50-200w Valve Bass Head

[warwickhunt]

43 minutes ago, BassmanPaul said:

A 50W amp was not enough to play a gig with in 1968 let alone nowadays unless all you want is distortion.. The power for my amp comes from a 2000W Class D stereo power amp. The tube pre-amp I designed for it sounds Wonderfull!

OK it is 120w not 50 but I am happy to gig my Handbox with a very loud guitarist and drummer!  As has been mentioned, speaker sensitivity is way better than it used to be.

 

[Bigwan]

4 hours ago, shine182 said:

Did Burman ever do a dedicated bass amp head?

They did, the Burman Pro 4000, but I've never seen one in the flesh. 

[shine182]

5 hours ago, Merton said:

Not my experience at all. I'd say for rock/indie you won't go far wrong. It depends on your cabs, of course, but I felt the sound was beautifully fat and thick, and at volume whilst it would tip over the edge it was controllable. Perhaps depends how loud your band is too but I was playing with a very hard hitting drummer with my CTM100 and it was lovely and creamy and thick.

That sounds absolutely perfect for my needs. Looks great too. I'll have check one out. Thanks for the response! 

[shine182]

3 hours ago, Woodinblack said:

Depends, you have a high and low input. on the high input you can barely get the preamp to overdrive at all. In the low input you can, but in normal use it just basically makes the sound thicker.

Obviously it is just 100 watts, so you can get the power amp to overdrive pretty easily.

I love the sound, I just don't like the weight and TBH, I have got an ABM600 now which makes a lovely sound with a bit more volume.

 

That's good the hear regards drive, weight to be expected I suppose! ABM heads do seem to be an absolute bargain at the moment! I'm certainly not ruling out hybrids, but drawn to all valve just because

[la bam]

I've a 300w Bugera BVV3000 all valve up for sale at around £350.

Not a lighter weighted 100-200w valve amp, but it's there and hits the SVT tone spot on!

[JapanAxe]

7 hours ago, shine182 said:

Interesting to hear your thoughts on the Selmer. Prices seem ok but you've confirmed my fear regarding usable volume! Thanks for commenting! 

I’ve had a Selmer T’n’B 50 and an Ampeg PF-50T. The Ampeg had much more usable volume than the Selmer.

[Beedster]

24 minutes ago, JapanAxe said:

I’ve had a Selmer T’n’B 50 and an Ampeg PF-50T. The Ampeg had much more usable volume than the Selmer.

PF-50 can push out some serious volume into the right cab

[BassmanPaul]

4 hours ago, Beedster said:

Depends on the band, and anyway bass speakers/cabs these days are far more efficient than was the case 50 years ago. I've gigged 50w quite happily. 

I would agree that 50W could be made to work through a set of JBLs  That said who used JBLs back then?

Edited July 14, 2021 by BassmanPaul

[barkin]

5 hours ago, Beedster said:

Depends on the band, and anyway bass speakers/cabs these days are far more efficient than was the case 50 years ago. I've gigged 50w quite happily. 

I've done loads of pub gigs with a Carlbro TC60 into a BF Compact. Guess it depends on the band/genre though - most pub bands are waaay too loud IMO...

[Beer of the Bass]

The PF-50T is working OK for me - I think a lot will depend on your drummer. Ours has some subtlety, the guitarist is usually using a Fender Blues Junior, and we have brass and flute that benefit from keeping the stage volume reasonable. Though if I need to, it balances well enough with the unamplified drums and guitar amp if I use both my cabs. 

If things were a little more straight ahead rock, I might want a 100 watt valve amp and bigger cabs though.

Edited July 15, 2021 by Beer of the Bass

[BassmanPaul]

In 1968 I bought a brand spanking new Fender Bassman with it's twin 12 cabinet. It looked beautiful set up on stage. It sounded horrible. I suffered through the two gigs that weekend and returned it as soon as I could. The store, Dawson's in Runcorn Cheshire, had sold my Epiphone Constellation trade in but I left the Fender there anyway. 

I put together a rig from a Marshall bent front 4x12 and a Leak TL50 Plus valve power amp I bought for five quid. I built a little single 12AX7 preamp for it and used it very successfully. Those KT88s sounded great! LOL

 

Edited July 15, 2021 by BassmanPaul

[danbowskill]

On 13/07/2021 at 21:34, Merton said:

Ashdown CTM100 if you can find one. Superb amp

Andertons have a mint pre owned one for £645

[Beedster]

11 hours ago, Beer of the Bass said:

The PF-50T is working OK for me - I think a lot will depend on your drummer. Ours has some subtlety, the guitarist is usually using a Fender Blues Junior, and we have brass and flute that benefit from keeping the stage volume reasonable. Though if I need to, it balances well enough with the unamplified drums and guitar amp if I use both my cabs. 

If things were a little more straight ahead rock, I might want a 100 watt valve amp and bigger cabs though.

It's a funny thing how these threads work. Elsewhere on this forum it's often mentioned that, for example, to double the volume of an amp you need to increase its power output by ten, yet we find ourselves discussing whether a 100w unit might be a better bet than a 50w 

[Beer of the Bass]

1 hour ago, Beedster said:

It's a funny thing how these threads work. Elsewhere on this forum it's often mentioned that, for example, to double the volume of an amp you need to increase its power output by ten, yet we find ourselves discussing whether a 100w unit might be a better bet than a 50w 

Yeah, a 100 watt valve amp may be only a touch more than a 50 watt (and certainly not double in percieved volume), but in a situation where we're probably routinely running the power amp a little way into clipping, it can still be significant.

[BassmanPaul]

2 hours ago, Beedster said:

It's a funny thing how these threads work. Elsewhere on this forum it's often mentioned that, for example, to double the volume of an amp you need to increase its power output by ten, 

That is a true fact!!

[Muzz]

On 14/07/2021 at 16:23, warwickhunt said:

OK it is 120w not 50 but I am happy to gig my Handbox with a very loud guitarist and drummer!  As has been mentioned, speaker sensitivity is way better than it used to be.

 

A teensy bit off topic, but speaker sensitivity is the key to volume; I regularly gig (well, back when we were allowed) a 300w (non-valve, hence the off topic bit) head with a BF Super Twin, and it's plenty loud enough, even up against 2 x Marshall 100/412 geetards and a shed-building drummer...

[Woodinblack]

3 hours ago, Muzz said:

A teensy bit off topic, but speaker sensitivity is the key to volume; I regularly gig (well, back when we were allowed) a 300w (non-valve, hence the off topic bit) head with a BF Super Twin, and it's plenty loud enough, even up against 2 x Marshall 100/412 geetards and a shed-building drummer...

TBH - I can't think of any speaker combo with a 300W amp that wouldn't work ok with that. But 300W is almost twice as loud as 50w.

[Muzz]

...depending on the sensitivity of the speakers; through the same ones, yes, but more sensitive speakers will get more db from a watt...

If you ran a 300w amp into a single 10, even if it's thermal rating was 300w, it wouldn't be enough in a loud band...even Barefaced say as much about their One10: 'Loudness - Any jazz gig. Rehearsals or smaller gigs with typical function bands. Stack a pair to handle louder rock bands or bigger gigs.'

...but we digress; back to the valves... 🙂

Edited July 16, 2021 by Muzz

[spyder]

23 hours ago, danbowskill said:

Andertons have a mint pre owned one for £645

I had to buy it.... Sorry.

[BassmanPaul]

12 minutes ago, spyder said:

I had to buy it.... Sorry.

I hope it serves you well!!

 

[Reggaebass]

34 minutes ago, spyder said:

I had to buy it.... Sorry.

That’s great, I’ve yet to own one but always liked them, let us know what you think 👍

[Merton]

1 hour ago, spyder said:

I had to buy it.... Sorry.

Excellent work 🙂

[danbowskill]

2 hours ago, spyder said:

I had to buy it.... Sorry.

Wonderful 🤘

[spyder]

On 16/07/2021 at 18:12, Reggaebass said:

That’s great, I’ve yet to own one but always liked them, let us know what you think 👍

The amp arrived around lunch time..............

First off it was put in a very big Andertons box but with very little packaging. This always worries me because I've had so many products damaged in transit.

All was well inside the box, no damage that I could see. Next I always open up and have a look at valves before switching on because it is easy to damage them and sometimes previous owners don't put in the right ones....

Well you guest it the two input ECC832 valves were replaced with ECC83.

I have phoned Andertons and 'Im waiting for them to get back to me.

While I have been waiting I also took out the KT88 vales and tested them on my valve tester...... You guest it again, they are completely shot.

Now its 3.30pm and I've still not turned it on.

 

[Woodinblack]

23 minutes ago, spyder said:

All was well inside the box, no damage that I could see. Next I always open up and have a look at valves before switching on because it is easy to damage them and sometimes previous owners don't put in the right ones....

Well you guest it the two input ECC832 valves were replaced with ECC83.

So 2 ECC82s, 2 ECC83s and 2 KT88s?

I must admit, although I have the circuit diagram, I have never actually looked inside mine, as it just worked! Mind you, mine is pre-production so it could be different.

 

23 minutes ago, spyder said:

I have phoned Andertons and 'Im waiting for them to get back to me.

While I have been waiting I also took out the KT88 vales and tested them on my valve tester...... You guest it again, they are completely shot.

Seems odd for a pre-owned, you think they would have at the very least turned it on