About a year ago the boys at Ampeg announced a very exciting product called the Micro VR which would catapault them to the centre of a very large 'mini-stack' bandwagon. Sensibly it seems that many musicians (most of whom can't or won't drive which is pretty impossible in Central London anyway...) are now opting for these portable yet powerful rigs but up until now bass rigs of this nature such as those by Mark Bass have been pretty damn expensive and have been very clinical and well... simply UNCOOL in appearance.
Now as far as bass goes, Ampeg is cool... I mean look at that lovely silver and black package on the left there, admit it, you WANT one and you haven't even heard it yet. Well finally I have and to say I was suitably impressed would be an understatement.
The Micro VR boasts 200 Watts of power from a MOSFET based circuit and comes with a matching 2x10" Cabinet. It's styled after the monstrous SVT VR rig which boasts a 300 Watt Valve Head (which takes two people to lift) and a huge 8x10" Cabinet (which takes two people to lift, if those two people are Superman and The Incredible Hulk) and has far too much power for your average weekend musician. The first thing that blew me away about the rig was just how compact it was, in fact I would go so far to say it's cute plus you can pick the head up with one hand and the cab doesn't weigh much more!
Taking in my hand a trusty Music Man Stingray I surveyed the basic yet functional controls, an input gain, a three band EQ and an output volume control. The start of the circuit has a 15dB pad switch for more aggressive styles of play at high volumes and the output stage has a limiter so loud slap or pick playing won't blow your speakers out. Setting the controls at a halfway position I gradually increased the volume until I had the gain and volume controls half way up. It was more than loud enough for any small gig and in case it isn't it has a balanced DI out round the back, after playing around with the controls for only five minutes I managed to coax a range of vintage bass tones after this little monster. For posterity I quickly tried it with a Gibson Grabber II bass so that I could rate its sound with both Active and Passive instruments and was again pleased to find that the character of the bass in my hand remained completely intact yet the amp held its own with its tight, punchy vintage rock sound.
Lets be honest here, bass gear is for the most part very boring and doesn't really belong in this blog but this has to be the coolest piece of bass gear I've tried in ages so it had to get a mention. Stocks are very limited apparently so if you want one I'd snap it up ASAP! Also if you could buy me one too that would be superb, ta.
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