all tube practice rig / guitar amp recommendations?

[djaxup]

In my situation I have unpredictable, short amounts of practice/noodling time all over the day. So, the amp stays on all day, with the bass guitar in reach all the time.
Right now, I do this with a 200w 10" compact bass combo. Meaning, I waste a lot of power/electricity/money doing this. So, I am looking at ways to do this with fewer watts.

I have a Barefaced 1x10 cab that I would like to use, but I am open to other solutions as well. I had a test drive with an Ampeg PF20t, which was great and really suits everything I want. It had a nasty low freq. hum that came out of the cab amplified, too, and that was just not pleasant to have in the room all day. If that is something that all Pf20 heads have, then they are not an option sadly. Otherwise, I liked everything about it.

So, in order of importance, what I am looking for:

- nice tone at bedroom volume levels
- silent / low to no noise
- preferrably all tube
- low wattage

That brought me to also consider guitar amps, that I could use with my cab. If anyone has recommendations, I'd love to read them. Small guitar combos most likely fail in the speaker department I guess, but who knows?!

 

[gtirard]

In my situation I have unpredictable, short amounts of practice/noodling time all over the day. So, the amp stays on all day, with the bass guitar in reach all the time.
Right now, I do this with a 200w 10" compact bass combo. Meaning, I waste a lot of power/electricity/money doing this. So, I am looking at ways to do this with fewer watts.

I have a Barefaced 1x10 cab that I would like to use, but I am open to other solutions as well. I had a test drive with an Ampeg PF20t, which was great and really suits everything I want. It had a nasty low freq. hum that came out of the cab amplified, too, and that was just not pleasant to have in the room all day. If that is something that all Pf20 heads have, then they are not an option sadly. Otherwise, I liked everything about it.

So, in order of importance, what I am looking for:

- nice tone at bedroom volume levels
- silent / low to no noise
- preferrably all tube
- low wattage

That brought me to also consider guitar amps, that I could use with my cab. If anyone has recommendations, I'd love to read them. Small guitar combos most likely fail in the speaker department I guess, but who knows?!

Interesting question, what's your budget?

IMHO a digital amp like a Spark or equivalent would be more affordable and practicle to practice guitar and bass at bedroom levels, but I understand it's not what you are looking for.

You could find a guitar low wattage tube amp that sound ok with a bass, but I'm not sure the Barefaced One10 would be the best sounding cab when you play guitar through it?

Are you sure you are waisting a lot of power/electricity/money using a 200W amp at low volume?

 

[Slevage]

In my situation I have unpredictable, short amounts of practice/noodling time all over the day. So, the amp stays on all day, with the bass guitar in reach all the time.
Right now, I do this with a 200w 10" compact bass combo. Meaning, I waste a lot of power/electricity/money doing this. So, I am looking at ways to do this with fewer watts.

I have a Barefaced 1x10 cab that I would like to use, but I am open to other solutions as well. I had a test drive with an Ampeg PF20t, which was great and really suits everything I want. It had a nasty low freq. hum that came out of the cab amplified, too, and that was just not pleasant to have in the room all day. If that is something that all Pf20 heads have, then they are not an option sadly. Otherwise, I liked everything about it.

So, in order of importance, what I am looking for:

- nice tone at bedroom volume levels
- silent / low to no noise
- preferrably all tube
- low wattage

That brought me to also consider guitar amps, that I could use with my cab. If anyone has recommendations, I'd love to read them. Small guitar combos most likely fail in the speaker department I guess, but who knows?!

If you are not draining the power supply capacitors by not playing, you are not refilling them. Measure the current of your amp at idle to rethink your operating cost.

 

[djaxup]

I somehow thought it would draw those watts no matter what, nice to hear that might not be the case. I will check that for sure.

That 1x10 has no tweeter and had a really nice tone with the Ampeg PF20t. Which cab would you prefer over it?

 

[djaxup]

Interesting question, what's your budget?

Budget is not an issue. If I like the solution I am willing to spend money on it.

 

[el murdoque]

I'd ask the gurus here about current draw of a 200W transistor amp that is idling versus a 20W tube amp that is also idling. My gut feeling tells me the tube amp will actually take more juice.

A rig I used a while back was the Barefaced one10 along with a H&K Tubemeister 18. The Tubemeister can be attentuated to 5 and 1 watt, so you can have even less volume. There is also the Tubemeister 5, which is single channel.
The Tubemeister sounded great on bass when played in the clean channel with the EQ untouched. Any sound manupulation (EQ and such) would have to come from pedals because the amp is geared for guitar use. But it does not shy away even from a low B and has a beautiful texture to it.
Using that rig with guitar has a bit too much bass and lacks some treble, but totally works, too. I've used it for a small coffeehouse gig and the guitarists in the place really liked the tone.

 

[Krakmann]

Salud!

I LOVE the sound of bass through my Fender Junior III guitar amp, playing obviously at low volumes.

 

[gtirard]

Yes, I think if your only issue is power consumption, you have no issue.

But if you want to treat yourself with a nice low wattage tube amp that sounds good for guitar and bass, there are many, like el murdoque examples.
I'm using a Pure Tone Amp that I love with a Barefaced One 10. I haven't tried with a 6 string guitar but that amp is designed for guitar and bass, and if you liked your One10 with the PF20T, should be ok.

 

[Krakmann]

Salud!

And of course, it's not my place to question the OP needs, but... does it really take that long to just power up the amp when you're going to use it?

 

[djaxup]

Salud!

And of course, it's not my place to question the OP needs, but... does it really take that long to just power up the amp when you're going to use it?

fair question, yes it does. It involves me moving to the amp and switch it on, and I have the feeling no amp is really fine with being switched on and off ~20 times a day.

I am doing lots and lots of phone calls and zoom sessions/conferencing. And there are 1-5 minute windows in between some of them that I like to spend having my bass handy and noodle/practice.

 

[Bodeeni]

Maybe a vintage Bassman head. They have the standby switch, sound great and look very cool.

 

[Stylee Mousse]

I was going to snark about the pushing of a power button being a insurmountable effort but it actually does track that cycling an amp 20x a day is less good than letting it run.

Of course you could leave it switched on and cycle the power from your desk and save a few steps?

Probably Someone with engineering and equestrian knowledge May chime in on expected cycles for a given amp and idle current…

 

[JenderBazzFass]

Your requirements all seem to run the opposite direction of tube amps, honestly. A simple practice amp would be perfect and could be kept in addition to any tube amps you might possess. Maybe those options just work the best in the use case here?

 

[meisi]

A idling tube amp will draw way more power than an idling class D amp, especially if singled ended (think fender champ)

That said, 7w 1x 6v6 or el84 guitar amps sound great into bass cabs at home. Cab impedance can be an issue but 8ohms is common enough and old fender circuits OT are often 4ohms.

I have the option of using a 5w champ, 20w hk and generally pick the 200w class D head for bass out of convenience - smaller, lighter and rugged

 

[KevInDaBassment]

I somehow thought it would draw those watts no matter what, nice to hear that might not be the case. I will check that for sure.

Yeah, draw as opposed to what is utilized or how much it takes to get to "200w" can vary a lot, I'd imagine amp topology plays a big role in that too. Might be worth it to grab a Kill-A-Watt (or competing brand) meter to see what actual draw is. If you don't have one already, this is a handy tool for many different applications.

 

[Gervais Cote]

You should give a try to an a Ashdown Little Bastard if you can.

Only 30 watts but a monster tone and will work fine with your 10" cab.

If you want something that is really dead silent though, you may have to go with a fan-less class D amp head.

 

[lomo]

Tubes are not consistent with minimizing electricity consumption, at all. Turning a good sounding SS amp off would be the way to go if that were a priority. If one simply must "have tooobz", a pedal preamp would be another option.....also easily switched on/off on demand. On a parallel note, tubes are also a horrendous environmental blight, a fact with which I struggle, since I enjoy what they can do in apreamp. They pretty much always produce the worst kind of pollutants short of radioactivity, often in countries without meaningful regulations or enforcement thereof ;(

I almost always have a tube in my preamp, either via a WD800 head or a SushiboxFX pedal ahead of a SS head.

 

[Killing Floor]

Phil Jones Bass practice amp and a tube preamp pedal. That’s what I use.

 

[Alban]

If low power consumption is important to you, then you shouldn't be looking at tube amps, not even the low-powered ones. Any small class D amp will be way more energy-efficient. Also, at bedroom levels you may not get the full benefit of a tube amp, since you won't be pushing it that hard.

That being said, I have been looking at the Ashdown 30w tube heads which seem really, really nice. There are several models, go check 'em.

 

[Michael Vee]

the amp stays on all day, with the bass guitar in reach all the time.
Right now, I do this with a 200w 10" compact bass combo. Meaning, I waste a lot of power/electricity/money doing this.

There are AC power usage meters that plug into the wall outlet, then you plug the appliance/amp/whatever into that and it measures power consumption over time. These are handy to have for anyone who wants to see exactly how much energy is used by an appliance or device.

For example: Mecheer Power Meter, among others. Your current amp may not use as much power as you think.