Looking for a nice, low price amp

[Confuzzled]

I am currently in a high school big band. We are one of the best in the state, and I am using a school amp. I play on a bass guitar, and I'm working on getting Fishman Full Circles for my upright bass, because I also play bass in an orchestra. The big band I play in is a little unbalanced, with 7 trumpets, 2 trombones, 8 saxes, and a full rhythm section. I was looking at an Acoustic B100, but I am open to take suggestions. By the way, this is my first post, so any advice is greatly appreciated.

[dog1]

Well young man, glad to hear of your interest, and the work you are putting in to your music.

The Acoustic stuff is probably good and low priced. And looking on MF or AMS can be fun. May I suggest that you look for used stuff? You can usually find more bang for the buck when buying used. As for the particular amp, who knows. What I would suggest is that you figure in headroom. In other words, if you buy any amp that has to be turned up more than half way to get the volume you need, then you need more power. To use the same amp for electric and upright can be difficult. And, I assume that money is an object.

You didn't mention what amp you are currently using at school, and why this is not enough for your needs, or if you just want your own rig. If we knew what you currently use, and whether it is similar to what you need, then maybe that would be a starting point.

One thing is for sure. There are plenty of older players who would be anxious to try and help advise a student. After all, even after years, we are all students.

[RickenBoogie]

+1 to buying used. A rough guidline and my best advice is to consider what you need the amp to do. If you need a lot of volume, you want more than a single speaker or a pair of small speakers. Power-wise, anything from 300 watts on up will cover most anything, providing you have adequet speakers to handle the power. Whatever you decide, consider it's ability to "upgrade", ie: with a combo amp, (amp and spkr in one unit), be sure it has an ext spkr jack, so you can add another spkr cab for more volume. With seperates, (amp head/spkr cab), be sure to leave room again for another cab later, meaning if the amp is 4 ohms minimum, DON'T buy a 4 ohm cab- because you won't be able to add another. A really good and fairly inexpensive combo amp would be the GK MB210, which is 300 watts and 2 10's, with the ability to add an additional 2x10 ext cab that would increase power to 500 watts through 4 10's. There's more, but this is an often overlooked feature set that can trap you otherwise. Good luck.

[rdwil191]

Originally Posted by RickenBoogie

+1 to buying used. A rough guidline and my best advice is to consider what you need the amp to do. If you need a lot of volume, you want more than a single speaker or a pair of small speakers. Power-wise, anything from 300 watts on up will cover most anything, providing you have adequet speakers to handle the power. Whatever you decide, consider it's ability to "upgrade", ie: with a combo amp, (amp and spkr in one unit), be sure it has an ext spkr jack, so you can add another spkr cab for more volume. With seperates, (amp head/spkr cab), be sure to leave room again for another cab later, meaning if the amp is 4 ohms minimum, DON'T buy a 4 ohm cab- because you won't be able to add another. A really good and fairly inexpensive combo amp would be the GK MB210, which is 300 watts and 2 10's, with the ability to add an additional 2x10 ext cab that would increase power to 500 watts through 4 10's. There's more, but this is an often overlooked feature set that can trap you otherwise. Good luck.

+1 to this.
I have a B100. $179 new, perfect for me & great little amp. Can add a cab, but for your situation, not enough to keep up with all that brass, let alone a full rhythm section. Listen to RickenBoogie's advice & welcome to TB :-)