Gear Part 1-Lafayette Amps

Gear Part 1 my amps in Lafayette/used in high school!

Ok, this is where I start to have fun & give some insight about why I play what I do & the various setups. My gear needs & wants have changed quite drastically since I lived in Lafayette & was in high school. Ok, my AMP needs have changed drastically, bass needs-not so much. So to start things off let's look at my amps.

Amps-Lafayette
In high school, I was playing with very large ensembles in even larger venues. 126 Piece Marching band in the RCA Dome? Check, 126 Piece Marching Band in Class A [or AAAA for sports] Foot Ball Stadiums? Check. Show Choirs in Gyms? More than i remember, Show Band in our Gym? Yeah.

The places that I played in high school, it was great to have a ton of power & weight wasn't much of an issue. My gear reflected that & my mentality of want the biggest amp i could, that had the most power, for the least amount of money. I've heard the phrasing & i've used it a lot myself-you can pick 2/3-High Power, Light Weight, Low Price. For high school-i chose low price & high power.

The gear itself

Poweramp
At the core of my amp system [yes, system!] was a Carvin DCM2000 Power Amp. It was just over $500. The specs of it are 2000 watts @ 4 ohms bridged, 1500 watts @ 8 ohms bridged, or in stereo [2 channels] 1000/1000 @ 2 ohms, 700/700 @ 4ohms, 425/425 @ 8ohms. On occasion, i ran it bridged into either 2 or 2.6 ohms despite how it is NOT rated to do that. It got heller loud, but ran quite warm-no thermal shutdowns though. The good-lots of power, lot of connectivity options [1/4, speakon, & banana plug outs, XLR & 1/4 ins], and low price [like i said $500 or so]. The bad-it weighed 40 pounds & was 3 rack spaces. Tis a big one. However, I had more than enough power to play anywhere. Ever. My senior year of marching band, we ran a PA off of 1 side of the amp & my bass rig off of the other. Rarely ran either past half power. PA = 2 mains plus a monitor.

Preamps
Preamps are where I did a bit of experimentation. I started off with a SansAmp RBI. The RBI was the right price [$300ish] & can get a wide variety of sounds. Also-lots of ins & out options. Having XLR & 1/4 outs was quite nice-add on the XLR had an independent level control & the option of straight bass tone, affected, or both? It was heaven for live settings & recording sessions. I've kept it. I liked it enough that when a SansAmp RPM came around used-i bought it too. Once again, same price point, & positives of the RBI but with a different voicing & gain structure. When i ran both, i used the RBI for electric bass & the RPM for double bass. Eventually, I started to just use the RPM if it wasn't a doubling gig. Here in Chicago-i brought the RPM up & have used it w/back line equipment & as a DI in the studio. It kills.

The preamps that I didn't keep....
BBE BassMax T. Yeah-so i sold the 1 tube preamp I've ever had. I didn't like how the controls were setup [based off of the Fender & Alembic preamps where 12 oclock isn't flat....]. Also, the tone wasn't what I am looking for. I'm sure that I could get a great sound out of it, but I don't like to work that hard-if i can't plug & play, probably not for me. So I sold it.

Line 6 Bass POD Pro w/floor board. I enjoyed messing around with the effects on it, but just could never get used to it as a preamp or as a studio DI. I felt like i used the Wah & Synth Bass effects more than the rest of the unit & i only used those to mess around. I feel like the RPM & RBI get better sounds for DI & live. So i sold it.

Cabs
I found a brand that I liked [and could afford] & bought many. The brand was Avatar . I started off with their B115H. It was a 1X15 cab w/horn [hince 115 H]. Nice cab, great all around sound. I then added a B210H [2X10 w/horn]. Those 2 paired together were nice & the 2X10 was nice for 'smaller' places-smaller footprint when it was turned on end. I didn't care much for the 2X10 on it's own. B212!!! We have a winner. 75 pounds, 4 ohms, and killer tone. Once i got the 2X12, i rarely plugged in the others. It had enough lows where you could feel the bass, but with enough highs were I was never muddy. The only time that I ever ran all 3 cabs together was for Show Band & even then i typically just ran 1 and used the other as dummy cabs [yes, classic rock trick].

The 1X15 now has a different speaker & the 2X10 was sold when i first left for college. I'm keeping the 2X12 indefinitely. It's living in the basement at my Mom's house. I doubt i'll ever need it & even if i do, i can't really get it up here. BUT-i like the sound & eventually, i'll bring it up here even if i use it as a coffee table/book shelf thing.

I'm glad that I've played through all of that gear, but with the exception of the RPM, once i moved to Chicago-my needs changed quite drastically. Went from bigger louder cheaper to smaller, powerful, and.....expensive.