Good LOUD amp????

appledyl · #1 10-09-2010, 10:36 PM

Hey! I'm in a band and my 1x12'' Carvin amp cannot handle loud volumes, and it results in loud guitars and drums, but a very quiet bass. What is a good bass amp that is really loud around $150 to $200. Isn't peavey a good choice???

AsianVoodoo · #2 10-09-2010, 10:41 PM

It also depends on your head. Also, just get ppl to turn down. No need to blow out your ears for practice. And if your drummer can't play quieter... well that's another discussion.

mhead · #3 10-09-2010, 11:04 PM

Quieter is the way to go. But that's a little hard for guitar players.
Anything around 300 Watts should work for you, $ 200 might not be enough. Peavy is cool, not the best though. Look for carvin or hartke on ebay.

OtterOnBass · #4 10-09-2010, 11:08 PM

Anyone here speak the English?

Can't hear yourself in your band? Put your combo amp near a wall (corner is better) and tilt it up towards your ears. Stand near it.

waleross · #5 10-10-2010, 12:51 AM

Save your money. You need at least $1500 to buy anything decent .

totallyfrozen · #6 10-10-2010, 01:19 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by appledyl

Hey! I'm in a band and my 1x12'' Carvin amp cannot handle loud volumes, and it results in loud guitars and drums, but a very quiet bass. What is a good bass amp that is really loud around $150 to $200. Isn't peavey a good choice???

Does this $200 limit include the money you expect to get from selling the amp that you have now?

**crustychef** · #7 10-10-2010, 01:21 AM

No, you can find something for a around $600.
Scroll down to the Avatar 212 ($249) and Hartke LH1000 ($349)
http://www.bassnw.com/usedamps.htm
http://www.avatarspeakers.com/

http://www.samsontech.com/products/p...fm?prodID=1942

I am in no way affiliated with BassNW nor is this my gear on consignment or anything like that.

WingKL · #8 10-10-2010, 01:32 AM

By the smiley I'm assuming you're joking right Waleross? You can get a GK amp used and some decent cab for less than half that amount. @OP, if you want loud you can get a used Avatar cab to use as an extension cab to your Carvin for not a whole lot of money. Look around on your local craigslist, ebay etc.

baron665 · #9 10-10-2010, 01:34 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by waleross

Save your money. You need at least $1500 to buy anything decent .

not true. He'll need at least $500 for anything decent.

**duff84** · #10 10-10-2010, 01:41 AM

if you can find one an acoustic 150 amp head. sounds like it wouldn't be enough but damnit its way louder than my ampeg svt3pro and seems right in the ballpark of my old carvin brx2x12 combo that thing was ridiculous. acoustic is a good clean bass tone, with a pick u might need to turn the treble down

Jazz Ad · #11 10-10-2010, 02:00 AM

If you go 2nd hand you should be able to find gigable, used gear for little more than 200. YOu can probably find a way to get a bit more if you sell the Carvin.
Since on a tight budget, favor 1x15" combos. They tend to have the best loudness/price ratio.
Yorkville Bassmaster, Peavey TNT, Hartke Hydrive and SWR Workingman are the usual suspects.

Rafael · #12 10-10-2010, 02:13 AM

For years I gigged with two guitar players and a loud drummer with a craigslist Behringer 4x10 cab $100 and a used Seymour/Duncan 400 worth about $150....if I needed more volume I'd drag along a used 1x15 cab worth about another c-note, so basically I could get by with a $250 rig and when pressed a $350 rig, and I was plenty loud....with both cabs the Seymour pumps 600watts @ 2 ohms....I'm just getting too old to shlep all that stuff up two flights of stairs to my house, so now I'm moving to a Carvin BX500 and homemade lite weight 4x10 cabs....

elroyjetsn · #13 10-10-2010, 02:53 AM

Fender BXR's can be found for cheap and are LOUD...I use a BXR200 head and a Peavey 1810 cab and never need to go over 4 even outside. Spent only 250 US.

MAMMOTHvolume · #14 10-10-2010, 04:49 AM

you can't expect a 112 to get super loud.

steve_rolfeca · #15 10-10-2010, 05:56 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by MAMMOTHvolume

you can't expect a 112 to get super loud.

+1 on that.

12's have an interesting tone, but unless you spend big $$$, they don't play all that loud before farting out.

Three suggestions:

1. Check your EQ and gain settings.

A thousand watts is fun to have, but if you can't keep up with an un-amplified drummer with 150-200 watts, something is wrong. A lot of guys make the mistake of going for a studio tone when they play live. The secret to live volume, is in the mids. A good starting point is to leave the bass and treble at noon, and start pushing the mids a little. I'm not familiar with your Carvin, but you can probably get it up to at least 2 or 3 o'clock without sounding totally gross. The resulting mid-heavy tone will sound bad when you're practicing at home, but when the band is playing, it will "bloom" into a nice, fat bass tone with lots of definition.

2. Check your gain settings.

If you had your bass control dimed and the mids scooped, you were wasting a lot of headroom. With the mids up and the bass at noon or even a little less, you should be able to turn the amp up quite a bit more before it farts out. The next step, is to tweak the gain and master volume. A lot of people run the gain too high. Try going the other way- set the gain at zero, dime the master, and then start gently turning the gain up. You might be surprised at how much "extra" power you discover.

3. Add speaker size.

Cone area is the key, if you're looking to add volume on a budget. If your 12 is already farting out, a bigger amp won't make you louder- it will just kill your speaker that much faster. But adding an extension cab is roughly the equivalent of doubling your wattage. Plus, a stack looks cool on stage, it will reduce the stress on your 12, and it beefs up the low end.

Talk to a tech about impedance (8 ohms vs 4 ohms vs 2 ohms) so you know what you can safely hook up to your amp, and then start looking for used 1*15 cabs. Because most people are into 10's and 12's these days, you can sometimes pick up a used Peavey Black Widow or other heavy-duty 15 for about a C-note.

A single 1*15 should give you the booty you need, run in a stack with your existing 12. Or if you can ditch the 12, you could stack your amp with a pair of 15's. That ought to be enough to tear your drummer a new one...

woody357 · #16 10-10-2010, 06:16 AM

I don't know but the op sounds like they could be a young person who my not have the cash flow to spend $500. or more. He can find something that will give him a little more volume for $200. I found a Kustom 1200 head on craigslist for $150. IMHO the best advice i have read is for him to back his amp up in a corner, and for the other band members to come down, and save his money to get a good amp.

taphappy · #17 10-10-2010, 08:55 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by totallyfrozen

Does this $200 limit include the money you expect to get from selling the amp that you have now?

That.

Which Carvin do you have? The MB12? It has a mid-range driver, so mids are probably not your issue. If the tone isn't to your liking, sell the amp, you should be able to get around $400 for it - with $200 on top of that, you have a few options for head/cab combos.

IMPORTANT: Read this for a basic overview of impedance before you destroy your equipment: http://www.tunemybass.com/bass_amps/..._cabinets.html

If you like the tone, and it's just a volume issue, the MB12 runs at 200w@8ohms, 250@4ohms.

All those Carvin "micro" combo speakers are 8ohm. So you can get another 8ohm cab with your $200 and run both, which will be your amp's limit - 4ohms. The extra 50 watts doesn't really do anything. I tell you this so you don't do something silly. Hooking up a 4ohm cabinet to the MB12 will bring your amp down to 2.667ohms of resistance, which will produce a rather unique smell, which will then lead to great suffering.

Too many watts into a cabinet = blown speakers. Too little resistance into a head = fried head.

Meanwhile, back in happy land - adding an 8ohm cabinet will greatly increase your volume. If you like the sound of that amp, it'd be hard to go wrong with an Avatar B212 on a budget. But, 8ohm cabinets come in all shapes and sizes if you want to do something different. I would also suggest the extension cab route, as it's nice to have a little combo amp option for upright gigs.

Backup plan: If you outgrow it, you can always sell the MB12 and get a higher powered head to go with the extension cab. Or skip the experiment altogether and get that LH-1000 w/an Avatar cab. If you go this route, there are more suggestions to consider for pairing to match cab and amp.

In the end, if THAT doesn't work on your drummer, I'd suggest something like this:

SGD Lutherie · #18 10-10-2010, 09:24 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Jazz Ad

Yorkville Bassmaster...

I used one of those a few weeks back. The Bassmaster 800. Man that thing kicked series butt! I could get any tone I wanted from it, and they all sounded like me and my bass. Very cool amp.

Hartke amps are good too.

MNAirHead · #19 10-10-2010, 01:10 PM

Plenty of ways to do this for around $200.. they will not be used .. probably on Craigslist.

Probably not gear folks will swoon over -- the audience never knows or cares.

Zooberwerx · #20 10-10-2010, 01:30 PM

With your budget, you'll find something a little louder but it may still be a losing battle given the "sonic wars" with the guitarist & drummer. Any way you can scrounge up some extra bucks before pulling the trigger? Keep in mind that you'll need addt'l power and speakers to have any significant impact. Here's an alternative: watch CL and snag an inexpensive power amp and either a 2 X 10 or 4 X 10 enclosure. There must be a way to run a line out from your combo to the "slave" power amp. Come to think of it, this would make an excellent gig-worthy rig.

Riis