At long last....FINALLY....I have a new rig heading my way!

Long story....um....not so long perhaps. With the three lucrative music offers recently given to me, I knew that I had to do something for a new bass rig, since I have not been able to get one ever since moving up here. Even with my new job, I still barely keep my head above water, and these new band offers include the chance of doubling my current income level by playing out a few times a month. This is good, since it means being able to finally pay off some very long-overdue debts, and get my life completely settled while doing what I love the most.

Linda's father came to me yesterday all excited to hear the details about these new band offers, since he is extremely supportive of my music, and he asked me about them. I told him that yes, there are definitely things brewing, but that I wasn't really able to take part in them just yet since I didn't have a rig. So he says to me: "well, since you could use the extra income, and you can get back to doing what you love, why don't I buy it for you?"

I about fainted.

Now, this is a loan, not him just buying things for me. I will pay him back, but I will also be able to get myself more out of debt, so it's a good thing for me to be able to do. And no, I did not ask him for help. He offered it, and I couldn't say no.

So here is the not-so-simple break-down of my new rig.

For cabinets, I went with a company called Seismic Audio. I had checked them out on eBay before, but I was hesitant since their gear costs so little. But then I found a number of reviews from players literally singing their praises. So I ordered their 1200 watt 2x15 for my clean/low channel:



....and their 600watt 1x15 for my distortion channel:



By the way, if you're curious, you can check out at: www.seismicaudiospeakers.com

For my amplification, I elected to go with a stereo power amp driven by two preamps.

The power amp I chose is a QSC GX3, not only for the price, but also because they score perfect marks. My distortion channel will now run with 350 watts, and my low/clean channel will run with 500 watts:

For my preamps, I found on eBay a super-inexpensive used Behringer V-Amp Bass for my low/clean channel:



...and for my distortion channel, I got lucky, and found my favorite old diehard favorite, a used DOD G7. Not only does this have my absolute favorite distortion tone for bass, but will also drive a power amp nicely, since this is what I did in the 90's:



To add to my distortion channel mayhem, I also got an older used Electro-Harmonix POG that a guy was letting go for cheap. This little wunderkind will turn my distortion channel into a rhythm guitar at the push of a button:



And to be sure that my Kahler is truly behaving, I picked up a new Ibanez LU20 Tuner:



I also got two sets of Rotosound nickel strings.

Everything should arrive by the end of next week.

Needless to say, I am extremely excited about all of this!

Woot!


Nice nice choices Eric, thats gonna be just mindblowing! Totally ripping setup.


Oh, and never mind turning your distortion channel into a rythem guitar, that thing will do full blown church organ!

since i go for high wattage in a compact cabinet, i use sisemic audio's unloaded cabinets and fill them with eminences ... es ... es. this works out really well for me as far as the cost goes. these cabinets are decent ... i dont know about the speakers they put in, but with my build, they sound much better than the used blown up hartke cabs i used to buy off people and rebuild.

i reccomend SA to anyone on a budget.

just look out pulling the stickers off the grille ... i still cant get that sticky goo off. yuk! i just painted over it.

and eric ... this rig is a whole lot nicer than what you we're originally looking at. schweet! congrats! that 2X15 is sweet.

wow Eric...nice stuff, NOW YOU NEED TO GET THAT YAMAHA BB200 OR WHATEVER MODEL YOU DESPERATLY DESIRE.

HAPPY CAPS LOCK DAY

p.s. I use an older 90's QSC MX1500 series 2 channel 500x4ohms power amp for my big-rig 99.9% of the time I only use 1 cab 1 channel and my Carvin 100 watt amp but if I do bring 2 cabs my 4x10 and my 2x15, it is a nice alternative to the Mesa 400 I had for so many years...


don't have to worry about tripping a 15 amp circuitbreaker at a gig when everyone else is sucking power of the same outlets


and Eric, if that GX is as heavy as my MX wow but at least if it drops theres no tubes to break............

Awesome, dude! Excellent score on the G7!! I dig the 2x15 as well! It looks similar to the dual 15" PA cabs that we had hung from our box booms at my old job. They were the woofers in the theatre's (pretty nice) sound system and when they were pumping, the catwalks would rumble and shake. Made it fun to run spot!

QSC are good amps. We used some of their older units to power our monitors at the KPC, I think. I'm curious to know how the Behringer pre works out for you.

Thanks Guys! Despite my current head cold that I've been battling, I have been dancing around for the past two days giddy as a schoolgirl!

MadMike, I did consider how well the SA speakers will hold up, but I was reassured by the reviews I read. Still, if I do blow one of them, I can order a superior Carvin 15" speaker for $78 shipped to replace it. I've used them before to replace other speakers, and they performed flawlessly. And I figure that the SA's will last long enough for me to replace them.

Mike, one of the QSC's many selling points for me was the weight. At 25 lbs., it's lighter than other power amps I've messed with. I once had a Nady power amp that sounded great, but was 20" front-to-back, and weighed a ton. The QSC is only 10" front-to-back, and 25 lbs. works just fine for me.

And in case you were wanting to play Santa, it's the Yamaha BB714BS bass that I want.

Bill, I have to tell you that acquiring a POG has been a dream of mine for a very long time now. And after hearing the sound bytes, it seemed like a no-brainer for what I like to do. A tech at Electro-Harmonix once told me that the POG does not suck gain from the original signal, and this has been a problem as long as I have messed with different pitch-shifters. My old Pearl OC-7 sounded great with the upper-octave control, but it killed my gain AND it wasn't polyphonic, meaning that trying to play chords through it only created a tracking mess. The POG is polyphonic, and retains all of the gain. I am a bit in shock that I finally managed to bag one!

Martin, I went with the Behringer for a couple of reasons. I needed some sort of preamp for my clean channel, since I elected to go with using a power amp. The Behringer was by far the cheapest way to go (and I HATE having to over-emphasize the cost factor, but it simply could not be avoided). And my faith in Behringer (from my own personal experience with them) is now countered by the latest reviews of their gear telling horror stories of pieces going up in smoke. But everything I read about the V-Amp was nothing but positive, with the exception of how difficult it is to get all the patches in order. Honestly, I won't use the thing for more than simply creating a preamp signal to feed the QSC. I will play with the bells-and-whistles, but since I leave my clean channel totally....well....clean....I can't see myself adding any color to it. Yes, I could have gone with a much simpler preamp design....for three times the cost.

EricHaven wrote:

Bill, I have to tell you that acquiring a POG has been a dream of mine for a very long time now. And after hearing the sound bytes, it seemed like a no-brainer for what I like to do. A tech at Electro-Harmonix once told me that the POG does not suck gain from the original signal, and this has been a problem as long as I have messed with different pitch-shifters. My old Pearl OC-7 sounded great with the upper-octave control, but it killed my gain AND it wasn't polyphonic, meaning that trying to play chords through it only created a tracking mess. The POG is polyphonic, and retains all of the gain. I am a bit in shock that I finally managed to bag one!

I remember dude, we've discussed the POg before, it really is a truly remarkable pedal.

EricHaven wrote:

Mike, one of the QSC's many selling points for me was the weight. At 25 lbs., it's lighter than other power amps I've messed with. I once had a Nady power amp that sounded great, but was 20" front-to-back, and weighed a ton. The QSC is only 10" front-to-back, and 25 lbs. works just fine for me.

this MX is 2x that weight and takes up a lot more depth than 10" ---think of who I am .....OLD SCHOOL with old heavy amps ( I won't replace it until it fails )

we had a show last night in a church's gym stage...all I brought was my 2 yamaha 1x12's with horns, my harke4x10, a mixer to blend between the 2 amps my BGW and HAFLER..both 300 watt units and my rp50 for the "mike" sound.

when me and the other guitarplayers were in the back of the room away from the stage for the soundcheck, I was VERY loud.

I could not take a video but our singers wife took plenty of pics of us and the first band so I'll post a few in another thread when I get them. First show in many years that I have played a 2 band show where the other bands bassplayer was also a lefty.

he had a lighter blue Squier trying desperately to play out of some 1x10 crap amp, so I felt bad and just let him use mine. I think the kid never played out of anything nice before, cause he bought me a sandwich and a soda for the "rental"

( you all will be surprised on what bass I was using ) - my only clue to you all is that it is not my favorite bass.

I did finally get my Hofner Icon copy though

amimbari wrote:

EricHaven wrote:

Mike, one of the QSC's many selling points for me was the weight. At 25 lbs., it's lighter than other power amps I've messed with. I once had a Nady power amp that sounded great, but was 20" front-to-back, and weighed a ton. The QSC is only 10" front-to-back, and 25 lbs. works just fine for me.

this MX is 2x that weight and takes up a lot more depth than 10" ---think of who I am .....OLD SCHOOL with old heavy amps ( I won't replace it until it fails )

we had a show last night in a church's gym stage...all I brought was my 2 yamaha 1x12's with horns, my harke4x10, a mixer to blend between the 2 amps my BGW and HAFLER..both 300 watt units and my rp50 for the "mike" sound.

when me and the other guitarplayers were in the back of the room away from the stage for the soundcheck, I was VERY loud.

I could not take a video but our singers wife took plenty of pics of us and the first band so I'll post a few in another thread when I get them. First show in many years that I have played a 2 band show where the other bands bassplayer was also a lefty.

he had a lighter blue Squier trying desperately to play out of some 1x10 crap amp, so I felt bad and just let him use mine. I think the kid never played out of anything nice before, cause he bought me a sandwich and a soda for the "rental"

( you all will be surprised on what bass I was using ) - my only clue to you all is that it is not my favorite bass.

I did finally get my Hofner Icon copy though

Awesome. I like chunky amps.

Sounds like a fun rig, dude! And hey, it earned you a sandwich!

Wait...could it be...a...Fenderhead?

haha no I didn't use the fenderhead Charvel.
the guitarplayer was using some old Schector, in fact he was surprised that I knew it was a Schector as soon as he strapped it on, usually people don't remember that name.

but ya, the rig I brought was sufficient, and if I would have had room to haul it and someone to help put it in the vehicle, I would have used one of my 1x15 HUGE cabs for a sub-woofer, and not the 4x10 since I have the 2 12" yamys there.

We have a show again THIS Friday coming up, and I don't have to bring anything, since the Venue has a nice 8x10+AmpegSVT to play out of, which will allow me to pretend I'm a vocalist....( you know the person who "just shows up" )...hahaha

We need to toss as many shows in as we can BEFORE the snow flies

amimbari wrote:

haha no I didn't use the fenderhead Charvel.
the guitarplayer was using some old Schector, in fact he was surprised that I knew it was a Schector as soon as he strapped it on, usually people don't remember that name.

but ya, the rig I brought was sufficient, and if I would have had room to haul it and someone to help put it in the vehicle, I would have used one of my 1x15 HUGE cabs for a sub-woofer, and not the 4x10 since I have the 2 12" yamys there.

We have a show again THIS Friday coming up, and I don't have to bring anything, since the Venue has a nice 8x10+AmpegSVT to play out of, which will allow me to pretend I'm a vocalist....( you know the person who "just shows up" )...hahaha

We need to toss as many shows in as we can BEFORE the snow flies

Oh yeah and this winter feels like it's going to be a cold one.