Beginner Amps??

[BaByBlUeBaSs05]

What kind of amp should I get?? I will be a beginner,and I would like to eventually start a small band with a couple of people at my school,maybe? So What would you suggest? How many watts? What size?

Thank You.

 

[Jason Carota]

Look for an SWR Workingman's 12 (12" speaker / tweeter / 100w of power / 120w with another speaker.) Its simple, sounds good, and is easily portable. You can find really good deals on used WM 12's, too. If you find one, try it out with your bass, not one off the rack of a store (this goes for any amp you try out.)

Good luck in your search.

 

[Mcrelly]

I agree with jason. wm12 is a nice sounding, pretty good starter combo. the important thing, I think, when considering a first combo amp is "can you plug in an extentions speaker/cab?" I'm pretty sure with SWR workingman series you can. adding an extra cab is an easy way to increase volume.

If you got the dough, buy a 350w into 8ohm "head" (preamp and poweramp combined) or larger and get a 12 or 15" or 4x10 cab. I'd recommend tech21 landmark 300 and either aguilar gs-112 or tech21 4x10 cab!!

if you buy a head instead of a combo you can change things when you decide you don't like the speaker or the head doesn't have enough power you don't have to throw the whole thing out.

read my sig. below....

 

[brianrost]

My suggestion is to buy a used amp, to save money. Skip the small "practice" amps out there and look for something powerful enough for actually playing with other people, even for playing shows.

Why? Because eventually if you stick with it you will need such an amp anyway and you'll have to pony up the $$$$ for it. Might as well just buy it now.

As to WHAT amp...that really depends on your budget and the musical styles you are pursuing.

 

[marklinca]

Mcrelly - Did you mean 350w into 4 ohms? The Landmark 300 is 300w into 4 ohms. To get 300w into 8 ohms for solid-state, you are probably talking ~ 550w watts into 4 ohms. That is a pretty large beginners amp.

My first "real" amp is a 380w into 4ohms (230w into 8 ohms) head with two 1x12 cabs - a very flexible setup. I agree with Brian - I wish I had skipped the practice amp and put the $273 towards the real rig (though the Bassman 25 is/was a very good quality practice amp).

For late-night practice you can consider a headphone amp because a lot of amp heads will not have a headphone jack (and when you are starting out you WILL want to keep your sounds private). For about $70 new, you could consider a Dunlop/Rockman Bass Ace or a Zoom 506ii multi-effect pedal (which makes a good headphone amp and has a tuner built-in) among others. The Bass Ace comes with some light headphones, but you will want to chuck them and invest in some good-quality cans (I would recommend the AKG K-44 headphones at musiciansfriend.com - they are a steal at $20 and are very comfortable).

Also, if considering used equipment, I would feel more comfortable with a used head as opposed to used speaker cab(s) if buying from a stranger.

 

[CoolHat]

I´d go the small-ish combo route for starters. There are many good and loud combos that won´t break your back (or bank). And you´ll probably have use for it even if you get a bigger rig later. I have had a Hartke Kickback 12 for seven years and used it at hundreds of gigs. The SWR that Jason mentioned is a good pick too. These are just few examples; almost all respectable manufacturers offer several compact amps (check out .this thread) , so it really is a matter of taste

 

[BillyB_from_LZ]

I've never liked combos...but that's me.

If you can afford it, get a good used bass amp that has maybe 300 to 500 watts and a good used 4x10 cabinet or a 2x10 and a 1x15. If you get quality gear, you could just about keep it forever.

 

[Mcrelly]

Originally posted by marklinca
Mcrelly - Did you mean 350w into 4 ohms? The Landmark 300 is 300w into 4 ohms. To get 300w into 8 ohms for solid-state, you are probably talking ~ 550w watts into 4 ohms. That is a pretty large beginners amp.

sorry, my bad.

I have 350w into 4ohms with two 112 cabs and that is a good sized system for me. it will fill a basement with bass and act as a great stage monitor system for large rooms. when I first got my aggie gs112 I only had one and THAT was almost enough for my situation (loud kid's church band) two cabs make me feel safer that I won't blow just one out!

when I tried the landmark 300 with my two cabs it sounded great, but seemed to run out of headroom or that extra cushion of volume for louder songs. could be my passive pbass didn't give the front end enough signal, but it seemed almost like it didn't have enough juice for my situationk, but I LOVE THE SOUND!!! I almost bought one, until my car broke down, because I loved the sound so much and didn't want to carry or buy a landmark 600!