rack power-amp for jazz, fusion and funky stuff

hans halmackenreuter · #1 05-05-2011, 03:15 AM

hi guys,

during the last 8 years i was mainly playing jazz, took a while, but after the first 3 years i started playing on stage with my fellow-musicians and for this purpose i used to play a roland cube, which was just fine.

but now the situation has changed, since now i'm playing in funk / soul/ r'nb' band. the first 6 months were about the songs etc, but than was thinking of different sounds, so i bought different effect-gear stuff, but all the boss pedals and the morley wah couldn't make me satified, because i was incapable to handle them. besides it was desturving to change settings all the time. so i decided to buy myself a multieffect.

the boss me70 was my decision, since it's easy to handle and the sound is at least good enough for me.

Well- now to the point of this thread.
i want to get the same sounds, which i have prepared at home. so i thought of a power amp, which just power my signal from the boss me70.
+ i want true stereo sound with 2 cabs.

does anyone of you have some experience with a rocktron velocity 100?
it seems to be the right product for my purpose and the say, that espeacialy in clean-mode it has it's advantage.

another question is, which speaker seem to be best?

would be kind, to get some advice

jzucker · #2 05-05-2011, 03:12 PM

i've tried it. Wasn't too impressed. There are so many good SS rack mount power amps. Find a used Alesis 100 or 150. They are dirt cheap.

There is no best speaker but what kind of music are you playing? I'll make some recommendations. Don't fall for the weber hype though.

hans halmackenreuter · #3 05-05-2011, 04:41 PM

thank you for your reply.

i play mostly clean stuff with a little bit reverb (jazz) or funky things with modulation effects. distortion is uninportant for me, therefore i was thinking of an eminence speaker, but the choice of speaker is also depending on the amp.
so it seems to be like a circle.

Paul Kinnear · #4 05-05-2011, 08:34 PM

Hello, back about twenty years ago I used a digitech legend (old school multi effects). I would use that in a rack with a rocktron hush, a parametric eq and some other gear. I would then plug that to Yorkville 500 watt power amp (plenty of headroom, nice warm powwer amp). I would then take the stereo out to two yorkville pa cabs each with two tens and a horn. There was a splitter from the effects rack from which I would run a line to the house pa. The distortion from the digitech was a bit cheasy but the room effects were great. We played mostly r and b and dance but did our share of functions and jazz. I thaught it sounded great. It was not as cumbersome as it sounds ( two racks and two cabs could stack and roll). I bet the new digital gear ( 24 bit) would sound great. Because the sound is generated digitally I would recomend good quallity pa speakers. Good luck

jzucker · #5 05-05-2011, 08:37 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by hans halmackenreuter

thank you for your reply.

i play mostly clean stuff with a little bit reverb (jazz) or funky things with modulation effects. distortion is uninportant for me, therefore i was thinking of an eminence speaker, but the choice of speaker is also depending on the amp.
so it seems to be like a circle.

I would say an alesis RA100/RA150 and an eminence tonker would sound great for what you're going to do.

hans halmackenreuter · #6 05-06-2011, 03:50 AM

first of all thanks again to both of you,

i guess i have some new input according to this topic. i will try to check out your ideas.

thanks

DanFan · #7 05-06-2011, 10:42 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by jzucker

I would say an alesis RA100/RA150 and an eminence tonker would sound great for what you're going to do.

I don't want to hijack, but this is very coincidental. I'm building a stereo modeling rig right now and using an Alesis RA100 as the power section. My preamp is a Roland GP-100 and I'm depending heavily on the cabinet models and don't want too much color from the actual speakers. I have an old cabinet of my Dad's that I'm converting for stereo guitar. JBLs being too heavy and expensive -Tonkers are at the top of my list right now.

This is the cab I'm building into a 2x12. It was a "subwoofer" circa 1963. Notice the variable port. This won't be something that travels out of the house very often due to its sentimental attachment. My dad built it in college from Popular Electronics plans. He passed away in 1974.

CactusTone · #8 05-06-2011, 10:58 PM

The best power amp I've used for a jazz setup in stereo is the Mesa Boogie 20/20. Wonderful tone, very versatile, single rack space. I'm not using this much power regularly, and since I picked up a '65 Vibrolux combo to fulfill my larger power needs I'm selling the Mesa if you're interested. $500 including shipping to lower 48. I ran the Mesa with an Egnater iE4 pre, a G-Major effects unit, and a Mesa Formula Pre into a stereo 2x10 cab. It sounded fantastic with everything.