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FRONT PANEL CONTROLS: (Continued)
BASS: (Continued)
This type of broad band, active rotary control makes it possible to achieve bass characteristics far beyond
that of a conventional passive type control. It can increase the low end to an almost absurd level and with a flick of the wrist, dip it to
near transitor radio skinniness. Needless to say, with any control this powerful a certain amount of finesse must be applied to achieve
musical results. Be especially mindful of this when using the 5 Band Parametric in conjunction with the BASS control.
PASSIVE MID:
This is the only passive style control in the string of rotary tone controls. This scheme was chosen for its
inherently musical blend and for the way the passive style midrange control, with its wide spread and smooth taper,
fills in the holes.
Unlike the BASS, this control is a
boost only,
and while it can
competently remove this broad spectrum of midrange from the
mix, it cannot provide the extreme attenuation of an active style
control.
You will find, as we did, that this control works amazingly well for
shaping the midrange frequencies with a natural earthiness and
character that is a perfect counterpart to its neighbors. It is hard
to dial wrong with this more forgiving control as it seems to give
you just enough and no more.
For radical and specific scooping of the midrange frequencies for
modern R&B and Funk styles, there is plenty of notching power that is infinitely more accurate to be found in the ACTIVE MID.
Because of this, we opted for the tried and true passive style midrange control that has been working great in all of our amplifiers for
decades. It’s hard to improve on a classic.
ACTIVE MID:
In addition to the passive style MID control, the
BIG BLOCK
features an ACTIVE MID circuit that allows further
accentuation of specific midrange frequencies across a wide band. This wider band covers the spectrum from high bass/low mid all
the way through to high mid/low treble frequencies.
As you can see, this active circuit is made up of two controls; a GAIN control which is
labeled ACTIVE MID that boosts and cuts the selected region, and a FREQUENCY
control that allows selection of a specific range to manipulate. The ACTIVE MID is the
gain or “amount” control. It provides 15db of gain in both plus (boost) and minus (cut)
directions at the specific range selected on the FREQUENCY control.
Remember that this is a powerful control and that certain frequencies cut through (high
mid/low treble) or seem especially loud (low mid/bass) so it is advisable to add gain with
the ACTIVE MID control sparingly.
Set unwisely, this circuit is capable of creating sounds that are harsh, tubby or just simply unbalanced. This combined with the
massive power available in the output section can spell real danger to speakers. We urge you to use this ACTIVE MID circuit with care
and most of all taste, to avoid damage to your ears and speakers.
These two simple controls offer an incredible amount of shaping power in a simple to use format. When combined with the other tone
controls, virtually any sound you desire is available to you quickly and with far less searching than when using multi-band equalizers.
This simplicity is at the heart of the
BIG BLOCKS
character…great tone with minimal tweaking.
PAGE 5
S I M U L S T A T E B A S S A M P L I F I E R
TM
INPUT TUNER
MUTE
OVERDRIVE
GAIN
BASS
PASSIVE-MID
GAIN
BASS
PASSIVE-MID ACTIVE-MID
E N G I N E E