Brian Scherzer
04-28-2007, 11:44 AM
At 54 years of age, I have no interest in lugging around the kind of bass rig that I used to bring with me to gigs in the past. In the 1970s (during the "wall of sound" years), I used to need my own road crew to haul four Sunn 15" folded horn cabinets and two Ampeg SVT heads. My more modern rig of a few years ago was an Epifani 2x12" cabinet and an Ampeg SVT4-Pro head.......great sound, but truly back-breaking for someone who doesn't do weight lifting several times a week! Updating my rig recently meant looking at the realities of my age and the limitations of my vehicle and strength of arms. I figured that I would have to sacrifice tone to get a rig that I could carry myself. NOT true, thanks to modern technology!
I really liked my old Epifani 2x12" cabinet, but knew that I would have difficulty moving it around. I checked out the new Epifini cabinets, including the UL and Performance series cabs and was pleasantly surprised by what I brought home....a UL 1x15" cabinet with 400 watt speaker and 100 watt tweeter. I actually almost hurt my back when I lifted it......not because it weighed a tone, but because I was expecting a truly heavy load.....and it was incredibly light (43 lbs.)!
This Epifani cabinet is not only ultra light (thus, the "UL" designation), but it pumps out SERIOUS tone. Through the years, my experience with 15" speaker cabs was that they could be pretty mushy and needed another cabinet to get a full tone spectrum. This Epifani cab not only carries the low end very well, but has great punch and articulation, probably because of the great tweeter. For my current limited needs, I was debating between the 2x10" cab and the 1x15" cab. I found that I preferred the sound from the 1x15" because it had (to my ears) a fuller sound. I figure that I can always add a 1x10" cab or 2x10" cab later if I need that kind of air pressure!
http://www.epifani.com/images/products/club_series115.jpg
Another surprise in the "going light" trend was what has happened to bass amps since I last seriously looked. I was seriously considering a used SWR 750 Pro head, but the weight was pretty close to a deal-breaker. Fortunately, technology has supplied us with the "Class D" amplifier. I ended up with a used EA iamp-500 head, which gives me 350 watts in an 8 ohm load and 500 watts into a 4 ohm load......at a total weight of 13 lbs! For $500 more, I could have purchased the 800 watt (4 ohm) head brand new, but being cost-conscious, I figured I could live with less headroom for the small clubs that I would likely play in.
http://www.eaamps.com/2005/products/iamp500.jpg
The synergy between the head and cab is extremely good. The amp has more than enough tone-shaping capability, and the cabinet pushes out the sound in a surprisingly tight fashion to a 15" speaker-based cab. Best of all, the rig in total weighs less than just my old cabinet, so I'll still have energy to actually play once I'm set up! Bassists have a lot to be greatful for nowadays!
I really liked my old Epifani 2x12" cabinet, but knew that I would have difficulty moving it around. I checked out the new Epifini cabinets, including the UL and Performance series cabs and was pleasantly surprised by what I brought home....a UL 1x15" cabinet with 400 watt speaker and 100 watt tweeter. I actually almost hurt my back when I lifted it......not because it weighed a tone, but because I was expecting a truly heavy load.....and it was incredibly light (43 lbs.)!
This Epifani cabinet is not only ultra light (thus, the "UL" designation), but it pumps out SERIOUS tone. Through the years, my experience with 15" speaker cabs was that they could be pretty mushy and needed another cabinet to get a full tone spectrum. This Epifani cab not only carries the low end very well, but has great punch and articulation, probably because of the great tweeter. For my current limited needs, I was debating between the 2x10" cab and the 1x15" cab. I found that I preferred the sound from the 1x15" because it had (to my ears) a fuller sound. I figure that I can always add a 1x10" cab or 2x10" cab later if I need that kind of air pressure!
http://www.epifani.com/images/products/club_series115.jpg
Another surprise in the "going light" trend was what has happened to bass amps since I last seriously looked. I was seriously considering a used SWR 750 Pro head, but the weight was pretty close to a deal-breaker. Fortunately, technology has supplied us with the "Class D" amplifier. I ended up with a used EA iamp-500 head, which gives me 350 watts in an 8 ohm load and 500 watts into a 4 ohm load......at a total weight of 13 lbs! For $500 more, I could have purchased the 800 watt (4 ohm) head brand new, but being cost-conscious, I figured I could live with less headroom for the small clubs that I would likely play in.
http://www.eaamps.com/2005/products/iamp500.jpg
The synergy between the head and cab is extremely good. The amp has more than enough tone-shaping capability, and the cabinet pushes out the sound in a surprisingly tight fashion to a 15" speaker-based cab. Best of all, the rig in total weighs less than just my old cabinet, so I'll still have energy to actually play once I'm set up! Bassists have a lot to be greatful for nowadays!