New here deciding on an amp.

[guidedbyechoes]

Hello everyone I'm fairly new to bass. Played it for a year using a crate bass amp and quit and got into guitar for about 7 years.

Well I'm trying to pick an amp and I've gotten it narrowed down to 3

the peavey tour 700
TC Elctronic bh500
Ashdown mag 600

I plan on playing progressive/stoner metal ala mastodon, Karnivool and Opeth. My new bass will be a 5 string douglas, mostly because if I don't really enjoy bass I still have a bass to play with for recording. But I want to look into amps and cabs now to decide what to get if I enjoy it enough to start selling my current amps. Amps that I don't need as I don't gig.




They are all vastly different feature wise and I'm fine with using a pedal so onboard distortion is not a necessity. Any help will be appreciated

[Joe Louvar]

Welcome to TB - sorry, I have no experience with any of those amps but you can bet someone here has. Anyway, welcome to the TB amp forum.

[Mr Antt]

Welcome

I looked at those three myself, and for what you'll pay there's not much in it. From what I've heard, the Peavey will last a long time, and he Ashdown is a classic amp, supposedly sounds really nice. Unfortunately, the only experience I have with any is the BH500, since that's what I bought. I guess I'm somewhat biased really.

Personally, I think the BH500 is great, and there are loads of videos on TC's website explaining all the features and what not. There's also a great demo by Uriah Duffy

If you can go try any of them, then by all means do. And make the decision based on what's best for you, like I said. That's just my opinion, it sounds good to me but might not to you.

Anthony.

[sad_katz]

I've played the BH500, heard the MAG600, no idea about the Peavey.

The BH500 thru Ashdown ABM 410 cab sounds very dark and warm. Not a lot of mid-range punch and treble, IIRC. Great for praise-n-worship, blues n older songs, not quite rock/metal stuff. Could be due to the cab pairing.

The MAG600 has more punch compared to BH500 and would work better for rock/metal. It's a budget/beginner's amp so don't expect much from it. I like the ABM amp waaay better. More punch and grind. You can find a used ABM for the price of a new MAG, I think.

The Peavey would outlast and outlive the other two. Their stuff are solidly built (and heavy). Can't heklp about the tone, sorry.

What are your cab choices?

[dukeisdog]

I love my Peavey Tour 700. I'm using it with a Mesa Powerhouse 412 and my Spector Euro 5LX. I love my rig, it sounds killer. I play metal and hard rock, and this amp has tons of power.

It wont give you a nice overdrive, but of you combine the clean tone of the amp with a good fuzz or OD pedal then you'd be set.

[guidedbyechoes]

Originally Posted by Joe Louvar

Welcome to TB - sorry, I have no experience with any of those amps but you can bet someone here has. Anyway, welcome to the TB amp forum.

Thank you.

Originally Posted by Mr Antt

Welcome

I looked at those three myself, and for what you'll pay there's not much in it. From what I've heard, the Peavey will last a long time, and he Ashdown is a classic amp, supposedly sounds really nice. Unfortunately, the only experience I have with any is the BH500, since that's what I bought. I guess I'm somewhat biased really.

Personally, I think the BH500 is great, and there are loads of videos on TC's website explaining all the features and what not. There's also a great demo by Uriah Duffy

If you can go try any of them, then by all means do. And make the decision based on what's best for you, like I said. That's just my opinion, it sounds good to me but might not to you.

Anthony.

The uriah video was the first one I saw. I thought the tube tone was a nice feature I just didn't like the higher gain settings on it.

Originally Posted by sad_katz

I've played the BH500, heard the MAG600, no idea about the Peavey.

The BH500 thru Ashdown ABM 410 cab sounds very dark and warm. Not a lot of mid-range punch and treble, IIRC. Great for praise-n-worship, blues n older songs, not quite rock/metal stuff. Could be due to the cab pairing.

The MAG600 has more punch compared to BH500 and would work better for rock/metal. It's a budget/beginner's amp so don't expect much from it. I like the ABM amp waaay better. More punch and grind. You can find a used ABM for the price of a new MAG, I think.

The Peavey would outlast and outlive the other two. Their stuff are solidly built (and heavy). Can't heklp about the tone, sorry.

What are your cab choices?

My current guitar amp is an 80s peavey. So I know they are built to last. I couldn't really find any videos of the thing. It seems to have the most tone shaping options. but no preset options or compression abilities.

As for a cab I was looking into avatar as I currently have one for guitar and it's still going strong after being my first cab.

Originally Posted by dukeisdog

I love my Peavey Tour 700. I'm using it with a Mesa Powerhouse 412 and my Spector Euro 5LX. I love my rig, it sounds killer. I play metal and hard rock, and this amp has tons of power.

It wont give you a nice overdrive, but of you combine the clean tone of the amp with a good fuzz or OD pedal then you'd be set.

Would you care to toss up a video or two? The only one I've heard was a brighter svt-esque tone.

[dukeisdog]

I currently can't record ATM as I don't have my bass, I should be getting it back from the shop tonight or tomorrow, I can take a few sound clips of the amp.

I actually also own an Avatar 212 (was my first cab before I decided to step up to a 412) and the tone that came from the setup was awesome. You really can't go wrong with Avatar. Also, if you buy the Peavey new, it comes with a standard 5 year warranty. Just something to consider.

[guidedbyechoes]

Any do you really need all the wattage? I've never turned up any of my gear past halfway without it being too much. Of course 50 watt tube guitar amps are rediculously loud. Are there any other suggestions I hard someone mention the peavey mark 4. I'll try checking that out as well.

[guidedbyechoes]

I answered my own question on the wattage. More speakers = more cut.

Has anyone tried the carvin bx series? the 500 and 1500 series look quite nice. dual or triple parametric mids and then a graphic for fine tuning.