Author Topic: In love with my SF-2!! (Read 466 times)

essenceman · « **on:** April 22, 2004, 10:06:38 AM »

It's only taken me 5 years to get around to buying one, but my SF-2 arrived yesterday and I have just spent an hour and a half exploring.

WOW!!!!

I didn't realise what my Essence 5 and little Euphonic Audio rig were capable of. Thanks Ron.

I can't wait to try out my new found sounds at a gig.

Rob (The Happy One)

hollis · « **Reply #1 on:** April 22, 2004, 12:41:49 PM »

Uh oh, I was afraid of this.... I'm starting to think about picking one of those up myself. Do you think it would be a good addition for the upper registers of my Skylark?

palembic · « **Reply #2 on:** April 22, 2004, 02:10:06 PM »

Hi Brothers,

Mica once said that it COULD be usefull but it is more meant for bass-players. Although a F2-B is standard for a lot of guitarplayers (see ZZ-top and quite some others who attained a sweet and controllable distortion with it).

Ron ...I have mine almost 1 year in use and it still surprises me. I'm still not an expert but it IS growing.
Owning a SI with S2 electronics one can say ...hey ...do you really NEED the tweaking of the SF-2 on top of THAT.
Well ...yes and no!
In small venues and sitting just together in the living room and play I can take may old trustworth SWR SM400 and Glockenklang 4x10 OR 1x15 and I'll manage to have the perfect sound. The volume is not high.
For playing loud this set-up will not do (for MY ears). Oh ...huh ...it CAN loud ....but not controllable loud in the way I want to control.
The SF-2 comes handy in combination with the F1-X and the Poweramp I'm using. You can play LOUD and still have the freshness and direct feel of a low volume. It's NEVER ...well ...I cannot say this ...overdone??!?!??! (help)

Paul the bad one

hollis · « **Reply #3 on:** April 22, 2004, 02:30:23 PM »

Thanks Brother Paul,

You just saved me some money, whenever we meet remind me that I owe you some brews.

eastcoastepic · « **Reply #4 on:** April 24, 2004, 01:36:00 PM »

I will second that 'Wow, as mine arrived yesterday via Ebay, and the first hour experimenting just flew by. Absolutely blows away the best graphic equalizer anywhere; the combinations are truly endless. I hit both lo pass filters, and my kidneys were vibrating from the window-rattling lows. Hit the high pass filters, and she sounds like a 6-string guitar (well, almost). Amazing stuff.
If you are a plug & play bassist where a reasonable sound is OK with you, this may not be a good investment. If you have a certain specific sound (or sounds) that you like, and don't mind taking the time to find it and perfect it, this is an invaluable tool. A little patience and a couple of pints will certainly make for a fun Sunday afternoon.
I agree, Rob; although it won't be until June, I can't wait to gig with this....I predict a loooong sound check, with much tweaking

bassman10096 · « **Reply #5 on:** April 24, 2004, 09:53:32 PM »

I will second the Wow! as well. I've had my SF-2 for a couple of weeks, but I've been saving it for the arrival of some new cabinets. I love what I can do with it so far, and the possibilities are obviously limitless!!! It (almost) makes my $160 Ibanez 5 string sound like an Alembic! I can't wait for my new Alembic to arrive. I can tell you, I regret letting go of my Spoiler before my new bass is complete!! Just turning the low pass controls makes my miss it. But the SF-2 is a real piece of ear candy. Definitely a good investment.

Bill

jazzyvee · « **Reply #6 on:** April 25, 2004, 02:21:24 AM »

I've had mine for about a month now and it's great, really makes my 15 cab work better at both low and high volumes. I can feel it dealing with more effectively of the low frequencies.

Accepting that I have to spend more time getting used to how it works, at this stage of my use of it, i feel that once I use the SF-2 I have less control of the bass sound from the instrument itself. The SF- seems to dominate the sound.

Any suggestions?

The sf-2 does seem to take priority.

David Houck · « **Reply #7 on:** April 25, 2004, 06:05:13 AM »

My suggestion is time. As time goes by I find that I get better at dialing in both the SF-2 and my bass. For a while my experience was similar to yours in that all of my adjustments were being made on the SF-2. But recently I've been having better success at dialing in a good base setting on the SF-2, to which I make small adjustments, and then using the controls on the bass to make significant changes for different songs. This recent experience is on my Spoiler; my Essence is in the shop. So I guess my suggestion is to just give it time and have fun.

essenceman · « **Reply #8 on:** April 25, 2004, 03:48:36 PM »

Glad to see that people felt the same way I did initially. I've got a couple of gigs next week-end in very different rooms, so it should be an interesting first test of my understanding thus far of what a SF-2 can do. I'll let you know next Monday how things went.

Cheers for now

Rob

thebass · « **Reply #9 on:** April 27, 2004, 03:10:55 PM »

Just want to chime in too. I got my SF-2 for about a month now and are still surprised what it's able to do for me to help me over sound problems with weird room acoustics. I am curious to read how other users are using their SF-2.

Werner

essenceman · « **Reply #10 on:** May 03, 2004, 08:48:36 AM »

Well, what a week-end!

My new rig and bass sound, in the words of the DJ on Saturday night Awesome!! As I said in my last post, my band was playing in 2 very different rooms this week-end. The first smallish and very little in the way of soft furnishings. The second was a medium-sized lounge with all its associated upholstery.

I'm using the SF-2 very simply at the moment, as per some the example settings in the manual. So, all I had to do to make appropriate changes for the different rooms was alter the frequency at which the low pass filter kicked in. It makes it so easy to tame a boomy stage or room so now my Essence can punch through anywhere.

I don't know if this is just a wild thought, but just by using my Euphonic Audio iAmp to amplify (ie totally flat) and the SF-2 to shape the basic tone I think I am now starting to hear my Essence's true voice and can use its pan control to alter tone. Does anybody think maybe it's two bits of Ron's electronic wizardry (the Essence and the SF-2) talking to each other really eloquently? Whatever it is I, and the rest of the band, are delighted with the results. Thanks again, Ron.

Cheers

Rob

effclef · « **Reply #11 on:** May 14, 2004, 02:09:20 PM »

SF-2 technical question: say you run a Series bass with the neck and bridge outputs going to separate channels of the SF-2, with the rear switch in STEREO mode, can you then use a mono Y splitter cable to take the Channel 1 and Channel 2 1/4 outputs and sum them into a single amp?

Reason I ask is that I am not sure the op-amps in the SF-2 would enjoy being tied together in that fashion. I am guessing...that Ron added resistors such that it is probably OK to do.

If that IS the case, it sure would be great if the SF-2 had yet another output jack which did the same thing, and you could just use a normal single output cable.

And this would allow more flexibility in being able to filter bridge and neck differently and not have to switch to MONO in back and simply run Channel 1 into Channel 2.

EffClef

effclef · « **Reply #12 on:** May 19, 2004, 07:00:30 AM »

Can anyone answer my question for certain?

Thanks,
EffClef

mica · « **Reply #13 on:** May 19, 2004, 11:07:38 AM »

I'll ask my dad about your question, Andy. It will probably be a couple of days until he can chime in, he's trying to finish up some final calibrations for some patient Club members.

effclef · « **Reply #14 on:** May 19, 2004, 11:15:57 AM »

Thanks, Mica. No emergency. I figured it would be in the manual as something people would want to do, and have a note saying whether or not it was safe!

Also: are the SF-2 and other rackmount knobs the same collet/peel-off-the-cap-to-remove knobs as on the instruments?

EffClef