New Acoustic Amph Day

[marnold]

Not acoustic as opposed to electric, but Acoustic the brand--recently resurrected and owned by the company that owns GC, et al. I had been looking for a bass amp. I thought for sure I'd get a Peavey combo since that's what I'd owned in the past. To my ears, the MAX series all sounded like they had a blanket over them. I liked the Marshall MB30 quite a bit. I got some money from doing a funeral yesterday (I know, odd way to get an ampf) and had a Thanksgiving weekend coupon from GC. So I loaded up the family after church today and trekked down to Appleton to check out the Acoustic amps which have gotten rave reviews on TalkBass.

I tried a B20 (12" 20W) and B100 (15" 100W). The B100 was really more than I wanted to spend, plus it was substantially heavier. While the low end was better--understandable given the 15" speaker and more wattage--the B20 actually seemed to have better clarity/articulation. 20W isn't much for a bass amp, but seeing as it's mainly going to be in my basement and maybe accompanying some acoustic guitar players, it's not a biggie.

The four-band EQ (low, lo-mid, hi-mid, and high) seems to work quite well, even better than the Peavey MAX 115's active EQ. I just wanted to keep playing and playing which seemed to tell me that I had found a good amp. GC had it for $149, but they matched their own site that had it at $129. 10% off that for my coupon made it $116.10, which is pretty ridiculous for an amp that sounds this good.

Before anyone says pic/clips or it didn't happen, that will have to wait for tomorrow. With a service on Thanksgiving, a funeral yesterday, and the regular service today, my brain is officially shutting down for the evening. For now, you will need to be content with the pics on Acoustic's site (http://www.acousticamplification.com/products/b20.cfm).

Oh yeah, I like my Spector even better now that it's amplified :)

[stingx]

Nice price! Enjoy your new amp. :beer:

[sunvalleylaw]

Cool Matt, congrats on the new amph!

[warren0728]

gotta love new gear....rock on rev! :beer: :rockon:

[marnold]

As promised, here are some pictures of the amph. Here's the amp itself:

http://lh3.ggpht.com/_OT7l0dXu4To/STQ42FTioGI/AAAAAAAAAag/4mcKzDxC4HQ/s400/img_2091.jpg
Full size version (http://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/MShoKE2BSGEj1faeP-GZKg?authkey=l3UTP3bIRB4)

Here's the amp with my Spector (actually, it's the best shot of the Spector I've taken thus far):
http://lh3.ggpht.com/_OT7l0dXu4To/STQ42kVg_YI/AAAAAAAAAao/jcSiQx60mOE/s400/img_2092.jpg
Full size version (http://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/VfH7OGrK_2EkdjjKWXQ1iQ?authkey=l3UTP3bIRB4)

The amp itself seems well-built. The metal corner protectors are a nice touch. The only quibble is the white piping around the speaker isn't completely pushed into place in the upper left hand corner. Not a big shake.

[marnold]

As promised, here are some clips. I recorded the same licks in the same way that I recorded them when I first got my Spector. The only difference beyond that would be a new set of Rotosounds. Running the headphone-out into the line-in on my soundcard works relatively well as long as I keep the volume low. I had to amplify things in Audacity. I didn't add compression to avoid coloring the clip. All controls on my B20 are at noon. The lick is repeated three times. First is neck pickup only, then neck and bridge, finally bridge only.

NIB via my B20 (http://www.box.net/shared/2kyc8lxzbc)
NIB via my AD30VT (http://www.box.net/shared/iyof52jf41)

The Chain via my B20 (http://www.box.net/shared/zg5tql33sb)
The Chain via my AD30VT (http://www.box.net/shared/v5sc681zpy)

While I'm sure the new strings have an effect, the lion's share of the difference is with the amp. I think that the difference is most notable when using both pickups and with the bridge only. My bass sounded muddy and indistinct through the AD30VT (and the Peavey Max amps as well). The B20 adds a ton of clarity and punch. The Marshall had a similar effect.

I went from wondering if I was going to need new pups to putting that thought out of my mind entirely. The neck has a nice pseudo-P-bass sound and the bridge does the Jazz-on-steroids thing quite well--without any hum.

[Duff]

I looked long and hard at that Acoustic before I bougt my Marshall MB30.

I played all the smallish Peavey's and thought they were not so hot for me and crackled with the B string on the five string: the Marshall didn't. Plus the tone of the Marshall is great.

I didn't get down to Harrisburg to try out the Acoustic and will some day. I have heard from many that they are outstanding for the price. Wouldn't be surprised if they, like the Blackheart 3/5's, go way up in price once the word is widespread.

Congratulations,

Duffy

[marnold]

I didn't get down to Harrisburg to try out the Acoustic and will some day. I have heard from many that they are outstanding for the price. Wouldn't be surprised if they, like the Blackheart 3/5's, go way up in price once the word is widespread.
I liked the MB30 a lot too. From a tone perspective, the MB30 and B20 are very similar. The MB30 has more features, but the B20 was cheaper. The B20 also has a bigger speaker (12" vs. 10") but without A/Bing them side-by-side it's hard to tell if there's a big difference.

The price on the Acoustics has already gone up. The B20 was originally selling for $129. Now it's $149.

[Tone2TheBone]

ba ba ba bum BA DA ba ba ba bum OH YEAHHH. NIB sir and that rocked my Thursday! Nice sounding bass amph and good score. Congrats again my friend!