Micro head for spare and small gigs

[chickenjames]

Hello all

i have a MarkBass CMD121P with NY121P extension begins, and I’m looking at options for a spare head. 

Needs to handle a fairly wide range of styles. 

 

Electrically this is straightforward- my current rig is effectively a LM3 which can drop 500W into 4ohms, and each speaker presents 8 ohm and can handle 350W. 

I want to have a backup in case the combo fails (not that I’m particularly worried about this)

It seems like the simplest and cheapest thing would be to get one of the very small class D heads eg TC BQ250 or BQ500, Trace Elliot ELF, etc. I could simply run the 112 cab on its own straight off the micro head and that would work  

A couple of questions then. 

Do I need to think about driving the speaker in the combo as well? How easily could I connect the internal speaker to a different head?

I like the clean Markbass sound but I’m wondering if it might be fun to have something as well that sounds different. Something valvey might be fun.

Built in compressor or tuner would be good. I normally use either the Trace Elliot B3 all in one board or a big board with lots of things including many flangers, choruses and phaser with a compressor. 

Styles

- jazz fusion (with Sire)

- folk or rock with flatwound P

- disco funk with Stingray

budget - well, id like cheap ideally.  Not too much more than £300-400 would be good

 

what would you do?

[Lozz196]

I think the TC BH amps fit this bill quite nicely, have pretty much all the requirements covered.

[dudewheresmybass]

I've just acquired a TC BH250 head (Cost me a lot less than your budget) for exactly the same purpose

I'm very pleased with it thus far

[SamPlaysBass]

Markbass Nano is, in my experience, louder than the TC BH250 and just as dainty. Every time I’ve used a Nano, I’ve been very impressed. However, TC has the toneprint features which are half decent and good fun. 

 

Trace Elliot Elf isn’t too shabby either, and laughably small. I know none of these are valve-y, but small things don’t tend to be. Wildcard offering could be the Bugera BV1001T - a small-ish valve pre-amp class D? 

 

In terms of driving the speaker in the combo, you can unplug the speaker cable and power from the combo head and just plug them into the back of your spare head. The speaker cables on combos generally aren’t massive, so you may have to ‘perch’ the spare head precariously on the back of the combo. You could always unscrew the combo head if you’ve got time and slot in the spare one! 

[HazBeen]

Quilter Big Block, small, sounds great. Not too much more expensive.... especially if bought 2nd hand.

Edited March 28, 2019 by HazBeen

[ped]

The TC BH series - mainly because with the toneprint you can dial in/out a couple of excellent compressors to suit your different styles. And it has a built in tuner. Perfect for the job IMO. 

In fact I’m sure I didn’t pay more than £400 for my BH800...

[bassace]

A TecAmp Puma isn’t much bigger than a book. I have a 500watt model that lives under the passenger seat.

[Muppet]

Agree with the BH heads, though I do like the ELF!  As above, the combo speaker has a very short 1/4" lead from the speaker to the head.  Given that the head is effectively mounted vertical in the cabinet you'd need to extend it. 

One thing to think about is that if you want to use the speaker in the combo without the head, then it has no link capability so you'd need to daisy chain from the head to the extension cab, then out to the combo speaker. You'd need a speakon to female 1/4" connector if you didn't want to modify the combo speaker cable.  Or get a head with a speakon out and a 1/4" out, like the LM3 has. 

[Dan Dare]

If you can find one, the Carvin class D heads have a valve pre that actually does something to the sound (as opposed to being there for marketing purposes). My spare amp is a B1000 and it's a nice head. Picked it up used for not much over £300.

Edited March 29, 2019 by Dan Dare

[Paul S]

21 hours ago, bassace said:

A TecAmp Puma isn’t much bigger than a book. I have a 500watt model that lives under the passenger seat.

I was recently in the market for a micro head and looked at all the same teeny things.  Then a Tecamp Puma was brought to my attention secondhand and there really is no contest - proper useable amp.  Worth looking out for if you can hold on until one pops up.  

[chickenjames]

Thanks fellas! (Sorry for radio silence, I was in San Diego. I managed to take in a tour of the Taylor factory which was looooovely)

ok this is all helpful stuff, what I think I’m hearing is that all of these little amps are pretty good.

I should have mentioned that I had an Ampeg PF-350 for a while which sounded nice but I was scared by the reliability burps and also it was far too easy to get a pick stuck inside it!

 

Any love out there for the basic TC, BQ350 or 500?

[jezzaboy]

There is a thread about the BQ on here. I used my 500 into a Barefaced Compact on a pub gig last night and it sounded good out front so I was told. Of course, being a pub gig with a 5 piece band, I couldn`t tell as I was standing 6 inches in front of the speaker!

It`s a decent home practice tool and I stick it in a laptop bag and put it under the front car seat just in case it`s needed as a backup.