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Post subject: TV Series for Blues harp?
Posted: Mon Aug 10, 2009 4:14 am
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Fender Bassman Amps:
The 4X10 Fender Bassman is an icon of blues harmonica and has been copied by other manufacturers for guitar and blues harp. (Perhaps better uses!)
I'm intrigued by the TV series and have not tried them out yet for harp. Has anyone out there done so? What was your impression? Tried any tube swaps? :idea:
thanks,
Harmonica Blu
www.HarmonicaBluXpress.com


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Post subject: Phil Spector had a wall of sound, look where it got him.
Posted: Tue Aug 11, 2009 8:00 pm
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The 59 Bassman RI is all tube. However the new Bassman TV series has only one tube, a 12AX7 in the preamp stage. The actual power amp is a solid state class D switching power supply amp. This is a very similar setup to many other hybrid bass amps that have become very popular over the last few years.

Ampeg's HP series, the B200R Rocket combo and even some of their top selling heads are also hybrid. MarkBass uses a tube in some of their higher end amps, but not in the basic Little Mark model or in any of their combos. Vox and others have even done some guitar amps in this one-tube preamp arrangement. My son has one of the Vox hybrid amps. Nothing else in the price class sounded close. He got a little over one-year out of the original preamp tube and then POOF he had to replace it (meaning that actually I had to replace it.) He plays it about daily though. It isn't that the tube got weak or was fading…it simply died with no notice. Replacing that one tube about every 12 months and keeping a spare 12AX7 in your guitar case is probably a great idea if you plan to gig with these hybrid amps. These tubes cost about $12 tax included where I live in the USA so no big deal.

Yes, the sound from hybrid amps is really surprisingly good for bass, but for harp I suspect it would be a tad cleaner than what you're looking for in a classic harp amp. For a better shot at a classic harp tone look at the Hot Rod Deluxe or Hot Rod Junior as both are all tube and will have all the smoky, crunchy characteristics of an all-tube amp. I've seen lots of harp players using the Hot Rod Junior and miking it with an SM57 to the PA. I’m also seeing more harp people just going straight to the PA with a good dedicated harp mic, like a Shure Green Bullet, into a direct box. A direct setup works best with very good monitors and an alert sound tech who knows when to pot up the harp mic.

Harp players could stop reading here. Bass players read on as I’ve been waiting to say more about the TV series amps to bassists.

The hybrid amp concept is this. The single tube in the preamp adds warmth and the mosfet amp is much lighter, more reliable and far less expensive than an all-tube amp of the same power rating. In reality the concept works very well for bass. A bassist doesn’t benefit tone-wise from an overdriven tube power amp in the same way a guitarist or harpist would. Clean and warm is where it’s at for me.

If the TV series amps were all-tube amps they'd weigh and cost at least twice as much. (Of course tube watts and transistor watts sound like two different values to me with all-tube amps sounding way louder for some reason.) But the DUO TEN and the FIFTEEN are 350 watts. Even 350 solid state watts is a lot for a bass combo that weighs about 60 pounds.

On the plus side it is much cheaper to replace one tube every year in a hybrid than to replace a whole bunch of tubes in an all tube amp so these hybrids are much less expensive to maintain and yet have some genuine tube warmth that an all solid state amp just can't possibly have.

The new TV series ranges in weight from 38.01 pounds for the TV Ten to 61.5 pounds for the Duo Ten. That is relatively light considering how much power they have and it is a lot.

I predict that lots of people WILL complain about the following two things on the TV series when writing their review for Harmony-Central or the online mega-dealers.

1. “There is no auxilary speaker output!” The truth is, it doesn’t need one. The amp only does 4 ohms and the entire TV series is maxed out with a stock 4 ohm speaker already. Ampeg also did this on their BA, Rocket and the HP series. About everyone who has written a review complained that, “THERE IS NO EXT CAB JACK!” They just don’t understand that you don’t NEED an extension cab since they are already maxed out performance wise. If you wanna stack cabs you should buy a head and some cabs. I agree with maxing out a combo with a 4 ohm speaker like the TV series has done. Combos are for rehearsal and small gigs or as a monitor while you feed a direct output to the PA and not for stacking cabs like at Woodstock. They are for people that want small, simple and easy to setup and move amps to get through rehearsal or a smallish club gig without moving a ton of gear. Why not get EVERYTHING the amp has to give out of the combo speaker?

2. No horn. Still sounds great, just won’t be as strong for horn heavy slapping.

In my opinion marrying the modern hybrid tube/class D switching power supply design to the classic look of the TV series and maxing them out with a 4 ohm speaker was absolutely brilliant. Bassists who dig vintage looking gear get the best of yesterday’s classic look and the best of today in tone with the convenience of a Class D lightweight amp with no need to bring another cab to make it louder.

I have no further reason to consider the MarkBass combos any more when I can get a Bassman TV that looks totally cool, has a tube preamp which a MB doesn’t and is 50 watts louder than a MarkBass combo in stand-alone mode. While rated at 500 watts, the MarkBass combos actually are NOT as powerful as the TV Fifteen or Duo Ten, since the MarkBass combos have an 8 ohm speaker but a 4 ohm amp. In order too get the full 500 watts from a MarkBass combo you have to plug in another 8 ohm cab. In stand alone mode MarkBass will yield 300 watts. I figure I might as well bring my back breaking full stack if I’m going to bring another cab. The Fender TV Fifteen and Duo Ten give you fifty extra watts with no external cabinet required. As a guy who is sick and tired of moving a bunch of gear around I think that was a good move on Fender’s part. I can see myself gigging until I’m 80 with a combo like a Bassman TV.


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Posted: Mon Aug 17, 2009 12:14 am
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I only play around with my harp, on my list of things to do, here's something that might interest you...


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sQWY8cgCnB0

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bluesdog88


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Post subject:
Posted: Mon Aug 17, 2009 12:43 pm
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bluesdog88 wrote:
I only play around with my harp, on my list of things to do, here's something that might interest you...


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sQWY8cgCnB0


That was a very interesting comparison...which proves for sure that the original sound is hard to recapture in a reissue.

Later!


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