suggestions? I have 3 choices.

[slaphappychappy]

Okay. Limited budget.
I have narrowed it down to 3 choices for amp/cab

1: Fender rumble 350 watt head with matching 410 cab

2: Ampeg portaflex 500watt head with the ashdown mag 410 450 watt cab, as it is 8 ohm, the ampeg will be running 300 watts,

3: Ashdown 300 watt mag head with ashdown mag 410 450 watt cab

All combined cost around the same amount give or take a few hundred.
The fender rumble is about 570 with the cab which is about 460,
The ampeg cots $649 and ashdown cab $499
Or the ashdown head and cab both $499.

I'm stuck cos they all sound good, but have a few different features. I do like the ampeg alot, but I am a raging fender fan, but the ashdown is such good value.
aaaargh. what is the most reliable? size wise, the ampeg and fender seem similar, ampeg has a couple more features, but then ashdown has the whole sub harmonic thing..... stuck.

[slaphappychappy]

As u may have noticed I prefer 410 cabs over 115 .

[Son of Bovril]

I'd say most of those amps are pretty evenly matched, I can't see you going wrong with choosing any 1 of them over the others. There are slight tonal variations between the brands so I would play them all and choose whichever gives you the sound that you want irrespective of the brand and cost differences

[slaphappychappy]

They all sound great. It's gunna come down to reliability I think. Hard choice. I've gone through all at this range and these 3 choices are the best. But which one? Lol.

[Sartori]

Why are these your only three choices?

[slaphappychappy]

Becos they are the 3 I like based on prices and sound and power. Also there really isnt a lot of choice in that price range.

[Son of Bovril]

Ask the guys at the store you will buy from which brand gives them the best service then?

[Oobly]

The Ashdown 300 will only be putting around 200W into an 8 ohm cab like the mag 410. The Fender probably a little more.

I would most likely go for the Ampeg if I were you as it will give you more headroom than the other 2.

Thing is, though, have you tried them all with the cab you want to use them with? Do you plan to add another cab later? Are you dead set on a 410 or would you consider other cab options?

[Sartori]

Myself, if my budget was limited (which it always is), I'd look for something used. I don't even bother looking at new stuff, really, since I'm not made of money. But that's just me.


Anyway, out of those three, I'd choose the Ampeg.

But I wouldn't get the mag cab with it. I'd get an Ampeg cab or save up for the Ashdown ABM cab.

[slaphappychappy]

I'm thinking the ampeg, and I have tried it with the ashdown 410 cab and it cranks, as it is an 8ohm cab it means the ampeg is running at 300watts which is plenty for small gigs.
As for choosing 410 cabs, I find they project the sound further, and I dont play heavy on the bottom end, Im more into tone, and the ampeg seems to be the best.

As for asking the guys at the store, a/bh music are salesmen, not musicians if you get my drift, they tend to be focused on the sale amount at the end of the day, and the standard response is "industry standard" which doesnt even mean its good, it means it meets the minimum requirements.

I'm definately thinking the ampeg, That much I know for sure.

I've never run an 8 ohm cab before, so dont really see the differance except the speakers run higher resistance.
With what I want to spend on a cab, the pickins are slim.

[Oobly]

Understood. The prices you list seem rather high to me, though. The Ampeg is only 400 at Amazon, for example.

You can get a killer rig with the budget you list if you look around. If you have a chance, I recommend you try out an Avatar TB153, or if you have some woodwork skill (or even if you don't), check out the fEARful cabs. All the parts for a fEARful + an Ampeg PF500 from Amazon will fit in your budget.

Going a different route, you could get an ART Pro Channel tube preamp / compressor and Crown XLS1000 power amp for less than your quoted cost of the Ampeg. 700W into 8 ohm and flexible tone including compression. Combine that with a "clean" cab like the TB153 and you have a rig you can use for almost anything.

I don't mean to throw a spanner in the works here, just give some food for thought and remind you that there are other options than the traditional 410 and bass head.

[Stumbo]

Originally Posted by Oobly

Going a different route, you could get an ART Pro Channel tube preamp / compressor and Crown XLS1000 power amp for less than your quoted cost of the Ampeg. 700W into 8 ohm and flexible tone including compression. Combine that with a "clean" cab like the TB153 and you have a rig you can use for almost anything.

+1

[slaphappychappy]

Originally Posted by Oobly

Understood. The prices you list seem rather high to me, though. The Ampeg is only 400 at Amazon, for example.

You can get a killer rig with the budget you list if you look around. If you have a chance, I recommend you try out an Avatar TB153, or if you have some woodwork skill (or even if you don't), check out the fEARful cabs. All the parts for a fEARful + an Ampeg PF500 from Amazon will fit in your budget.

Going a different route, you could get an ART Pro Channel tube preamp / compressor and Crown XLS1000 power amp for less than your quoted cost of the Ampeg. 700W into 8 ohm and flexible tone including compression. Combine that with a "clean" cab like the TB153 and you have a rig you can use for almost anything.

I don't mean to throw a spanner in the works here, just give some food for thought and remind you that there are other options than the traditional 410 and bass head.

It's Australian prices. Everything is expensive here.

[slaphappychappy]

Also limited to brands etc. I can only really get what is on offer. Those 3 are the better, unless I go hartke, which I'm not a fan of the heads, the cabs are good, but more expensive.

[Oobly]

Ah, that explains it...

[EDIT] Oops, misread Australia as Canada.... Must be tired. [/EDIT]

I feel your pain, prices in Finland are high, too. Fortunately, ordering online from inside EU is alright for us, though, since we don't have to pay customs then. But getting stuff from US or Asia is a PITA. And don't get me started on taxes!

Which "matching cab" is the quote for the Rumble with? If it is a 4 ohm it will probably give you a little more volume than the Ampeg and Ashdown 410T.

Then again, Ashdown make a 4 ohm version of the 410T called the 414T Deep. It costs the same as the 410T, so that may be a better one to get than the 410T unless you plan on getting another cab later. That one will match nicely with all the heads mentioned, but you may have to be careful with the Ampeg so you don't push too much juice into it, since it can only handle 450W program level and 350W RMS.

It would help to know your future plans in terms of your rig. Will this be "the one" for the foreseeable future?

I had to make some hard decisions when planning my rig, since I was also on a budget, but wanted something that I wouldn't have to replace in future or have to buy a bunch of extra stuff if I ended up doing big gigs, etc. I ended up making a fEARful 15/6/1 (which is 8 ohm) and getting a power amp (Crown XLS1500) and tube preamp (DHA VT2 Twin Std Eq).

That way my bass and preamp create my tone, amp and speaker just amplify it as cleanly as possible. I can use the amp and speaker for other purposes and can add another speaker cab to get more volume later if I need it. If I want to change my tone I only change the bass / preamp side of things. Another benefit is my full tone goes through the DI since my amp and cab should sound a lot like the FOH.

It cost a bit more than I originally planned, but I don't see myself wanting to replace the amp / cabinet for a very long time.

[Oobly]

Off-topic: I see you have a Cort GB-34. I have a GB-25 in candy apple / clear red. Still with stock pickup (it only has the bridge MM-style one). Lovely feel to it, nice to play.

[Down_Low]

Where in Australia are you? Email the guys at Bass Centre if you want some good advice from a store. All my recent purchases have come from them, they're great to deal with. And I'm in the opposite end of the country too, get everything shipped up.

I've got an Ashdown MAG rig, it's OK, but I'm looking at replacing the head with an Ampeg PF500 and eventually another cab. So the Ampeg route would be my suggestion. Unless your in the north somewhere in which case I could be temped to sell my MAG600/410 rig

[slaphappychappy]

It's all something loud enough to start gigs. The fender is with the matching fender 410 cab. Ideally is like 412 but haven't had much choice. They only stock what sells . Gradually is probably add a 15 underneath, but I'm not sore. The other option was a 210 + a 115, but they seem to be around the 250 watt mark. But does that mean if I piggy back its a total of 500 watts?

[slaphappychappy]

Also, my cort had the seymour Duncan pup, but took it out. Not really worth the change went back to stockies.

[Oobly]

Better not to mix cabs with different speaker sizes. I would rather go with 2 2x10s and stack them vertically than a 2x10 and a 1x15. The reason I say this is that you MAY get phasing issues between the cabs. Hard to predict, best to try it out if you can, otherwise rather go with two 210s. Try the 210 stacked vertically on the 15 if you do try it.

With horizontall duplicated speakers running off the same signal you get uneven dispersion. This results in something you seem to call projection, but is actually a lack of dispersion or "beaming". A well set up speaker / stack of speakers will present all the frequencies as evenly as possible throughout the space you are playing in. A vertical stack at least does this horizontally.

A 4x10 does the job of pushing 4x the air of a single 10, but it won't be heard evenly around the venue. The layout is a compromise of portability and other factors. With two 2x10s you have roughly the same portability, but the possibility to stack them vertically and retain horizontal dispersion while pushing the same amount of air as a 4x10.

I admit it looks kinda goofy, at least to my eye, but it has benefits, one of which is that it presents the uppermost speaker at ear level.

A pair of 250W 8 ohm 2x10s will pair very well with the Ampeg PF500. It will give you the full 500W output, feeding 250 into each of the 210s. I reckon that would actually be quite a killer rig!

As an aside, I think it's a travesty that there are so few truly well-designed bass cabs out there and so much misinformation about driver sizes and configurations.