Jeffrey K. Elkins – The Bass Blog

Racked & Stacked

The Brains of the Unit – This year, I noticed the slightest buzz in my Hartke HA3500 350W head. It’s a great amp, with both [single] tube AND solid-state preamps built in, and it’s been doing all of the work for the past couple of years. But I talked to a fellow bassist in Nashville, and he showed me a couple of one rack unit sized power amps… Yamaha made them a while ago. I liked the idea of a smaller amp, and had been toying with buying a preamp/modeler, so I started looking around.

Racked

I ended up purchasing an ART SLA2 Studio Amplifier from Sam Ash (after trading some other gear for store credit) – 200W per channel, 560W bridged mono (although I’m not convinced on the bridging). It’s exactly as loud as I need, and no louder. I’m now driving this with an Ampeg SVP-Pro tube preamp (see my post here about obtaining this awesome piece of gear), and together they are the bomb shizzle. I recently picked up an ART 341 stereo eq, and that’s currently in the rack too, although I used to use it as a crossover, since I got the pre I’m pretty much leaving the EQ flat – it’s there to adjust for the different rooms we play in. The top of the rig is a Korg DTR-1000 tuner (which, in addition to being an accurate and attractive tuner, is slim enough to leave the tube vents exposed so the preamp doesn’t overheat!). The Pre, EQ, and tuner were all Craigslist finds.

The Stack

Bottom Line – I think it’s true that some speakers can be the secret weapon to a bassist’s sound… although speakers pretty much only spit out what you give to them, some do it cleaner than others, and the right combination of cones can really make a big difference to getting a deliberate tone. For example, I’ve owned several Peavey bass cabs in 410TX and 210TX configurations – and will go to my death convinced that they do the absolute best job reproducing what the amp sends.

Let's get together and feel alright!

However, I only played an arena one time, and my vehicles don’t always fit the Peavey 1820 cabinet I had back in 1995, much less your average 410. I’ve always thought aluminum speakers looked like the bomb, and they sounded pretty crisp in the kickback combos I’ve owned, so I’ve invested in a few Hartke cabs. I’ve got a 115, 410 and a 210, all in the Transporter series. They sound great, stack well, and your back will thank you. Mine does. Plus, at 24″ x 24″ x 15″ for both the 115TP and the 410TP, they fit just about anywhere you want to stick them. For the kinds of gigs I play, these three allow any setup necessary (although I almost solely use the 410 when playing upright/coffeehouse shows – it’s enough).

Next page for the pedals! [coming soon]