Prefect recording amp, not for gigging, pure warm sound!!

[zawinul]

Dear night of the living bass heads

I want to get a lovely amp SOLELY for recording and practising, not huge volume not required...

having sadi that would a recording sound better through a huge 8 x 10 stack!!??? os is this overkill?

Pure tone needed, so i'm thinking probably a [b]tube[/b] amp?

If so which one?

New [b]ampeg[/b] tube heads look nice but pricey... do I even need a tube amp?

In past i've played through a [b]Roland Jazz Chorus[/b] and loved that sound!!


Any recommendations would be great, and please don;t say 'record DI' I intend to do that as well but want a decent amp to listen to...and record with

Combo or separate amp and cab, is there any difference in sound?

Budget I near you ask, well not £0000's ... dunno up to £500-600, maybe a tad more.... I want niceness

[Happy Jack]

Try a mid-70's WEM Dominator 25.

I'm absolutely serious.

With 15W of valve power you can achieve whatever degree of break-up you want/need at a sensible volume, and if you get a good one then the tone is just to die for.

It's the poor man's Fliptop, and probably better value for money.

[zawinul]

[quote name='Happy Jack' timestamp='1452101768' post='2946439']
Try a mid-70's WEM Dominator 25.

I'm absolutely serious.

With 15W of valve power you can achieve whatever degree of break-up you want/need at a sensible volume, and if you get a good one then the tone is just to die for.

It's the poor man's Fliptop, and probably better value for money.
[/quote]

just looked on ebay, pretty expensive, but I guess a classic tone!

[Happy Jack]

If you pay as much as £500 for one then you've done something wrong.

Are you anywhere near London?

[zawinul]

no south coast.... I've seen a couple of bits of tat on gum tree... I'm not in hurry something will turn up!

[taunton-hobbit]

If 5 watts (that's real watts) is going to do it...Jeff had a few of these at 359.00
....got to be worth a thought............

[Bigwan]

Ashdown LB30 (or CTM30 as they are now) would be my choice. Output transformer derived DI so you could stick a dummy load on it and record silently if you wanted to.

[M@23]

An 8x10 would be overkill! Haha. However, you would have more choice when recording, given that one driver always sounds better than the rest when mic'd...

If it were me, I'd be all over this:

http://greatbritishbasslounge.com/product/ashdown-abm-c210h-neo-evo3/

Crazy good price!!

Edited January 6, 2016 by M@23

[zawinul]

[quote name='Bigwan' timestamp='1452105641' post='2946504']
Ashdown LB30 (or CTM30 as they are now) would be my choice. Output transformer derived DI so you could stick a dummy load on it and record silently if you wanted to.
[/quote]

Thats a lot of notes, Ampeg 20 watt is cheaper!!

[Bigwan]

[quote name='zawinul' timestamp='1452106900' post='2946530']


Thats a lot of notes, Ampeg 20 watt is cheaper!!
[/quote]

As far as I'm aware you can't pick up an almost new Ampeg second hand for £300 like you could have with an Ashdown here last week... Keep an eye on the classifieds!

Edited January 6, 2016 by Bigwan

[Beedster]

[quote name='Happy Jack' timestamp='1452101768' post='2946439']
Try a mid-70's WEM Dominator 25.

I'm absolutely serious.

With 15W of valve power you can achieve whatever degree of break-up you want/need at a sensible volume, and if you get a good one then the tone is just to die for.

It's the poor man's Fliptop, and probably better value for money.
[/quote]

As the owner of a flip top I can vouch for the money side of things!

[JamesBass]

Ampeg B15.

[Happy Jack]

[quote name='JamesBass' timestamp='1452109470' post='2946578']
Ampeg B15.
[/quote]

Erm ... that's the Fliptop.

[Jazzneck]

I have a B15N - fantastic.

... and I've also used a Linear Conchord head through an Ampeg 112 cab which was bl**dy good, too.

[zawinul]

maybe I should have said prefect recording amp ON A BUDGET!!!!!!

Yeah ampeg fliptop is £2000 or more..... and I 'm not a pro....

Think I'll get a Hartke L500, lol!

[Beedster]

[quote name='zawinul' timestamp='1452100191' post='2946422'] Dear night of the living bass heads I want to get a lovely amp SOLELY for recording and practising, not huge volume not required... having sadi that would a recording sound better through a huge 8 x 10 stack!!??? os is this overkill? Pure tone needed, so i'm thinking probably a [b]tube[/b] amp? If so which one? New [b]ampeg[/b] tube heads look nice but pricey... do I even need a tube amp? In past i've played through a [b]Roland Jazz Chorus[/b] and loved that sound!! Any recommendations would be great, and please don;t say 'record DI' I intend to do that as well but want a decent amp to listen to...and record with Combo or separate amp and cab, is there any difference in sound? Budget I near you ask, well not £0000's ... dunno up to £500-600, maybe a tad more.... I want niceness [/quote]

Frankly, I tried for years to get glorious tone out of small boxes and, with the exception of the B-15, it doesn't happen, or at least, not the glorious tone I'm after. Even with a B-15 you have to roll the controls around to the right to get where you want to go, and whilst I'm happy to be corrected, that to my mind is the key problem; a major part of the 'lovely sound' thing relates to winding up a few tubes and moving a bit of air, and those two factors when combined tend to result in levels of volume that most of us can't practice with at home. Sure, there are sims, but for whatever reason - acoustic or psychoacoustic - they don't do the job to my ear. Jack's idea above is probably your best bet to be honest, good luck either way.

[pete.young]

Prefect recording amp? Sounds like a schoolboy error to me.

[xgsjx]

VST & a good set of monitors.

[gillento]

Ampeg B100R. quite cheap and sounds very B15 like apparently

http://www.ampeg.com/products/diamondbluebass/b100r/

Edited January 7, 2016 by gillento

[franzbassist]

[quote name='Bigwan' timestamp='1452107094' post='2946536']
As far as I'm aware you can't pick up an almost new Ampeg second hand for £300 like you could have with an Ashdown here last week... Keep an eye on the classifieds!
[/quote]

The one on here was an amp I ordered from Ashdown's UK Custom Shop to use specifically for a recording project, so it was made with lower gain valves to keep it cleaner. Sadly, the project was cancelled so I moved it on before ever really using it. It's now on sale at [url="http://www.bassgear.co.uk/product/ashdown-ctm-30/"]Bass Gear[/url]. It's less than two months old and in mint condition, if that's of interest?

[chris_b]

[i]How[/i] you improve your playing is the criteria for practice so you can use any amp to practice through.

You can make many things work in the studio. For their classic bass lines Fame studios (60's Aretha Franklin etc) used a Fender guitar amp with one broken, disconnected speaker and one good speaker. James Jamerson, at Motown, got one of the best, warmest recorded bass sounds through a valve DI.

Does Ampeg still sell their Ampeg SVT-VR Bass Amplifier plug-in for recording?

[Lw.]

I'd probably be looking at one of those 20w Ampeg heads you've already identified then a basic/cheap 1 speaker (12 or 15) cab (depending on what you've already got).

A nice vintage combo could be really nice but I just don't know enough about them to make a viable suggestion but don't rule them out as a lot of classic tones were recorded on these combos.

[LewisK1975]

There's a 15watt version of those Ashdown CTM's? Sounds perfect for what your after if you ask me...

http://www.pmtonline.co.uk/ashdown-ctm-15-valve-bass-head

[51m0n]

REDDI

I'm serious...

[clauster]

If you like the sound of the Roland Jazz Chorus then a valve amp may not be what you're after.......

For recording I'd go with 51m0n's recommendation. Once you've got a great signal recorded you and always re-amp that if you want a more coloured tone......