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Amp for vintage sound

mldavis

mldavis

Guest
Jul 22, 2013
133
23
South Wales, UK
#1
Hi guys

What amps should I be looking at to get a nice warm vintage sound? I don't fancy anything too complicated.. I've been looking at the orange bass terror 500, but am yet to try one, but are there any others out there I should be looking at?

Thanks in advance

Martin
 
#4
Yeah, the Ampeg B-15 sorta defines vintage bass sound. But unless you spring for a newer and often pricy reissue, buying a forty- something year old tube amp could be "complicated" so to speak. :)

Less expensive and less complicated alternatives would be a used Ampeg B100R or B50R combo.

I'm also very partial to the current Ampeg BA112 combo as well, plenty of vintage grind and vibe in that combo. I do consider the BA112 to be one of Ampegs better sounding combos and very competitive to the Rocket series, plus unlike the Rocket series Ampeg still makes them and they can still be bought new. All IMO of course.

If a 50 watt or 100 watt combo isn't enough, you can always check out the current portaflex series, or if you are looking for tube then there's the Ampeg V4B tube head over a single or dual 15" cab.
 
#7
Yeah the TH500 has such an interactive EQ and gain structure that you can get what would be considered as a great warm old school tone while maintaining modern things like consistency, reliability and build quality that is what a gigging musician needs. Never fails and never disappoints.
 
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#10
I keep seeing this reference to "vintage sound".

Even back in the old days (and yes, I'm old enough to remember) there were bassists who went for a pretty bright sound, but the consensus seems be to "no compression driver highs".

Potentially, any amp can deliver a "vintage sound" if you can roll off the horn or tweeter in the box or combo...or take a pair wire cutters...:D
 
#11
Get a vintage all tube head. It's a buyer's market for cool old gear these days. Especially in the UK .... go get yourself an old HiWatt, Sound City, Simms-Watts, Carlsbro, Selmer, WEM, or Marshall head. Seriously.
 
#12
Having started bass in 1963 during the "vintage tone" era, all I can say is most bass amps of the day, the various Fender Showman/Bassman, Ampeg Bs, Epiphone Contellations, Voxes, were woefully inadequate in an ordinary LIVE rock band. Just not enough available volume to hang without farting with two guitars, keys, (30-80 watts each) drums, and a typical old-school PA with 50-100 watts and a couple of 3x12 or 4x12 columns for 2 or 3 vocal mics—one would even have seen megaphone-style "public address" horns on poles.

Since live "Vintage tone," in the early and mid '60s was mostly farty, what you probably want is the tone heard on recordings of the era, not the live tone, right? A nice clean tube pre/DI like a Reddi, a Demeter, A R T tube channel, etc. into any clean loud amp with a good P bass or Jazz strung with broken-in flats is all you need. A little compression might help, too.
 
#14
#Ampeg B15 (there's a newer Heritage series which is also good if not better than the original IMHO),
#Acoustic 360 (I wonder if there's still one to buy tho..),
#Ampeg SVT (IMHO this arguably still can be categorized as "nice warm vintage sound" somehow :) )
#Fender Bassman (Yes it's more popular as Guitar amp despite it's name, but I had good result -nice warm vintage sound - with this as bass amp in the past).
 
#15
Jim Carr said:
Having started bass in 1963 during the "vintage tone" era, all I can say is most bass amps of the day, the various Fender Showman/Bassman, Ampeg Bs, Epiphone Contellations, Voxes, were woefully inadequate in an ordinary LIVE rock band. Just not enough available volume to hang without farting with two guitars, keys, (30-80 watts each) drums, and a typical old-school PA with 50-100 watts and a couple of 3x12 or 4x12 columns for 2 or 3 vocal mics—one would even have seen megaphone-style "public address" horns on poles.

Since live "Vintage tone," in the early and mid '60s was mostly farty, what you probably want is the tone heard on recordings of the era, not the live tone, right? A nice clean tube pre/DI like a Reddi, a Demeter, A R T tube channel, etc. into any clean loud amp with a good P bass or Jazz strung with broken-in flats is all you need. A little compression might help, too.
Click to expand...

Thanks for saying that...I'm on a hunt for a new amp. Maybe the amp doesn't play as large a roll as I initially thought. You've helped remove some pressure of choosing "just the right amp". I have some old tape wounds on a 2002 MIM Jazz bass with a foam mute. I can get a great tone out of it through a couple different set-ups.
 
#16
While I firmly believe you should be able to get a good sound out of any working amp for any style and if you can't I don't blame the amp ;) my amp is what makes me feel inspired to do my best, even if I don't bloody feel like it because someone's always trying to neg me out and turn playing music into a job.

But I digress...anyway, that's why I don't like to show up with just any old amp. Or any old bass, DI or pedals for that matter. Might show up sometimes with cheap stuff, but it's cheap stuff that reflects my tastes and doesn't fight me.
 
#17
Thanks all for your replies.

I quite like the Porta Flex range, but really like the look and sound of the orange tiny terror amp.

I'm going to be using it for small/medium size gigs - would this be capable for thee type of gigs with the SP 212 cab do you think?

Thanks in advance.
 
#19
If you really want to be covered buy a VT Bass and/or Aguilar Tone Hammer pedal, either of which can get you where you want to be tonally with any decent amp, IMO. You can even go directly into them as tone-shaping preamps and insert directly into the effects return.
 
#20
nysbob said:
I keep seeing this reference to "vintage sound".

Even back in the old days (and yes, I'm old enough to remember) there were bassists who went for a pretty bright sound, but the consensus seems be to "no compression driver highs".

Potentially, any amp can deliver a "vintage sound" if you can roll off the horn or tweeter in the box or combo...or take a pair wire cutters...:D
Click to expand...

Yeah, usually I associate "vintage" with a very mid-heavy sound, actually.

I don't know where this idea that bassists back in the day only had lows going on got started, but it's pretty inaccurate.

Sure, like you mention, there weren't really any tweeters in bass rigs at the time, but that doesn't mean there weren't any mids and highs at all.
 

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