What amp head for blues/rock ?

[Biker Bass]

Hi all,
Can I ask for some advice from you knowledgeable people! I need a versatile amp head that can get a 60/70s blues and rock sound. I have read other similar threads on here, but the others seem to be in rock bands. I need a classic, versatile, vintage and full sound. Probably contradicting myself here a bit.

Equipment- Rickenbacker 4003, Orange OBC 115 (400w @ 8 ohm) cab + a sh"t 450w amp head. I might pipe my double bass through this at a later date.

Material - I am in a touring covers band playing Doors , fleetwood mac, ray charles, pink floyd, Stevie wonder. Also in another dirty blues band and want equipment to do both. Gigs vary from 30-1000 people.

I wanted the orange TB500 to accompany the cab i have, but have been put off slightly by owners saying it really only gives one good gritty sound. Thats why I put up the material above, as you can see I need some versatility.

Portable 500w or equivalent amps at the £350-550 mark-

Orange TB500
Ampeg pf500 or pf800
Ashdown Little bastard 30 (all tube)
Markbass - [color=#666666][font=Trebuchet,]Little Mark Tube 800[/font][/color]
GB shuttle 6
Aguilar Tone Hammer 500
Any others you care to add?

Solid state, hybrid or all tube? - Thats a never ending answer iam sure. I've got it in my head that I need at least a tube pre amp to get that sound. But i just havent tried enough amps to know enough really.
Any advice I would really appreciate it. I'am not counting anything out and open to ideas.
Thanks in advance
Jim

Edited April 5, 2014 by Biker Bass

[dannybuoy]

The Orange will sound clean if you turn the gain right down. The EQ on it is not very flexible, and the amp is quite dark sounding overall, but it's perfect for rock and blues! It's loud as hell and has real thump down low where some other class D heads are lacking.

If you're not just after micro heads, check out the Markbass TTE500.

The Aguilar TH500, TC RH750 and GK MB500 Fusion, and Ashdown MiBass/Rootmaster are all worth a look too. The Ashdown LB30/CTM30 probably won't cut it volume wise. Avoid the Ampeg PF500 as they are unreliable.

[Mykesbass]

Can't recommend the Carvin BX500 highly enough - £350 ish from Bass Gear for a US built hybrid amp.

[Jazzneck]

Ampeg V4 BH.

It's 100W of valve power and plenty enough to blow the rest out of the water.

You might want to consider trying a Tech 21 VT Bass DI as a preamp with your existing head first.

http://basschat.co.uk/topic/197724-tech-21-vt-bass-di/page__fromsearch__1

Edited April 5, 2014 by Jazzneck

[Kevsy71]

Eden WT550 well worth considering too - very flexible EQ especially around the all important mids. This is mine in a 7-piece band - just a tweak on the passive P tone control to go from the blues to rock numbers: [url="https://soundcloud.com/the_expandables/sets/live-march-2014"]https://soundcloud.com/the_expandables/sets/live-march-2014[/url]

[Lozz196]

For the sound needed, plus versatility I`d add in TC Electronic RH450 to the list, theres one on here at present for £395. Can go from crisp clean modern to warm fat tubey to Lemmy, plus on-board tuner.

Though for most of it, Terror plus the Tech 21 VT as recommended by Jazzneck would be very nice. In fact as Jazzneck says, the VT may be worth checking out first, the difference it`s made to my sound is amazing.

Edited April 5, 2014 by Lozz196

[JTUK]

I'd throw in a OLD SWR SM400/500 into the mix...
Can do keen but the valve pre gets grindy.
Depending which model you get you can get 400/500w bridged into 4

Otherwise an Ampeg..

[xgsjx]

I used to play a lot of blues rock. Used a Peavey head through 2 15" Marshalls. Then a Trace Elliott 4x10 combo & then a MarkBass 2x10 combo.
I preferred the MarkBass out of all of them & still use it (though I no longer play blues rock).
I'd take your bass & cab & go try some amps out.

[Happy Jack]

Hi Jim, welcome aboard.

I'm firmly in the OTB500 camp - it's a perfect match for most of the stuff you've listed, and there's plenty of them now knocking about on the 2nd-hand market.

Up until a couple of years ago, these amps were shipped with horribly hi-gain valves (plus a dodgy DI-Out). In rsponse, I wrote this:

http://basschat.co.uk/topic/134869-re-valving-an-orange-bass-terror/

My own OTB now sounds warmer & creamier, and has far more versatility in the balance between Gain & Volume.

Later examples of the OTB come with (allegedly) better valves and (again, allegedly) a far more useable DI-Out.

If you have a "tamed" OTB then it should also respond well to a Sansamp or a Catalinbread SFT - but this is drifting off into matters of personal taste.

The vanilla OTB sound is absolutely bang on the money for blues-rock.

[Stealth]

Another vote for the Terror Bass i use one fir just what you do. I swapped out the valves for "cooler" ones and it gives much more headroom. It wont do Hi Fi but does it rock hell yeah ! If your local your welcome to try it

[funky8884]

This will do it all !

http://basschat.co.uk/topic/233947-mesa-boogie-400/

[Handwired]

Rock music is 90% attitude so as long as you play [i]your part well [/i]any half decent rig will be fine[i].[/i]

[molan]

[quote name='Mykesbass' timestamp='1396712701' post='2416687']
Can't recommend the Carvin BX500 highly enough - £350 ish from Bass Gear for a US built hybrid amp.
[/quote]

There's a new BX700 now that adds a bit more power, a cleaner & more modern looking chassis, and it glows red too (obviously the glow in the dark bit is the most important!).

Edited April 6, 2014 by molan

[Musicman20]

Orange TB500.

[Biker Bass]

Thanks guys.

I have a Fishman Platinum Pro bass EQ pre amp/di box, asume it does a similar job to the Tech 21 VT? With the Orange tb500 should that solve any EQ shaping that i will want do.
Really interesting about the comments about changing the valves. If I bought it new you guys are saying orange have tried to tame it down a bit with other valves and looked at the hot DI output stage.
There are not many second hand ones on here or UK ebay at the moment. Any other second hand sites people know of?

Cheers

[dannybuoy]

The Fishman will give you an EQ, but the VT has built in distortion and sounds more like an Ampeg, so whether or not they can do a similar job, depends on the job!

Personally, I don't have a major problem with the gain of the stock valves in the old model. I keep the gain set low, and have an XLR attenuator adaptor should I find the DI output to be too hot. Put up a wanted ad here and you'll be bound to find some cheap valves, but they're not that expensive new either (check out Hot Rox and Watford Valves).

[Happy Jack]

Hmmmm ... I love my PlatPro but I use it strictly for DB. I wouldn't use it for electric bass, and certainly not to front-end an OTB500.

Doesn't mean it won't do a job for you, just hadn't occurred to me to try!

The very limited EQ on the OTB has frequently been a topic on Basschat and there's no denying it. IMHO the whole point of the OTB is precisely that it [u][b]IS[/b][/u] a one-trick pony - you either like it or you don't.

There are loads of amps and pedals that will allow you to shape the contours and boost the Hi-Mids etc, and if that's what you like to do then you should buy another amp.

If you want a classic, old-school, blues-rock sound (P-bass through a f***-off valve rig) but at a fraction of the price and a tiny fraction of the weight, then the OTB ticks the box. It's plug & play, and you can stop wasting your time twiddling knobs.

[Bolo]

A good alternative would be any Peavey head. Loud, warm and tight, add a preamp or pedal for overdrive though I'm not sure you'll need one.

[Happy Jack]

[u][i][b]ANY [/b][/i][/u]Peavey head?

[Bolo]

Well .. no not any, I'm sorry for charging there. An operational one. Music amplifier or bass head. Preferably cheap and from the previous millennium. Like they used when playing good rock and blues music. That should do nicely!

Edited April 7, 2014 by Bolo

[bassmachine2112]

BDI21 ,OBT 500,SP212 cab-good to go, oh and a tuner.
I play a range of tunes and it does the job no problem,and it,s loud and thumps.