EBS Fafner Bass Head
July 12, 1996
Swedish bass systems manufacturer EBS recently unveiled its impressive new Fafner bass head.
Named after a powerful and cruel dragon from Nordic myth, the EBS Fafner features a tube-armed, triple-hybrid design for tube sound combined with solid state reliability. Providing a punchy 600 watts into two Ohms, the Fafner's accelerated MOSFET power amp behaves a lot like its tube counterpart, but is less expensive, takes more punishment and weighs only a fraction.
With the amp's Gain control, the single input adapts to any kind of bass, be it acoustic, upright, vintage electric or high-tech. Incredibly fast, variable tube compression is available to level out dynamics. Both the Gain and Compressor controls feature peak/limit LEDs. Super-active Bass, Mid and High filters are provided, with sweepable frequency selection on the midrange. A Bright filter heightens the string sound and overtones without interjecting noise, while all filters can be bypassed via a Bypass switch. Independent of the Bypass switch are LO and Hi switches, two broad and incredibly musical filters that add a little extra to either end of the bassist's sound.
Drive and Character controls are the heart of the Fafner's soulful tube sound. The Drive knob increases the gain and tube distortion, while the Character switch sets the type of distortion (tube, MOSFET or solid-state).
Effects can be used through the amp's effects loop, and a tuner can be used through the available Tuner Out, even when the Standby switch is on. Speaker cabinets may be connected via Speakon or terminal-style speaker connectors. A Line Out can be used to patch the Fafner into a mixing console or additional power amps.
Armadillo Enterprises is the exclusive distributor in the U.S. for ddrum Electronic Percussion, nord lead virtual analog synthesizers, EBS Bass Systems, Neuser Basses, SSD Basses and Dean Guitars, with corporate headquarters in Clearwater, Florida. For more information, visit their web site at www.ebs.bass.se. |
