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Amplifier recommendations

G

gitar_mann

Oct 25, 2012
8
9
#1
Hello,

I have been playing “semi-professionally” in my local area for many years. I am looking to purchase a bass head/cab setup that would be considered “professional grade” to replace my current setup. I would like something lightweight with decent power to cover as many venues as possible. I use both active and passive basses and play many styles of music so versatility is important to me.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

Thank you,
Ed
 
#7
Without knowing the budget it's hard to give a recommendation. GK, Carvin, and others make decent priced 500 watt Class D heads. GK neo 12" are your best bang for the buck lower cost speaker. For a few bucks more, consider Revsound. Both their 210 and 212 cabs are light, small, and put out a lot of good volume.
 
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#8
buldog5151bass said:
Without knowing the budget it's hard to give a recommendation. GK, Carvin, and others make decent priced 500 watt Class D heads. GK neo 12" are your best bang for the buck lower cost speaker. For a few bucks more, consider Revsound. Both their 210 and 212 cabs are light, small, and put out a lot of good volume.
Click to expand...

Second this - its all about how much you want to spend. To give you a ballpark, it looking at the rigs that several have mentioned here (head plus two cabs) for Genzler or Mesa you are probably looking at just over $2K. Similar rig from Carvin would cost you maybe just over $1K. I am a big fan of RevSound cabs - great bang for buck, lightweight and can take lots of power. I use a 210 now that handles everything I need.

Lots of other good options out there if you like their sound - Ampeg, Markbass, GK. Great time to be a bass player in the market for gear.
 
#9
I would also vouch for the Genzler. I just adore that amp. If you ever played the previous Genz-Benz stuff (Streamliner/Shuttle), it's kind of like the best of both in one amp.

I do think it's hard to go wrong nowadays with most of the the top brands high wattage class D offerings. Really just depends on your budget and tonal preferences.
 
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#11
Depends on how you define professional grade. Picking out the most expensive amp and cab may look professional, but sound like garbage if they're paired incorrectly, EQ'd incorrectly or out of the general tonal spectrum they were designed for.

Suggestions of Genzler, Mesa, Revsound, Bergantino, GK.... they're all great amps/cabs... but are all sonically very different.

From my perspective Genz, GK and Mesa have a very appealing tone and have flexible preamps that work well with many different genres.

Looking at an artist roster can show you the spectrum of music a given manufacturers products have already covered.

As an example.... Flea, Johnny Christ of Avenged Sevenfold, and Norm Stockton all use GK, and none of their sounds are similar.
 
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#16
I'd suggest a couple of very lightweight amps from DNA (David Nordschow Amplification).

First one is the DNA-1350 and the other is the DNA-800. The DNA-1350 has a built in studio compressor with threshold, ratio, attack, and release controls, which is really as flexible as it gets for compression. Has effects send and return of course and in addition to that has side chain effects send and return. Gives you Bass, Low-mid, high-mid, and treble controls along with a shape control too. It puts out 1350 watts RMS @4 ohms and weight is 7-lbs. Street price is about $1450-$1499 but I see Reverb has a used one with a tuner for $995. Unusual to find a used one.

Second one, which is perhaps more competitive with most of the other amps here price wise is the DNA-800. It has most of the features of its bigger brother with simplified controls and compressor. It puts out 800-watts RMS @4 ohms and weighs 4.7-lbs. It has the standard effects-send/return, but does have the side-chain effects circuit. Compressor has threshold and ratio but not the attack and release controls of big brother. Street price is around $799, though I see that Bass Central in Florida has one for $749 right now. The DNA800 has most of the features of the 1350 at lower power (800-watts vs. 1350) at almost half the price of its big brother. I think that's a steal. Here's a Bass Musician video cued to the section where he demos the DNA800. He's running it through DNA's DNS-210 cab and gives you a good idea of the sounds available from it:



If you want a comparison of the DNS-112 and the DNS-210 cabs, then just rewind to the start of the video. I personally have the DNS-410 cab and it is killer.
 

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