Bass head or power amp?

[FallenAngel2138]

Hello everyone! I'm new to this community so I apologize if this thread has already been posted.

I'm looking to build a new bass rig. I currently play out of behringer ultrabass bx4500h and a Hartke 410 cab. I was unexperienced as a bass player when I bought it and someone was selling it cheap. I have unfortunately gotten use to it's horrible sound. But I'm ready to move on! We just finished recording our new album and I played through a sansamp tech 21. I loved it so I went ahead and bought a tech 21 rbi. So what I'm asking is should I look for a bass head or a separate power amp? And which ones are good? I hear good stuff about crown and qsc and I would hope so if I'm gonna have to spend that much money on something! I eventually want to get a new cab but for now I can use my Hartke. Any advice would be appreciated

[jacojbass]

I just got a crown xls drive core 1000, a sans amp along various effect. I just pick a cab size for the event and go. It weights less than most bass amps has more power and cost very little, and is flexible to a lot of cab combos. Oh yea and sounds killer.

[Musicman_00]

Personally I have the Sansamp RBI and an old QSC USA 900. Works great for me plenty of head room. I don't use distortion. It's all about clarity for me. Now it is on the heavy side but they have lightweight power amps now so it's no longer an issue. I was eyeballing a Carvin power amp myself but to each his/her own.

I do play through a old Peavey 410 TX. Sounds great but I'll probably put some Eminence BP 102's in it.

[MNAirHead]

Depends on your needs/wants...

I have both options.. RARELY do I use the rackmount poweramp+ etc.

Commonly for live, simplicity is essential --- When blindly going out, I'll dig for a head and cab (mated to the veunue and use) or if possible some type of kickback combo amp (I have several)

My preferred would be a quality kickback combo.. then feed a signal to the board from the onboard DI.

[FallenAngel2138]

Awesome, thanks for the input! Yeah I'm not a fan of bass distortion. I love a very clean sound. I'm currently watching a crown xls1000, a couple of the crown ce1000s, a ce2000, a mackie and a carvin power amp on eBay. So I may go with one of those....

[jnewmark]

I use both types of set ups, and clearly, for max headroom, you can't beat a power amp, especially the newer lightweight ones that can give 1500+ watts of power, if you need it. If you don't need that kind of power, then the new lightweight bass heads can give you up to 1200 watts. The thing with power amps is that you have the option of running different cab ohms on each side, and with some, the option of 2 ohm loads. Bottom line, if you are just running one cab and don't need gobs of power, stick with a bass head.

[FallenAngel2138]

Well I'm a fan of "more is better"! Currently I only run out of one cab but eventually I'll upgrade, I just wanna the "brain" business taken care of so far the setup looks like this....

*Sansamp Tech 21 rbi
*BBE Sonic Maximizer
*Furman PL-Plus DMC
*Korg DTR-1000
*Alesis Microverb4 (to experiment with)
*whatever poweramp I decide on

Now most of that is in my head, I do have the sansamp and Korg, but I'm working towards the rest then I'll work on my cabs