Cheap bass rigs that you love , and beat your high end rigs

[Quilly]

Had a bugera 300w SVT copy at one stage . I think it was a b stock from thomann. Had a bunch of 6550 power valves. Weighed 36kg . Sounded massive and really well built. Not exactly point to point hand soldered inside but hey it was €400 or something . Only had it for a few months it was just too heavy and I never fully trusted it . 

[AScheck9]

I don't post often but thought I'd jump on the bandwagon. My first head was bought one year ago... a peavey minimax. I was on a budget so had to find something powerful and that'd last. I played three gigs with it in the first 6 months and at each one got some kind remarks from the crowd on tone. 

Admittedly I don't have much to compare it to, and I've recently replaced it for a streamliner.... but for the money I was mighty impressed! It's been relegated to my back up but after playing it again the other day I'm having second thoughts! It's got some great tones. 

At first I was playing through two peavey 2x10 headliners.... I paid full RRP for them (on credit because I was strapped) and to be honest I was majorly disappointed in them, so sold up. Bought a second hand kustom deep end 1x15 cabinet for £30 and boom, cheap and good sounding giggable rig.

If I find a second kustom de115h for sale on here, I'd snap it up!

[rushscored4]

Another long-time lurker here! For years I gigged with an original Fender Rumble 100 which I bought off eBay for £80. No matter how big the venue I rarely had to turn the volume above 3 or 4 and it sounded great with a variety of different basses from Fender Jazzes and Precisions to a Musicman Stingray.

More recently, after a bad bout of GAS, I've probably spent a couple of grand buying a TC BG250-208 with a 15" extension cab, a new V3 Fender Rumble 100, an Ampeg PF-350 and PF-5o0T tube amp, both of which I play through a PF-115HE Portaflex cab, and none of them sound anywhere near as good or are as loud as my original cheap as chips Rumble 100...

Mind you, I've just pre-ordered the new Fender Rumble 800 Stage combo so watch this space!

Edited February 20, 2018 by rushscored4
Wrong model number!

[HazBeen]

So to me there are 2 things not quite right to this thread, 1.  we are mainly talking 2nd hand equipment which is not the same as budget equipment and 2. We aren’t really zooming in on budget amps/cabs.

[grandad]

And furthermore, I bought my TCE 250-208 new for £250-ish from PMT Brum about 18 months ago. I've seen them for x2 that price now. Is it still a budget amp?

Edited February 24, 2018 by grandad

[kevvo66]

I've had some great amps, but do love my trace 150 amp OMG I hear you gasp but 150 watts old school trace and Olga the battleaxe is a loud old girl a bit overweight  and not as pretty as your new super model amps but I loves the old git   and £80 only last year bargain 

Edited February 25, 2018 by kevvo66

[billynoband]

I have a Music Man copy by Vintage (at least I think that's what it is) single humbucker and one tuning peg at the bottom, 65 quid. My amp is a old Yamaha 100 1x15 bass combo, 37 quid, which ignoring all the cliché really is nice. Lots of vintage tone control and a Panasonic speaker fitted. It must be better than any expensive rig as the flightcase  has the legend Barron Knights sprayed on it. I shouldn't gush but I bet a skilled player with his own guitar could make this amp sound as good as a lot of expensive kit.

[andy67]

On 24/02/2018 at 18:28, HazBeen said:

So to me there are 2 things not quite right to this thread, 1.  we are mainly talking 2nd hand equipment which is not the same as budget equipment and 2. We aren’t really zooming in on budget amps/cabs.

Pedant misery guts! lol ;D stop ruining the fun!!

[kevvo66]

Behringer now there cheap but can't comment on them, pedals are pretty decent though I may buy one just out of curiosity 

[billynoband]

Behringer do a 2000w lightweight bass amp now. Strange.

[TheGreek]

I know that I must sound like a Parrot with a stutter but I honestly believe that you can't beat a Trace Elliot for quality and VFM. I still have TE heads after recently owning Darkglass, Mesa and Glockenklang heads - only the Glock came close to giving me the power and tone I want.

You can pick up a used 150w head for less than £150 - TE watts are probably as nasty as 3x the watts you'll get from the typical Class D head - remember you don't have to use the pre-set tones. If you can't find a built in tone you like (which I can't believe) get yourself amp modeller - you can pick up a Behringer BD121 for about £30.

I'm convinced that we're seeing an increase in the return to vintage TE gear and hearing lots of positive comments from old and new users alike.

I've just bought a 500w head which means I will never need to buy a big powerful amp. It would be blase to tell you how much..

[RandomBass]

Who invited the stuttering parrot? 

😎

 

PS Go on, how much was it then?

P-p-p-pieces o-o-of E-e-e-ight?

Edited February 28, 2018 by RandomBass

[TheGreek]

No, no no no,no...

[kevvo66]

Lightweight cabs and big old heads that my weapon of choice these days,, as I said in a earlier thread you won't beat the old girls , I love my trace or olga the battleaxe I like to call her ,forget your new amps been there done that and sold them all on 👍

[converse320]

How does TE manage to be so loud?  I opened my old knackered TE GP7 15" combo last week to put the amp part into a sleeve to work better with the cabinet I'm using now.  There really is almost nothing inside the head at all.   The case is mostly full of air. 

[kevvo66]

I've no idea, is it magic not a clue??? 

[casapete]

15 hours ago, converse320 said:

How does TE manage to be so loud?  I opened my old knackered TE GP7 15" combo last week to put the amp part into a sleeve to work better with the cabinet I'm using now.  There really is almost nothing inside the head at all.   The case is mostly full of air. 

Makes you wonder why the rest of it is so heavy then......

[TheGreek]

Here's something which may give you more insight:

 

[casapete]

13 minutes ago, TheGreek said:

Here's something which may give you more insight:

 

Excellent stuff.

Think the Trace gear I've had must have missed the anti-gravity injections though  

[Andytre]

Anyone know if the BLX80 was any good? One near me for £50

[casapete]

3 minutes ago, Andytre said:

Anyone know if the BLX80 was any good? One near me for £50

Great for £50 - heavy little bug*gers but work fine for small gigs / practice etc. Will last forever too.

I had a couple, one had a horn which was a bit naff so it got disconnected.

( Also watch out if you have a cat - mine used to try and get into the speaker slot on the front...)

[Andytre]

Its actully been converted into a head, so that should help with the weight issue

[keeponehandloose]

Not so much an amp but a built in effect. I was given a Roland Bass Cube  100 with a built in echo/reverb effect.

Its a 1 knob affair so goes from long echo repeats right round to massive reverb at the other end of the control.

The echo sounds better than all the outboard pedals Ive ever bought including Keeley, Boss , MXR.

[DGBass]

My fave cheap rig was a s/h late 70's Marshall super bass 100 mkII( I paid good money for it back in the mid eighties £140) and a broken Musicman RH115 cab rescued from a skip and retro fitted with a Peavey speaker. Gigged for nearly twenty years and I couldn't see past it. Sounded amazing.

Edited April 4, 2018 by dangoose
edit detail

[billynoband]

I also like this studio hh 60 amp (35 quid) which I cut 10 inches out of to make a head only as a back-up .It sounds really good surprisingly with the gain and boost on full with everything else set flat through a 15" JBL cab with a 300 watt 8ohm Celestion .This setting makes the sound break up a little without sounding too harsh.