I come to this site all the time for questions that have already been posted. And maybe this question already has, but here goes anyway. Recently I sold my Ampeg SVT 4 Pro for... well... I'm not totally sure. Lol! There were minor reasons, but nothing to make me turn away from Ampeg. I think I just became interested in the idea of a tube head. I've got some time to shop as my band has lost its drummer, so I'm just jamming with the guitarist on my Orange combo. So here's the question... What is the dirtiest sounding bass amp out there? Within a reasonable budget of course. I've been researching the hell out of the Verellen Meatsmoke and I really can't find anything else better. However, they are expensive and rarely found used. I've been toying with the idea of another hybrid with the Orange Terror Bass 1000, simply because I love Orange. I'd rather the AD200B, but I've never played one before. It's hard to shell out all that money, when you haven't even given it a test-run. And on a side note, Guitar Center blows for not carrying anything in their store that is even worth a damn. With that said, what do y'all think? I'm looking for a dirty, dirty bass tone. I want as much dirt as I can find within a reasonable price. And really, if Verellen is the tree I've been barking up, but if there is something out there better than that, I'm all ears. Thanks!
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Dirtiest sounding amp?
- Thread starter rcoleman
- Start date
Mr. Foxen
Commercial User
Dirty bass amps are called guitar amps. 100w+ ones, only guitarists that wish they were bassists need that, so bass amps under a differ net name. Aim for a good quality amp with decent sized transformers. I use a 100w Burman Pro2000 for this:
Mr. Foxen
Commercial User
Cheap way is Bugera 1960 Infinium. PPI master vol means you can get serious dirt from the pre, or just open it up.
Jim Carr
Dr. Jim
- Jan 21, 2006
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GK MB Fusion. The B channel with the gain at 1 o'clock has a ton of dirt. With the gain dimed it is full on distortion that can compete with many high gain guitar amps. And if you switch back to channel A (with the footswitch that comes with the amp) you get beautiful tube bass tone that can have some dirt if you up the gain a bit. And it only weighs 4.5 lbs with 3 tubes in the all tube preamp.
a behringer combo (15") at a friend's house. the speaker not being able to handle the load (haha) sounded super dirty and great IMO.
i also owned an ampeg svt4 pro and sold it ... i currently have a genz benz shuttle 900, and it is way dirtier than an svt4 pro, that sometimes i wish it was cleaner. there's no way i can get anything hi-fi sounding out of that amp.
Don't over think this.
Over the top dirty is not what you are paying for with a good tube head, it's the nuanced breakup in the sweet spot and the ability to fill out the rest of the bottom end nicely and fully.
If you aren't looking for that nuance, why spend the money for it.
Get a powerful solid state head, either with built in distortion or your pedal of choice in front of it and be very, very happy.
Over the top dirty is not what you are paying for with a good tube head, it's the nuanced breakup in the sweet spot and the ability to fill out the rest of the bottom end nicely and fully.
If you aren't looking for that nuance, why spend the money for it.
Get a powerful solid state head, either with built in distortion or your pedal of choice in front of it and be very, very happy.
Mr. Foxen
Commercial User
Both have the same preamp, just the earlier 500s had a flawed preamp with very little headroom, that was later corrected. Newer ones have some clean on the dial.
I'm going to throw out the Fender Bassman 300 Pro / Sunn 300T. They're packed with features like a clean/dirty blend, graphic EQ, and dual band comp, all footswitchable. It's seriously a chameleon of an amp. It can do anything, including OD.
If you run across a used Mesa/Boogie D180, it should be at the very top of your list to try out. Plugging into ch-1, stacks the dual preamp channels in-line for unbelievable amounts of gain, then the tube poweramp section has an additional feature that adds more and more dirt as the master knob is turned down, yes down...
Fender SUPER BASSMAN 300 has the blendable OD channel(clean mixed with OD if you want - OR straight clean or all dirt) sounds phenomenal!!! Or ya can crank the master on the passive(vintage) channel for stright powetr tube OD- SWEET @SS!!!!!!!!!!!!
