The Company Line

Any product which is designed to play a part in the creation, capture or performance of music has a certain amount of “art” about it – boutique products, arguably more so than their mass-produced counterparts. Ark Amps embraces this notion, and while they certainly deliver the goods from a sonic perspective, it is undeniable that Ark Amps also brings their unique artistic expression to the visual presentation of their products. Some products – especially those with an especially strong visual statement – exhibit a bit of a disconnect between their looks and their performance. Ark Amps, however, make an amazing connection between their looks and their sonic performance. The organic shapes, deep, rich woods, and varying textures can be heard as well as they are seen. In other words, the unique looks aren’t a marketing gimmick; they are an extension of the artistic vision at Ark Amps, which is more than just skin deep, and extends to the soul of the music which they help create.

The Rhino head is a 70-watt, all-tube affair, with power derived from two Svetlana 6550’s. The matching cab is a bottom-ported 1x12 (which thinks it’s really a 1x15). Impressive on their own, together, they make for one cool-looking, sweet-sounding beast of a bass rig.

First Impressions

Once you get past the unique construction, one of the first features which becomes immediately obvious is that the controls have no markings, labels, or other identifying features – other than the size and shape of the knobs, themselves. From left to right, the controls are presence, bass, mid, treble, gain, and master volume. As you can see, the largest control is the bass knob, the next largest is the mid control, and treble and presence are the smallest. The two knobs controlling gain/volume are round; the tone controls are oblong or asymmetrical.The lighter wood “spot” indicates the relative position of each knob. The switches at one point allowed for multiple input gain settings, but were later removed (these photos are of the initial prototype). The rear of the head has taps for 4, 8 and 16-ohm loads. While the choice to add a 16-ohm tap, instead of a 2- ohm tap, may seem strange to most bass players, it is worth noting that Ark Amps intended the Rhino to function not only as a bass head, but also as a jazz guitar amp, for those skinny stringers looking for a more robust tone. A ¼” line out, power cord receptacle and switches for power and standby round out the back panel.

The companion bass enclosure offers more than initially meets the eye – and that’s saying something, considering its visual impact! Though I initially presumed it was a 1x15 from its size and shape, the cab houses a single 12” driver.It also appears to be a sealed affair at first glance, but further inspection reveals two downward-firing tube ports located on the bottom of the enclosure. There is no input jack to be found; rather, a ¼” speaker cable is tucked away within the cutout for the single handle located on the top of the cab. This cable extends out of the cab a sufficient length to allow you to plug it into the head when placed on top of the cab (with some room to spare). Neat feature!

I was fortunate enough to have checked out this amp/cab combo back in its prototype stage, and one of the issues I conveyed to the guys at Ark was that at higher volumes, the cab would send enough vibrations to the head on top to rattle all that glass. My suggestion was that they needed to come up with some way to isolate the tubes in the head from the vibration of the cab. Turns out they came up with a couple of different – and unique – options. The first innovation was to run metal rods all the way through the cab which connect to the floor on one end,and the head on the other end. The rods are isolated from the enclosure itself by rubber grommets, which also serve to maintain and airtight seal. I’ve never seen anyone else do this, but it works! I had concerns that the rods themselves would rattle, but try as I might, I could not get them to cause any noise or problems. The other option is a cool-looking stand which straddles the cab and holds the head just above the cab, without touching it. This stand can be quickly disassembled into three pieces.

A Closer Look

As you might expect from a boutique, alltube head, the Rhino head is very responsive to changes at the input jack, be it from varying playing styles or different instruments. Touch response was most prevalent with passive axes, but the Rhino seemed right at home with active basses, provided that you kept the gain trimmed down a bit. The voicing and EQ are designed to allow for a fairly wide range of tonal options, from warm vintage tones to more modern clean tones. It does not do an over-the-top overdrive, but it does allow for a very nice range of musical gritn- grind at nearly any volume level. This is a rich, clean head, with a lot of sonic texture and harmonic content.

Considering its basic tone profile and the rated output power of 70 watts from the two Svetlana 6550C’s, I broke out my ’66 B-15N (last seen in issue #4) and a Trace Elliot Twin Valve head for comparison purposes. The B-15N was measured at 36 watts, continuous, with power coming from two 6L6’s. The Twin Valve claims 100 watts from two fairly fresh NOS GE 6550’s. With a little tweaking, I was able to dial in a fairly convincing B-15N tone on the Rhino. For these comparisons, I tried all three heads driving the Rhino cab, and then all three heads driving the B-15N cab. The Rhino head still had a bit more articulation, and the B-15N still had a bit more warmth/roundness, but they were pretty close. The Twin Valve was the most clear and clean sounding of the group, but did not have the harmonic richness of the Rhino. Volume-wise, the Rhino was a little louder than the B-15N, but definitely not as robust as the Twin Valve (those GE’s deserve some of the credit, here).

The Rhino cab puts out an amazing range of tones from a single, full-range Eminence Pro Delta-12A. The output from one cab was pretty nice, but I kept wondering how a double stack would sound with that head. Not to mention that having the three “segments” (head, cab, cab) would make the rig look kind of like a giant rhinoceros beetle! When I was reviewing the Rhino 1x12 cab, the closest similar cab that I had on hand was my EA CxL-112. Compared to the EA, the Rhino had more lows, just as much overall high end content (despite the CxL-112’s tweeter), and was a tad louder. The EA had more upper mids, and more “zing” up high (though again, as far as musical content is concerned, they were pretty similar). Driving the Rhino cab with different heads revealed that it, too, is a versatile performer without a great deal of coloration of its own.

Lasting Impressions

Talking to Matt Schellenberg and Bill Compeau, it is abundantly clear that they put their heart and soul into everything they build. The blend of visual and functional art which Ark Amps creates is second to none, and a refreshing and unique option, even amongst other boutique brands. Fortunately, these heads and cabs pack performance to match their out of this world looks, and I would heartily recommend their gear based upon tone and performance, alone.