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Bring me up to speed on the world of bass amps


richardjmorgan
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[quote name='Conan' timestamp='1497600092' post='3319312']
I was in exactly the same position about eight years ago! Having spent most of the eighties and nineties using a huge Trace Elliott stack I found myself with only a practice amp and needing bigger gear to get gigging again. It seemed like an absolute minefield as things had certainly changed from the days when Carlsbro and H/H were everywhere, and the "serious" guys used Fender, Ampeg or Trace...

To be honest, there has never been a better time to be a bass player. The amount of inexpensive (I won't use the word "cheap" as that implies low quality) gear is astounding, and you can kit yourself out, from scratch, with quality equipment for way less than a grand - in fact, for less that £500 if you are prepared to research and shop around. And that's buying new! Look at used gear and the possibilities are endless B)

Using Basschat is a really good starting point, however do be aware of a couple of things:

1. Those with loudest and strongest opinions are not necessarily the most knowledgeable.
2. Most people will recommend what they themselves use. This is not necessarily a bad thing, but needs to be taken into account.
3. What sounds good in a shop, bedroom, house or practice room may not work so well in a gig situation.
4. There is no short-cut. Try as much gear as you can until you are satisfied*

*Note, this almost never works, as you will never be satisfied as there will always be something else that you always wanted to try... :gas: ;)

The Basschat marketplace is a very good place to start. If you buy used gear, and find that it is not right for you, you can usually sell it on again without taking much (if any) of a financial hit.
[/quote]

+1...

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[quote name='richardjmorgan' timestamp='1497529887' post='3318892']
Hi everyone. I've jumped back into playing bass seriously for the first time in a long while, and need to get myself amplified.

Since I was last paying attention, it seems that small amps are rather the thing, and the idea of being to carry my bass, amp and pedalboard around relatively easily is hugely appealing.

My only reservation is whether or not one of these tiny amps is going to be loud enough for my purposes. Need it for rehearsal/gigging in a stoner/desert rock kinda band – the guitarist's going through an old 70s or 80s valve amp that doesn't have a master volume, so we run pretty loud.

My main other consideration is having something that'll play nicely with a variety of cabs, as I'll either be using what's in the venue/practice room or hiring something.

My initial thought was the Orange Terror Bass, as I'd heard good things about it and liked what I heard on the occasions I've seen it being used, but it seems they don't make it any more.

TL;DR: Recommend me an amp / loud stoner rock / as small and portable as possible.

Cheers in advance.
[/quote]

A lot of the tiny amps will sound as loud (and many of them, LOUDER) than the Bass Terror. Many of them will also sound better and have a much better DI ;)
Pretty much, all of them will be loud enough for your purposes if you have suitable speaker cabs for it. You can't expect any amp to be earth-shattering loud if you just want to play through one or two little cabs. So if volume is your main objective, I'd be thinking more about cabs.

Amps, I'd recommend the Mesa D800. It's as small as you can get and that thing sounds really good and gets loud. A Streamliner 900 would probably be good for your style... it has a very nice preamp section that can get a very good thick sound... a bit like the Bass Terror, but nicer sounding (in my opinion) and significantly louder.

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[quote name='CameronJ' timestamp='1497602351' post='3319349']
Conan speaks a lot of sense here. Excellently summed up.
[/quote]

+1 For your budget you could buy a couple of used amps off this forum, keep the best, sell the other, buy another - and repeat the cycle until you're satisfied!

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[quote name='gjones' timestamp='1497551515' post='3319094']
GK mb500 and GK mb800 are very light, small and insanely loud. Great punchy tone and a boost knob that makes it go all growly wowly, if that's your thing (you can tell I've never used that particular knob).

You can drown out any puny, guitarist with these boys.
[/quote]


Oh yeah... those are really really nice sounding amps.

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If you have to compete with guitarists using half stacks then almost any 500w - 800w amp will do but the cabs will be the more important part of your rig.

A good 410 will usually cover everything, but they are big by today's standards. One of the better 212's will be as loud, lighter and work just as well.

My "super" 112 cabs let me go very loud with a 500 watt amp. You don't want either the amp or cabs to be running out of power so IMO "just enough" won't be good enough.

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[quote name='scrumpymike' timestamp='1497603825' post='3319378']
+1 For your budget you could buy a couple of used amps off this forum, keep the best, sell the other, buy another - and repeat the cycle until you're satisfied!
[/quote]

PS As already pointed out, you may never be satisfied! For your info, my current 'keepers' (i.e. for the next month or two) are an old Trace Elliot SMC300 GP7 (relatively heavy/bulky) and a neat little TC Electronic BH550 - both bought used off this forum for £400 in total.

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Compared to the OTB do the other class D hybrid amps have similar high levels of overdrive/distortion available?

I am planning to down-size my rig very soon. I play with an overdriven sound all the time, varied by how hard I play, pick/fingers etc. My preference is a hybrid amp with the input level high to get the distortion, I DI from the amp 99% of gigs. I’ve heard a couple of OTB heads in action and was impressed. I currently use a Hartke 3500 with the input at 7/10 to get the drive (yes I know it’s not as sweet as an all-tube head).

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I got some very nice distortion from both my Streamliner and currently from my Magellan...I thought the LM Tube and Rocker were a bit...fizzy in this regard... My Walkabout does it best, though... :)

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Cheers for all the replies guys, lots of helpful stuff here! I like the look of that Aguilar Tone Hammer 350 on ebay – looks very easily portable! Is 350 going to be enough wattage for me, through a decent-sized cab?

On the subject of cabs – a few people asked – I'm planning to be either using what's in a practice room/venue, borrowing, or hiring for the time being. So playing nicely with a variety of cabs is deffo something I'm after in an amp.

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[quote name='richardjmorgan' timestamp='1497607457' post='3319425']
Cheers for all the replies guys, lots of helpful stuff here! I like the look of that Aguilar Tone Hammer 350 on ebay – looks very easily portable! Is 350 going to be enough wattage for me, through a decent-sized cab?

On the subject of cabs – a few people asked – I'm planning to be either using what's in a practice room/venue, borrowing, or hiring for the time being. So playing nicely with a variety of cabs is deffo something I'm after in an amp.
[/quote]

The TH 350 will deliver 350w into a 4 Ohm speaker load: but half that into an 8 Ohm load. Details in the pinned 'Impedance' thread if you need it:

[url="http://basschat.co.uk/topic/135-impedance-etc/"]http://basschat.co.uk/topic/135-impedance-etc/ [/url]

Bass response will be improved by having the cab (1) on the floor (2) near a wall (3) in a corner, so try repositioning to taste.

The ability to hear your playing will be dictated by the volume of the rest of the band, and speaker dispersion. The best cabs disperse sound better so that it can be heard from the most angles; a good single speaker cab (e.g. a 1x15") will disperse very well. Tilting the cab to point towards your ears will help. You may also find you hear yourself better being further away from the bass cab than you may think.

The high mids/treble will be what 'cut through the mix' , i.e. help you get heard, for which the TH 350 tone controls will be a great help.

Finally: if you're in the volume wars, ear protectors (that still let you hear the music) are well worth considering, e.g. [url="https://www.flareaudio.com/collections/isolate"]https://www.flareaudio.com/collections/isolate[/url]

Good luck!

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[quote name='Muzz' timestamp='1497606435' post='3319417']
I got some very nice distortion from both my Streamliner and currently from my Magellan...I thought the LM Tube and Rocker were a bit...fizzy in this regard... My Walkabout does it best, though... :)
[/quote]
[quote name='chris_b' timestamp='1497606533' post='3319419']
If you want an overdriven sound, why not get this from a pedal?
[/quote]

Thanks both. A pedal is certainly an option, although the idea of just plugging straight into an amp as I've done for the last few years is appealing.

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[quote name='Lozz196' timestamp='1497612261' post='3319468']
I had the TH350, if used with gain/drive it`s plenty powerful but if you clean it up then against a loud drummer and Marshall half-stacks it does have to fight a bit.
[/quote]
I'm not too concerned about staying super-clean (I'll be using a Bass Muff in front of the amp) so maybe this is worth a punt.

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For cabs to go with it, I'd say either a good 2x12 or 2x10. I found a 2x10 more than adequate & you can always add a 2nd one if you need more volume.
I've got a 4x10, which sounds great, but I did prefer the 2x10 I had.

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Just one thing to be aware of if you go for one of the tiny micro-heads with lots of controls, and you have sausage fingers like mine - is that the control knobs can be very close together! I found this a particular pain with the Gallien Krueger MB800 I owned for a while. They were so close together that I couldn't adjust one without the adjacent one(s) being knocked and moved. Very frustrating on stage... :blink:



Some amps will have features that you don't need. That might not be a problem if you like their core tone. Others will lack something that you really want, but will do other things really well. I personally like a lot of control over the mid-range, but never deliberately overdrive my amp. The Hartke LH500 was massively powerful and had a great basic sound, but with limited mid range control, and my preference for J basses, the sound just didn't cut through as much as I would have liked... I wouldn't have known this unless I'd tried one!

That's just two examples - I could provide a pretty long list of others! :D

Edited by Conan
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[quote name='Adrenochrome' timestamp='1497605781' post='3319409']
Compared to the OTB do the other class D hybrid amps have similar high levels of overdrive/distortion available?

I am planning to down-size my rig very soon. I play with an overdriven sound all the time, varied by how hard I play, pick/fingers etc. My preference is a hybrid amp with the input level high to get the distortion, I DI from the amp 99% of gigs. I’ve heard a couple of OTB heads in action and was impressed. I currently use a Hartke 3500 with the input at 7/10 to get the drive (yes I know it’s not as sweet as an all-tube head).
[/quote]

Streamliner and Tonehammer have some nice drive in them. The Mesa D800 too, but doesn't get as distorted... but there's some good overdrive there as well.

Markbass LMT not so much.

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[quote name='richardjmorgan' timestamp='1497607457' post='3319425']On the subject of cabs – playing nicely with a variety of cabs is deffo something I'm after in an amp.
[/quote]

Pretty much any amp will "work" with pretty much any cab. It's more down to how you set your EQ and vol/gain ratios. Again, try some and you will soon get an idea of what you like (and what you don't!).

Some amps seem very under-powered and quiet for their listed rating, others blow your head off (see earlier comments on Hartke LH500!). Some cabs need a lot of power to drive them, others are extremely sensitive (sound loud for not many amplifier watts). It can get very complicated, and few of us would recommend that you buy blind, using only the manufacturer's specs for guidance...

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I know it's been mentioned before but I'll mention it again. GK MB series.

I use GK MB500 with a 212 cab. Never get to use the master volume knob past 9 o'clock.

If you are around west midlands area by any chance, you can drop by mine and try. You are more than welcome to.

Edited by MikanHannille
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