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Buying my first amp, looking for an opinon

#21
Munjibunga said:
Buy once cry once. A 25-watt, 8-inch combo would be good for playing while you're in the bathroom. With the 50-watt, 12-inch, you can move into the living room. Don't expect to play "pretty loud" with a 50-watt amp.

Bottom line, neither combo is suitable for gigging. Either way, you probably will be buying another amp in 6 months if your bass playing gets to the point where you want to get into a band.
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+1

Either way, your best deal is NOT Orange.
 
#22
ckunke002 said:
Thanks for all the feedback everyone!

I really am only planning on playing by myself for some time. I don't imagine I will be good enough to play with a band or know how to compose anything for some time, I see myself just playing by myself in my rather small bedroom.

I never quite considered the fact that lower freq.s require much more power to become audible than mids and highs but it makes perfect sense...
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C'mon, bass is easy. It should only take you about 20 minutes to pick up the fundamentals. Another hour for solos and fills.
 
#23
Grab the cheapest practice amp you can find off of CL (don't spend more than $50) and put the rest of the $ in a jar. Add to the jar when you can and by the time you're ready to move up you should be covered for something usable.
 
#24
If I were you i would get the GK MB112 II its a 200 watt combo with a single 12 and its light and then you can get the GK MBP extension cabinet thats for that combo and you would have a 400 watt system driving 2 12s,you could use the combo alone for home practice and small to medium gigs and for bigger gigs you could use both units,just my opinion since thats what I do now,their small ,light and very portable and versatile and Im into the whole rig for 600.00 total...;)
 
#25
What do you want with an 8, 10 or 12 squawk box? Get a 215. Get as much bass as you can for your dollar. That'll keep you rockin' long enough to make yourself gigworthy. If you don't, it all comes to a halt. If you do get there, but you don't have a giggable rig, it also comes to a halt. Same money. One inspires you, one doesn't. One's giggable, one isn't. Are you gonna tell some babe, hey, come into my bedroom and listen to this cool lick on this practice amp that makes me sound like I'm chokin' a chicken and imagine it's shakin' the house? Wouldn't it be better to simply quake her booty from up on stage? Just remember, there's a reason Leo didn't call his invention the electric TREBLE.
 
#26
kurosawa said:
What do you want with an 8, 10 or 12 squawk box? Get a 215. Get as much bass as you can for your dollar. That'll keep you rockin' long enough to make yourself gigworthy. If you don't, it all comes to a halt. If you do get there, but you don't have a giggable rig, it also comes to a halt. Same money. One inspires you, one doesn't. One's giggable, one isn't. Are you gonna tell some babe, hey, come into my bedroom and listen to this cool lick on this practice amp that makes me sound like I'm chokin' a chicken and imagine it's shakin' the house? Wouldn't it be better to simply quake her booty from up on stage? Just remember, there's a reason Leo didn't call his invention the electric TREBLE.
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HUH? :hmm:
 
#27
ckunke002 said:
(snip)The thing I don't understand is when people factor amp size into playing gigs and with bands, don't you normally mic your amp in these situations already? Or are people just referring to non-mic situations when they say you need a bigger amp? Otherwise it seems to me that any size amp would work. But I don't have experience with this
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2 things... volume needed for the audience to hear... volume needed for the bass player, and the others in the band to hear. Even if you do mic the amp and have a good PA sound going to your audience, you often need a good bass amp on stage for you and the rest of the band to hear the bass. Even if you have monitors pointing toward the musicians, you still often need a good amp for the musicians to hear the bass. Especially for the musicians who are farther away from the monitors. Then factor in the relative loudness of the whole band. Can your bass be heard by the musicians who are on the other side of the drums from your bass amp? The amps are usually in the back-line, so can the musicians in the front hear the bass? Stage size? Open air, or enclosed space?

Many factors. Now, if you play the same stage, with the same musicians, with the same equipment, then you will quickly figure out what amp is needed to cover that situation, and that's all you'll ever need. But, if you play different venues, or unknown venues, venues that are known to be lousy? If you can afford several different rigs, for different situations, then no problem. If you can't afford several different rigs, then you need to plan for the most difficult situation you might be in. If you never play a big stage, outdoors, with a big band that's super loud, then you can get away with a relatively small rig. But, if you ever play a big stage, or outdoors, or with a loud band, then you need a louder rig.
 
#29
Me loves some 2x15 action too, and I love the posts from Kurosawa also, that's some good advice. But I wouldn't go with a 2x15 right off the bat or until I had a gig that called for huge firepower with no PA.

Heed Bungi too. The standard joke is about Johnny going off to his first bass lesson, he gets home and reports to Dad "Today i learned to play the I". Next weeks lesson comes around and it's " Today I learned the IV"

3rd week, Dad is waiting up to 2 am for Johnny to come home from bass lesson. "Son, what happened, where have you been?"

Johnny, "today I learned the V and we had our first gig"

It's only a slight exaggeration.

I would say spend a little on a cheesy practice amp to see if you like playing bass. Then when you get the feeling you would like to be playing with others get a rig. http://www.talkbass.com/forum/f15/upgrading-mini-rig-927252/
 

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