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Best amp for £250ish


Budgetneil
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Hi guys,
I'm looking for a combo (assuming head/cab are out of reach) in the region of £250 (could stretch a bit more if it would get me a lot more amp). Main use in the short term would be home practice but with aspirations towards weekend-warriordom in the not too distant. Headphones definitely (wife/kids to keep happy), mp3 in would be nice. EBS Session 60 looks good but lower power than some for the money, I've seen a Hiwatt B100 on the money advertised locally - any experiences?
Style-wise: pop/rock(not metal)/jazz
Thanks in anticipation!
Neil

Edited by Budgetneil
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Would go for an Ampeg, I have the baby practice one for home use, BA 110, which is a great bit of kit, you can get the for a good price off the web, it has a tilt back facility which makes it like a monitor, not exactly stable but nice feature. The BA115 would be a good point to start at, has all the necessary out puts to make it good for gigging with, have a deal with Dave Tipping you won'tbe disappointed.

Trip :)

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I hadn't even considered the Ampegs - based on this I'll be giving them a spin. They also have the benefit of being relatively easy to track down to try unlike the EBS.
Spec wise they look comparable to the Ashdown Five Fifteen combo and mini stack but Ashdown seem keen to market them purely as pokey practice amps - is this just marketing fluff or are they genuinely less able than, say, the Ampeg?

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What about this? No connection whatsoever with me - I just saw your thread & had posted about this.
[url="http://www.andertons.co.uk/bass-combos/pid23176/cid687/ashdown-220-touring-1x12-220w-bass-amp.asp"]http://www.andertons.co.uk/bass-combos/pid23176/cid687/ashdown-220-touring-1x12-220w-bass-amp.asp[/url]

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Blimey - propper price crash. The new NAMM range must be on the way...
Perfect Weekend Warrior stuff but why do Ashdown not put headphones on anything but their bargain practice range? Are real bass players not supposed to want to practice quietly? Or is it a scam to make you buy 2 amps?

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i'd suggest something else for the practice with headphones, you might struggle to find something powerful enough to gig with that has a headphone output, i'd go for something designed for headphones like the korg pandora, much easier to use than headphones into a combo. they crop up in the classifieds here fairly frequently.

then i'd suggest a nice secondhand amp for gigging, trace elliot are the obvious choice (for me anyway, ymmv) you might even be able to get a head and cab setup within your budget even allowing for the purchase of the pandora. if you've got some space to store it and a strong back there's plenty of cheap kit out there.

Matt

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Thanks guys. Loads of great ideas, point taken re. separate headphone amp Matt, in fact thinking about it now I've got a little Zoom PS-4 buried somewhere which would probably do the job. Bring on pay-day then I'll be hitting the classifieds I think!

Neil

Edited by Budgetneil
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Hi Budgetneil
Here's something that ticks all your boxes and at a super bargain price!
It is a Harley Benton BA500. From www.Thomann.de.
500 watt class D amplifier, compact and lightweight , headphone out and aux in, lots of tone shaping capabilities. And amazingly, it actually sounds really good. I've had alot of different (expensive) amps over the years, but this thing has been great. Used as my main gigging amp for the past year with no problems at all. Before I bought it I did some research and it seems to be modelled on the Ibanez Promethean range.
Anyway the best news is that it costs a measly £160 brand new. There is also a 1x10 combo for about £235. The good bit about this is the head is removeable so you can use it with any cab. Don't know about the speaker in the combo but as you can tell I'm a huge fan of the amp and think it represents the best value out there at the moment.
Check it out.
Hope this helps
Cheers
Paul
http://www.thomann.de/gb/mobile_prod.html?AR=238698

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