Product: Divided By 13 TBL 200 Bass Head
Price Paid: USD 1800 USED
Submitted
04/28/2008
at
05:59pm
by
Brett
Features
:
10
Per Divided by 13 web page:
200 Watt
Power Section - (4) KT88
1 Channel
3 position Cut/Boost Middle
Push/Pull Deep Bass
Push/Pull Bright
Master Volume
Available as a Head only
Only downside is lower power (200 watts) and there is no 6 pin Direct Out. So you will need to mic your cab...Oh darn....
Sound Quality
:
10
This head sounds fantastic. If vintage warm mojo type tone is what your are after this is the ticket. With my vintage Fender jazzes and P-basses the tone is fantastic, it has very complex midrange which takes a bit of tinkering but once dialed in delivers some of the best Tube amp/J-bass growl. The amp is intended to capture some of the tones offered by an SVT. To my ears it sounds more like a bassman 100 on steriods. The downside to this amp is that breakup tends to happen in the preamp stages a bit earlier then some other amps I have played through. It works great with a Fender type bass, however when using a more modern instrument such as my Spector NS-2 it tends not to be the best fit soncially.
Reliability
:
10
I bought this head used from a studio guy in California. It was damaged during shipping, and reparied and retubed. I have to date had no problems other than standard maintence types of things
Customer Support
:
10
Customer service was impeccable. I called Fred (the guy who builds these) with many tech questions before I paid my tech $90 an hour. He was able to help me in the right direction saving me much expense in diagnosis. Very polite, pleasent and helpful
Overall Rating
:
7
I like this head a great deal. If your a vintage tone guy this is the ticket. If you need a amp for more modern tones, I'd suggest looking at Orange or Mesa. I keep a Mesa rig to use with my Spector and this with Fenders. I am sure you could make it work for other instruments, but P& J bass tones seem to be where this head shines. Another thing you may wish to consider is buying the matching 4X12 bottom, I liked the tones much better than through the Ashdown 4X10 I had been using. I'd miss it if it were gone, but if I had to replace it and could only have one head I'd probaly go with Orange or Mesa
