Top 3 bass amps in your opinion

[Bagman]

For little , quiet gigs I used to enjoy the SWR Workingman

 

Since 1998 my #1 gigging amp has been Ashdown Klystrom 400. It’s still going strong 

 

My all time favourite amp isn’t always suitable for gigging - Ashdown CTM 300.  An amazing piece of kit 

 

 

[David Cook]

I’ve read the whole thread and am really surprised that no one has mentioned an Orange AD200 B mk3. I am not really qualified to join the thread as I have only ever owned 3 amps. Started with a Laney Linebacker, with hindsight poor, Currently a Fender Rumble 100 mainly for rehearsal and again not that good as I find the sound very ‘boxy’. Its redeeming feature is it is as light as a feather. But!!!!!! Orange AD200 B mk3 , what more could anyone want, simple to use, enough power to fill any room, fantastic tone. One I will never sell.

[alexa3020]

Hartke HA5500 - as good as any amp I've owned

Ashdown ABM 600 - on par with the Hartke

Trace Elliott Elf - I love this amp, plug in with EQ set at noon and you're good to go. Plenty of volume too when paired with the right cab

 

The best sounding amp I've heard live is an svt. I have had limited playing time with one, but I was a bit underwhelmed when using one. Probably a bit of a learning curve when you're not used to tube power sections

[danbowskill]

Having gone through many, many amps

My 3 are

.fender superbassman

.my old US Ampeg Cl

.my main Amp now (can't handle the above weight no more) Warwick tube path 1000... The closest I've found to sound like a big tube amp that isn't, I bloody love it and can't see me changing. Even though it's not the most sexy looking

 

As far as micro amps go , the Mark bass TTE heads ... If it had a better EQ they would be incredible, such a big valve amp feel

Edited June 3 by danbowskill

[ern500evo]

1 hour ago, danbowskill said:

Having gone through many, many amps

My 3 are

.fender superbassman

.my old US Ampeg Cl

.my main Amp now (can't handle the above weight no more) Warwick tube path 1000... The closest I've found to sound like a big tube amp that isn't, I bloody love it and can't see me changing. Even though it's not the most sexy looking

 

As far as micro amps go , the Mark bass TTE heads ... If it had a better EQ they would be incredible, such a big valve amp feel

I had the Tubepath 5.1 and agree, they’re excellent amps. 

[Marty Forrer]

GB Streamliner

GB Streamliner

GB Streamliner

 

[Dan Dare]

The ones I own, of course...

[Rich]

The three best sounding amps I've had, in no particular order:

• Genz-Benz Shuttle (the 6.0 I used to have, and the 9.2 I have now) -- clean, powerful, and ridiculously light... the perfect amp for a gigging 59-year-old  
• Eden WT400 -- lovely uncoloured sound. The best live sound I've ever had was when I borrowed @Kiwi's old Ken Smith BSR 5 and played it through the Eden. They were made for each other.
• Trace Elliot GP12SMX -- still my favourite preamp of all time.

 

[Kiwi]

10 hours ago, Rich said:

The three best sounding amps I've had, in no particular order:

• Genz-Benz Shuttle (the 6.0 I used to have, and the 9.2 I have now) -- clean, powerful, and ridiculously light... the perfect amp for a gigging 59-year-old  
• Eden WT400 -- lovely uncoloured sound. The best live sound I've ever had was when I borrowed @Kiwi's old Ken Smith BSR 5 and played it through the Eden. They were made for each other.
• Trace Elliot GP12SMX -- still my favourite preamp of all time.

 

The Genz and the Eden kind of shared the same thing in common - plenty of midrange.  The number of bass rigs I've played through with the mids scooped and I have no idea how the owner can hear themselves on stage. 

I still have my Shuttle 6's and even replaced the power amp board in one of them myself.  Still great bass amps - I can even run my Kemper through the aux ins and use them just as power amps.  Very modern and tight sounding but not lacking in warmth where it matters.  I can hear myself really clearly on stage.

My favourite bass amp is the Mesa Boogie Bass 400+.  It weighs the same as a small black hole but...sweet and clean highs with slight compression, plenty of neutral mids and an immersive amount of low end without it ever sounding boomy.  I would own one again but realistically it would never leave the house and I have a Trace Hexavalve anyway...(which I haven't played yet despite owning it for 6 years.)

[Baloney Balderdash]

40 minutes ago, Kiwi said:

The number of bass rigs I've played through with the mids scooped and I have no idea how the owner can hear themselves on stage. 

They can't...

 

That's when you get people complaining about not being able to hear them self with an 800W amp, and asking for more power, where a 200W amp under normal circumstances would have been more than plenty.

 

And honestly I have never really got what it is that is supposed to sound so great about scooped mids, sounds like wet fart to my ears.

 

Trace Elliot are some other amps that sounds amazing, as long as you refrain from pushing the dreaded, so called "Pre Shape", mid suck buttons. 

 

Edited June 6 by Baloney Balderdash

[Rich]

8 hours ago, Kiwi said:

The Genz and the Eden kind of shared the same thing in common - plenty of midrange.  The number of bass rigs I've played through with the mids scooped and I have no idea how the owner can hear themselves on stage. 
 

Yes, the Signal Shape 'Mid Scoop' button on my Genz always remains disengaged.

I wish I could go back in time and tell my 22 year old self to stop trying to get a good sound with that stupid smiley EQ curve everybody used.

[Rich]

7 hours ago, Baloney Balderdash said:

Trace Elliot are some other amps that sounds amazing, as long as you refrain from pushing the dreaded, so called "Pre Shape", mid suck buttons. 

 

The GP12SMX Trace preamp has two pre-shape settings, IIRC one of them actually sounds ok. But I never used either of them live.

[neepheid]

Sad face EQ FTW.

[Kiwi]

13 hours ago, Baloney Balderdash said:

And honestly I have never really got what it is that is supposed to sound so great about scooped mids, sounds like wet fart to my ears.

It's not even just eq settings - sometimes it comes down to the colouring of the bass and amp.  One rig I played through was a Smith (mid scooped) into an Eden WT800 (also upper mid scooped).  Enough mid range was removed that all I got was woof with some string noise.  And the owner was a gospel player with some complicated harmonic runs at times.  I was bewildered at how he managed to avoid bum notes. 

[Japhet]

16 minutes ago, Kiwi said:

It's not even just eq settings - sometimes it comes down to the colouring of the bass and amp.  One rig I played through was a Smith (mid scooped) into an Eden WT800 (also upper mid scooped).  Enough mid range was removed that all I got was woof with some string noise.  And the owner was a gospel player with some complicated harmonic runs at times.  I was bewildered at how he managed to avoid bum notes. 

 

The Eden WT series have about the most infinitely tweakable eq out there in my opinion. The mids have 3 sections that you can independently centre and boost or cut. Very surprised you couldn't get a decent sound out of it.

[gjones]

13 hours ago, Baloney Balderdash said:

They can't...

 

That's when you get people complaining about not being able to hear them self with an 800W amp, and asking for more power, where a 200W amp under normal circumstances would have been more than plenty.

 

And honestly I have never really got what it is that is supposed to sound so great about scooped mids, sounds like wet fart to my ears.

 

Trace Elliot are some other amps that sounds amazing, as long as you refrain from pushing the dreaded, so called "Pre Shape", mid suck buttons. 

 

 

It's for the old slappers

 

[Kiwi]

18 hours ago, Japhet said:

 

The Eden WT series have about the most infinitely tweakable eq out there in my opinion. The mids have 3 sections that you can independently centre and boost or cut. Very surprised you couldn't get a decent sound out of it.

To a point, yes.  I owned a WT800 for a while and it was a very flexible platform.  But it was still coloured, as many bass amps were in the mid eighties to noughties.   I had three Smiths too and I ended up selling the WT800 because I couldn't hear the Smiths through it on stage. It's an amp better suited for a Jazz bass or something else quite bright.  It's the same thing with SWR amps which, I'll also add, make bright, graphite necked basses sound fabulously fat and sweet for some reason.  I never had a chance to test something like a Status bass through an Eden WT800 but I've been a proponent of matching basses to amps for over a decade.

[Bagman]

L2 Steinberger + SWR was quite nice 

[Royaly T]

Recently purchased GR AT800 cube combo and then the AT 112 cube.

Head and shoulders above anything tone and volume wise that I've had previously, (Ashdown Fender TC Electronics) and so easy to load unload.

A and B'd with Markbass, massive difference, massive price difference too but we'll worth it for me.

1 GR AT800 cube + AT 112

2 TC electronics RH750 + RS210

3 Ashdown 600 + ABM 610.

Edited July 27 by Royaly T

[msb]

I’m a Bergantino fanboi , and usually run a tube preamp for some old school warmth. I don’t own any Mesa gear , but they do make wonderful things. Was a GK user for many many  years. And like both Darkglass and Aguilar too. 

 

There are a lot of European amps that interest me that we simply do not see here. Jad Freer , Eich , Glockenklang and Vanderkley quickly come to mind. Trickfish and Fuch in the US have some relatively new interesting amps. And are impossible to find locally. It’s expensive to import gear from the US. Unfortunately the local stores just seem to stock the same old generic gear. 
 

There really are a ton of interesting options out there these days.

[Mudpup]

Having been through bloody loads of amps over the last 15 years I've ended up with these ones below. My main criteria is that they must work in a band context with a hairy arsed drum basher, have plenty of slam and I can carry them.

 

In order of preference

 

• Mesa Big Block BB750 - just a brilliant valvey big rock amp. Sustain and heft for days. Straightforward EQ too. Quite rare though.
• Orange 4 Stroke - Half the weight of the Mesa and has similar grunt. Massively flexible EQ but sounds great pretty much flat. Onboard comp really fattens it up without losing dynamics. Even more rare than the Mesa.
• Quilter Bass Block BB800 - the only class D amp that I've found that doesn't get squeezy and shouty when you push the volume. Great EQ when you know how to use it and a great power amp to run a preamp pedal through.

[Minininjarob]

This thread is not helping the thought in my head that I need an SVT. 

[bigbottomend]

1. My 1973 SVT +810 - I (maybe) will never sell 

2. SVT-2 +810

3. Heritage B15 

[shug]

On 25/05/2024 at 02:24, DGBass said:

I've played through a lot of amps over the years but have come to appreciate what I have now as some of the best sounding and most versatile I've owned and used. These three are the most often actually used in my gear stash for different reasons, and my top three selection of currently used amps.

 

 

The Ashdown ABM really is a swiss army knife of bass amps and I haven't been without an ABM now for over ten years. It's a tested design and taking the time to really get to know it's EQ will reveal a myriad of useable tones. It's also what I use for the louder gigs and it always delivers.

The Ashdown Labs MK500 is also used during louder gigs and has the volume of the ABM but has a very much more refined Hi Fi quality. Sounds wonderful with my Player P-Bass with the five year old flats on it. Silky smooth clicky tones and it's also Hi Fi quiet noise wise, and even with the master on full it's difficult to tell its switched on at idle. The harmonic emphasis knob is a mysterious and wonderful thing. Not quite sure what it does but it makes everything sound great.

The mid nineties Trace Elliot GP7 SM130 has been my most gigged amp of late as I've switched to mostly to low volume small bar gigs. It's never up more than half way and is more than loud enough. It's been a revelation playing gigs with only 130 or less Trace Elliot watts and the Ashdown's aren't currently getting as much use. The GP7 SM pre-amp is a wonder of simplicity to use and has so many great and classic tones. The EQ balance knob in particular has such a dramatic influence on the useable tones with even a small tweak. 

The EQ Balance knob on those TE's is the single most useful control I've ever found on any amp. Genius!

[VTypeV4]

I'll play.. 😃

 

1: Trace Elliot V-Type - the full-fat all-valve examples..

2: Trace Elliot SMX - almost certianly the 400w version but the EQ and compressor in the preamp are very special..

3: Ampeg SVT CL - a lovely sounding and surprisingly flexible tool..

 

If I was to add a fourth, I'd go with EBS, probably an HD350.