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badgerific « Good practice amp. »
Published on 04/14/11 at 09:50This is a digital modeling amp from roland which works using their COSM technology. It's 30 watts and has 10" speaker. It has a three band EQ, compressor, five built in effects, seven amp models, shape switch and finally volume and gain controls. It also has a headphone/line out jack for recording or practicing, an AUX in for practicing along with your MP3 player and a footswitch input to engage the effects.
The seven models are: Octave Bass, Flip Top, B Man, T.E., Bass360, Session and Concert 810. They're all based on famous amplifiers such as the Fender Bassman (B Man) and an ampeg SVT (Concert 810).
The five in built effects are: Chorus, Flanger, T Wah, Delay and Reverb.
UTILIZATION
Despite having a ridiculous amount of features this amp is really simple to use. The effects just work using two knobs, one for the chorus/flanger/t wah and the other for delay/reverb. This amp is very intuitive in it's design and it's easy to just play about with for hours to get lots of different sounds.
The three band EQ is very simple to work with but still offers a good range of control over your tone.
SOUNDS
I use this amp with my Fender Standard Jazz bass and it does sound good to my ears but only at certain settings. The only amp models which I like are the Octave Bass, B Man and Concert 810. I only like the clean tones of this amplifier, with the gain cranked it sounds quite weak, the COSM modeling definitely lacks in the distortion department I think.
While I think the delay, reverb and t wah effects all sound good the control of only one parameter make them all pretty much useless so the only effect I tend to use is a subtle bit of reverb.
I've used this amp a few times to record using the line out jack and can get some pretty good sounds out of it. At band practices I've found it's not really loud enough and I'd never gig it because it just doesn't put out enough to be able to hear yourself on stage.
OVERALL OPINION
I really like the clean sounds out of this amp but the distortion is lacking in my opinion. The lack of control over the effects is quite disappointing too but overall I think this is a great practice amp. Definitely a good choice for a bedroom player who's not sure what sound they're looking for or if you play a large range of genres I believe as it offers a lot of flexibility.
The seven models are: Octave Bass, Flip Top, B Man, T.E., Bass360, Session and Concert 810. They're all based on famous amplifiers such as the Fender Bassman (B Man) and an ampeg SVT (Concert 810).
The five in built effects are: Chorus, Flanger, T Wah, Delay and Reverb.
UTILIZATION
Despite having a ridiculous amount of features this amp is really simple to use. The effects just work using two knobs, one for the chorus/flanger/t wah and the other for delay/reverb. This amp is very intuitive in it's design and it's easy to just play about with for hours to get lots of different sounds.
The three band EQ is very simple to work with but still offers a good range of control over your tone.
SOUNDS
I use this amp with my Fender Standard Jazz bass and it does sound good to my ears but only at certain settings. The only amp models which I like are the Octave Bass, B Man and Concert 810. I only like the clean tones of this amplifier, with the gain cranked it sounds quite weak, the COSM modeling definitely lacks in the distortion department I think.
While I think the delay, reverb and t wah effects all sound good the control of only one parameter make them all pretty much useless so the only effect I tend to use is a subtle bit of reverb.
I've used this amp a few times to record using the line out jack and can get some pretty good sounds out of it. At band practices I've found it's not really loud enough and I'd never gig it because it just doesn't put out enough to be able to hear yourself on stage.
OVERALL OPINION
I really like the clean sounds out of this amp but the distortion is lacking in my opinion. The lack of control over the effects is quite disappointing too but overall I think this is a great practice amp. Definitely a good choice for a bedroom player who's not sure what sound they're looking for or if you play a large range of genres I believe as it offers a lot of flexibility.