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Double Bass amps, watts and rooms etc..?

C

clothsnake

Apr 3, 2004
62
0
#1
hope this is the right forum..?

i am more used to playing with an electric bass through 300W in not massive venues... and avoiding the complications of the 'sound man' screwing aound with my sound..!

my upright can go through this rig, but to be honest i am looking for something 'smaller' to cart around.
what kind of performance can i expect if, for instance, i picked up a 100W combo (was looking at trying the gallien krueger backline 112... cheap and cheerful?)
given that i am not gonna be churning out the noise with an upright that the electric needs to... i could use some advice here.
:help:

also, bear in mind that i am no virtuoso and probably not worth the money..!
:)
 
#4
cheers for your comments...
am using a shadow sh965 nfx pickup system... which reproduced the bass quite nicely. sounds nice through my 'tiny' practice amp.

i will definitely check out the MB150... although used gear tends to be difficult to pick up around here... ebay might have to do

stu
 
#6
I have a very good friend who has played in a professional jazz combo for many years with a small GK combo. It's pretty old so I'm sure it has a different model designation, and I think it is only the ten inch speaker. My own favorite small combo for many years was a 25W Fender RAD, now marketed as the Rumble 25. That little guy was punchy and clean and I still have it and use it when small is better. I think you'll get a lot of good use out of the GK 112. Power ratings can be deceptive. For instance to be twice as loud as 25W you need 100W, and 400W to be twice as loud as 100W.

The Shadow system is probably as good as any of the piezo type pickups for feedback resistance. I'm pretty sure that is what Danny Thompson was using the last time I saw him and I think Ken Smith also uses a Shadow system.

Sometimes it is more dependent on the individual instrument. Unfortunately the more resonant the instrument acoustically, the more prone to feedback when amped. I'm guessing that you still have that 4/4 Romanian carved baby? My Bulgarian bass that is about the same size is incredibly bad for feedback, but sounds great without an amp. Let us know how it works out.
 
#7
Silversorcerer said:
...Power ratings can be deceptive. For instance to be twice as loud as 25W you need 100W, and 400W to be twice as loud as 100W.
Click to expand...
Actually you need 10 times as much power to sound twice as loud.

Power ratings can indeed be deceptive: A while back, I did a side by side comparison of a new GK MB150E/112 combo, a series II Acoustic Image Clarus, and a mid 80's Walter
Woods MI-100-8 -- the later 2 amps each were driving a GK 112MBX, which is the extension cab for the MB150. All three amps are rated at about 100 watts @ 8 ohms. The AI Clarus clearly had the most headroom and was by far the cleanest and most solid of the trio. Subjectively, I preferred the sound of the Walter Woods amp overall -- very warm and musical. The GK MB150 clearly had the least headroom and folded up the soonest. Unfortunately I don't care for the way any of the new GK amps sound for double bass or bass guitar. As others have commented in this forum, the old GK MB200 is the best sounding of the GK Microbass series. They're very nice amps if you can find a good one and don't need much power. For a separate amp "head," a used series II Acoustic Image Clarus or Focus (if you need more power) would be an excellent choice as well as very good value for money.
 
#8
hi... thanks for the last couple of posts.
this is all useful.:)
yeah am still using the same bass, and survived with a home-made piezo pickup going through my practice amp for ages before i got the shadow.:cool:

am just looking for something just as portable as that to give me a little more support for the bass' sound... but it sounds like you are both saying i don't really need loads of watts to do this.
even if it just kinda acts like a monitor in conjunction with a 'house PA' i think i'll be happy.:D its certainly gonna cover a rehearsal no trouble... which to be honest is mostly all i can be bothered to do these days.

not really looking for a separate head and cab... have that already... not great stuff but it serves my electric ok (ashdown 300W head with a Peavy 4*10 cab + horn + horn attenuator)... but i know am gonna be a little diappointed anyway coz my double sounds really really nice hrough it.

but hey... necessity is the mother of invention isn't it..? cheaper to buy a new amp now rather than a new (bigger) car later :eyebrow:

once again... thanks (to all)
stu
 
#10
drurb said:
Indeed, an increase of about 10 dB is judged twice as loud. At this time, I'd like to repeat my montra, "Think SPL, not watts."

More explanation here.
Click to expand...

So does one want to investigate the sensitivity of just the speaker or can one determine the sensitivity of an entire cab? As stated elsewhere, sensitivity ratings are sadly uncommon in combo amp specs!
 
#11
For low volume gigs.........and I have used it in Big band rehearsals
I seem to get a decent sound out of a line 6 lowdown 110.
Not very expensive and works great for electric.....
And extremely portable.
The presets......can be a little bit of a pain......
You never know for sure where your EQ is when you switch between amp models.
you can find info at this link

Link Removed
good luck
 

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