Well, after much research and umming and ahhing, I took a chance and bought a Phil Jones amp. Off ebay. Er, without having tried one. Ever . . .
Yes, I KNOW this is something you should never do. Yes, I know you should meticulously audition amps to make sure they do what you want them to and sound how you want to sound.
But this was going at a decent price (considering Phil Jones stuff is pretty expensive), so I reckoned I could always sell it on if it didn't live up to the hype.
Anyway, in case you don't know, Phil Jones builds bass amps with 5 speakers. What these lack in surface area, he makes up for in quantity - the Six-Pak amp I bought features six of these 5-ers. But I was skeptical - I've always been from the 'bass-needs-big-speakers' school of thought.
But man, was I wrong. First of all, the volume out of this thing is incredible. At first I was worried - thinking this thing was like any other amp I've ever tried, I plugged in and noodled for a bit with the volume down to around 2 or 3 and I was pretty underwhelmed - 'This doesn't bode well', I thought. Not much volume at all. So I stupidly whacked it up to 10 expecting not much more volume and lots of distorted mush, and hit the strings. But the thing nearly blew my windows out. With the clearest, most bell-like tone I've ever heard. Not a trace of distortion.
With my ears still ringing, I knocked the volume down to a less painful 5 or 6, having learnt the first big difference between this and other bass amps: Phil Jones doesn't put all his volume in the first third of the volume dial (my old Hartke never got above about 3 on the volume dial - that was as loud as it went - beyond that point it was essentially the same volume, just with more unwanted mush). PJB amps actually do go up to 10.
The next thing I found is that this puts out more than enough bottom end, and much cleaner, more defined bottom end, in fact, than anything else I've ever tried.
And the biggest surprise: I could hear the true tone my bass for the first time. I knew my Alembic had a huge range of tones, but putting it through this seemed to bring out a whole layer of extra harmonics that made the whole sound so much more musical, somehow.
I've since found out too that in band situations, it doesn't need to be as loud as a regular amp needs to be - somehow the sound cuts through the mix a lot better and is much less 'directional': so the guys over the other side of the stage can hear you as well (which may or may not be a good thing).
I'm posting this cos I'm really blown away by this thing and think that everyone here should try one to see what they think - maybe it won't be to everyone's taste, but please don't discount it just because you think bass needs big speakers. This has just changed my mind about that completely.
OK, it has a downside - while it's marketed as being portable (it has wheels fitted and a trolley handle so you can wheel it like a suitcase), it's so over-engineered (heavy-duty metal fittings, thick casing) that it weighs a ton.And you could do yourself some serious damage trying to get it up and down stairs on your own. I recommend you get a mate to help - preferably your singer, cos he generally doesn't have to carry anything (other than his ego, of course, which may be burden enough for any man, but that's another story).
Anyway, that's all I wanted to say - try one out and hear the full glory of your Alembic!
K.
