Ya gotta love those old Made in USA Peaveys! Take a licking and keep on ticking!
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sweet little thing that. Mine is a Fernandes FR15-B. I guess that makes it 15W. It says 40w on the back for the wall draw. The salesman told me it was B for bass, plugged it in and yep, it made a bass noise, sold to the raw beginner bassist who would one day become Downunderwonder the sometimes well paid semipro bass player's toenail. It still makes the dangdest practice volume oldschool rock tone I have yet to replicate at gig volume with any combination of GAS. I also enjoy tooling around on a little 5w tube open back guitar combo at lower than low volume.
So, OP, the moral of the tale is get a little combo of whatever wattage.
You should have some kind of classified local flea market activity. Keep your eyes peeled for little amps.
Go ahead and laugh, but back in the late 80's when our band lived out of motels, we had three Gorilla practice amps. Half the price of Pignose and louder. The guitarist swore his Gorilla sounded like his Marshall half stack! Of course mine sounded like a mini-SVT.
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I use an Ampeg BA110 for home practice. Its plenty for the purpose and sounds pretty darn good too. I think it'd be ok at small coffeehouses intimate gigs also.
Thanks! I need to learn a bit more about the early Sunn stuff. Originally based on modified Dynaco amps, weren't they?
All of the major players have a combo usually starting around 40 watts and up priced at 200 and up new. Look in the used section of GC and you can find those things or maybe a generation or two older under 200 all day long. I paid $100 for an A35 that looked brand new. I considered the Ampeg BA112, Acoustic B100 and the Fender Rumbles. They are all good, really just a matter of which strikes your fancy. I chose the Hartke more for the D/I and kickback design than anything else although it seems to offer a more little versatile preamp. All of them sound perfectly great for practice. If you go the full $200 and chose something a little older you can pickup something capable of pretty good volume.
I differ than many...I have my own house and lots of room and can play fairly loud.
I do check out GC used but don't want to pay $50 to ship a $150 amp....so pawns are the best place for me...lots of practice amps in pawns.
It needs to be tonally up there with my Peavey TKO 115 which has a headphone jack and 7 band EQ....I just need lighter, smaller & very reliable.
This is my last post on this thread, I think the OP is looking for a low dollar transistor class of 35 watt amp rather than a high dollar tube rig.
The early split chassis models were Dynaco Hi-Fi amps, either a Mk III or Mk IV mounted on the bottom of the head case with a modified PM1 on top.
Lots of half baked "urban myth" type Sunn info on the web.
The place to go for GOOD Sunn info is Link Removed.
Yep, shipping is a killer if you don't have one nearby. I was not even suggesting that you buy from GC but you can use them as a reference. Really just saying that at that price used you can get a killer practice rig and that all of the models offered by the popular amp makers get pretty good reviews. I am envious if you have access to any decent pawn shops. Ours usually only have junk and CL isn't any better!
I´ve had both and very much preferred the 100 which is why I still have it and will never sell it. The 50 is good too, just prefer the 100 myself.
I have a little Warwick BC-10. 10 watts with an 8" which kicks ass in my home studio for anything I want with a miked speaker. Big clean bass sound at low volume. It weighs about 5 lbs and doubles very well in the living room for practice or a couch session. I also really liked the Hartke 35, it was a bit big for what I like at home. I also use my gigging amp a Genz benz 3.0 through a GK MBX112" cab at home. I use two of these cabs for small gigs. Not the most Hi-fi speaker. But I nice small class D amp with any of the many cool little 10" cabs is another excellent option.
I've been rocking my Rumble 15 (metal grille) for almost 5 years now.
Good overall tone and volume.
I live in a townhouse, so volume can be an issue. But it will rumble the room for sure.
I desperately want to buy a new Ampeg Ba10v2 or new Rumble 40, but this amp has been very good to me.
Never had any issues with it, and it's fallen off the shelf a few times to boot.
Good overall tone and volume.
I live in a townhouse, so volume can be an issue. But it will rumble the room for sure.
I desperately want to buy a new Ampeg Ba10v2 or new Rumble 40, but this amp has been very good to me.
Never had any issues with it, and it's fallen off the shelf a few times to boot.
More than enough - I have a 65 Ampeg SB-12 - 20 or so watts into a less than mighty single 12. I have played well in excess of 100 gigs with a drummer, and two guitars with that setup. Most were in small bars / coffee house gigs with vocals in PA and guitars through Deluxe / Princeton sized amps. Drummer was no lightweight. 20 glorious watts and I was usually asked to turn down.
My little head and cab, A Frenzel 25 watter with a FearLess 112, is maybe overkill for an apartment like mine.
It's so easy to score a Peavey Basic for $99 and it's all you need at home, unless you're an a'hole who likes to annoy people, in which case you get no sympathy from me.
I use the Fender input with the 3 band tone stack, which is 5F6-A. The Marshall input just seems to be a brilliant channel with the bass rolled off. Other than the 3 6SL7s there's no Ampeg DNA. For Showman type bass tones I run an Alembic pre in the effects loop.
A used pair of active studio monitors with the right inputs can do a very nice job for home practice, and you can use them as your music speakers, too; no "amp" for the Mrs. to look at and complain about....I use M-Audio AV40's. I run direct into the aux in with a mono 1/4" to stereo 1/8" adaptor, and music into the RCA's through an adaptor/cable 1/8" stereo from the phone. Naked, clear and full bass tone, and I can play along with songs I'm learning. My bedroom rig is a short scale bass and the same speakers I use for my music and tv.
