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Buying my first practice amp; Advice needed!

#23
Buy used if at all possible! Craig's List has some fantastic deals if you keep a look out for them! Also a lot of good used amps on the GC website. If you are going to buy new this would be a good weekend to do it. Lot's of Labor Day Weekend sales going on. Fender, GK, TC Electronic and Carvin all make nice combos in your price range.
 
#24
Out of your choices I 'd go for the peavey Best bang for buck. Think about the Ampeg BA-210, Fender Rumble 200, Or Hartke HD-100. Any of these would be great Starter combos, then you can look into Head/Cabinet choices for "Bigger" venues.
 
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#25
For $300 bucks you can get a lot these days. You can easily get something that is both good to practice with and gig with. In your position I'd buy a nice high wattage combo. Plenty of choices out there. GK, the Fender Rumble series is really good, Peavey etc.
 
#26
Blueinred said:
The new Fender Rumbles are the number one selling bass amps in the world right now. I have the 200w and it is very sweet and only 34 lbs. It's $399, but the 100w is $299 and almost as loud. Can do home, rehearsal, and small venues. Built in preamp gain and push button distortion. You should at least check them out. 5 year warranty, too.
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I bought the Rumble 200 for my daughter great amp! I even use it for gigs where space or stairs are a issue!
 
#28
godofthunder59 said:
Truth! Many of my heads are guitar heads! Marshall, Sound City, Hiwatt all stuff I use with bass cabs!
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Man, I used an old Peavey tube guitar amp with an RBI pre and it still is one of the best bass sounds I remember hearing.
 
#29
I have the Ampeg BA110 v2. I just use it for practice. I know that if I get in a band situation I can use it as a stage monitor because of the 60 degree wedge design. I can upgrade to a more band capaple setup and won't lose my shirt in trading it in or selling it used. I know Hartke used to have the kickback combos too. Good luck in your search.
 
#32
Roxbororob said:
My BA108 seemed like great deal (compact, nice tone) but disappointing once I started to turn it up a bit. Now that the cab is sealed properly and have installed a 10" basslite speaker it is much better, but should not have had to do that IMO (poor workmanship, crappy driver). Still cant keep up with band practice so it doesnt get used much these days.

Larger speaker (12+) more wattage (200+) as suggested above. Dont be shy, crank it way up at the music store when during test drive. If seller discourages that, move on.
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I see. Now I'm definitely considering getting more wattage to start with.
 
#33
MakoMan said:
For new amps in the $300 range for the purposes you describe, it's pretty hard to beat one of the new Rumble 100s. It's lighter than most 15 watt practice amps, has great tone and can keep up with a drummer. If you're practicing at home and need to lug the amp to gigs as well, the Rumble 100 is pretty hard to beat.
If weight isn't an issue you can grab just about any old Peavey with a 15" speaker for $100 and pretty much play anywhere. A TKO65 etc would fit the bill.
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Ok. The Rumble amps are seeming more and more appealing now. I understand that there are several iterations of these amps (the current being version 3?). If I get a good deal on one of these on Craigslist, but it's a previous version, am I missing out on anything major?
 
#34
andruca said:
I'd definitely go for a Peavey TKO/TNT combo. Old green lined ones are reliable as they come and, guess what? 75 Peavey watts on a 15" speaker are very gigable in bars and sound definitely WAY louder, punchier an cleaner than 100 Ampeg watts. Not as fancy/hypey (if you happen to care), yet killer sounding. 300 on a strictly practice amp is a waste of money IMHO.
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I'll consider checking out the Peavey's then (I think I saw a few on my local Craigslist).
 
#35
cchorney said:
Welcome back to bass! You are already on the right track by being open to buying something used. Right now pretty much anything in your price range and "loud enough" range can work, and other posters will be happy to throw specific suggestions.

I'm going to stick with one small piece of advice:
  1. What ever you buy, sooner or later you will either outgrow it's functionality or it's tone. So "buy used", because when you sell it, assuming you get a reasonably fair deal going in and you take care of it while you have it, you will be able to turn around and sell it for close to what you paid. And by then you will have a much better idea of the features that YOU want and the tone palette that appeals to your ear.
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This is excellent advice! I seriously have no idea why I didn't jump on the Craigslist train earlier, haha. I also live close to a larger city that has many music stores, so I'll have to make a weekend expedition soon.
 
#36
Bodeanly said:
To be honest, I thought the same thing when searching for a newer and lighter amp. My quest led me to the V3 500 head and I love it so much that I also picked up the 500 combo.
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Haha yeah. For whatever reason, I (perhaps unjustifiably) regarded the Fender Rumble line as the sort of low-quality beginner bass amp that you quickly outgrow. Apparently I was mistaken, haha.
 
#37
starbelly said:
Ok. The Rumble amps are seeming more and more appealing now. I understand that there are several iterations of these amps (the current being version 3?). If I get a good deal on one of these on Craigslist, but it's a previous version, am I missing out on anything major?
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The V3's weigh less and are louder than the V2's. I've had both and I think the V2's have a better tone than the newer V3's...
 
#38
starbelly said:
Ok. The Rumble amps are seeming more and more appealing now. I understand that there are several iterations of these amps (the current being version 3?). If I get a good deal on one of these on Craigslist, but it's a previous version, am I missing out on anything major?
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The new Rumbles are nothing like the old ones. MUCH lighter and better tone. The older Rumbles are decent amps but the new model blows them away.
 

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