If I was going to buy the best possible amp with a $500 budget. I would get the Ampeg BA-210v2 as well.
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Best amp <$500
- Thread starter Sludgewhale
- Start date
If I was going to buy the best possible amp with a $500 budget. I would get the Ampeg BA-210v2 as well.
Tell you what. I asked about a great combo about a month ago. Several folks suggested the Fender Rumble 500. It is a little above your price range ($598 to your door) but it is a fantastic combo. The sound is even more what I hoped for with plenty of power. As a bonus it even sounds great with my stand-up and it is only 36 pounds. Have done 4 or 5 different gigs with different sound variables, but inside and outside. Could Not be happier! I play a Fender Jazz for the most part. Might want to check it out if can swing it.
No competition whatsoever! The Rumble! Every time!
Just my opinion and I am pretty opinionated.
If you go used, $600 (great, upped the total by $100
), will leave you $400 for a box (if you pick up an MB200, or an even more powerful, older/heavier A/B unit for ~$200). Used is the smarter play, baby. Always has been. Always will be 
.Again, it's displacement that you need to think about, not RMS. 200 watts is plenty to get started with (although more is always nicer
) if you've got enough box.
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500w into a 15 that might handle 300w in its own wet dream is not as loud as 200w into an old Peavey 2x15.
Any amp you like will work with any cab you like as long as there isn't an ohms issue. What you want is to buy an 8-ohm cab(s). That way, if/when you buy a 2nd 8-ohm cab, your rig'll have a 4-ohm total load. And if/when you do pick up a 2nd box, make it an identical one to the 1st. Every current amp that I know of supports a 4-ohm load. For almost all of them, though, 4-ohms is the minimum. This means if you start out with a 4-ohm cab, you've no where to go. Better be sure you like that cab & that it's a big enough air-mover for you. Again, only exception is if you have a 2-ohm stable amp. In total, they're rare. And usually, but not always, more bread.
- Sep 3, 2006
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uh..he said 'metal". You ever played that stuff? 200 watts into 2 high efficiency 15's? Maybe, but as I said earlier it would be marginal as there would be no headroom and would be running wide open most of the night (unless the cabs were horns). I know I would have been drown out BAD with a 200 W amp when I played metal - I had a 1800w amp. He was more on the right track with 500w amp. But you hit the nail on the head that he is not paying enough attention to the cab portion. I don't intend on ever playing it again, but if I were there is no way I would play metal without at least 215s and at least 500 watts.
OP, IMO you really are not budgeting enough to properly do the job you stated if you plan on buying new. You need two good 15's or a very good 410 or a 412,610,810. Save some cash and look for used. Where are you located? Maybe some of the members know someone selling used stuff to help you out. I know there were a slew of those GB Contour 500s sold at closeout 349 each and there is bound to be some folks who bought them just because they were a grandslam deal (I would certainly put them against any of the combos listed here on this thread) and didn't really need them and want to sell one. Find one of them and buy a 15 cab to go with it and then you may stand a chance of not being blown away with the guitar and drummer in a metal group, and you have stayed within your budget.
No, you are wrong. Plain and simple. All use the same power. All put out the same. All are equal, in all respects except for speaker and price. The single 12 is the lightest and cheapest and fit within the OP
Sure, more budget is always better. All. Ways. But if $500 (now it looks like $600, so, more budget
) is the budget, then that's the budget. He's gonna be limited in either amp or cab. Between the 2, the box should get more attention. If he checks local deals, bides his time, is acceptable to older/heavier gear (but still in nice shape mind you), & negotiates well (or at least not poorly), $600 can get the job done pretty well. If the gear is 100% functional, but cosmetically-challenged 
, then his bread'll go that much further . But even if the upped $600 budget is upped slightly again, there'll still be compromises to be made (as there almost always are). Minimum bucks for really current gear that'd work would probably be ~$1200-1300 (something like a used GK MB800 & used 15/6). Short of that (or the older/heavier, although still nice gear I mentioned), his better play is lesser RMS & greater Vd.
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For $500, you could pick up a used SWR Goliath 4x10 and your choice of 250+ watt used SWR or Trace heads which are mostly bulletproof and awesome sounding (or maybe something like a GK 700RB). You would have enough tone and volume that you would smack your mama if she so much as suggested you go back to any of your original choices (none of which would remotely keep up with a 100w guitar amp and a drummer in a metal band, although your last batch of options was slightly better).
But yeah, you could go with shiny new made in China with the tears of orphaned children beginners combo
OR
MIA (or UK) bulletproof used pro gear that sounds amazing but is cheap because it's not "cool" (ie it weighs more than 12 pounds), but actually is way more cool than the new cheap stuff.
I know what you'll choose (because no one who ever starts these kind of threads ever actually follows the advice they get), but I thought I'd make the point anyway.
But yeah, you could go with shiny new made in China with the tears of orphaned children beginners combo
OR
MIA (or UK) bulletproof used pro gear that sounds amazing but is cheap because it's not "cool" (ie it weighs more than 12 pounds), but actually is way more cool than the new cheap stuff.
I know what you'll choose (because no one who ever starts these kind of threads ever actually follows the advice they get), but I thought I'd make the point anyway.
Sorry, you don't understand displacement, do you? But you need to. That's what's plain & simple. Read up. It's good stuff, I promise
.You said it yourself. The speakers aren't the same. The 12 is lighter/cheaper than the 115 or 210. 100% true. But it's also less capable. Additionally, the 210 benefits by way of speaker coupling (+3 dB). And the 115 and 210 (if the OP goes the combo route) are both well within the OP's stated budget.
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Yes. Some do, but not too many. Shiny objects usually do the trick.
Lightness and cheapness should frankly only be "bonus" characteristics when it comes to bass gear. Anybody who wanted an instrument with featherlight gear should have taken up the piccolo. The door is over there, you can see yourself out.
Physics is a cruel mistress. I know it sucks that Johnny Guitar can plug into a 12w Champ with an 8 inch speaker from 50 years ago and make your ears bleed, but bass just doesn't work that way. You need a certain amount of size and weight to get "the tone". Certainly technology has come a long way, and the band I ran sound for the other day in a park, the guy just had a 250W TCE head and a GB 1x12 and it sounded full and nice, but this was a super tight pro level top 40 band where everyone knew what they were doing and subtlety and taste were the main targets. In a metal band, you just need cone area. There's simply no way around it. Really, if you're in a metal band and your bass rig weighs less than 100 pounds and you actually have enough volume with a tone that is stylistically appropriate, you're doing pretty good.
Physics is a cruel mistress. I know it sucks that Johnny Guitar can plug into a 12w Champ with an 8 inch speaker from 50 years ago and make your ears bleed, but bass just doesn't work that way. You need a certain amount of size and weight to get "the tone". Certainly technology has come a long way, and the band I ran sound for the other day in a park, the guy just had a 250W TCE head and a GB 1x12 and it sounded full and nice, but this was a super tight pro level top 40 band where everyone knew what they were doing and subtlety and taste were the main targets. In a metal band, you just need cone area. There's simply no way around it. Really, if you're in a metal band and your bass rig weighs less than 100 pounds and you actually have enough volume with a tone that is stylistically appropriate, you're doing pretty good.
I don't hate Ampeg, I grew up with them and loved them until they went overseas. Now one is much the same as the other. Gallien Krueger is an excellent product. Even if you buy the MB200 115 combo and your only way to expand is another powered cabinet, so what? You'll truly double your watts and I guess you can hook up to four of them up. They aren't that expensive. GK has a much better reputation then the others and you're supporting American enterprise. Oh forgot to mention, if nothing else, the GK MB200 head sounds incredible for as small and cheap that it is.
Good luck, let us know what you decide.
Good luck, let us know what you decide.
So many, & I really, really mean so many (& this seriously saddens me, it does), wouldn't know subtlety/taste if it walked up & bit them on the hind quarters.
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For metal you'll be right in style buying a Silverfin Peavey circa 80's to 90's. This sounds cliche but it's true. They're American made, so rugged they fall out of trucks and off stages and that just makes them meaner. And a Peavey 80's head with a 215 will set you back less than the 500. And your amp will speak with authority. Why do you think a lot of metal bands are using old Peavey? Rugged, powerful, and kind of making a comeback. You can find all flavors on evilbay or CL and in GC or pawn shops.
