Tube vs. Solid

[Tim Bishop]

Originally Posted by Desmund Nichols

A question for all my fellow Smith bass players. We all know how good the Smith tone is, and we all play out of different amps. My questions is: Do you guys prefer playing your Smith through a Tube amp or a Solid amp?

This is easy Des. With Eden's Amps, you get the best of both worlds in their hybrid heads (i.e. tube in the pre-amp stage) and IMO they are THE best. The WT-550 is my favorite Eden head through any combination of Edens XST or XLT cabs. Particularly since the WT-550 can pull 750W at a 2-ohm load!

To answer your question: I prefer the warmth and punch of a tube in the mix any day. Pure solid state is too sterile for me.

For me though (and yes, I realize this is more than you asked, but I can't resist), it's the QSC-PLX 3602 Power Amp with the Alembic F-2B Pre-amp (the F-2B is a stero tube pre-amp). I recently ran it with 2 Eden 410-XLT's from channel 1 and Eden's 212-XLT and 115-XLT from channel 2. These are all 8-ohm cabs, so, at 4-ohm loads per channel, I get 1800W of pure devastating bass! I guaroantee! IF I wanted to run each channel of this rig down to 2-ohms, I would be pulling 3600W! BUT, that would be adding a couple more 8-ohm cabs to each channel and I doubt that will happen. I gotta tell ya, I would love to hear it though! LOL!

Sorry, for the additional rambling.