| An amp itself should be able to reproduce those low frequencies and their upper partials just fine, but you might need some watts as the bass frequencies tend to eat them up pretty fast.
If it were me I'd look for a "tight" sounding amp/preamp, and possibly an EQ (in the amp is a plus, but secondary) that gives you some pretty flexible control over the lows and low mids. Playing a 5 I often cut the lows in the 30-50 Hz range to "tighten up" the sound. People don't hear the last octave all that well, and have a hard time distinguishing between frequencies as they get lower. Remarkably, the brain fills in the missing note if it can hear the upper harmonics. (There's no way the speaker on your cell phone can reproduce a man's voice, yet they still sound like them).
Pretty much anything cab wise that can handle a 5 string should be fine. It boils down to the sound you want. (of course, different cab voicings may require different EQ adjustments - If you were using a full on biamped system with a PA quality sub and top cab, you might be able to leave the ultra lows alone and shake the room while still having note definition)
I have to ask - when you say drop B and drop A do you mean you are detuning your standard 105-45 strings to do this? If it were me, I'd do any nut and bridge modifications needed and use 130-65 (BEAD strings from a 5 string set) and use that bass for the detuned songs (or just get a 5). The looser your strings are the less definition you get out of them - tuning down a 4th sounds terrible, I even hate playing a half step down (Eb - Gb), especially on light strings.
Second drop question/pet peeve - I assume you mean drop B is BEAD and drop A is ADGC (forgive me if I'm wrong). Generally "drop X" means you detune by one step on the low string only (so drop D tuning is DADG, not DGCF). That makes Drop B tuning BF#BE (frex, used in "duality" by slipknot), and Drop A AEAD.
Last edited by IvanMike : 04-23-2011 at 08:23 AM.
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