beans, it's spewing out an unchecked amount of low-end that totally muddies up the sound. I've tried it with all the guitars I could find (both active and passive electronics), running it through the amp's matching 412 (Eminence Wizards), an ENGL 412 with V60's, a Mesa 212 with V30's, and a Greenback loaded Marshall 412. Consistent levels of why-the-fuck-did-I-buy-a-bass-amp in each of them.
I figure what I need is some form of high-pass filter to go between the power-amp (speaker output) and the speaker cabinet to try and control this ridiculous low-end. I know such things exist; as a matter of fact I met a well-spoken lad that makes and sells them himself at my last show. My question to the learned among you is this; are such things simple enough to make, and is there an even simpler option than running a HPF every time I want to use the bloody amp?
The amp manual claims (additionally confirmed by the people who make it) that it can be easily biased to suit EL34s, 6CA7s, KT77/88/90/100s, and 6550s. I'm thinking that replacing the Sovtek KT88s in there now with a nice quad of EL34s would help tame that low-end madness. Thoughts?
I've just received my new amp (again) in the mail after it went back to the manufacturer for repairs. Bloody thing killed one of it's power tubes and 2 of the 4 fuses after 2 hours of playing at rehearsal volume one day after I bought it brand new out of the box. Company was more than happy to help, and it's now working fine! Except for one thing...
The amp has, by design, an INSANE amount of low end. I'm not talking ENGL-Powerball-turned-up-to-10 levels, I'm talking BASS GUITAR levels. The angry bastard of a thing is rated at 160W with 4xKT88's in the power section and 4x12AX7B's in the pre, with a switch to operate at both 40% and 100% power-amp capacity.
Here's the big hitter though; before I bought the amp, I gave it a good thrashing at a gigging volumes. Sounded amazing, low end was easily controllable, overall sound was fat and delicious. When I took it to rehearsal the next day however, it was impossible to keep the bloody thing in check! The power-amp section does not actually have any controls other than a very interesting contour dial that shapes the upper-mids. No presence, no depth controls; so when I give the power-amp the beans, it's spewing out an unchecked amount of low-end that totally muddies up the sound. I've tried it with all the guitars I could find (both active and passive electronics), running it through the amp's matching 412 (Eminence Wizards), an ENGL 412 with V60's, a Mesa 212 with V30's, and a Greenback loaded Marshall 412. Consistent levels of why-the-fuck-did-I-buy-a-bass-amp in each of them.
I figure what I need is some form of high-pass filter to go between the power-amp (speaker output) and the speaker cabinet to try and control this ridiculous low-end. I know such things exist; as a matter of fact I met a well-spoken lad that makes and sells them himself at my last show. My question to the learned among you is this; are such things simple enough to make, and is there an even simpler option than running a HPF every time I want to use the bloody amp?
The amp manual claims (additionally confirmed by the people who make it) that it can be easily biased to suit EL34s, 6CA7s, KT77/88/90/100s, and 6550s. I'm thinking that replacing the Sovtek KT88s in there now with a nice quad of EL34s would help tame that low-end madness. Thoughts?
sounded great for such a old beast! Tight low mid range!
