Aguilar AG500 or DB 751

[thierryc]

Hello,

I'm a little amateur French bass player, i own a trace elliot GP 7 amp, and want to have a new polyvalent sound (i play blues, funk, pop..), and i own a Marcus Miller fender stock.
Aguilar seems to be a good amp but i'd like to have advices....
Thank you.

[rosstanium]

DB 751 is more versatile and heavier.

AG500 sounds very good, is a little quicker...and obviously less power.

The DB 751 is one of the best amps I've ever owned.

[thierryc]

Hello,
Thank you for your answer, what other amps you owned, and kind of music you play ?

[thisSNsucks]

Originally Posted by rosstanium

DB 751 is more versatile and heavier.

AG500 sounds very good, is a little quicker...and obviously less power.

The DB 751 is one of the best amps I've ever owned.

This pretty much sums it up. You can get a pretty convicing DB751 sound out of the AG500, but nothing sounds as big and round as the DB751.

[babebambi]

The DB750/751 is far from versatile.

If you don't like what it sounds like out of the box, you will have to go through your tubes (rolling) to make significant changes to your sound. The EQ does not help you get different tone, just subtle tweaks. But an Aguilar ToneHammer will remedy all that.

The AG500 EQ is far more powerful than the DB by itself, IMO/IME. The AG also has an additional OD channel (a la Agro pedal)

[EricF]

I would agree that the DB750/751 is not the most versitile sounding amp on the market, but once I find a sound that I like, I rarely need more than minor tweeks to suit the room I'm in. The DB750 is "it" for me, and has left my Ampeg SVT collecting dust.

[chris lykins]

The 750 is a one tone machine but with certain of my basses its magic and with others meh. If you hit gold with the combo theres nothing fatter. It tends to be great with basses that have kinda high output pups where you get a cool mix of snarl but fidelity.

[rust_preacher]

I am in the same situation with amp choices as Thierry. I play a Telecaster bass, a G & L L-1000, and a American Deluxe Precision. I have one DB212 cabinet and another on the way. I am jonesing for a DB751 but I am wondering if I could get by with an AG500. I do not have the need to cover a wide variety of sounds, I am tending toward classic rock and alternative country, nothing too distorted, more like traditional sounding stuff. My amps right now are a Little Mark II and an Ampeg V4BH. The logic with two DB212 cabs is that I can break down the full stack for practicing at two locations and put it together if ever I want a bigger sound at rehearsal, or live. The Ampeg is not quite loud enough through one cab on its own. I need to see if the second cabinet remedies my volume needs. I can get sell the Little Mark any time if I decide to upgrade.

[diechris]

So far... the everything Aguilar DB has been the best gear I've used... that whole line is amazing

[gillento]

Originally Posted by rust_preacher

I am in the same situation with amp choices as Thierry. I play a Telecaster bass, a G & L L-1000, and a American Deluxe Precision. I have one DB212 cabinet and another on the way. I am jonesing for a DB751 but I am wondering if I could get by with an AG500. ...
My amps right now are a Little Mark II and an Ampeg V4BH. The logic with two DB212 cabs is that I can break down the full stack for practicing at two locations and put it together if ever I want a bigger sound at rehearsal, or live. ....

I play my 4 ohms db212 with either a 500 watts MarkBass SA450, a Hartke LH-500 or with a 210 watts Sadowsky SA200.

I am absolutely positive that a 500 watts solid state amp is more than loud enough with a single 4 ohms db212!!!

Last week, I tried the db212 with a friend's db750 (for the tird time in a year) and I always come to the conclusion, that the amp is far too loud (too hard to control) to sound good in a room!
But on the other hand, on outdoor gigs it is an amp that is impossible to beat

[naturalkinds]

Having played both and owned th 750 for a long while, I think it woul be impossible to argue that the 750 is even distantly approximate in value to the 500. The 500 gets you 85% of the way to the 750, is less than half the price and weight, and sounds great.

There are way too many great options out there for bassists to be personally shelling out the cash and WEIGHT for a 750 IMHO. I'd spend the $1200 you save on bass lessons.

Also, there is the matter of the DB being extraordinarily inflexible. Sounded great with my jazz. Unusable to me with a dark Pbass, flats and dark cabs.

IMO!

[rosstanium]

Originally Posted by thierryc

Hello,
Thank you for your answer, what other amps you owned, and kind of music you play ?

Ampeg, Genz Benz, Sunn, Ashdown, Hartke, Divided By 13. I play mostly pop and rock. A little country here and there.

I literally received at least one compliment on my tone every night when I played my DB 751 at a gig. Regarding what genres the DB751 and AG500 may seem to compliment well, I'd just check out Aguilar's website and see what players are using. That might give you a good idea regarding it's "versatility." Let the professionals tell you what works for them.

Bottom line, I certainly can't see anyone going wrong with either of the heads. You'll most likely be happy with either one. It's quality gear.

[jasonbraatz]

Originally Posted by naturalkinds

The 500 gets you 85% of the way to the 750, is less than half the price and weight, and sounds great.

This was my experience too. I'm curious if the 751 is a little more flexible to make it worth the weight / price difference.

But man...with a rock band, aggressive bass, and big cab, the 750 was hard to beat.

[babebambi]

Originally Posted by jasonbraatz

This was my experience too. I'm curious if the 751 is a little more flexible to make it worth the weight / price difference.

But man...with a rock band, aggressive bass, and big cab, the 750 was hard to beat.

the 751 is indeed a LITTLE more flexible ...

[Dark Horse]

Versatility is a HIGHLY overrated characteristic in a bass amp IMO. Unless you are concurrently playing gigs (or basses) that are vastly different from one another, your preferred bass tone probably won't vary much. Sure, if you are playing a P Bass with flats for a Motown gig and a BC Rich with steels for a death metal gig, then yeah....versatility may be more important to you. Most of us ...even those like me who play in several projects and do sessions....find a great sound and stick pretty close to it. A amp that is a "one trick pony" but sounds amazing is far better than a "jack of all trades" amp that sounds good for a variety of things but never great.

IMO-IME-YMMV-etc

BTW - I've been gigging with a 500SC for a while now and am extremely happy. It sounds great, has a nice DI, is a reasonable weight, and has been completely reliable. I "almost" bought a 750 when I got the 500SC, but decided I'd prefer to use the extra $$$ elsewhere.

[JeffplaysBass]

Having played both and owned th 750 for a long while, I think it woul be impossible to argue that the 750 is even distantly approximate in value to the 500. The 500 gets you 85% of the way to the 750, is less than half the price and weight, and sounds great.

There are way too many great options out there for bassists to be personally shelling out the cash and WEIGHT for a 750 IMHO. I'd spend the $1200 you save on bass lessons.

....Actually I paid $1300 for my 750 and that included shipping...Its in Mint condition, so your saying the $1200 you save spend on a AG500??? what the AG500 costs $100???

[diechris]

the biggest complaint I have with the 751 is the fact that its VERY powerful...

For smaller rooms i feel like i need to use tweezers to turn the volume knob lol


TM500 on its way to fix that...