Bagamp Horror story conclusion is ALL GOOD

[Towzer]

Folks as you know I received my bagamp last week
To my horror there were a couple of decent size puncture holes in it

I called Jack at BA and he said to send him a couple of pictures which I did
He immediately sent another unit on the way to me in Toronto and covered shipping and customs duty

So the amp arrived last night in one piece

I put it through its paces with the Harmony G which I finally got the Phantom power engaged on it
It sounded pretty good

I then unplugged the Harmony G and set up my Allen and Heath mixer
WOW - what a difference

It was clearer immediately
Vocals sound fantastic through it as well as my acoustic with a K and K

I EQ'd a bit of the guitar signal and ran the Vocal channel flat with condenser engaged for my microphone
I am really really impressed

This is my favourite amp so far after Bose, Schertler, Ultrasound, AER, Acoustic Image,Genz Benz, Fishmans

So there you have it
At $700 it is a great buy i think

BY the way Jack told me to keep the original damaged one so I actually get to keep an extra carry case, an extra power chord and an extra speaker stand

A nice ending I would think

Towzer

[BoB/335]

Originally Posted by Towzer

Folks as you know I received my bagamp last week
To my horror there were a couple of decent size puncture holes in it

I called Jack at BA and he said to send him a couple of pictures which I did
He immediately sent another unit on the way to me in Toronto and covered shipping and customs duty

So the amp arrived last night in one piece

I put it through its paces with the Harmony G which I finally got the Phantom power engaged on it
It sounded pretty good

I then unplugged the Harmony G and set up my Allen and Heath mixer
WOW - what a difference

It was clearer immediately
Vocals sound fantastic through it as well as my acoustic with a K and K

I EQ'd a bit of the guitar signal and ran the Vocal channel flat with condenser engaged for my microphone
I am really really impressed

This is my favourite amp so far after Bose, Schertler, Ultrasound, AER, Acoustic Image,Genz Benz, Fishmans

So there you have it
At $700 it is a great buy i think

BY the way Jack told me to keep the original damaged one so I actually get to keep an extra carry case, an extra power chord and an extra speaker stand

A nice ending I would think

Towzer

Happy to hear the good news about the BagAmp. I happen to notice that it is your favoritr at the end of a LONG list of other amps.

I have a couple of questions.
What model mixer?
What condenser mic?
I'm a bit concerned about the Harmony G. What do you mean "I then unplugged the Harmony G and set up my Allen and Heath mixer
WOW - what a difference".
Is there a problem going through the Harmony G? I am expecting that to be one of my next investments.

Thanks!

[Towzer]

Hi Bob

The Harmony G sounded OK through the Bagamp

The Allen and Heath ZED12fx i use is a step up i believe in the preamp
department
The sound was so clear once i hooked up my guitar, eq'd it a bit, and then plugged in my superb mic
I use the Shure KSM9 mic which by the way i am selling because im sticking with my dynamic mic ( BEYER OPUS )

So yes the Bagamp with the mixer and condenser sounds really really good to my ears anyway

And yes I have gone through a lot of amps the past 2 yrs

The BAGAMP for me who plays solo is perfect
The best one I have used

Remember tone is subjective and this is my opinion only

I get zero endorsements from Bagamp nor do I wish to have one but I can honestly say if you have $700 lying around and your looking for an acoustic amp dont look any further

If your close to any of the dealers that Bagamp has I encourage you to go and plug in and test drive for yourself

Towzer

[kramster]

Originally Posted by Towzer

This is my favourite amp so far after Bose, Schertler, Ultrasound, AER, Acoustic Image,Genz Benz, Fishmans

Towzer

Was sounding like the BA was in 8th place... but you do mean 1st maybe ??


Glad you like it and good to know how it works with the mixer and really good to hear how Jack handled it all.

[geokie8]

Originally Posted by Towzer

The Allen and Heath ZED12fx i use is a step up i believe in the preamp
department

This is probably a valid conclusion.

Some high-end outboard preamps state in their manual that if you are going into a mixer, go thru the I/O insert rather than the mic or line input to avoid the channel's preamp. Why pay so much money for a high-end preamp that's going to be degraded by the mixer's preamp which is (probably) of a lesser quality? In this case, the preamps of the ZED are fairly highly touted and it wouldn't surprise me at all if they are superior to the TC unit.

Of course, if you want to use a harmonizer, there may be some trade-offs you'll have to make. One of them may be a (hopefully slightly) lesser quality of your signal path in order to gain the (hopefully higher) aesthetic of the harmonies. So all of this shouldn't keep anyone from buying the Harmony G -- unless they find they aren't really using it as intended. Then its value is probably questionable.

Added note: The Harmony G also has some vocal effects that many may find improve their overall vocal sound (compression, doubling, and de-essing, in addition to some preset eq'ing). Once again, these might help to offset any perceived signal degradation.

geokie8

[FingerPlucked]

Towzer, I'm glad it worked out so well for you. And its good to know that Jack jumped all over this once you told him you had a problem.

I agree with your assessment:

"The BAGAMP for me who plays solo is perfect
The best one I have used

Remember tone is subjective and this is my opinion only

I get zero endorsements from Bagamp nor do I wish to have one but I can honestly say if you have $700 lying around and your looking for an acoustic amp dont look any further"

I put my Genz Benz up for sale today. I used to think it was the perfect amp until I got my BA.

[Towzer]

Originally Posted by kramster

Was sounding like the BA was in 8th place... but you do mean 1st maybe ??


Glad you like it and good to know how it works with the mixer and really good to hear how Jack handled it all.

Yes it would be ranked number one for me compared to all the other amps I have gone through/thanks

[guitaniac]

Hi Towzer,

Does the BagAmp have a peak light on the input channel which would let you know that you're overdriving the channel? If not, you may be overdriving the channel with the HarmonyG. My SoloAmp does have a peak light, and the HarmonyG's output signal is so hot that I need to engage the SoloAmp channel's 10db pad and keep the channel's gain knob down around 9 o'clock to prevent frequent peaking.

Remember what Jack said (in the other thread) about the BagAmp having a protective circuit which will help with an overly hot input signal, but you're still going to get a less than ideal result. Here's the quote:

Originally Posted by aboutjack

The BA inputs have a level protection circuit, but it is variably responsive, not 'binary' -- meaning it doesn't just "cut off" the channel completely -- you would still hear some (thinned, maybe distorted) mic signal even if the TC Helicon piece was massively overdriving the BA front end. So, if you're hearing nothing, the issue is in the upstream gear not the BA front end.

The BagAmp's line inputs will likely handle a much hotter input level than the mic inputs. That may be why you're getting better results with the Allen & Heath mixer, presuming you're taking it to a line input.

I recently recorded a twenty-two song CD project using the HarmonyG as my mic preamp, so I obviously think its a pretty decent preamp. I did have to carefully set the input level on my recorder to prevent it from being overdriven by the HarmonyG. In addition to the level being hot to begin with, I found that the level jumps up a bit when the harmonies are engaged, especially since I don't use the HarmonyG's "tone" feature (the auto engineer which applies compression and EQ).

Gary

[BoB/335]

Originally Posted by geokie8

This is probably a valid conclusion.

Some high-end outboard preamps state in their manual that if you are going into a mixer, go thru the line input rather than the mic (XLR) input to avoid the channel's preamp. Why pay so much money for a high-end preamp that's going to be degraded by the mixer's preamp which is (probably) of a lesser quality? In this case, the preamps of the ZED are fairly highly touted and it wouldn't surprise me at all if they are superior to the TC unit.

Of course, if you want to use a harmonizer, there may be some trade-offs you'll have to make. One of them may be a (hopefully slightly) lesser quality of your signal path in order to gain the (hopefully higher) aesthetic of the harmonies. So all of this shouldn't keep anyone from buying the Harmony G -- unless they find they aren't really using it as intended. Then its value is probably questionable.

Added note: The Harmony G also has some vocal effects that many may find improve their overall vocal sound (compression, doubling, and de-essing, in addition to some preset eq'ing). Once again, these might help to offset any perceived signal degradation.

geokie8

Sorry to on about the G2 in your bagAmp thread. and glad you cleared up the ranking of the BA with the others. (I was confused the way you had put it)

[Towzer]

Originally Posted by guitaniac

Hi Towzer,

Does the BagAmp have a peak light on the input channel which would let you know that you're overdriving the channel? If not, you may be overdriving the channel with the HarmonyG. My SoloAmp does have a peak light, and the HarmonyG's output signal is so hot that I need to engage the SoloAmp channel's 10db pad and keep the channel's gain knob down around 9 o'clock to prevent frequent peaking.

Remember what Jack said (in the other thread) about the BagAmp having a protective circuit which will help with an overly hot input signal, but you're still going to get a less than ideal result. Here's the quote:



The BagAmp's line inputs will likely handle a much hotter input level than the mic inputs. That may be why you're getting better results with the Allen & Heath mixer, presuming you're taking it to a line input.

I recently recorded a twenty-two song CD project using the HarmonyG as my mic preamp, so I obviously think its a pretty decent preamp. I did have to carefully set the input level on my recorder to prevent it from being overdriven by the HarmonyG. In addition to the level being hot to begin with, I found that the level jumps up a bit when the harmonies are engaged, especially since I don't use the HarmonyG's "tone" feature (the auto engineer which applies compression and EQ).

Gary

GAry there is no clip light on the Bagamp unfortunately so its all up to the ole ears.

[geokie8]

Originally Posted by Towzer

GAry there is no clip light on the Bagamp unfortunately so its all up to the ole ears.

A clip light would have been nice. Not a deal killer but it can't have added much cost.

geokie8

[BoB/335]

Originally Posted by geokie8

A clip light would have been nice. Not a deal killer but it can't have added much cost.

geokie8

It doesn't make sense to me to cut back that much on a newly developed piece of equipment for 2010.

[Herb Hunter]

Any product is the result of a series of compromises and it is easy to second guess the decisions made by the designers of the product, especially when one has little idea of what adding this or that feature entails technically, logistically or financially.

[BuleriaChk]

I dunno, when you look at all the stuff the BagAmp left out, in comparison to the SoloAmp, especially if adding them is going to raise the price to more than the SoloAmp, the BagAmp seems to me to be penny-wise and pound-foolish, even if one agrees there may be a (very subjective) audible difference.... In any case, the SA sounds GREAT to me (equal to the A-Ref, which I also own).

And the audio difference is still controversial until a lot more SoloAmp owners that have had a chance to audition the BagAmp weigh in....

Omitting the clip light and reverb (a delay wouldn't cut it for me, anyway), a 3 band EQ, etc... well, compare the lists of features...

To me, the SoloAmp seems to be a MUCH more professional design, and I felt it was really important to have all the features included in the basic unit....

YMMV, and I am delighted that BagAmp owners are happy with their purchases, but prospective customers (especially newbies) should be aware of the differences in features up front, and what that entails (BagAmp marketing isn't going to advertise that they left them out.....:-)

(I KNOW why I don't want Aloha Chris's setup - I'm too, uh, elderly to schlep all that stuff around, no matter how good it sounds.....:-)

[BoB/335]

Originally Posted by BuleriaChk

I dunno, when you look at all the stuff the BagAmp left out, in comparison to the SoloAmp, especially if adding them is going to raise the price to more than the SoloAmp, the BagAmp seems to me to be penny-wise and pound-foolish, even if one agrees there may be a (very subjective) audible difference.... In any case, the SA sounds GREAT to me (equal to the A-Ref, which I also own).

And the audio difference is still controversial until a lot more SoloAmp owners that have had a chance to audition the BagAmp weigh in....

Omitting the clip light and reverb (a delay wouldn't cut it for me, anyway), a 3 band EQ, etc... well, compare the lists of features...

To me, the SoloAmp seems to be a MUCH more professional design, and I felt it was really important to have all the features included in the basic unit....

YMMV, and I am delighted that BagAmp owners are happy with their purchases, but prospective customers (especially newbies) should be aware of the differences in features up front, and what that entails (BagAmp marketing isn't going to advertise that they left them out.....:-)

(I KNOW why I don't want Aloha Chris's setup - I'm too, uh, elderly to schlep all that stuff around, no matter how good it sounds.....:-)

Ditto and Double Ditto!

Herb, I like reading all you have to say but this one doesn't cut it.