| Author | Message | ||
| crgaston
Senior Member Username: crgaston Post Number: 422 Registered: 11-2005 |
There have been a couple of threads on this topic recently, and I am in the midst of revamping, so I thought I'd share...  I've had the 4 space SKB since 1993, and it's served me well, but with the coming of a Series, I had to make room for the power supply, so I switched to a Gator 6 space shallow rack. It's noticeably stumpier (which is good), and my initial feeling is that it's not as sturdy as the SKB. It has fewer reinforcing ridges so the plastic seems more flexible, and the handles don't have as much clearance. The aluminum feels solid, though, and it has mounting rails on both front and back, which is a bonus. I could theoretically mount something else in there and put the DS5R on the back. It's shallow enough to fit so long as it's opposite the SF2. They're both around 5 inches deep, and the rack is 12 inches rail-to-rail.  Here it is from the front. I've recently switched to an F2B (from an F1X) in order to explore running the Series in stereo. Also, this gives me the capability to run 2 different instruments, like the Series and my passive De'Armond Starfire that I acquired from Flax. I have also just rewired my G&L SB-2 to stereo. It is a great sounding bass, but the P pickup has always overwhelmed the J to the point that switching between the two was impossible. Not anymore.  The rear view shows that the PLX 2402 just comes to the end of the rack. With the back lid on, there's plenty of space, although I do have to unplug my speaker cables to keep the lid from pressing on them. Not a hassle. With another half-inch of clearance, I could leave them in. Also, you can see that I've duct-taped the heck out of the power cords to keep things neat, and taped the SF2 wall wart to the power strip so it doesn't come loose in transit and start banging around inside. There is plenty of room for my speaker cables, 5-pin cord and extension cord in the back of the rack.  The PLX "02" series amps have the capability to run both sides off a single input, and that's what I'm doing here. The various optional features of this amp are controlled by DIP switches. Some don't like them because they're small and somewhat difficult to access, so they've been replaced on the newer models by regular switches. I don't find them to be a problem, since I don't change them around much, and always carry a pocketknife, anyway.  Since the F2B is not equipped with a DI, it needs to be placed in the signal chain somewhere. I choose to put it between the F2B and the SF2 so that I am levelling and EQing the pickups individually, but sending one optimized signal to the engineer. Putting the SF2 after the DI allows me to make changes to the stage sound to compensate for room acoustics without worrying about drastically altering the level of what I'm sending the engineer (we don't always get enough of a sound check for me to dial everything in just right). The SansAmp is shown for illustrative purposes only. It would not be my first choice for a DI since it doesn't pad the signal at all. I carry it more as an emergency backup for my rig (and it might be for sale soon if anyone's interested). Overall, I'm pretty pleased with the setup. It's pretty compact, but it is heavy. It comes in at around 70 pounds via the bathroom scale method. I can carry it one handed, but it hurts my hand to do it too far, so usually it gets the 2-hand treatment. Anyway, I hope you enjoyed my little photo essay, and I hope I've done a decent job reviewing some of the various bits of gear available. Thanks, Charles | ||
| tbrannon
Senior Member Username: tbrannon Post Number: 530 Registered: 11-2004 |
Looks to be an awesome setup. I don't know what I'd do with all those knobs. Tweaker heaven I guess. Series II bass running through all of that.... you need to bust out a mixing desk backpack next =) Toby | ||
| davehouck
Moderator Username: davehouck Post Number: 5492 Registered: 5-2002 |
Nice rig, and nice pics! | ||
| cozmik_cowboy
Intermediate Member Username: cozmik_cowboy Post Number: 194 Registered: 10-2006 |
Very nice - but you mention speaker cables, and I don't see any speakers  What are you running this into? Peter | ||
| crgaston
Senior Member Username: crgaston Post Number: 425 Registered: 11-2005 |
Sorry Peter...  This is how I usually run it... 2 Bergantino 12's on one channel and the Eden 12 on the other, all full-range. The Eden is way louder than the Bergs, so this gives me a nice blend between the two. If I'm running equal numbers, I have to turn the Eden channel down. I have another Eden 12 for when I need a little more headroom. Sometimes I'll just use 2 or even 1 speaker for small gigs. I use 2 different types of speaker because the Eden has a much deeper bottom, but the Bergantino has a warmer and woolier middle. The individual components are pretty light, too. Each cabinet is less than 40 pounds. This is the only pic I could find of the whole monster, hiding behind the Starfire I got from Flax and then modified with Darkstar pickups and an Alembic-style bridge and tailpiece from Mochael Dolan.  |
