Cleanest Bass amps/cabs

Gear
144

So I am off tomorrow to go see the local Bergantino rep in New Jersey, who, as it turns out, is about to not be the local rep, as he is moving to north of Boston, leaving no rep locally at all, YIKES.

Going to listen to both amps and cabs, and he also sells small quantities of Fearless cabs, built by another local guy who is certified to build them. Have not heard of them until today.

Anyone have any experience with Fearless F112 cabs or others? @DaveT ?
This rep (John Fox Bass) was raving about them.

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145

Have fun! I know nothing about Fearless.

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146

Hereā€™s an articleā€¦.I am very intrigued nowā€¦.which means $$$

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147

Apparently they are the bomb and no one ever sells them once they buy them.
Who knew.

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148

I was surprised it was only $1100 after reading that article.

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149

This is why I love messing around with pre-amps. I figure when Korg finally pushes for updates to the Aguilar line my GAS is going to get out of control.

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150

Or DIY kit. Looks fun!

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151

Looks cool if clean transparent tone is what you want.

Personally Iā€™d still stick to PAā€™s for that if thatā€™s what youā€™re looking for, and get amps with more tone color to them instead. But YMMV.

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152

If I were going down that road Iā€™d probably look at something like this and add the companion subwoofer if I needed more.

https://www.sweetwater.com/store/detail/K12.2--qsc-k12.2-2000w-12-inch-powered-speaker

For that price it includes the power amp and they can flatten it out with the on board DSP.

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153

Yep. Iā€™d be looking at a mixer driving a pair of 1000w 12" binary driver PAs most likely, were I to get serious. With preamps in front for the bass and guitars; computer going directly into the mixer for the synths and drums.

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154

These days I run a preamp + cabsim pedal into my keyboard amplifier of 30w. The amp has chorus or reverb included. I kinda like the cabsim to mimic different cabinets. It sounds fine for bedroom levels and having stereo is a plus.

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155

Yep. Going through a PA, a preamp/amp sim and cab sim woud be required (for me anyway). Would need to be pre-mixer.

Could also do this live through effects in the DAW but I would want to save that CPU for the synths :slight_smile:

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156

Have fun! Bergantino amps and cabs are amazing. Fearless reminds me a bit of Trickfish. Not well known but highly appreciated in the bass community.

Yeah and like this I can also jam without a computer. I usually switch between VUD and B7K preamps. Too bad I seldom use my pedalboard for effects.

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157

Well, if you go, you will buy.

Posted the end result hereā€¦

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158

I kinda had a feeling that is what youā€™d end up doing! Great amp!!!

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159

So it has been a week with the new amp/cab and I have to say I am thrilled with both.
I have yet to move any knob on the 4-band EQ on the amp yet, instead getting to know what each bass I have actually sounds like, what itā€™s tone controls can do, and what the B7K and VTBass DI bring to the party.

Really pleased, thanks again all.
Itā€™s nice to hear your bass and not some nonsense the Fender amp sim people decided you should hear.

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160

For those of you with these really clean amps, how do they do with preserving the upper harmonics of your bass tone?

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161

My non-expert view - you hear everything, even your poor playing technique, which, to me is a good thing, will make me improve more.

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162

That is really hard to say (for me), especially without doing some in-depth side-to-side comparison.

All I can say is that I like how it sounds, and as @John_E said ā€œyou hear everythingā€ (again, subjectively).

On the other hand, my dog hasnā€™t started howling yet when I play - so, thereā€™s that for upper harmonics :wink:

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163

Iā€™m intrigued by the DIY kit version of the Fearless.

Iā€™m going to add the Bass Array design to investigate for this category.

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