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Ampeg BA112 - gig-worthy?

#21
P.S. I suggested the Ashdown as a louder personal monitor. Even 180W into 2x15 of a cheaper variety is going to be marginal to 1500. You'll still need FOH and loud on stage will be an issue.

An alternative is to go with IEMs. You can get a personal headphone monitor for £40 with dual xlr in to mix FOH and bass. I don't know if the Ampeg has a line out as well as DI, but if so you can connect easily. That is going wired IEM which will be cheaper if viable, but you'll need some good IEMs, for around £75.
 
#22
Save up..
Ampeg PF800 PF115LF PF410HLF Bass Amp Stack.jpg
 
#23
Woody1999 said:
I've got a few gigs coming up over the next year where I'm performing the musical "Tommy" by The Who, with an audience of up to 1500 people. This means I'll be playing in a full band with two guitars, a drummer and up to the whole cast singing.

Will an Ampeg BA112 (75W, 1x12) combo have enough volume to punch through at this kind of level or should I be looking for something bigger? I'm very budget concious - £300 is probably the max I can do, and there isn't a great deal of used amps on the market here in the UK.

Thanks in advance,

Woody
Click to expand...
Add a powered sub and PA support and it should work
 
#24
CGremlin said:
This may not be terribly helpful, but the majority of theater gigs I played were through a 150W Peavey KB300 (1x15 + horn) in 300 and 750-seat houses with no FOH support. I never even came close to pushing the Peavey. The loudest show I did was "Jesus Christ Superstar" in a 300-seat theater, and I was easily able to get *too* loud with an ancient Ampeg B-115.

It's important to remember that even loud theater shows usually won't have anywhere near the volume that a concert will - in particular, theater drummers that can't keep a tight rein on their volume don't last long. I wouldn't try your show with a BA-112 without FOH support, but you're not going to need an SVT + fridge either.
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Some of those old TNT 100 watt 1x15 Peaveys would probably cover it as well. I don't know why but some of those old Peavey's are like a catagory unto themselves. Not the most nuanced tone in the world, but great volume.
 
#26
75W to ~200W doesn't really give you that much more maximum loudness so really you'd want more speaker area, but you're still not going to deliver to 1500 people unless you are going to have two 4x15s, and probably not even then with 75W or 200W, so I think keeping the Ampeg as a personal monitor and/or IEMs is probably a better option. Going for a £40 two input headphone amp, assuming that the Ampeg outputs make that work in context, is relatively cheap, and a decent set of IEM ear buds for £75 are usable with a future wireless IEM (either your own or a venue's) and as good mp3 listening on an iPhone (well, until recently) go f even if you get a bigger amp later the £115 investment isn't entirely wasted. Granted, I've never tried the £40 Behringer headphone amp, but I have used IEMs in the £75 range, although there were issues with durability, so choose wisely! I'd love to find a more affordable wireless IEM system as the well-received Gear4Music system was discontinued, so I might go for wired IEMs at some point, but it was absolutely not an option in the last band (too much movement).
 
#27
NortyFiner said:
Could you possibly ask to borrow the BA210 for these important show gigs, until you get your own amp situation settled?
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Hey sorry I've been super busy this weekend.

Unfortunately I don't really have enough of a relationship with the studio that they'd let me borrow one of their best bass amps for a couple of weeks. I've only been recording with them for the last few weeks.

As for saving up, I'm probably gonna get it as a Christmas present to myself, as I'm not going to be rehearsing live for it properly until after then. If I'm lucky I can probably get up to £400 saved up but it's all dependent on the amount of work I get.

Also slightly off topic question, for that Entwistle tone - P or Jazz? I'm digging the Jazz tone a bit more right now.
 
#28
Woody1999 said:
Hey sorry I've been super busy this weekend.

Unfortunately I don't really have enough of a relationship with the studio that they'd let me borrow one of their best bass amps for a couple of weeks. I've only been recording with them for the last few weeks.

As for saving up, I'm probably gonna get it as a Christmas present to myself, as I'm not going to be rehearsing live for it properly until after then. If I'm lucky I can probably get up to £400 saved up but it's all dependent on the amount of work I get.

Also slightly off topic question, for that Entwistle tone - P or Jazz? I'm digging the Jazz tone a bit more right now.
Click to expand...
You can get a bright Entwistle-like sound with either, but he used a Precision for Tommy.
 
#30
Woody1999 said:
Hey sorry I've been super busy this weekend.

Unfortunately I don't really have enough of a relationship with the studio that they'd let me borrow one of their best bass amps for a couple of weeks. I've only been recording with them for the last few weeks.

As for saving up, I'm probably gonna get it as a Christmas present to myself, as I'm not going to be rehearsing live for it properly until after then. If I'm lucky I can probably get up to £400 saved up but it's all dependent on the amount of work I get.

Also slightly off topic question, for that Entwistle tone - P or Jazz? I'm digging the Jazz tone a bit more right now.
Click to expand...

They sound similar enough, especially if you favour the front pick up of the jazz, that I wouldn't worry that much once mixed into the band.

If you're really desperate and like the jazz, you might be able to get a P pickup and a new scratchplate, if the P a little forward of the standard location, which would save you a few pounds and easy enough to convert back.
 
#31
-Asdfgh- said:
They sound similar enough, especially if you favour the front pick up of the jazz, that I wouldn't worry that much once mixed into the band.

If you're really desperate and like the jazz, you might be able to get a P pickup and a new scratchplate, if the P a little forward of the standard location, which would save you a few pounds and easy enough to convert back.
Click to expand...

Eh, I'm not sure I'm willing to carve out my Jazz Bass yet :D

I'll stick with the Jazz though, I prefer the tone and can still get plenty of punch with some mids and a compressor.

Woody
 
#36
In high school, I played bass for a high school production of "Grease," with a Peavey head pushing 65 Watts into a 15" speaker. It was plenty. Everything depends on whether the stage itself is miked. If the singers are un-miked, then the pit orchestra will be bending over backwards to stay quiet.
 

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