Expensive bass or amp?

[Dubs]

Would you rather spend a lot of money on a bass or an amp? I’m just interested on hearing people’s views on this because I’m in a bit of a dilemma and it might help me to hear the opinions of others. I’m talking over a grand here, probably about 1500 quid.
If you're regularly gigging then I suppose it’s a no-brainer that you really need your amp, but if you're not regularly gigging, do you think you can survive without an amp for a while…maybe 2 or 3 months? And would you downgrade your amp considerably in order to acquire a dream bass?

…decisions, decisions…

[Mr. Foxen]

Kinda think you fudged up the poll a bit with the two options. Voted for expensive amp, need lots of headroom, and pretty happy with my cheapy basses, much better at tinkering with them to get what I want out of them.

[Sarah5string]

I'd have an expensive Amp. I've always had cheap basses and have always managed to get a sound I love out of them. If you've got a rubbish amp it doesn't matter how good your bass is it's going to sound rubbish.

[stingrayfan]

I voted amp. Anything you plug into a good amp sounds good. But we're talking live here.

Don't get hung up on buying top of the range. Loads of people here (me included) gig with very mid-range stuff. Sometimes price is not the only factor. My two most expensive basses don't get gigged at the moment because the cheaper ones I own are lighter and more fun to play. My amp is now a secondhand Trace unit that I got for £150 from here.

Edited July 13, 2008 by stingrayfan

[Bassassin]

You do need an "all my gear is cheapsh!t garbage" option.

Jon.

[bass_ferret]

Garbage In - Garbage Out. It you plug a cheap bass into an expensive amp you are gonna hear a cheap bass.

There are lots of pro quality rigs for sale on here and pro quality basses as well. You only really need a couple of hundred watts to start drowing out a drummer and if the drums are mic'ed then the bass should go through the PA as well. Having more power than this is just showing off (he says with 600 watts)

I would buy Ian's EBS HD350/Proline 410 for £800 and put the rest towards a bass.

[CHRISDABASS]

trouble is the better the amp the more its gonna reveal all the problems that come with a cheaper bass!


personally i'd go for getting the right bass.........but i'd look at finding a second hand one! its a buyers market at the moment and you'd save loads of money that you can put towards an amp!



im pretty sadowsky biased at the moment but if it were me i'd get a second had sadowsky like phsycoandy's at about £1000 then you have £500 left for an amp! i think thats plenty! plus if you buy the right amp like a good combo with extra speaker outs on it you can always upgrade with a new cab later when you have more cash!

[Oscar South]

Bass, its more about how intuitive to play and how much it draws you in to practice than how good it sounds personally.

[budget bassist]

I'd try and get the best of both worlds if i were you, at the end of the day, the amp is only half your sound, the rest of your sound coming from the bass itself and more importantly your hands.

[ped]

Bass, because amps are easy to find - a bass that feels great and suits you is much more difficult to track down.

That said - there is no reason whatsoever that a bass that feels great can't be had for much less than £1000 odd.

[Wooks]

I'm not a pro player..far from it I'm just a learner But if it were me I would go for a mid range bass and spend the extra on the amp. But I suppose it depends on what kind of sound you want to achieve??
The other day I had a go on several basses 2 with my ham fisted learning hands!! The 2 that stood out for different reasons were a £1300 MM Ray 5'er and a £5oo Ibanez SR 705 5'er. Now here's the controversial part..but I wasn't at all impressed with the Ray!! I thought it lacked something as it didn't sound as good as I thought it would do for a 1300 squid bass. And yet the 'Nez had a lot more balls to it and to me had a more versatile range of tone to it. But like I said I'm a deaf ham fisted learner, so maybe it was just me
The other thing is the way things are at the moment with this credit crunch lark, you might be lucky if you are patient enough to pick up some great 2nd hand top of the range gear cheaper than you might do normally.

[chris_b]

They're all tools but a guitar is more personal. For me amps come and go but basses stay longer. Also it's not an either/or situation. If a cheap or mid priced bass gets the sound you want then you're unlikely to need an expensive amp. But, if either end of the signal chain isn't up to the job then you've wasted money on the whole lot.
I don't know what you intend to play, but for £1500 I'd be looking at a Lakland for about £600 and spend the rest on the amp. Wait for a used LM11 and 2 Aguilar GS112's to show up.

[Kiwi]

I think its relative depending on which component you will be relying on most heavily and which will give you the greatest benefit. If you play a really skanky bass and its holding up your development then it probably makes more sense to invest your money in a better instrument.

Having said that, isn't it possible to split the money a little more evenly between the two ambitions?

[stingrayfan]

Agree there no need to spend over £5/600 on a bass if you want to gig.

My current gig basses cost £350 and £280 and they sound and play great. You can spend £2k on a custom bass, but it doesn't make you play any better.

Sadly...

[budget bassist]

Yeah, you don't need to spend loads on a bass for it to be awesome, my main bass cost me £350 and i couldn't be happier with it, to the point that i'm not all that bothered about getting anything new for a while.
I probably would spend more on the amp, buying it new, second hand amps can be dodgy, as i've learnt. A dodgy bass can be easy enough to fix 9 times out of 10, amps are a lot more complex.

[Oscar South]

I agree about basses not needing to cost more than £5-600. My main bass is a TRB1005 and I've never played any instrument that feels or sounds so perfect, the only upgrade I'll ever make is to a different TRB (be it 4 or 6 strings or a higher end model), and I'd still be cautious.

On the other hand though, any decent 410 with 7+band EQ, possibly compression and enough headroom to play loud with a really light touch will keep me more than happy.

[Dubs]

Thanks for everyone’s input so far, and a lot of good points have been made that I’ve not considered, as well as other valid points that I’ve thought about before.

The thing is, I’m not buying stuff from scratch. I’ve been offered a trade for my Ampeg rig that’s advertised in the market place, but the trade is for a bass of a similar value to the rig, so I’d be left with a cracking bass (that I’ve got major GAS for) but no amp. The decision on my part is whether I can live without an amp for a while, and then when the time comes (and a bit of cash) I’d buy a much cheaper amp to get by with, so it’s weighing up if the amp sacrifice is worth it for the bass…it’s a toughie. It’s a decision that’s going to take me a while I think, but I’m just interested in hearing what you guys think, and it might help me decide, but for me it’s a big decision and one that I can’t really take lightly.

In an ideal world I’d get a very generous cash offer for the Ampeg so then I can do exactly what I want with the cash (gear wise)

Edited July 13, 2008 by benwhiteuk

[stingrayfan]

In that case, it prob boils down to gigging. Do you mind not gigging/being in a position to gig for a while? If the answer's no, then buy the bass. But say you ditch the amp and a great offer of a band comes along, you'll be a bit stuck!

[ARGH]

Get a job,work harder,get both. Learn Patience.

[Dr.Dave]

If you replaced the word 'expensive' with the word 'good' I'd be able to answer very easily. There's so much good kit around these days at a reasonable price that good doesn't equal expensive.

So - good bass or good amp.

Good bass , no question. Sound is in the eye (ear) of the beholder. Playability , though personal, is more concrete.

I can play decently with a good bass through a crap rig. If I can't perform properly because my bass is a piece of sh*t then the best rig in the world won't make any difference.

We play with our hands - the bits they touch are important , everything else can be fixed with a credit card.

[Jase]

I'd go for a bass without a doubt. I'm not really well up on amps, I know what amps work for me and what top names are about but ask me anything about them and it's always..."I'm not really sure" Actually I was gutted a few months ago, had the chance to try an Ampeg SVT valve monster with an 8x10.....just didn't do it for me, I was so annoyed, thought Ampeg was the one for me...well, that particular model wasn't.

BASS!

[SteveK]

The irony is, the larger the gigs you play - the less important your rig.

If your playing small pubs and clubs, then it's fairly important to have a good rig behind you, as (obviously) that is where the bass will come from.

On the other hand, if you're doing larger shows, where guitar/drums and bass are fed through the PA, then your rig becomes (as far as the punter is concerned) less important.

I've seen Mike Porcaro on several occasions playing to thousands, with a rig that wouldn't hack it down "The Dog and Duck" - He would pretty much rely on onstage/in ear monitoring.

I've seen Dominique Di Piazza, with the John McLaughlin Trio, [b]only[/b] using on stage monitoring...he just plugged into a DI and off he went.

Steve

[Adrenochrome]

Bass by a long way.
The audience mainly hear the sound of your bass through the PA.

[LukeFRC]

bass.
We used to practice in someones bedroom. I used his 20w £30 practice amp (drum machine see, we could keep it quiet) but it sounded awfull. He had a cheap P bass copy, sounded bad, i had a status shark sounded bad. I then got my fender P andit was amazing that it actually sounded alright with it.

[Mr. Foxen]

think something to consider about the 'good bass into rubbish amp' thing is that basses are very much simpler than amps, so a £100 bass is still going to be a few chunks of wood, pickups, strings, screws, whereas and amp is all sorts of FETs and valves and transformers and classes, and speakers, ports, tweeters and all sorts.