An Old Man's New Semi-Modular Rig - 1st Impressions

**Tom Karol** · 11-05-2024, 06:52 PM

I play many genres of music on various fretted electric and acoustic-electric instruments. I'm 75 years old, and I no longer want to carry anything bulky or heavy. So, I reluctantly sold my 2009 Henriksen Jazz Amp 112. I still have a Henriksen Bud 6 and a DV Mark Little Jazz. I bought 2 things (both designed in Europe and manufactured in Asia) with a portion of the proceeds.

1) A tiny Warwick Gnome Class D Bass Head (zZounds). It's the size of a paperback book and not all that much heavier! It puts out 130 watts RMS into 8 ohms and 200 watts into 4 Ohms and weighs 2 pounds. (Note: the Trace Elliot Elf (more expensive) and TC Electronics BAM200 (less expensive) appear to be virtually identical, but the Warwick seemed to garner the most positive appraisals in the bass community.) I'm using a laptop bag as a case for the amp and cables/accessories.

2) A TC Electronics BC208 8 Ohm 2 x 8" 200w bass cabinet (Sweetwater). It weighs just under 23 pounds. (Trace Elliot also has an 8 Ohm 2 x 8" cab that can handle twice the power, but it's both heavier and much more expensive.)

As expected, the BC208 sounds fine - nice and punchy with a clear bottom end - with the Gnome driving it for bass. I probably won't be playing bass in a high volume situation, but if I do, I could get a 2nd 8 Ohm cabinet - maybe a Gnome 10/8 (1x10" + adjustable tweeter) for variety's sake - to create a 4 Ohm pair driven by 200w. The Gnome/BC208 sounds OK but somewhat bland and maybe a little harsh as a standalone jazz guitar amp, but with a reverb pedal it could serve adequately as a backup. However, the amp's internal always-on fan might be obtrusive in a low-volume guitar context, though that's not really where I'd use it. (It's louder than the one in the LJ; that one has never bothered me.) For bass at all but very low volumes, I'd say it's a non-issue. (By the way, the Bud sounds great for bass at very low volumes - like playing with unamplified acoustic guitars and such, for instance.)

I didn't know what to expect from the BC208 with the Bud. I anticipated that it might sound like crap. However, I was quite pleased to find that it sounds really good as well as louder and 'bigger' with the Bud which sits neatly on top of it. It's almost like a full-range 3-way speaker system in that configuration, with the Bud providing the tweeter and mid-range driver and the BC208 acting as a woofer, albeit without a sophisticated crossover circuit. I'm very happy with this combination as my 'stage' rig.

I tried the BC208 with the LJ as an afterthought as I hadn't really planned to use it with that amp, and again it came through with flying colors. Turning off the internal speaker on the LJ - you can only do that on my Bud by plugging something into the headphone jack - revealed that the BC208 doesn't have a lot of high-end sparkle and isn't all that efficient, but with the internal speaker left on and the amp on top of the speaker cabinet the sound was balanced, full-spectrum, and again far more expansive than the LJ alone.

I've never tried Raezer's Edge/RevSound/Phil Jones et al cabinets, and I expect that they would have a considerably more refined sound, but at only $239 the BC208 is hard to fault!

So while I do miss the sound of the Jazz Amp 112, I really like the sound, portability, and flexibility I now have.

**Tom Karol** · 12-07-2024, 05:28 PM

I’m not sure anyone’s really interested, but that’s never stopped me before!

So, here’s an update: I did decide to get the Warwick Gnome 10/8 cabinet as well, and I’m glad I did.

Specs:

8 Ohms
150w
1x10" Custom Warwick speaker
Adjustable piezo tweeter
Sensitivity – unspecified
Frequency range: 90 Hz to 19 kHz (±? dB)
21 lbs
$260 @ zZounds

While most of my live playing at this point will be with the Bud alone and I probably won’t add these boxes to the LJ very often if at all, here’s the way it shakes out for more elaborate setups:

For electric guitars with magnetic pickups – The Bud plus the BC208
For acoustic-electric instruments – The Bud plus the Gnome 10/8
For bass – The Gnome head with the BC208 and the Gnome 10/8 (200w into 4 Ohms)!

Comparison:

The BC208 has a more extended and prominent bottom end but not much of a top end (see specs at end of post). That’s why it works well with the Bud sitting on top of it providing all the high end I’d ever need.
The Gnome 10/8 has a leaner bottom end and a more prominent top end. The tweeter isn’t the smoothest, but turned on halfway it does add some clarity. Neither one is super-efficient. The BC208 spec sheet says 93 dB; Warwick doesn’t publish the sensitivity anywhere I can find, but I’d guess it’s about 95 dB. They have somewhat different sonic characters, which makes them optimal in somewhat different contexts, but together for bass they complement each other quite nicely.

BC208 Specifications: