Expensive HEAD affordable CABINET or expensive BIG COMBO?

[10emmanuel]

Hello mates!
I am planning to get my first big amp, I have had several small combos, 80 watts the biggest, but now I want to upgrade.

What do you recommend ? I want to have an interesting good sounding amp that allows me to play in stage. I am not a big star so I would have eventual small gigs. Mostly garage band rehearsals.
Yeah some will say "hey the best option is this a million dollar amp" but I have a limited budget. About 1.500 USD.

One person told me I should get a good Head and dont worry that much about the cabinet. That allows me to transport it easily. That I could even borrow or rent the cabinet for the occasion .
In the other hand, I could buy a good 800 watts combo for 1.000 USD which is so big that I would need a truck to carry it around.

What do you say? It's worth to say that It would be an amp that I will accompany me for long time.

Thanks!!!

 

[abarson]

Way too many options to list. It would help to know where you are located in order to point you in the direction of applicable retailers.
Good equipment doesn't need to be expensive. As always, shopping the used market allows you to buy more for less.

Buying a separate head and cabinet(s) allows you to get the right speaker complement for the occasion: small cab for small gig, big cab (or multiple small ones) for bigger gigs. "Don't worry about the cab" is stupid advice, as the cab does have a lot to do with your overall sound and you can't rely on one being available for lend or rent when you need it.

If you're talking about the Fender Rumble 800, it's a compact 210 combo that will easily fit in the trunk, front or rear seat of most cars. Maybe a tight fit in a Fiat 500.

 

[S-Bigbottom]

I should get a good Head and dont worry that much about the cabinet.

The cabinet being able to reproduce what you put in at the volume you need makes the most impact.
That is its/your voice.

All the watts or whatever "sound" in an "expensive/nice" amp or bass means nothing if you can not feel or hear it over a guitar or drum.

 

[Marko 1]

If I couldn't afford both, my pic would be

Affordable head with expensive cabinet.

 

[10emmanuel]

If I couldn't afford both, my pic would be

Affordable head with expensive cabinet.

is the Aguilar tone hammer 500 a decent option to play on stage?

 

[gtirard]

If it’s a long term investment, try as many as you can before you make a decision. You can go to physical shops, and/or rehearsal studios to try them in context. I would also favor an affordable head and a good cab.

 

[10emmanuel]

If it’s a long term investment, try as many as you can before you make a decision. You can go to physical shops, and/or rehearsal studios to try them in context. I would also favor an affordable head and a good cab.

is the Aguilar tone hammer 500 a decent option to play on stage? does it qualify as affordable in your opinion?

 

[Jim C]

I think once you get to really good sounding bass heads, the bigger difference is the cabinet.
A great new class D amp can sound horrible with a crap cabinet.
I've had some great times with older, just OK, SS amps with really good cabinets.

 

[LiptonJigglers]

Garage band and $1500: I'd suggest going second-hand and take a look at some of the older style bass rigs.
The beauty of separate components is you can always try different amp or cabs with your existing stuff and see which works best for you.

 

[Kevan Campbell]

What kind of shows do you see yourself most likely playing in the near future? I ask because if most of the places that you think you’ll play have a decent FOH they may require you to go direct anyway, so a speaker cabinet would just be for onstage monitoring (and not required to put out lots of volume to carry the room).

It would definitely help to know your location for any specific recommendations, but generally speaking a head + cabinet rig will be easier to match to a gig than having one large combo that’s cumbersome to transport.

 

[Medicine Man]

I would echo, the cab is way more important than the head. It really depends on what style of music you want it for. An Americana trio needs much less speakers than a sludge metal band. The other big decision is if you are willing to haul heavy cabs. If you are, there is lots of big old stuff on the used market. If it was my $1500, I would buy a new Mesa Subway 1x12 (which is light and loud for its size) and whatever used class D head looks good for the rest of the cash. This wouldn't keep up with the loudest of drummers, but you could always add another cab down the road once you were more established. For a combo, you need at least 2x10 speaker area to keep up with drums. Fender Rumble has a rounder, more vintage sound, GK has a more punchy modern sound and Markbass is somewhere in the middle. The best thing to do is take your bass somewhere you can try stuff to decide what YOU like.

 

[10emmanuel]

I would echo, the cab is way more important than the head. It really depends on what style of music you want it for. An Americana trio needs much less speakers than a sludge metal band. The other big decision is if you are willing to haul heavy cabs. If you are, there is lots of big old stuff on the used market. If it was my $1500, I would buy a new Mesa Subway 1x12 (which is light and loud for its size) and whatever used class D head looks good for the rest of the cash. This wouldn't keep up with the loudest of drummers, but you could always add another cab down the road once you were more established. For a combo, you need at least 2x10 speaker area to keep up with drums. Fender Rumble has a rounder, more vintage sound, GK has a more punchy modern sound and Markbass is somewhere in the middle. The best thing to do is take your bass somewhere you can try stuff to decide what YOU like.

would a AGUILARD TONE HAMMER 350 with a 1x12 cab keep up with drums?

 

[KevInDaBassment]

is the Aguilar tone hammer 500 a decent option to play on stage?

It's an excellent head, if you like the tone stack and sound of the amp. However, the cab is just as big a factor (if not more) than your amp when it comes to tone and overall volume. Plenty of great cabs out there, I'd personally look at used cabs a la Guitar Center's website or whoever's in your area here.

Personally I'd say "Buy once, cry once" on cabs...plenty of great 2x10 or 2x12 cabs that will carry you through nearly any rehearsal and small/medium gigs. Mesa, GK, Markbass, Ampeg, Aguilar....hard to go wrong with the ones that get love on here. STRONGLY recommend you try out as many cabs as you can before committing to one.

Some may think this is bad advice, but I'd just get the Aguilar TH head first and then take it around to as many guitar stores that will let you plug it into their cabs to test them out. The TH is a great amp with flexible EQ, but even if you can't get "the sound" from it, there's an effects loop so you can bypass the preamp and put whatever pedal you want in front...using it as an excellent class-d power amp. Not much you can do to work around a bad cab, so I'd stress way more over that than your choice of amp.

 

[Medicine Man]

And yes, the tone hammer is good unless you like really clean sound. Depends on the 1x12 and how loud the drummer is.

 

[10emmanuel]

It's an excellent head, if you like the tone stack and sound of the amp. However, the cab is just as big a factor (if not more) than your amp when it comes to tone and overall volume. Plenty of great cabs out there, I'd personally look at used cabs a la Guitar Center's website or whoever's in your area here.

Personally I'd say "Buy once, cry once" on cabs...plenty of great 2x10 or 2x12 cabs that will carry you through nearly any rehearsal and small/medium gigs. Mesa, GK, Markbass, Ampeg, Aguilar....hard to go wrong with the ones that get love on here. STRONGLY recommend you try out as many cabs as you can before committing to one.

Some may think this is bad advice, but I'd just get the Aguilar TH head first and then take it around to as many guitar stores that will let you plug it into their cabs to test them out. The TH is a great amp with flexible EQ, but even if you can't get "the sound" from it, there's an effects loop so you can bypass the preamp and put whatever pedal you want in front...using it as an excellent class-d power amp. Not much you can do to work around a bad cab, so I'd stress way more over that than your choice of amp.

thanks!!
Should I worry about how old the head is if I buy used?

 

[SLO Surfer]

I’d suggest the same as others; the cab is as important, if not more important, than the head.

is the Aguilar tone hammer 500 a decent option to play on stage?

The TH500 (and TH350) is a great amp..IF you want an old school vintage mid-forward tone and understand how eq curves work. It can be one of the most tricky amps to learn the controls on. The knobs on that amp all effect each other and don’t behave like “normal.”

I’d suggest a used GK MB500 (or MB800) as a very straight forward, easy to use, great sounding amp head (that won’t break the bank).

 

[KevInDaBassment]

thanks!!
Should I worry about how old the head is if I buy used?

If it works, nope...don't worry about it. The Aguilars seem to be pretty well-built amps, so I wouldn't worry as long as it has been taken care of. Plenty of amps older than me that are still kickin HARD. Pretty sure a Peavey bass head from the 80s could survive a meteor impact.

EDIT: I try not to jump to them immediately, but since someone else mentioned it already...I love me some GK amps. The MBs are great heads and RBs are built like a freakin tank

 

[J Wilson]

Always remember: Your sound is the result of a signal chain.

Even an unplugged Alembic is silent.

So is an uber-expensive amp rig with nothing plugged in.

Your instrument = Bass + Amp (+effects if used), and you always think in those terms.

Whether you want to one-piece it with a combo, or go with a separate head and cabinet, that's up to you.

My advice is always to buy the BEST amp you can afford. A great amp can make even a so-so bass sound better, but plug that Alembic into a El Crapitan amp, and you'll never hear it properly.

If it were me, I'd get the best head I could get, and the best cabinet with the leftover $$. Later you could update to a better cabinet if need be (which hard to do with a combo).

 

[10emmanuel]

If it works, nope...don't worry about it. The Aguilars seem to be pretty well-built amps, so I wouldn't worry as long as it has been taken care of. Plenty of amps older than me that are still kickin HARD. Pretty sure a Peavey bass head from the 80s could survive a meteor impact.

EDIT: I try not to jump to them immediately, but since someone else mentioned it already...I love me some GK amps. The MBs are great heads and RBs are built like a freakin tank

Thanks! A last question!! (sorry to bother but you have been very helpful ) would a AGUILARD TONE HAMMER 350 keep up with drums? or I should aim for the 500?

 

[KevInDaBassment]

Thanks! A last question!! (sorry to bother but you have been very helpful ) would a AGUILARD TONE HAMMER 350 keep up with drums? or I should aim for the 500?

No problem lol

Another little secret is if you want more volume, you add more speakers/cabs as opposed to more watts. You're (in general) going to get a WAY bigger boost in volume using the TH350 with two 2x12 cabs as opposed to the TH500 with a single 2x12 cab (of the same build).

HOWEVER...

The problem with going with the TH350 is it only has one speaker output on the back of it. You'd only be able to (in nearly all circumstances) attach one cab to it. The TH500 lets you attach two cabinets, which you definitely want as an option. I'd just get the TH500 and call it a day...


or a GK MB500...or a GK 700RB-II...