Beginner Bass Rig Recommendations

Used used used

300 bucks can get you a pretty good amp on the used market. For now, don't think too much about small/light. SWR, GK, Hartke, and Peavey are your Craigslist, Reverb and Guitar center keywords. Look in the 300 watt range (@4Ω).

 

Shopping older Peavey heads can be overwhelming all by itself. I would say probably the best mix of high power, condition and feature set. There are 70s Peavey heads out in the wild that still power up and rock balls, but id recommend at least late 80s or newer... I believe you are looking for black knobs, maybe red accent colors. The chrome knobs, pointy logo, and blue or teal accent color era Peavey stuff rocks, but they do lack power by comparison to even slightly newer amps.

As an aside, last time I went looking, the GK Goldline heads were hovering in the $200 range. Rumor has it they are quite nice heads. Their speaker counterparts not so much.

 

Used GK MB 500 or Rumble 500.

 

this.

Your average 212 is an anti-Goldilocks Zone thing. They get more than loud enough for lots of things and not loud enough for others. Two of them is overkill as nobody should be louder than an unamped drummer.

I am a 210 vertical stack believer!!

And always wear earplugs playing anywhere near a rock drummer.

 

Not talking about specific cabs but garden 212. Read the vertical thread for 1000 reasons not to 410.

 

MarkBass Nano 300

 

The carvin bx series amps are amazing light and cheap. For shows i run 2 carvin 2x10s with either my bx500 or ampeg v4b. The ampeg 8x10 and svt lives at home and only comes out for the studio...

 

A used GK 800RB

 

ditto

 

I picked up an SWR Workingman 4004 head 400 watts at 4 ohms 250 watts at 8 ohms with a Korg rack tuner for $250 bucks Canadian 5 years ago and a Yorkville Y410B cabinet for $200 Canadian. Just last week I bought a GK Fusion 500 for $560 and that head sells for $1230 taxes in new.

All this to say go to a few music stores try a bunch of heads and different cabs play around in the store have some fun and figure out what you like and then scour Craigslist or the TB forum and buy used. When you tire of it you'll sell it for close to what you paid for it and your loss will be minimal.

Look at stuff from SWR, Ampeg, Peavey, Traynor/Yorkville, Gallien Krueger, Fender to name a few. Try to get to 500 watts because if you buy one 8 ohm cab your looking at around 250 watts give or take a few.

If you really want new I was impressed with the video from Andertons on the Peavey Headliner 1000, I actually preferred it to the mini mega. My sons best friend bought an Ampeg PF500 which sounds amazing which is $399 new at Sweetwater.

 

What city do you live in? We can check out your local Craigslist and see if there's any value.

 

Also, since you're going the Peavey route, GC has a used Mark VIII XP for $165 + shipping. That's a very good amp.

https://www.guitarcenter.com/Used/Peavey/Mark-VIII-Bass-Bass-Amp-Head.gc

GC has a 45 day return policy, so if there's any issues you can always get your money back.

 

I bought a black line last year after ab-ing it with much of your list. All the ones I tried seemed to be decent bits of kit, I couldn't recommend one above another to someone else.

 

Acoustic is a great bass amp. I just bought mine and absolutely love the sound I get with it (unfortunately selling due to moving).

 

Um for that amount get yourself a Fender Rumble 500 combo w/ 2 10's....GREAT sounding amp, enough power and can add 2-10 extension in future...well worth the price.