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Combos made in the USA/Canada

flagstaffcharli

flagstaffcharli

Jan 6, 2009
65
1
Portland, Oregon
www.chuckcheesman.net
#1
I'm not interested in a political discussion. :cool:

Who, along with Carvin, makes small combos here in America or maybe up in Canada? I'm getting a bass in trade from someone and I need a small amp for practicing and (who knows?) maybe coffee houses. Thanks for your help!

I'm pretty stoked about the bass - a Ken Smith BSR-B MIJ. I've played guitar for 25+ years and never owned a bass! :D

Chuck
 
#2
flagstaffcharli said:
I'm not interested in a political discussion. :cool:

Who, along with Carvin, makes small combos here in America or maybe up in Canada? I'm getting a bass in trade from someone and I need a small amp for practicing and (who knows?) maybe coffee houses. Thanks for your help!

I'm pretty stoked about the bass - a Ken Smith BSR-B MIJ. I've played guitar for 25+ years and never owned a bass! :D

Chuck
Click to expand...

In Canada it's Traynor/Yorkville, distributed in USA also.
 
#5
Yes, Traynor/Yorkville is what you want. For what you put out in $, you get a sweet and practically indestructible combo. How much are you looking to spend? At one of my local stores I was looking at a practice amp for my house (my current house amp is 400 watts and way more than i need) and I was looking at a 200w Traynor with sweeeet sound and built like a tank for ~$300

Edit, a 200 watt amp
 
#11
Greetings from the North,

Traynor/Yorkville makes great amps,cabs & combos and have one of the best warranty records in the biz period. They've been around a long time and are responsible for more than a few innovations. Forget the equipment snobs, as long as you and the audience enjoys it that's all that matters.

Rezdog
 
#13
chiplexic said:
Mesa Boogie Walkabout Scout

Arguably the best combo out there. A bit pricey. But Your spending good money on that bass so maybe your willing to spend it on a great combo. It has 2 tubes placed in the circuit to give a very thick,warm tubey tone.
Click to expand...

I'll second that. Yeah, they're a bit expensive, but in this case, you really do get what you pay for. Used prices should be fairly easy on you, and you'll never outgrow this combo.
 
#14
I've owned the Mesa Boogie Walkabout Scout. Yes, it is in my opinion, the best small combo available. It's 50 lbs. and a little hard to carry with its single handle on top. I used a folding hand cart to haul mine around. They are expensive though so unless you can find a good one used you won't want to put out the money. The sound is wonderful however. Nobody can beat Mesa when it comes to tube tone in a solid state amp.

But, if you check out Traynor, take a look at their new and lightweight (45 lbs.) 1x12 350 watt combo. I haven't had a chance to get out to my local Long & McQuade store to try it yet, but if it's as good as Traynor and Yorkville usually do it, it should be a very good amp. Probably small enough to haul around easily and yet enough power to handle gigs.

Traynor also sells their smallest bass combo, the Dynabass 50, which is only 16 lbs. It's not something you'd take to a gig with loud guitars and drums, but it would handle a folk gig with acoustic guitars and is great for playing at home. I have one of the earlier Yorkville models of that amp-the XM50C that I use at home for practice and a second amp for teaching. Great little amp. Built like a tank and I expect it to outlive me. It has all the goodies you need-3 band eq, direct out to go to a P.A. or recording board, RCA inputs for a CD or MP player to practice along with and headphone output to practice late at night. You might still be able to find the Yorkville model in some stores. It weighs 30 lbs.

The Traynor Dynabass 200 is also a good amp that's not too expensive and can handle gigs. It's available with either 2x10 speakers or a single 15". Might be a bit much to haul around though. But I used one for a year long string of gigs a few years ago and it did the job.

GK makes very good stuff too, but I'd stay away from the Backline series of small combos. Their higher powered and made in the USA stuff is top notch though and what I use live. Too expensive unless you buy used but my favourite for lightweight solid state bass amps.
 
#16
Thanks! That Mesa is out of my price range right now. I got the bass in trade for a guitar.

My local store has a used Yorkville (XB100 I think?) used for 400 bucks. I think the new ones go for only a little more than that.

How `bout the Carvin BR15? I have a Carvin Bel Aire for my strat and it's a wonderful guitar amp.

This forum is really a great help!

My bass is supposed to arrive by UPS today too! :bassist:
 
#20
Well I had something posted here that the person may have been interested in, but I received a rather Draconian message stating because I am not a supporting member then I could not sell items. Unfortunately I had let me subscription lapse, a subscription I had for the years I have been on here, which caused an email as if I am a spammer.

Sorry, but I would have thought it would be more professional for the moderators to look into my past and remind to renew my subsciription instead of the "spammer" email.

Good luck with the site, I'm sure with this level of moderation things should go well from now on.
 

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