MadAsAHatter
Well-known member
https://www.sonictoneamps.com/amplifiers/ba-series/ba-300
Teaser to @BeZo and @Floyd Eye
I posted in my Loyalist thread that Nick @ SonicTone finished up the prototype and officially launched his 300 watt bass amp. The model name is BA-300. I was going to wait 'til the end of the year, but said fuck it I have enough money now and bought one. I just got of the phone with Nick placing my order for the first production model to come off the bench. He said it should be ready in a couple of weeks for me to come pick up.
I'm buying it sight unheard, but I've played the BA-100 watt version. The 300 watt one uses the same preamp and Nick says it sounds near the same, just beefier & louder. That's expected from the extra wattage to produce more low end. He also kept the high pass filter switch from the BA-100 on the BA-300 so it can double as a 300 watt guitar amp if you want.
Cut & paste from my Loyalist thread, below is my first impressions when I first tested out the BA-100. At that time I didn't bring a bass with me and used one of Nick's J basses. When I picked up my Loyalist I brought one of my basses along to give the BA-100 another go. Everything I first wrote still stands with 2 additions. 1. My bass had high output pickups so it pushed the front end more. So I was able to get some grit earlier on the gain knob. 2. Playing the dirty channel more I picked up both SVT and Super Bass vibes, like the two had a baby. Similar to how I described the clean channel being SVT with HiWatt sprinkled on top.
Of course I'll post my review of the BA-300 when it's done and in its new home.
Something to note, the BA-300 uses Gen 2 6550 power tubes, the ones with 42 watt plate dissipation.
Or it can take KT-88's
Last thing... A couple pics of the BA-300 prototype that Nick sent me.
BA-100 initial impressions:
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.
Teaser to @BeZo and @Floyd Eye
I posted in my Loyalist thread that Nick @ SonicTone finished up the prototype and officially launched his 300 watt bass amp. The model name is BA-300. I was going to wait 'til the end of the year, but said fuck it I have enough money now and bought one. I just got of the phone with Nick placing my order for the first production model to come off the bench. He said it should be ready in a couple of weeks for me to come pick up.
I'm buying it sight unheard, but I've played the BA-100 watt version. The 300 watt one uses the same preamp and Nick says it sounds near the same, just beefier & louder. That's expected from the extra wattage to produce more low end. He also kept the high pass filter switch from the BA-100 on the BA-300 so it can double as a 300 watt guitar amp if you want.
Cut & paste from my Loyalist thread, below is my first impressions when I first tested out the BA-100. At that time I didn't bring a bass with me and used one of Nick's J basses. When I picked up my Loyalist I brought one of my basses along to give the BA-100 another go. Everything I first wrote still stands with 2 additions. 1. My bass had high output pickups so it pushed the front end more. So I was able to get some grit earlier on the gain knob. 2. Playing the dirty channel more I picked up both SVT and Super Bass vibes, like the two had a baby. Similar to how I described the clean channel being SVT with HiWatt sprinkled on top.
Of course I'll post my review of the BA-300 when it's done and in its new home.
Something to note, the BA-300 uses Gen 2 6550 power tubes, the ones with 42 watt plate dissipation.
Or it can take KT-88's
Last thing... A couple pics of the BA-300 prototype that Nick sent me.
BA-100 initial impressions:
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.
