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Basic Amp brand generalizations?

sigmafloyd

sigmafloyd

May 1, 2011
1,994
675
#1
I'm pretty clueless when it comes to amps. Can someone give me a general rundown on the popular amp brands (Ampeg, Mesa, GK, etc, etc.) and what they are particularly known for sound-wise (vintage, modern, hifi, etc.)? I know there is always the YMMV caveat, and that you can probably get many sounds out of many of the brands. Just looking for big picture generalizations. i.e.

CAVEAT: It is always best to actually try/listen to an amp yourself to see what YOU like.
 
#6
I'm not scared of that question. Feel free to rip my answers and flame me personally.

Ampeg Portaflex - Vintage Motown sound. Good amp for micing in the studio - Can be heard on most old motown tunes

Ampeg SVT - The traditional gold standard for tube tone. The most common "good" bass tone. Very well suited for Rock- Can be heard everywhere

Orange A200 - Vintage Tube tone nice natural Tube OD gives it a darker, more low-fi sound than an SVT. All these early bass amps where just guitar amps with slightly modified pre's. - Can be heard on old Weezer Albums, Fleetwood Mac records and other 70's rock.

Hi-Watt 201 - Similar to an orange but was considered HiFi in it's day has a crisper high-endier sound than the orange. - Can be heard on some WHO records.

Gallien Kruger - Flea uses GK. The GK800 is Gold standard for Solid State Amps. This amp IS the bass tone of the 80's (that was a not a synth) Every other amp they make now is just a variation on the 800. Very clean, modern sound and great for "Scooped" slap bass tones. - Can be heard on RCHP and Gn'R records.

Trace Elliot Tube Heads- Trace made one of the first All tube Bass heads designed for bass and not just a modified guitar amp. The V8 tube heads were high wattage and more mordern sounding than tube amps up to that point. Which make trace one of the few tube amps that sounds really great for slap. Many people say these are the best tube amps ever made - you can hear a trace V8 on Mark King's Level 42 records

Trace Elliot Solid State heads - Trace solid state amps are very similar to GK amps. The trace is a liitle less bright and clean sounding and tries to sound more like a tube amp. for that reason lot's of hard rockers have been using these lately. Most Trace solid state amps have 7 and 12 band graphic EQ's built-in which really set them apart in the flexabilty dept. - Can be heard on Nickleback and Doug Wimbish Tracks.

Mesa - Super modern tube tone. Many say this is the worst sounding tube amp ever made which is what makes it so perfectly gritty for punk and metal. This is the sound of California Punk and Ska. The Mesa is also a standard for radio metal - can be heard on NOFX, Goldfinger,Offspring, Ozzy, Godsmack, Hinder

Peavey - These solid state amps are cheap and boomy. This is the amp of Metal!!!

I'm tired and I'll do more later.
 
#9
sigmafloyd said:
Yup - hoping to avoid that. I will update the original to reflect that.
Click to expand...
Ya, well you really can't avoid that. People perceive amps different ways. And you can play any type of music on any amp. For example, on the list that was just posted by Walt, no disrespect intended but I disagree with quite a lot of it. So there really are no general statements you can make.
 
#10
Gallien Kruger - Flea uses GK. The GK800 is Gold standard for Solid State Amps. This amp IS the bass tone of the 80's (that was a not a synth) Every other amp they make now is just a variation on the 800. Very clean, modern sound and great for "Scooped" slap bass tones. - Can be heard on RCHP and Gn'R records.
Click to expand...

While I agree with your assessment - Flea no longer uses GK...He has made the switch to acoustic USA. 12 of the new 360/361s
 
#11
I fully acknowledge that cabs, eq, instrument, studio engineers and live soundmen can and do make an equal or larger impact on the final product... still I think some generalizations can be made. At the very least we can know which amp and amp brands are popular among which well-known artists. It's surely the case that some amps produce a certain tone without struggle while others must be aggressively altered to produce it.

I fully expect my GK to produce a good approximation of just about anything out there, the biggest struggle perhaps being "tubey" sound. But I bought it with the understanding that a slappy funk riff is going to sound great with a minimum of alteration.
 
#12
JimmyM said:
Ya, well you really can't avoid that. People perceive amps different ways. And you can play any type of music on any amp. For example, on the list that was just posted by Walt, no disrespect intended but I disagree with quite a lot of it. So there really are no general statements you can make.
Click to expand...

I agree. It's helpful to me, though, to hear what other people's perceptions are. Those with a ton of first-hand experience can and will disagree with generalizations. If someone arrived on planet earth not knowing anything about a single brand of bass, yet somehow knew enough to want a vintage motown sound, you could do a lot worse than recommending them a P-Bass, or some Fender, with flats. You could also say get a MusicMan Game Changer, a computer, and dial in the tone that way, but I'd venture to say one is 'better' advice than the next.
 
#13
Never really bothered me to make alterations. I tried to buy into that "leave all tone knobs at 12:00" thing for a couple years, but I never could make it work so I gave up on it and just twiddle knobs till I'm happy. Doesn't take too long if you know what you're looking for.
 
#14
sigmafloyd said:
I agree. It's helpful to me, though, to hear what other people's perceptions are. Those with a ton of first-hand experience can and will disagree with generalizations. If someone arrived on planet earth not knowing anything about a single brand of bass, yet somehow knew enough to want a vintage motown sound, you could do a lot worse than recommending them a P-Bass, or some Fender, with flats. You could also say get a MusicMan Game Changer, a computer, and dial in the tone that way, but I'd venture to say one is 'better' advice than the next.
Click to expand...
Right, but then there comes the issue that we see now where people get a certain mindset where they think, "A Precision MUST have flats and it must only be used for a vintage Motown sound." Which is absolute nonsense. Dudes as varied as Dave Hope from Kansas and Mike Dirnt from Green Day string P's with rounds and get sounds that nobody would consider "vintage." And vice versa...when I first started playing 50's and 60's, I used an active neck-through with rounds and a whammy bar, and nobody complained my tones weren't vintage enough. One of the guys in my band was actually disappointed that I went back to Fenders.

And in these amp comparisons, the subject that inevitably comes up is "Tube amps all sound dirty and mushy and solid state amps are all clean and have a hard attack." Neither is true. Never even thought to run a tube amp dirty on bass until a few years ago, to be quite honest. Still don't. Unless I'm recording, all my dirt comes from pedals. And anyone who's heard GK's boost circuit knows that you can get quite a good dirt sound out of an all-SS amp, even better if it's a hybrid.

So I still say go play a few amps and make up your own mind. Just because someone uses a specific amp for a specific application doesn't mean that's all it can do. Seen a lot of non-metal dudes using Peaveys, for example ;)
 
#17
JimmyM you are the voice of reason, a lone voice in the wilderness. TB has already tainted my perceptions of basses, why do it with amps as well. I need something light anyway so I might go for an Aguilar or TC electronics.

thanks guys
 
#18
Ampeg I'm a weightlifter on steroids

Peavey I don't have much money

Traynor I'm from Canada, eh

Fender I've never heard of Ampeg

Carvin I can't afford a Peavey

SWR I slap all the time

GenzBenz I can't lift an Ampeg

GK I can't lift an GenzBenz

Behringer I can't afford a Carvin

Hartke I'm from Joisey

Orange I have no penis

Acoustic I only shop at GC

Marshall I really play guitar

MarkBass I've never heard of GenzBenz

Trace Elliot I have a huge collection of vintage blacklight posters

Alembic I dropped acid and thought I was Phil Lesh



:hiding:
 
#19
waltwpowell said:
Ampeg Portaflex - Vintage Motown good in the studio - Can be heard on most old motown tunes
Click to expand...

The commonly-available info on Motown says Jamerson ran his pbass directly into the board - no amp - on most of those old Motown recordings. He used the Portaflex for small live gigs, and he used a Kustom solid state tuck-n-roll head and cab for larger live gigs.

This just goes to show that the tone is mostly in the fingers, not in the amp.
 

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