The Gretsch Pages: Discussions: The Bass-ment:

Bass Amp Recomendations?

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- Rated: 10 ↑
Mar 1, 2008 5:43 a.m. pickerpete:

Well, I got the Fender J-Bass...not bad at all. The next step is getting a nicer bass amp.

I have a Peavey Basic 40 but I feel it has a very limited synthetic sound.

I'm looking for an amp with a more natural sound that can vary from warm to gritty and could also do a nice job with a stand up bass which I also play professionally. Styles range from jazz to rockabilly, blues and country...not much standard rock. And, oh yes, it should be portable, 40 pounds would be plenty but able to handle small clubs without working to hard.

Thanks.
- Rated: 43 ↑
Mar 1, 2008 8:24 a.m. Jeff O(h, The Places You'll Go):

To get all that you need to be I Dream of Jeannie !

Your only hope is to get something with a direct out, use the small combo as a monitor, and pump the signal through the sound board.
- Rated: 43 ↑
Mar 1, 2008 8:25 a.m. Jeff O(h, The Places You'll Go):

Be a man and get an SVT !
- Rated: 10 ↑
Mar 1, 2008 9:07 a.m. pickerpete:

Thanks for the reply. Looks expensive!
- Rated: 27 ↑
Mar 1, 2008 10:09 a.m. cyclopssam:

bass law, you need at lest 200 watts of power(as told to me by a wise old man) i tend to agree with him over the years,in this day&age that shouldn't be a problem.there are hundreds of bass combos out there between ampeg,SWR,peavey&eden,there's a combo for you,they all tend to sound top notch.i like my little ampeg B2 1x15 combo good luck!
- Rated: 10 ↑
Mar 1, 2008 11:42 a.m. pickerpete:

Thanks cyclo. That's along the lines of where I'm going. Anyone with experience with a nice combo amp in the $400 range thank can do a nice job with an upright and electric. Or maybe, as others have suggested here, run my Gretcsh through a Bassman. Would that do it all?
- Rated: 1 ↑
Mar 1, 2008 10:38 p.m. freeman:

I am also looking for a similar amp. One that has caught my interest is this Ampeg at Musician's friend.

http://www.musiciansfriend.com/product/Ampeg-BA112-50W-Single-12-Combo?sku=481776

The reviews on that site, as well as at Harmony Cental are all extremely positive. Many references to depth, versitility and warmth of tone. At 50 watts it won't be loud, but since I am just learning the bass I am more interested in getting good tone. Reviewers seemed to like this 12" amp better than the 15" of the same model. A couple reviews were from standup players.
- Rated: 10 ↑
Mar 2, 2008 5:51 a.m. pickerpete:

Thanks Freeman,

I've heard, as cyclopssam points out, that 200n watts is the magic number when it comes to bass amps. Is that strictly a volume issue or does it affect tone as well? Since I'm not going to be playing much rock at all volume is not really crucial. If wattage is a big deal this looked like it might be a winner: http://www.musiciansfriend.com/product/Crate-BT220-220W-1x15-2Channel-Bass-Combo?s...
- Rated: 82 ↑
Mar 2, 2008 8:21 a.m. Mark Synchro:

IMO, it really comes down to circumstances. If you are playing along with a drummer that is pretty loud 200 watts might be an absolute neccessity. A lot of bassists have used less and done OK.

If you look at Surf bands from the '60s you'll see that a lot of those bassists were using blackface Bassman amps so they were at 50 watts. Bassists in Rock bands in the '60s and into the '70s were known to use Marshalls which usually meant 50 or 100 watts.
- Rated: 43 ↑
Mar 2, 2008 8:50 a.m. Jeff O(h, The Places You'll Go):

If you want the skinny on Bass Amp, rely on CyclopsSam. He's bought and sold more than anyone I know of.

You're up early, Mark.

And Mark, those are tube amps at 50 and 100 watts. All the combos out today are Solid State.
- Rated: 27 ↑
Mar 2, 2008 11:24 a.m. cyclopssam:

blown up is more the case,he,he! oh there's something inheritly cool sounding between a peavey "TKO" & a fender jazz bass punchy mid goodness(((IMOH))))

again good luck!
- Rated: 10 ↑
Mar 2, 2008 8:24 p.m. pickerpete:

Thanks folks. Much appreciated!
- Rated: 20 ↑
Mar 9, 2008 9:07 a.m. bobcat:

We bought our son an Ampeg 100 watt combo with a 15 in speaker. He play with me and competes with no problem with my Blues Deluxe. It has a tube preamp and solid state power amp. He loves it, and would not trade it for anything.
- Rated: 10 ↑
Mar 10, 2008 5:19 a.m. pickerpete:

Thanks Bobcat--I'll put that on my wish list.
- Rated: 28 ↑
Mar 10, 2008 8:35 a.m. fws6:

I like the Gallien Krueger heads like the 1000RB. Very affordable, enormous power and headroom great, clean sound. It goes extremely well with double bass. Also many rock bassist seem to like it (Flea always was their most prominent endorser) but I never used it for anything else than playing clean on my Jap J-bass and (of course) double bass.
- Rated: 36 ↑
Mar 12, 2008 5:08 p.m. dubkitty:

whatever you get, use a 15" speaker. bassists using banks of cabinets with 10" speakers was the first Sign of the Apocalypse.
- Rated: 11 ↑
Mar 13, 2008 1:04 a.m. LDC:

I have owned several bass amps. The best overall I have ever had were Gallien-Krueger. I have a cheapo Backline 350 with 4x10 cab. The 400RB is a classic bass sound if you want to shell out about $300 on a head and pair it with a good cab.
- Rated: 8 ↑
Apr 2, 2008 12:36 p.m. cwhowell2:

I am searching for a good practice amp under $400 as well. I've narrowed it down to: Peavey Max112 Ampeg BA112 Fender Rumble60 Fender Bassman100 GK Backline112 I use a P-Bass and a GB41 A/E and play clean only. I have owned a GK Backline 110 and thought it was great. My critical issue is weight. The Bassman100, although the most expensive, is only 25lbs while all the others are 40-50lbs. I am not afraid of the little 10" speaker since I compared my new Princeton (10") against my Delta Blues 15". The Fender wins hands down. So size definitly is NOT everything in speakers. Bill
- Rated: 22 ↑
Apr 2, 2008 6:39 p.m. gretschiam:

My favorite is the SWR Workingman's 12. Small, great sound, versitile.
- Rated: 28 ↑
Apr 2, 2008 10:02 p.m. crowbone:

Take a look at the Hartke combos

They pack a wallop and fit in the trunk of a small car.

Very versatile amps, them are.
- Rated: 10 ↑
Apr 2, 2008 10:09 p.m. Rex:

I'll third the Gallien-Krueger. My younger brother plays jazz bass in a pro group and swears by them.
- Rated: 0 ↑
Jun 29, 2008 11:49 a.m. simon:

You could do worse than an Ashdown. I've got the EB12-180 (12" speaker/180 watts). Nice and compact and delivers a good punch to the solar plexus. Also sports a beautifully retro VU meter above the input jacks and visually fits very nicely with my 6070. Let's face it, that's what counts!
- Rated: 0 ↑
Jun 29, 2008 3:47 p.m. Gigatron:

I played bass for many years and the best sounding amp I ever had was a Gallien Krueger MB 150. At one point I had two of them (the head and the 1-12" combo) going into 2 Electro-voice 15" speakers.

A close second was a Fender 300PS into 2-15s, but that was a monster to lug around.
- Rated: 40 ↑
Jul 1, 2008 11:53 a.m. BillyZoom:

The Gallien Kruegers seem to be the standard amps for electric bass these days. For upright, most of the players I work with think the Fender Bassman 135 is the Grail. The 50w Bassmans like Brian uses are great for guitar, but were always pretty useless for bass. BZ
- Rated: 35 ↑
Jul 1, 2008 7:22 p.m. roadjunkie:

21 pounds! Yes sir like I said 21 pounds! I have the 8 inch version (18 lbs.) which would be good for small gigs, practice and capable of pulling 300 watts with another 8 ohm cab. There's also a 375-600 watt version with a 12 and 2x10 cab available!

Over on http://talkbass.com they've been carrying on about these Shuttles and the Markbass Little Mark II