Dankology Posted September 4, 2022 Share Posted September 4, 2022 (edited) An odd turn of events has led to me playing a run of gigs with one of my all-time favourite artists. The shows will be slightly unorthodox in terms of the production and presentation and it has been gently suggested that I should be looking at a small amp. I currently have a Trace GP12 combo (which has started to malfunction this week, of course) and a Laney R7 (which I've often struggled with and usually gets sneered at when I've lent it to other people). I've had the Blackstar Unity things on my radar for a while now but I don't like the idea of having to buy their powered cab if I ever want to up the ante; the Fender Rumbles are of course ubiquitous and I quite like the look of the Session 77. I don't really want to spend a big chunk of money on a new amp so secondhand is a definite option and I'm not especially keen to do the sensible thing and just go via DI (partly due to habit and partly due to not knowing what the monitoring is going to be like). So, two questions: am I missing any obvious options here? And does anyone have something appropriate to sell me? Apologies for the vague details - don't want to jinx anything so early in the day but will definitely report back in full in due course. Edited September 4, 2022 by Dankology Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Boodang Posted September 5, 2022 Share Posted September 5, 2022 (edited) Do you need anything on the combo (eq, drive etc) to give you your sound? I get my finished sound from my pedalboard, send the di to the desk and the unbalanced to a small active pa speaker for onstage. If you're not using the combo to sculpt your sound it doesn't have to be a bass amp and pa speakers are cheap s/h. The one bass combo I have kept and still use occasionally is an SWR Baby Blue, albeit with new speaker units. You don't see them come up s/h very often unfortunately. Edited September 5, 2022 by Boodang Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BreadBin Posted September 5, 2022 Share Posted September 5, 2022 TC Electronic BG250. Lightweight and available with various speaker configurations to suit your requirements. The 2x8 is only 125w unless you add an extension speaker, the rest are 250w. Built in Toneprints, plus a tuner. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dankology Posted September 5, 2022 Author Share Posted September 5, 2022 (edited) 6 hours ago, Boodang said: Do you need anything on the combo (eq, drive etc) to give you your sound? I get my finished sound from my pedalboard, send the di to the desk and the unbalanced to a small active pa speaker for onstage. I hadn't thought of that! I'm now wondering how much my amp actually affects the sound - I usually use quite a few effects... Will do a bit of experimenting. Thank you 🙂 57 minutes ago, BreadBin said: TC Electronic BG250. Lightweight and available with various speaker configurations to suit your requirements. The 2x8 is only 125w unless you add an extension speaker, the rest are 250w. Built in Toneprints, plus a tuner. These look great and are pretty much what I was looking at for at home too. I can't find any in stock at the moment though but I'm badly multitasking - will have a proper look later on. Thank you! Edited September 5, 2022 by Dankology 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BassBunny Posted September 5, 2022 Share Posted September 5, 2022 11 minutes ago, Dankology said: These look great and are pretty much what I was looking at for at home too. I can't find any in stock at the moment though but I'm badly multitasking - will have a proper look later on. Thank you! There's a nearly new BG250 for sale down below. Includes postage. Nothing to do with me by the way. I bought one just for rehearsals and now seem to be using it all the time. Light, loud and punchy. 1 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
zbd1960 Posted September 5, 2022 Share Posted September 5, 2022 I have one (BG250 208) as my practice amp. It had an outing to summer school recently and was fine for the big hall I played in. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BreadBin Posted September 5, 2022 Share Posted September 5, 2022 4 minutes ago, zbd1960 said: I have one (BG250 208) as my practice amp. It had an outing to summer school recently and was fine for the big hall I played in. I used to have a 208, but found it ran out of puff quite quickly. Fine for practice though. I now have a 115 - it's a fair bit louder but has a deeper tone unsurprisingly. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gjones Posted September 5, 2022 Share Posted September 5, 2022 Is it just to be used as an onstage monitor? The Fender Rumble 100 V3 is a great little amp. It's small, very light but loud enough to be used on it's own, with quiet drummers. I bought mine used for £165. I use it for small gigs,where it would be overkill to bring my big rig and as an onstage monitor for louder shows, where I'm going through the FOH PA. 4 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
casapete Posted September 5, 2022 Share Posted September 5, 2022 (edited) 3 hours ago, gjones said: Is it just to be used as an onstage monitor? The Fender Rumble 100 V3 is a great little amp. It's small, very light but loud enough to be used on it's own, with quiet drummers. I bought mine used for £165. I use it for small gigs,where it would be overkill to bring my big rig and as an onstage monitor for louder shows, where I'm going through the FOH PA. Beat me to it! I’ve also got a Rumble 100v3 and it’s a wonderful combo. Bought mine s/h too, and I've used it on small / medium gigs with both electric and electro acoustic basses. Sounds great, and unbelievably lightweight, with a good XLR DI. Not too big for home use either. Edited September 5, 2022 by casapete 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Boodang Posted September 5, 2022 Share Posted September 5, 2022 2 hours ago, Dankology said: I hadn't thought of that! I'm now wondering how much my amp actually affects the sound - I usually use quite a few effects... Will do a bit of experimenting. Thank you 🙂 These look great and are pretty much what I was looking at for at home too. I can't find any in stock at the moment though but I'm badly multitasking - will have a proper look later on. Thank you! PS my very portable setup consists of a Mackie DLM12 and for when more volume is needed I also have the 12s sub. A very compact and flexible combination. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pbasspecial Posted September 5, 2022 Share Posted September 5, 2022 The question you need to ask yourself is ‘will I be keeping it after these run of shows?’ If not, get something s/h that’s easy to resell. Can’t go wrong with the Fender Rumbles or Ashdown Studio range. I’ve use a lovely original Ampeg Rocket 220 (b200r) but really hard to get hold of and weigh a ton too! 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cetera Posted September 5, 2022 Share Posted September 5, 2022 I too have a Fender Rumble V3 100 combo and it's awesome. I've used it on some wedding marquee type gigs and also on club shows. Sounds fantastic and plenty of power for small/medium sized shows. PM me as I have had an endorsee gear offer with GK and so may let the Rumble go to you..... 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LeftyJ Posted September 5, 2022 Share Posted September 5, 2022 I'm a huge fan of the EBS Drome. Not the Chinese-made, tolex-covered Drome Classic (which doesn't have a tweeter) but the Swedish-made, carpet-covered Drome and NeoDrome. I've owned a Drome 12-150 for years, and only sold it because I found a NeoDrome (same amp, but with a neodynium speaker which is 1 kg lighter) at a steal. They're no longer available new, and were pretty expensive for what they are, but can be found used at great prices. They're portable, the 1x12 is not too big (the 1x15 is, though!), they're built to last, have no annoying cooling fan, and sound brilliant. Very effective and versatile EQ too. There's an extra handle at the bottom to slightly tilt the combo backwards, and it has a clever monitor input so you can use your own amp as a monitor on stage (the input sits behind the XLR out in the chain, so the line out signal is unaffected). Only downside is it has no external speaker output, but it delivers the full 150 watts to the internal speaker at 4 Ohms and is pretty loud by itself. I've used mine as a bass monitor at club shows and had no trouble hearing myself clearly. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Supernaut Posted September 5, 2022 Share Posted September 5, 2022 Secondhand Mark Bass CMD 121P. 4 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Boodang Posted September 5, 2022 Share Posted September 5, 2022 Talking of small combos, has anyone tried the new Trace Elliot ELF 1 x 10? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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