bass combo with £500 budget

[Al Heeley]

Son is looking for a bass combo to take to college with him, now has his summer job pay check burning a hole in his pocket. Needs to have headphone output if poss, and be loud enough to hold its own at a pub gig, and be lighter than a Trace Elliot

Any recommendations? Looking initially at the Blackstar 250 and 500 (2x10) combo, a bit over the top of the budget, fender rumble 200 (not a fan..) and the Hartke hidrive 500 (2 x 10) which comes in at under £400.

Markbass is a bit outside the budget, don't want him getting a 200W then finding its not man enough to keep up with a loud drummer.

[Al Krow]

The TC BG250 210 should also tick all the boxes. Even has a built in tuner. 

New for just under £300, so will leave him enough spare cash for a beer or two at the college bar after his gigs  

Edited July 28, 2019 by Al Krow

[Lozz196]

Ashdown RM combos can be within budget, especially 2nd hand. The RM gear is light and has a great sound, worth checking out to see if it fits the bill.

[Al Heeley]

Could do with a few more music shops round here (W. Yorkshire) that give you the chance to try out some Hartke, TC and Ashdown gear

 

[casapete]

Fender Rumble range offer great sounds and very manageable weight. The 200 watt model is within budget, the excellent 500 watt job just £49 over it. Both feature headphone sockets and should cope with a reasonable sized pub gig. Gear4music in York stock the range according to their website, so not too far for you, but check stocks via telephone before making the journey. They also carry some Hartke, GK, Ampeg and Markbass stuff too. Cheers.

[Muzz]

I had a gig Satdy night at a space-challenged pub, so I took the Rumble 100 112 I'd acquired for just such events. It was acoustic geetar, drummer with hotrods (initially) and I'd imagined if it got loud I'd go into the (house) PA, but thanks to parking issues (£9 to park for a gig?...pffft) we didn't have time for a soundcheck, and the singist got into a flap about it, so I wasn't in the PA at all. The Rumble managed it alongside the drummer, who got pretty loud (he ditched the hotrods) - I had it cranked just under Thrashed To Death, but it managed, so I'd say a bigger Rumble would be a lot better is the lad wants a decent amount of backline. With a decent PA, the 100 would be fine for a stage monitor (plus it does the Aux In/Headphones thing, too), and of course it's pretty damn small and very light... For what it is (i.e. a cheap, small 112 combo) it performed pretty well...

[Aliwobble]

How about a Laney R500? Seems to tick all the boxes...

[Marvin]

19 hours ago, Al Krow said:

The TC BG250 210 should also tick all the boxes. Even has a built in tuner. 

New for just under £300, so will leave him enough spare cash for a beer or two at the college bar after his gigs  

I've looking around for kit that'll do 'the pub gig' (2 guitars and your average drummer). Can one of these keep up? They look good on paper.

[Skybone]

Check out the Ashdown AMP 210T 300 from Musik Produktiv (www.musik-productive.co.uk).

Not the lightest, at around 24kg, but easily loud enough for gigs and rehearsals, as it's based on the ABM Evo III and is obviously a 2x10, and it's all enclosed in a Rootmaster enclosure. The best bit, it's about £350 delivered.

https://www.musik-produktiv.com/gb/ashdown-amp-c210-300.html

The downside is, it is a bit heavy, compared to the Class D amps with neo speakers, but they're a lot more expensive, and it doesn't have a headphone out.

Definitely worth considering.

[Al Krow]

9 hours ago, Marvin said:

I've looking around for kit that'll do 'the pub gig' (2 guitars and your average drummer). Can one of these keep up? They look good on paper.

I've previously used a TC BG250 115 for rock band rehearsals and more recently seen a 210 used with a full jazz brass band outdoors, and the bass could easily be heard. 

If the rest of your band are on the louder side, I'd probably want to go for something like the Fender Rumble 500 to give myself a bit more headroom. 

Edited July 29, 2019 by Al Krow

[la bam]

You could just about scrape a laney sls12 combo in budget.

 

[Soledad]

On 28/07/2019 at 16:43, Al Heeley said:

fender rumble 200 (not a fan..) and the Hartke hidrive 500 (2 x 10)

May I ask why not the Fender - I reckon Fender have got their bass mojo back and these are good combos. Try the Hartke first - something odd about them I find, cold, dry, brittle or something.
I think the TC is a very good option, but there are also some really good used combos around will inside budget, like this fine GK for example:

 

[Muppet]

Ive got three combos, a Rumble 500, a TC 250 115 and a Markbass CMD121P.  On it's own for sound quality and portability I'd turn to the Markbass, but for gigging i choose the Rumble everytime. In a gig situation it just works. 

[Ed_S]

11 minutes ago, Muppet said:

Ive got three combos, a Rumble 500, a TC 250 115 and a Markbass CMD121P.  On it's own for sound quality and portability I'd turn to the Markbass, but for gigging i choose the Rumble everytime. In a gig situation it just works. 

Absolutely agree - I used to gig the Markbass CMD121P and it was good quality and loud but didn’t sound all that ‘big’ without the NY121 extension cab which I rarely had the room to transport. I swapped it for a Rumble 500 and whilst it’s not as conveniently sized as one MB cube, it’s certainly more convenient than two, and I’ve put wheels and side-handles on it to make it easier to transport. Most importantly, sound-wise it does the business very well on its own and that’s in a fairly loud melodic metal band with two guitarists and a drummer who isn’t shy. The only problem I’ve had with it so far is one gig where it seemed to be a bit more susceptible to RF noise than the MB was, but even then it was just a bit of background hummmm.

My only experience of TC was a BG250-208 that fizzed, popped and stopped working on its second or third time out. Never fancied another since, though not in a ‘mistrustful of the brand due to a product failure’ kind of way, just a ‘they haven’t made anything I’ve fancied trying since’ kind of way.

[TJ Spicer]

Not strictly a combo but by the time you've attached the amp to the underside of the cab to flip over, an Ampeg PF210/115 and a PF350/500 would fit the bill. That should come in under budget, I've seen the cabs going for £200 a piece second hand, and the PF350s at £150. Big old casters on the bottom too so it'll be an easier move than most traditional combos!

[Marvin]

You could buy 2 of these 😜. To be honest, I don't know what they're like. The head is basically the MiniMax which seemed to get decent reviews when it came out.

 

https://www.thomann.de/gb/peavey_max_115_2.htm

[Rollin Thunder]

Not always a name that springs up in combo comparisons, but check out the Peavey max combo range. I gave the older 112 200w combo and it's immense. Bought a fende rumble on trial and kept the Peavey, much better amp, the rumbles are ok but too muddy sounding. The Peavey 110 are 100w and the newer 112 is 150w and is a cou Le kg lighter than the older one I have, but you don't really need to full 200w as it's really load, and all have Di out built in.

[Rollin Thunder]

34 minutes ago, Marvin said:

You could buy 2 of these 😜. To be honest, I don't know what they're like. The head is basically the MiniMax which seemed to get decent reviews when it came out.

 

https://www.thomann.de/gb/peavey_max_115_2.htm

Beat me too it. 

[EBS_freak]

I recently did a festival where a Fender 500 was the backline - have to say, I immediately thought, oh gawd, going to be a nightmare... but have to say, it was an awesome piece of kit Mightily impressed. OK, was going out the PA out front, but that thing was thundering on stage and certainly more than enough for most gigs where the backline is providing the FoH sound.

Got headphone jack - and as far as I am aware, is basically what Genz Benz became. It's manage-ably heavy... but for transportless students, it's easy enough to cart around on the bus, taxi I guess... or put on a sack truck.

 

[Alec]

The bass amp market is so much better (and lighter) than it was in my starting out days 30 years ago!

One question, if this is to take to college - are you down to do regular drop-off/collection runs?  How tight on space will the car be?  As that could impact max size.  Despite that, consider a separate head/amp, rather than a combo.

I'd thoroughly recommend the second hand market - so much money to be saved for a student's budget.

Not going to recommend any gear specifically - more than enough good suggestions above.

[TheGreek]

I've heard good things about the EBS Gorm/ Neo Gorm.

Slight problem - I've only seen one for sale used - and I was outbid with 5 seconds to go.

[FinnDave]

Last weekend we headlined a festival - and my band is a six piece with two drummers. I used a borrowed Rumble 100, and it was fine at half volume. OK, it was DI'd though the PA, of course, but I am sure it would have been loud enough in a standard pub gig. 

Edited August 6, 2019 by FinnDave

[Soledad]

Bedroom combos is where it's at. Just collected an Ashdown Mag 250 210 combo for £120 - never been gigged, pretty clean and all working nice. There are plenty of good used combos around and a lot have never seen 'active service'. DI, tuner out, effects loop, 2 x 10s and a horn etc. All for under 25% of the OP's budget. 

I seriously recommend the OP has a good look at eBay, Gumtree, FB etc... spoiled for choice

p.s. the Ashdown went straight to the rehearsal place and will live there until I no longer need it, then sell on.

Edited August 5, 2019 by Soledad

[police squad]

On 28/07/2019 at 17:24, Lozz196 said:

Ashdown RM combos can be within budget, especially 2nd hand. The RM gear is light and has a great sound, worth checking out to see if it fits the bill.

I agree here with Loz. The RM stuff is very good

[Cuzzie]

Tech21 VT Bass 200

http://www.tech21nyc.com/products/amplifiers/vtbass-200/