Idea for a bass head

[bassmannate]

So, this is an idea that's been floating around in my head ever since I stumbled across Taylor's "Forum Amp" thread. This is still quite a ways off from construction.

I'm thinking of building a bass head with Taylor's amp as the power amp. The pre amp will be switchable. Multiple pre amps really with maybe 3 pre amps wired to a 3p4t rotary switch with the 4th being a bypass to go clean right into the power amp. All the controls for each pre could be in it's own row with a LED next to it to indicate which one is selected. Having separate controls for each pre would also allow you to keep favorite settings for each one without changing them from one pre to another.

I was considering building a DI to go on the back but after pricing stuff, I figure it will be cheaper to just buy a passive DI and gut it for the circuit.

I was also thinking of putting a compressor like a LA-Light in but don't really know where to put it in the signal chain. Any thoughts on this?

Surely I'm not the first to come up with this idea. Line6 has already done it digitally with the pod series (I actually have a bass pod I got when I was in high school but after developing a better ear, it just sounds dead to me) I'm just thinking of doing it with analog circuits.

[Taylor]

I plan to do something similar with the PCBs (and I'm also a bass player). I'll have 2 of the amps together, to plug into 2 speakers when I need that much volume. It would also be fairly easy to do a preamp-level crossover so that I could then split the highs and lows to separate cabs.

I would think that  a compressor could go after your preamps.

Your idea seems sound to me, and I'm definitely looking forward to seeing it.

[bassmannate]

I plan to do something similar with the PCBs (and I'm also a bass player). I'll have 2 of the amps together, to plug into 2 speakers when I need that much volume. It would also be fairly easy to do a preamp-level crossover so that I could then split the highs and lows to separate cabs.

I would think that  a compressor could go after your preamps.

Your idea seems sound to me, and I'm definitely looking forward to seeing it.

Cool! We can probably bounce ideas off each other as it goes. I still have yet to figure out what pre amps I want to put in. I'm going to build a few independently to see what I like best. Probably going to start out with building a flipster just because I've heard nothing but good things about it.

So, you're going to build 2 of your 20w amps with separate outs? Sounds like an idea. I've never messed much with crossovers since all I've ever owned is combos. I currently have a Hartke 120w kickback with a 10" driver. Luckily, I can unplug the speaker from the amp and use the speaker with anything I want.

[Gus]

What I would do is buy the power amp(s) for higher powered amps (maybe build a low powered one).
Bass players will use preamps into a solid state power amps, every thing from low watts to 1,500Watt etc.
Build the pres and the bass cab it might be better to buy the higher powered amp part.
For the amp part look at things like Hypex modules
http://www.hypex.nl/
http://www.hypex.nl/OEMcorner.htm

Other amps like in this link etc
http://www.parts-express.com/wizards/searchResults.cfm?srchExt=FILTER&searchFilter=t-amp&CFID=11023773&CFTOKEN=46730937

[bassmannate]

I've never understood the point of more and more power. The 120w is WAY more power than I would ever use. Before that, I had a 60w that I rarely if ever bumped the volume to half way. If I need more than 20w or 20w x 2, I will almost always have a PA that I can plug in to from a DI.

[Joe Hart]

I would also be interested in this (if it were an easy enough circuit). Keep us posted!!
-Joe Hart

[bassmannate]

Now, the question becomes if you're using 2 20w amps for your power section, do you put a separate volume control on each or do you use a ganged pot for this? Of course, I haven't seen the schematic so you may have your volume control for the power amp in a place (like at the very beginning) where you could just control both amps with one pot. Would you need some sort of buffer to feed the pre amp into two power amps or can you just feed the pre right into the power section?

[Top Top]

Now, the question becomes if you're using 2 20w amps for your power section, do you put a separate volume control on each or do you use a ganged pot for this? Of course, I haven't seen the schematic so you may have your volume control for the power amp in a place (like at the very beginning) where you could just control both amps with one pot. Would you need some sort of buffer to feed the pre amp into two power amps or can you just feed the pre right into the power section?

This is a little different situation, but I have a 2x 10W amp that I built. Technically it has two inputs, but they both get the same signal, which is the output from the preamp. I just put a volume control at the output of the preamp, and this serves as the control for the volume of both amps simultaneously.