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AMP FOR THE REAL BASS

#2
What do you play through now?

Most amps have a voice and character to their own. Tube amps generally tend to color the sound alot. Solid State amps tend to be cleaner than their tube counterparts. Also take into consideration that some speakers color the sound as well. The cleanest setup I've tried is a GK 1001rb II into a gk neo 212. Not exactly cheap, but getting clean transparent tone isn't. There are probably better amps out there to do this... but I haven't had the chance to own them.
 
#5
garmenteros said:
Most amps have a voice and character to their own.
Click to expand...

IMO, its more like ALL amps do.

garmenteros said:
Tube amps generally tend to color the sound alot. Solid State amps tend to be cleaner than their tube counterparts.
Click to expand...

i actually disagree with that. if you look at the frequency response of most tube amps set flat, they are pretty even from 20hz-20khz. they 'color' the sound when you push them into distortion. and IME, SS amps don't do the distortion thing when pushed very well.


garmenteros said:
Also take into consideration that some speakers color the sound as well.
Click to expand...

again, IMO, ALL cabs have their own 'color' or voice.

garmenteros said:
The cleanest setup I've tried is a GK 1001rb II into a gk neo 212. Not exactly cheap, but getting clean transparent tone isn't.
Click to expand...

i also own a GK 1001RBII and, while i think that its a great sounding and very versatile amp, i wouldn't call it 'transparent'.
 
#7
In order to find an amp that will not alter the original tone of your bass, you first have to have a sense of what the original tone of your bass is. And how do you do that? Assuming it's an electric bass with magnetic pickup(s), you need it to be amplified. It's a catch-22!
 
#8
Get a really good active DI or mic pre/di that outputs line level. Active basses can get almost to line level but the stingray does not. Run the Pre/DI to a power amp. Here you can use a tube or solidstate power amp. Solidstate will be cheaper and lighter, but a Mesa strategy 400 will get you very loud and thick without mudding out at all.

For cabs I would either check out the fearful designs everyone likes or maybe the bagend cabs. They make some really nice cabs that mix fullrange coaxial drivers with woofers. They also make one called the AF1 which I think was designed for hte air force band. Its a seriously full range cab with an 18, for lows, a mid woofer, mid and tweeter. They were designed to be used for bass, keys or pa.
 
#9
lunarpollen said:
In order to find an amp that will not alter the original tone of your bass, you first have to have a sense of what the original tone of your bass is. And how do you do that? Assuming it's an electric bass with magnetic pickup(s), you need it to be amplified. It's a catch-22!
Click to expand...

Accurate headphones are easy to find.

PC with a simple audio interface can measure input signal versus output signal.
 
#10
lunarpollen said:
In order to find an amp that will not alter the original tone of your bass, you first have to have a sense of what the original tone of your bass is. And how do you do that? Assuming it's an electric bass with magnetic pickup(s), you need it to be amplified. It's a catch-22!
Click to expand...

I want the same sound when playing with only one amp or the headphones when you plug the bass straight into a sound card.
That's whath i'm talking about!

 
#11
The Markbass Little Mark II has a very transparent tone to it, and is known for that quality. When I play through it into the Epifani, the tone is almost the same as when I plug the bass straight into my mini mixing board and listen through headphones.
 
#16
cristian MM93 said:
Hi! I just love the pure sound of my stingray! but when I plug in my amp, there goes the tone of my soul! I want to take my sound to the stage and am looking for an amp that will not alter the original tone of my bass. can anyone help me? suggestions? Videos! Thanx.
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It sounds like you want a clean amp ... try Eden.

Or try a MXR bass di+ into the PA.
 
#17
cristian MM93 said:
I want the same sound when playing with only one amp or the headphones when you plug the bass straight into a sound card.
That's whath i'm talking about!

Click to expand...


Ah but different sound cards will sound different from one another; they have built-in amps for amplifying the signal for the headphones. Very weak amplifiers (because headphones are very small speakers), but they all have an inherent tone to them. And different headphones will sound different from one another too. Think of the sound card as an amp head and the headphones as speaker cabinets, just on a very small scale...
 
#20
Yeah Avalon's DI is great, but it has inherent EQ curves soooo.
The Radial ones are good as well, but most (maybe all) Radials will only get you to mic level, not line. You need a clean with gain box. I know there are a few DI's out there that do the jump from instr level to line in one hop with tons of headroom and no EQ. With a Stingray you gots plenty of EQ anyway! I use mine constantly!
Power amps, there are tons out there. I myself would want tube power. Good tube power is very clean. But solid state is light, cheap and decent. QSC, Crown and Crest are good. Behringer, Peavey, Soundtech, etc are not so great.
Also ifyou really want to get tehfull tone of your bass its all about headroom and preserving those transient details. I have heard very few mainstream bass heads that do that. Including many of the ones already mentioned. Theyall round off the edges of the transients assuming you want that "warmer" sound. That is likely a lot of what you hear in headphones that does not translate to amps.
 

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