Gary Cooper gets to grips with Alligator's latest bass combo. Will he snap up a bargain - or will the bargain snap up him?

As styles of bass playing change, so does the bassist's taste in speakers. Back in the 1960s the market was dominated by the mighty 18" (more felt than heard!) but today the 10" speaker is making nearly all the running. Brighter-sounding, faster in handling the rapid transient signals produced by slapping and pulling, the 10" speaker is swiftly becoming today's favoured size among many players. Alligator, whose newly introduced A175 bass combo I've recently been trying, have obviously been giving this change in taste some serious thought. Always well regarded for their ability not just to build yet another identikit combo but to seriously think about what they are doing before launching a new model, Alligator have obviously looked hard not only at this trend in speakers, but also at just what the multitudinous needs of today's bass playing combo users are.

Instead of diving head-first into the usual spec-by-spec, 'here's what you get' approach, I thought it might be an interesting change for once to go about the intro to this review via a different route - by posing the bass player's problems and seeing how nearly Alligator have got the answers. Full marks? Tries hard, could do better? See me after class? Here goes.

'As any fule kno' (N. Molesworth, aged 12), bass players are always over 6'6" tall, weigh at least 22 stone, and will positively cheerfully carry the band's entire PA system on their shoulders after any gig. Realising this, and knowing that all real he-man bass players wouldn't dream of owning any bass combo weighing under 600lbs and standing less than five feet in its stockinged castors, many amp makers design their products accordingly. Thus, bass players, as we all know, inevitably own six wheel Transits and other such transports of delight. Sarcasm aside (who, me, Sir? Gosh, no, Sir!) a smaller bass combo - but still high powered - would be a boon for nearly all of us. Likewise we'd all heave a sigh of relief if it was just possible for it to be audible above the din created by the rest of our band. Generally speaking (and this is only 'Cooper's rule of thumb'), it makes sense for a bassist to have around double the power of his guitarist on tap. The two reasons for this are simple, yet far too often ignored. To begin with, bass frequencies are interpreted by the human brain as quieter than high frequencies, and secondly, bass players usually want distortion-free sounds.

So far, we've arrived at the need for a small, loud bass combo. We've also seen that 10" speakers would be favoured by many - but they'd better be damned good ones, if they're to handle bass frequencies! As more and more bassists are using effects, then an effects loop would be nice (to enable us to inject effects between the pre-amp and power amp and thus cut down unwanted noise), and we can also say that sends should be there for DI uses, either into PA desks or studio mixers. Anything else? Well, a means of bi-amping would be nice for the ambitious, and we must have physical toughness and high reliability; this is vital! To round-off (and these are really bare minimum specs - there are other frills that might be nice extras), we might also add that the ideal bass combo should be capable of producing a wide range of distortion-free sounds, but should have simple-to-handle Eq., as it's essential that hurried on-stage tone changes can be made easily. As far as the amp's individual sound goes, well, that's always a personal matter, but (especially today) it must be capable of both driving hard-Rock sounds and a good slap/pull 'twang'.

So, how does the new baby Alligator match up to this shopping list?

THE DETAILS

Alligator's A175 is part of their brand new 'Ebony' Series. Gone is the once familiar green vinyl covering, replaced by a tough black alternative; gone is the mail-order sales approach (you can now get them from a growing number of music shops), and introduced is the concept of dedicated-purpose combos. In the past all Alligators were 'all-purpose' (and they really were!), but the new range now offers a mixture of all-purpose and specialised types, and includes 100 and 150 watt lead combos, 100 and 175 watt bass combos, slave (powered) enclosures, a bass head, speaker cabs and more.

As ever, the construction of this Alligator was fine. Strongly made, with kick-proof metal grilles over the twin 10" drivers, the amp stands solid and purposeful, measuring 26"x24"x12". On my sample model, carrying the Alligator - although it's not exactly a heavyweight for a 175 watt rated bass combo, weighing just 50lbs. - wasn't as easy as it might have been, only a top-mounted carrying strap being provided. However, having discussed this with the affable and responsive John Lally, M.D. of Alligator's owners (or should that be keepers?!) Langlois, I'm delighted to report that the decision has now been taken to add a pair of side-mounted, recessed carrying handles, which will make this possibly the easiest high-power bass combo of the lot to shift around. Well done, Langlois/Alligator!

In terms of internal construction the Alligator once again shows its fine pedigree. The all-important output transistors are MOSFETS - thankfully free of the thermal runaway 'megadeath' which plagues overheating conventional (bipolar) transistors. On a 'belt and braces' principle, this inherent reliability factor is further enhanced by the addition of fan cooling. Whether this is strictly necessary is beside the point - it's certainly nice to find such a conscientious attention to reliability.

FACILITIES

Starting with the back panel of this modestly sized combo, the Alligator displays its offerings in a sensibly easy to follow format. Mains input is via the usual IEC socket, with the basic on/off switch positioned close by. This is unusual in that the front panel (to duck round there for a moment) carries a standby switch - not the sort of thing which you expect to find on a transistorised amp, but welcome all the same. On a valve amp, a standby circuit exists mainly to prevent unnecessary wear on the output tubes when you have to leave the amp switched on for long periods before full power is required. With the Alligator, it's there so as to minimise the horrible thump you get when tranny amps are turned on - a thump which always disturbs (and sometimes eventually destroys) your speakers. With the mains on but the standby off, the Alligator springs into life with no bangs or thuds, and when you throw the front panel's standby switch all you get is ready power, minus the initial 'on shocks' which are usually present when a tranny amp is booted into life.

Getting back to the rear panel, the rest of the facilities are, as I said earlier, logically laid out. DI feeds are provided for both pre and post Eq sends (so that you can send either un-tone control affected sounds or those 'tweaked' with your own choices included to your mixer). Finally, users have both a headphone jack socket and a full effects send/return loop.

The Alligator's front panel controls at first look very simple. Twin inputs (Low and High sensitivity) are provided, but these are ganged together in such a way that, should you be forced to use this amp with two instruments going through it simultaneously, the different levels will be summed and the resulting sound balanced so that each instrument is heard equally loudly. For any band that's ever experienced a mid-set amp breakdown that forces two players to share, this is a blessing, as few amps today will allow two instruments to play through them at once. What's more, the Alligator performs this role brilliantly well; about which I'll have more to say later on.

Having jacked in your lead, the controls to play with first are pre-amp gain, followed by two pre-Eq. controls. What they do is allow you to set the basic sound characteristics you desire, which you can then modify by using the main tone (Eq.) controls which are labelled, conventionally, Low, Mid and High. A Master volume follows thereafter - but these are by no means all the sound controls you have at your disposal. Uniquely, the Alligator also affords you what amounts to a presettable Overdrive facility (possibly owing something to this brand's longterm commitment to all-purpose amps, where such a device would be useful for guitarists). This facility is called 'Boost', and takes the form of a single rotary pot controlling the amount of boost applied, and two metal flick switches. These latter let you switch the Boost on and off and decide whether or not you want a volume increase when the Boost is applied via the footswitch, which is also in this circuit.

While distortion mightn't be a sound most contemporary bass players would go for, it can be useful to have, and in this footswitchable configuration it gives you the added advantage of being able to select its operation at either normal or extra (solo?) volume. Perhaps more to the point, it enables guitar players to use distortion if they desire - and, as I found, this Alligator makes a pretty snappy performer for guitar, too!

All these facilities are well displayed in a ready-reckoning sense by LEDs, again confirming my feeling that Alligator's designers have seriously tried to understand what the pressurised gigging player really needs to enable him to be in full control of his amp.

PERFORMANCE

Loud is hardly the word for this newcomer! Despite having just the two 10" speakers (and they're Alligator's own, by the way, not bought in from one of the major speaker makers as is the case with most amps), the loudness they deliver is prodigious, and their ability to handle even the lowest bass sounds is so impressive that I can only conclude that someone with a considerable speaker design ability has been at work on their development.

Helping these twin 10" drivers do their stuff is another typical Alligator feature - a well designed, robust, ported housing, which in this case is given visible evidence by the slot at the combo's front base. Via this 'breathing hole', the Alligator not only delivers a remarkably high and undistorted volume, but also one which enables you to make very full use of the Eq controls - and excellent they are, too. I tried this amp with a variety of basses, ranging from a Westone passive through a low-powered Shergold to an active pickupped English custom-made bass. In every case it performed remarkably well. In ultimate terms it might lack the total gut-wrecking contra-bass that you can get from a 15" or 18" speaker, but it more than makes up for this by a superb mid and top response, with plenty of bass available when desired. It isn't a Reggae player's combo, but it's perfect for Jazz/Funk/Pop and most Rock applications - ideally suiting very many musicians from club/cabaret players to outright head bangers.

The usefulness of the Boost circuitry I'm not too sure about, I must admit. If this were 1970 and we were all trying to emulate Jack Bruce's vintage Cream sound then it would be a handy feature, but today I'm really not so sure. Still, it can't add much to the amp's cost and it can be fun to play around with. More to the point, perhaps, is how well it works with guitar! In fact I spent quite a lot of time using this amp for solo guitar and it really impressed me. Lucky the guitarist whose boring 100 watt tranny also-ran breaks down and who gets to share his bass player's Alligator!

CONCLUSION

Looking at how well this new Alligator satisfies those needs which I outlined earlier. I'm sure you can see just how suited to real life it is. Small and easily transportable, more than loud enough to combat a guitar player's 100 watt combo, provided with plenty of facilities and built to last, the A175 also uses its fine speakers in a properly designed enclosure, not only enabling them to handle the 175 watt RMS output cleanly, but also giving plenty of 'whack' in the bass region, not to mention their sparkling handling of mids and highs.

Possibly lacking from the Alligator are only two features; a compressor (which would have been quite easy to provide fairly cheaply) and a bi-amping option, which would have added to the price and which the majority of players probably wouldn't use. I can't fault this amp for missing either of these two extras, because it does what it does so very well.

Given that Alligator's amps are now available direct from music shops (so that you get a chance to try them before buying), and bearing in mind both how well made it is and how great it sounds - especially for those with modem tastes - I cannot see how this newcomer can fail. It provides a knockout punch from a compact package, and at a price which makes it highly competitive. Only you can decide whether it's the right bass combo to buy - but you'd be taking a huge gamble if you didn't consider it!

RRP £450 inc. VAT

More details on Alligator from Langlois Ltd., (Contact Details). Alternatively, add the name 'Alligator' to the Other box on this month's IT free product info form.