Devin
Well-known member
Does he sell these at any local dealers? I'd love to check one out but idk if I wanna visit the dude at his house unless I was 100% buying one haha
MadAsAHatter
Well-known member
As promised, my follow up post on the bass amp.
You can catch the detailed specs on the website it's the one labeled BA series. The basics are it's a 2 channel amp (clean & dirty), 100 watts, all tube bass amp. It can use 6L6, EL34 or 6550 power tubes. 3 band EQ and a couple of different switches to play with. It also has a presence knob which is something you don't see on a bass amp often.
I didn't know he had a bass amp, otherwise I would have brought one of my basses to play. I used one of Nick's J basses. Cab was an Ampeg 410 on top and a 115 (I think) on the bottom. I didn't spend a whole lot of time twisting knobs and such, but at least enough to get a full sense of it.
Clean Channel:
First note I played was Damn! this sounds good! It had what you'd think of a the core SVT tone, but there was something extra sprinkled on to that gave it more of a unique flavor. Nick said the bassist he was building one for described it as Ampeg with some Hiwatt seasoning. When he said that I was like that's the perfect description. That little extra to the tone had hints of like a DR201 or Reeves 225. The clean channel has a bright switch. I can see where this could be used for a slap bass tone. For me it wasn't necessary; I can't slap worth a damn. You can get some grit out of if you crank the gain, but for the most part it's what you'd expect from a clean channel.
Dirty Channel:
I like to play bass with at least a hint of grit so I lit up when clicking over to this channel. You can go from just a hint to full gritty overdrive. Even without having to crank it to power tube saturation it had a thick meaty overdrive sound. Nick mentioned that he had a Marshall Super Bass in mind for this side. To my ear it was there, but with more of a bass centric sound rather than the bass version of a guitar amp. Here's where things really get fun. The dirty channel has a hotrod & mid boost switch. Hotrod takes it from overdrive into full out distortion. Mid boost puts it more into that Marshall mid-forward sound. A perfect combo to crank out some Ace of Spades. Even with all that saturation, the low end didn't get all flubby with fart distortion.
One thing of note on the amp as a whole. This thing is loud. Nick pushed the master up to about 4/10 on the dial and the walls were shaking pretty good. I play pretty loud to begin with and wouldn't have wanted to push it much louder for the room we were in.
I'm thinking some of you may already be thinking it sounds like it would make for a great bass amp. But Nick did something to make it even better. There's a high pass filter on it that makes it guitar friendly. So not only is it a great sounding bass amp, but it can double as a guitar amp. I didn't play a guitar though it. We only clicked the HPF on while I was noodling on bass and still using the bass cabs. So this is an assumption based on that. I do think it would make for a fine sounding, working guitar amp playing through an actual guitar cab. I surmise it would probably sit somewhere between the tone of a Super Bass & Super Lead.
For me and my style, this is pretty much the perfect bass amp. I would have placed an order for one, but 2 things stopped me.
1. I hadn't budgeted for buying 2 amps at once.
2. When you thought it couldn't get better than what I already described, Nick said he'll be starting work on a full 300 Watt version..... HOLY SHIT!!!! I want to hold out for that one.
Right now he's working with a local shop to do a steel chassis instead of his normal aluminum ones. He said he wanted to make sure it would be more than sturdy enough to support heavy transformers on top. He's also working with Heyboer on the PT and OT. It will have the same channels and switches and such as the 100 watt one.
You can catch the detailed specs on the website it's the one labeled BA series. The basics are it's a 2 channel amp (clean & dirty), 100 watts, all tube bass amp. It can use 6L6, EL34 or 6550 power tubes. 3 band EQ and a couple of different switches to play with. It also has a presence knob which is something you don't see on a bass amp often.
I didn't know he had a bass amp, otherwise I would have brought one of my basses to play. I used one of Nick's J basses. Cab was an Ampeg 410 on top and a 115 (I think) on the bottom. I didn't spend a whole lot of time twisting knobs and such, but at least enough to get a full sense of it.
Clean Channel:
First note I played was Damn! this sounds good! It had what you'd think of a the core SVT tone, but there was something extra sprinkled on to that gave it more of a unique flavor. Nick said the bassist he was building one for described it as Ampeg with some Hiwatt seasoning. When he said that I was like that's the perfect description. That little extra to the tone had hints of like a DR201 or Reeves 225. The clean channel has a bright switch. I can see where this could be used for a slap bass tone. For me it wasn't necessary; I can't slap worth a damn. You can get some grit out of if you crank the gain, but for the most part it's what you'd expect from a clean channel.
Dirty Channel:
I like to play bass with at least a hint of grit so I lit up when clicking over to this channel. You can go from just a hint to full gritty overdrive. Even without having to crank it to power tube saturation it had a thick meaty overdrive sound. Nick mentioned that he had a Marshall Super Bass in mind for this side. To my ear it was there, but with more of a bass centric sound rather than the bass version of a guitar amp. Here's where things really get fun. The dirty channel has a hotrod & mid boost switch. Hotrod takes it from overdrive into full out distortion. Mid boost puts it more into that Marshall mid-forward sound. A perfect combo to crank out some Ace of Spades. Even with all that saturation, the low end didn't get all flubby with fart distortion.
One thing of note on the amp as a whole. This thing is loud. Nick pushed the master up to about 4/10 on the dial and the walls were shaking pretty good. I play pretty loud to begin with and wouldn't have wanted to push it much louder for the room we were in.
I'm thinking some of you may already be thinking it sounds like it would make for a great bass amp. But Nick did something to make it even better. There's a high pass filter on it that makes it guitar friendly. So not only is it a great sounding bass amp, but it can double as a guitar amp. I didn't play a guitar though it. We only clicked the HPF on while I was noodling on bass and still using the bass cabs. So this is an assumption based on that. I do think it would make for a fine sounding, working guitar amp playing through an actual guitar cab. I surmise it would probably sit somewhere between the tone of a Super Bass & Super Lead.
For me and my style, this is pretty much the perfect bass amp. I would have placed an order for one, but 2 things stopped me.
1. I hadn't budgeted for buying 2 amps at once.
2. When you thought it couldn't get better than what I already described, Nick said he'll be starting work on a full 300 Watt version..... HOLY SHIT!!!! I want to hold out for that one.
Right now he's working with a local shop to do a steel chassis instead of his normal aluminum ones. He said he wanted to make sure it would be more than sturdy enough to support heavy transformers on top. He's also working with Heyboer on the PT and OT. It will have the same channels and switches and such as the 100 watt one.
Hopefully I didn't do you dirty and make you wait too long.
BeZo
Well-known member
Yeah. You even answered my question. It has been my experience that higher wattage is always better for bass, since it takes more power to produce bass frequencies. My interest is piqued if he does a 300 watt version.As promised, my follow up post on the bass amp.
You can catch the detailed specs on the website it's the one labeled BA series. The basics are it's a 2 channel amp (clean & dirty), 100 watts, all tube bass amp. It can use 6L6, EL34 or 6550 power tubes. 3 band EQ and a couple of different switches to play with. It also has a presence knob which is something you don't see on a bass amp often.
I didn't know he had a bass amp, otherwise I would have brought one of my basses to play. I used one of Nick's J basses. Cab was an Ampeg 410 on top and a 115 (I think) on the bottom. I didn't spend a whole lot of time twisting knobs and such, but at least enough to get a full sense of it.
Clean Channel:
First note I played was Damn! this sounds good! It had what you'd think of a the core SVT tone, but there was something extra sprinkled on to that gave it more of a unique flavor. Nick said the bassist he was building one for described it as Ampeg with some Hiwatt seasoning. When he said that I was like that's the perfect description. That little extra to the tone had hints of like a DR201 or Reeves 225. The clean channel has a bright switch. I can see where this could be used for a slap bass tone. For me it wasn't necessary; I can't slap worth a damn. You can get some grit out of if you crank the gain, but for the most part it's what you'd expect from a clean channel.
Dirty Channel:
I like to play bass with at least a hint of grit so I lit up when clicking over to this channel. You can go from just a hint to full gritty overdrive. Even without having to crank it to power tube saturation it had a thick meaty overdrive sound. Nick mentioned that he had a Marshall Super Bass in mind for this side. To my ear it was there, but with more of a bass centric sound rather than the bass version of a guitar amp. Here's where things really get fun. The dirty channel has a hotrod & mid boost switch. Hotrod takes it from overdrive into full out distortion. Mid boost puts it more into that Marshall mid-forward sound. A perfect combo to crank out some Ace of Spades. Even with all that saturation, the low end didn't get all flubby with fart distortion.
One thing of note on the amp as a whole. This thing is loud. Nick pushed the master up to about 4/10 on the dial and the walls were shaking pretty good. I play pretty loud to begin with and wouldn't have wanted to push it much louder for the room we were in.
I'm thinking some of you may already be thinking it sounds like it would make for a great bass amp. But Nick did something to make it even better. There's a high pass filter on it that makes it guitar friendly. So not only is it a great sounding bass amp, but it can double as a guitar amp. I didn't play a guitar though it. We only clicked the HPF on while I was noodling on bass and still using the bass cabs. So this is an assumption based on that. I do think it would make for a fine sounding, working guitar amp playing through an actual guitar cab. I surmise it would probably sit somewhere between the tone of a Super Bass & Super Lead.
For me and my style, this is pretty much the perfect bass amp. I would have placed an order for one, but 2 things stopped me.
1. I hadn't budgeted for buying 2 amps at once.
2. When you thought it couldn't get better than what I already described, Nick said he'll be starting work on a full 300 Watt version..... HOLY SHIT!!!! I want to hold out for that one.
Right now he's working with a local shop to do a steel chassis instead of his normal aluminum ones. He said he wanted to make sure it would be more than sturdy enough to support heavy transformers on top. He's also working with Heyboer on the PT and OT. It will have the same channels and switches and such as the 100 watt one.
Hopefully I didn't do you dirty and make you wait too long.
MadAsAHatter
Well-known member
As far as I'm aware he does not and everything is sold direct.
He's set up where his work area and studio are separate buildings from his house. So it's not like you're walking through the kitchen to the shop. If you're serious about checking one out I'm sure Nick wouldn't mind you stopping by. I emailed him about coming over and we set up a day and time that worked best for both of us.
He put zero pressure on me to commit to anything. All he asked was what I was thinking about doing. I told him what I liked about the Patriot and Loyalist, but was still stuck on deciding which one I'd go for. He didn't have any problems with me taking whatever time I needed to decide or if I ultimately chose not to get anything.
My indecisiveness between the 2 amps is what sparked me to ask about putting a Patriot hi gain channel into the Loyalist instead of having Ch 3 & 4 be duplicate channels. Once he understood what I was asking he was like "Yeah I can do that" and pulled the schematics to see what components he'd need to change.
MadAsAHatter
Well-known member
Nick said once he works things out with vendors he would probably order enough to build 5 300 watt ones to start off.