I need a good quality combo amp for my horribly small dorm room. I would consider taking my current half stack with me except I can't fit the thing. If anyone has had any success with a practice amp sounding great send it my way. Anything, warwick, swr, genz benz, ampeg, hartke, GK. Basically I want an awesome amp that is small and won't be disappointed by, even when puting my new warwick through it. Price max 400
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Dorm Amp
- Thread starter B166ER
- Start date
In the dorms, you'll be playing for the most part at extremely low volume levels. At these levels, there isn't much difference between a little Peavey combo amp and a four-figure half stack. Also consider that if you can't live with barely audible levels, you'll have to more or less EQ yourself a high-pass filter that rolls off around 200-250Hz. Even then, you'll still have to keep the levels relatively low. Your best option is to practice using headphones. If you can't live with this, check out a Peavey Microbass. Small footprint, doesn't sound bad, and has a headphone output.
My daughter lives in a dorm at university and I set her up with a small 8 channel mixer and headphones for her bass and iPod. It takes up minimal space and doesn't bother anyone. She has headphone splitter cable and extra channels for jamming if needed.
I would suggest the Pandora. It's pretty cool 'cause it has practice tools like a metronome, phrase sampler, and aux input (for playing along w/ recordings thru your headphones). It sounds decent, but not great, through the headphones, but that's probably because I never spend any time tweaking the sounds.
lol. Just remembering my dorm amp!
peavey mark 4 head, 4 ohm peavey 2x15 cab, and a fender bassman (50 or 100 watt? I really dont recall) with a hartke 210 xl. The hartke was later replaced with a peavey 1820 and then, VERY shortly after all cabs were swapped for a pV1516 and a hartke 210 tp.
My RA hated me as much as i hated lugging it all!
IMO you shoulnt sell yourself TOO short. we got tons of little gigs & whatnot as a result of our mini dorm jams. A small practice-only cab would have been as big as mismatch as my horrificly huge stack was.
get something you can do small gigs with imo. a 112 combo of some sort. isnt there a little 15" PV databass? I wonder how that would be.
peavey mark 4 head, 4 ohm peavey 2x15 cab, and a fender bassman (50 or 100 watt? I really dont recall) with a hartke 210 xl. The hartke was later replaced with a peavey 1820 and then, VERY shortly after all cabs were swapped for a pV1516 and a hartke 210 tp.
My RA hated me as much as i hated lugging it all!
IMO you shoulnt sell yourself TOO short. we got tons of little gigs & whatnot as a result of our mini dorm jams. A small practice-only cab would have been as big as mismatch as my horrificly huge stack was.
get something you can do small gigs with imo. a 112 combo of some sort. isnt there a little 15" PV databass? I wonder how that would be.
don't know if you heard of Yorkville, but I hear their xm50 kicks some ass......also can get loud enough to play with a small ensemble
If you like tube amps, get the Epiphone Valve Jr. head (5 all-tube watts for 99 dollars) and pair it with a single 10, 12 or 15 inch speaker. 5 tube watts will sound warm and lovely, and will definitely be louder than you need (believe it!) and probably cheaper than going the new combo route. Buy the head new and get a used cab, and you're rocking.
I live in an apartment and that's what I do... it works really really well.
I live in an apartment and that's what I do... it works really really well.
Roland Cube 100. Small, light, loud, headphone jack, excellent tone. Used it's under $400, new it's slightly more unless you find a better deal than I did. It's plenty loud for jam sessions and rehearsals at sane volumes, and should be fine for small gigs with PA support, maybe even some without.
I had a Washburn 30w bass amp when I was in college. It was a loaner and sounded pretty good with my Jazz.
I ended up living only one semester in the dorm, and moved to a house with my stack
I ended up living only one semester in the dorm, and moved to a house with my stack
GK Backline 110 has awesome tone, a dual channel preamp with a pretty decent overdrive tone for what it is, and built into a kickback cabinet with aux in and headphone out. Very well made, and inexpensive... $230 shipped at Musician's Friend.
My 0.02
Get yourself a POD of some sort, or a Pandora as some have suggested. Then you will have a practice setup that will mirror your gig sound, and you'll also get a handy dandy set of effects pedals.
It's a floor polish AND a dessert topping!!
Get yourself a POD of some sort, or a Pandora as some have suggested. Then you will have a practice setup that will mirror your gig sound, and you'll also get a handy dandy set of effects pedals.
It's a floor polish AND a dessert topping!!
You haven't mentioned a price range, but for a small practice amp that can actually do the job of amplifying a bass the Markbass Micromark must be hard to beat.
I'm going down to guitar center this saturday. I've played a GK backline 115. I did indeed like it but it was so long ago I don't remember how it sounded. I don't really want anything that I could play at a show cuz I already got a Ashdonw mag 400 and 410 cab. I have no room in my dorm for it but if i need to play a show I can use that. A small tube amp sounds intriguing. Thanks for the posts so far, I'll look into them.
I'll second the movement to get a Roland. I've tried a few and they are some of the best sounding combo's I've ever tried. The 30w version had an absolutely massive sound for its size.
