Blu 6 & SBUS / Toob Metro BG - side by side audio comparison

[Christian Miller]

If we’re talking about big/heavy amps, then, yes, separate components have advantages. But i thought the comparison here was between something like the SBUS/Toob and Henriksen Blu/Bud or DVMLJ.


My typical situation is a gig or jam session in a small restaurant/bar with a tiny corner set aside as a stage. For that, a small light combo allows me to carry my guitar as a backpack (with all the accessories in its pouches) and the amp in one hand, and be able to open a door or swipe through a subway turnstile without having to put anything down, and to get on and off stage quickly. One more thing to carry is feasible, but less optimal.



If I’m plugging in a singer (usually me) and there’s no PA, that means I’m also bringing a mic stand, mic, and cable, which puts me into hand cart territory. Once there, I have a mini-PA (TC Helicon VoiceSolo), and a larger combo amp comes into play. But that’s a rarity, and I don’t like the sound of PA-style guitar combos. I’d rather not tie my guitar sound to a vocal solution. In the end it’s horses for courses, and I can see the value of separate amp and cabinet. But I have actually thought this through.

theres no comparison weight wise with the Bud 6 because the Toob metro/SBUS is stupid light and you can split it too.

Head in the guitar bag, speaker in a bag or in your hand and you can lift it with one finger.

The Bud 6 is about the same weight as my AER alpha. I’ve done a decade of that for hundreds maybe thousands of gigs and I can’t be arsed with that any more. I am that pathetic. But seriously it makes it just so easy to get to gigs to have a rig that weighs that little.

but if you need the bigger Toob that’s not too bad either. Still better than lugging a combo in your hand or god forbid on a shoulder strap.

the singer wants to plug into my amp vibe always irritates me on a number of levels (the AER is fine but not my preferred amp for both portability and sound issues.) But sometimes that’s what happens. Sometimes you basically get hired because you have an AER. Also violinists and cellists sometimes. Sigh.

[Tal_175]

You sounded great through the both setups. It'd be interesting to compare them with a solid body guitar as well. I wonder if SBUS/TOOB would be a more suitable choice for solid body guitars.

[Jim Soloway]

You sounded great through the both setups. It'd be interesting to compare them with a solid body guitar as well. I wonder if SBUS/TOOB would be a more suitable choice for solid body guitars.

Check with me in about 10 days. It should be here by then even with a hold up clearing customs.

[nevershouldhavesoldit]

You sounded great through the both setups. It'd be interesting to compare them with a solid body guitar as well. I wonder if SBUS/TOOB would be a more suitable choice for solid body guitars.

Thanks so much! All my Toobs (Metro BG, Metro GP, and 10") sound great with my solids. My Tele 7, with a pair of Lace Alumitone "humbuckers", gets a wide variety of tones including some woody jazz tones. I'll make a short clip with it and post it, so you can hear it for yourself. And my LP7 with an active EMG 7 pickup makes the smoothest blues tones you ever heard through a Toob.

[nevershouldhavesoldit]

You can indeed use an external cab on a Blu or Bud with the internal speaker disconnected. As has been suggested, I plugged a set of high impedance phones into the headphone jack and the extension cab into the extension jack - and it works. But I encountered an interesting finding. Leaving the Blu EQ as it is when I use the internal speaker (flat), the Metro sounds nothing like the Blu. It's not as efficient, so the volume drop was probably 3+ dB. And the sound was a lot thinner. Turning up the volume a small amount brought the level up fine, but the sound quality was still a bit thin.

I didn't have time to play extensively with the EQ, and I suspect I can get the Toob much closer to the Blu's sound. But simply upping the bass did not do that. It's possible that the load of the headphones affects the frequency response of the ext cab out, but I doubt that. I'll go back later and insert an unwired 1/4" plug into the 'phone jack to see if that makes a difference.

[Ukena]

[...] 3) Polish amp maker Taurus has collaborated with NY jazz guitarist Greg Ruggiero for a new, jazz-friendly version of their small floor amp. Actually, in 2011, they were the first with the concept. A new model with Greg's mods would require a minimum order of 30 units. Greg has gone through all the micro-amps on the market and says this is the best-sounding. Any innerest out there?

I would be very interested in one of these, depending on the price (the amps on Taurus' website are pretty pricey). And as I posted in another thread, I heard Greg in the not-so-distant past, playing through his Toob Metro, and we had a conversation about it and his part in getting a speaker he could carry through the NYC subway system.