Yorkville BM400 Stack -- Opinion

ZB2005 · #1 10-26-2010, 08:38 AM

I'm a string bass player that has recently made the switch to electric.

I bought myself a Peavey T-40 (circa 1980) a few months back, but now I'm growing tired of just playing through the little combo amp that my church supplies for me.

I also play in a local classic rock cover band. For gigs, I usually just borrow the combo from the church and run it DI into our sound system.

This stack -- http://toledo.craigslist.org/msg/2022834750.html -- just popped up on Craig's List, and I'm wondering if anyone has any opinions/past playing experience with a Yorkville BM400. If not, does anyone have any recommendations for a decent setup for under $400?

Thanks!

**Lazarus.Bird** · #2 10-26-2010, 08:54 AM

I owned a Yorkville Bass Master 200T (210 combo) for awhile. I'm assuming it's somewhat similar. For the price the amp was not bad. The tone by itself was not too bad, but definitely left something to be desired. The contour button was pretty interesting. One thing that definitely impressed me was that the amp was LOUD. Not just for a 210 but loud in general. I can only imagine that this stack will be LOUD LOUD LOUD.

Yorkville (Traynor) are well known for their durability. I'd say go try it out and if you like the tone, it's probably a good purchase. I always ran my SansAmp BDDI in front of the amp and usually got a pretty good tone out of it.

Also, if you decide not to go with this stack, I'd recommend looking into Peavey and Hartke as two incredible bang for your buck brands to look for.

babebambi · #3 10-26-2010, 01:12 PM

That looks like a good deal if everything is working.

Thou I've seen problem on some of the amp in that combo. The faulty ones has a heat related issue which cuts off the power after playing for half to one hour.

zachoff · #4 10-26-2010, 03:18 PM

I had a 400B (precursor to the BM400) and yeah... Loud as hell. It's rated at 400W, but has a 700W ceiling. I gigged with the single 15 combo for quite a long time and it served me well. I usually played through it w/ my Reverend & had a Peavey Max pre to warm up the tone a bit. I didn't have my T-40 then, but it's a much warmer sounding bass than my Reverend so you might not see a need for a preamp. It doesn't produce unusable or bad tone, by any means... Just not the greatest I've ever heard.