What I've learned by going bigger (especially on the head) is I just get A LOT more headroom for that clarity I like.. Get the most watts you can afford (good watts, not Behringer watts) and this will afford you that headroom, that's really why, not just to be loud.
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First bass amp advise?
- Thread starter oldangelmidnigh
- Start date
What I've learned by going bigger (especially on the head) is I just get A LOT more headroom for that clarity I like.. Get the most watts you can afford (good watts, not Behringer watts) and this will afford you that headroom, that's really why, not just to be loud.
+1 to more watts for headroom. I like to have a nice clean tone and having more watts to work with usually means you can keep that clean tone going well into gig volume. I'm a big fan of having a lot of rig with me and keeping it turned down low. Plenty of headroom and multiple speakers working together to put out the same volume makes for a sweet sounding setup.
Now, that said. I have played a few bar gigs with an older V2 Fender Rumble 150 15" combo. It got the job done, but I was pushing it harder than I probably should have and the tone definitely suffered. Keep in mind that was a very loud setup for all the more wattage/cone area it had. More recently I've done a couple of loud practices with a GK MB200 and a 210. Again, it was the absolute minimum in my opinion to keep up with a moderate drummer and I still had to sacrifice tone though not as bad as with the rumble. My current "playing out" rig is a GK MB500 into two Avatar 210's. It cost a fair bit more than my old Rumble combo, but it keeps up just fine, has the tone I want, and is actually easier to move around. Depending on the sound you're after I think you could get by with a GK MB200 into 2x210, or 1x410 as long as you were running it at 4 ohms. It probably wouldn't leave you much wiggle room, and you might be getting closer to a "grind"-ish tone, but I think it would suffice.
A lot of this has to do with whether or not you have decent PA support as well. I rarely get any help so my rig typically needs to carry the room. If you're ONLY monitoring you can get away with a lot less.
Whenever I see the "new amp advice" title I always try to offer this: You have two basic paths laid out in front of you. Get a modest combo to use for learning/at-home practice/woodshedding/jamming with a buddy and then down the road buy a bigger rig to play out with. Or, buy a more serious rig now that will be a bit overkill at home, but can keep up if needed in a band context. Think carefully about what your goals are, what time frame you anticipate these things happening, and what your finances are going to be like. If you have the cash and don't mind spending $600 or so you can put together a stage rig now. IF not, maybe you're better off getting something for $200 now and saving up for a gig-rig while you practice away on that.
And as always, buy used. Those $$$ go a lot further that way.
Now, that said. I have played a few bar gigs with an older V2 Fender Rumble 150 15" combo. It got the job done, but I was pushing it harder than I probably should have and the tone definitely suffered. Keep in mind that was a very loud setup for all the more wattage/cone area it had. More recently I've done a couple of loud practices with a GK MB200 and a 210. Again, it was the absolute minimum in my opinion to keep up with a moderate drummer and I still had to sacrifice tone though not as bad as with the rumble. My current "playing out" rig is a GK MB500 into two Avatar 210's. It cost a fair bit more than my old Rumble combo, but it keeps up just fine, has the tone I want, and is actually easier to move around. Depending on the sound you're after I think you could get by with a GK MB200 into 2x210, or 1x410 as long as you were running it at 4 ohms. It probably wouldn't leave you much wiggle room, and you might be getting closer to a "grind"-ish tone, but I think it would suffice.
A lot of this has to do with whether or not you have decent PA support as well. I rarely get any help so my rig typically needs to carry the room. If you're ONLY monitoring you can get away with a lot less.
Whenever I see the "new amp advice" title I always try to offer this: You have two basic paths laid out in front of you. Get a modest combo to use for learning/at-home practice/woodshedding/jamming with a buddy and then down the road buy a bigger rig to play out with. Or, buy a more serious rig now that will be a bit overkill at home, but can keep up if needed in a band context. Think carefully about what your goals are, what time frame you anticipate these things happening, and what your finances are going to be like. If you have the cash and don't mind spending $600 or so you can put together a stage rig now. IF not, maybe you're better off getting something for $200 now and saving up for a gig-rig while you practice away on that.
And as always, buy used. Those $$$ go a lot further that way.
I can use a 35w practice amp on the vast majority of my gigs but it doesn't mean I like it better, nor does it mean it will carry a 500-seat room with a hard rock band. Bigger is better for bass...that is physics at work. And while I play my SVT/810 at 35w practice amp volumes, it still sounds way better than the practice amp.
Isn't your 35w combo a B15? Somehow, that strikes me as a bit too awesome for a practice amp.
The biamping approach to driver mixing is a red herring. If you biamp properly, you can mix cabs without deleterious effects, but biamping correctly is very difficult, and, in 2015, unnecessary.
Why you...Isn't your 35w combo a B15? Somehow, that strikes me as a bit too awesome for a practice amp.
No, it's 25w. I had a BA110 that I was using for a while as a monitor when I didn't have the stage room or when I had a hard schlep. Went to the BA112 v2, though, and gave the BA110 to our drummer for his electronic kit.
But isn't interesting that he puts the high tones through the 15 and the lows through the 10's.
Important for lows, less so for highs.
Hence the inverted hatestack*
*my term, coined for the hatred TB has for the mixed stack.
Thanks for the warning!
Most Holy's perspective is appreciated.
That seems like a good way to think about it. I'm generally flexible enough with money that I can get something fun for around the house now and see how it works out practicing with other people then decide if I need to get something more appropriate for gigging.
OP, of the two you named, I'd go with the fender. Or an Ampeg b112. The orange crush 50 Watt is what I have right now and I wish I would have opted for the ampeg. The crush is too colored and was made with a built in soft knee compression that you can't adjust. I think is to protect the speaker but when you add up what the amp sounds like, you don't get a very clear image of your bass sound IMO. I bet the fender sounds more organic. But I know for a fact the ampeg goes much louder and sounds much bigger, all without compromising your raw bass tone.
If the question is what wattage gets you the ideal tone you want, or how much works for a 500-seat room, sure. I'm just saying that the question I thought the OP was asking was what he would need to survive on a gig in a bar. Most bars I gig in, at least, don't seat 500, and while 500 watts might be ideal for headroom to get a clean tone and still be loud, it's hardly the "absolute minimum" that some people treat it as.
A 500-seater gig is not unusual in these parts, nor do I think it's out of most players' scope of gigs. And while I agree that 500w is not a minimum for all gigs (I actually said 300w but OK), the point is that if you can have only one rig, it's better to have one too large than too small.
If you are really into that Fender Rumble the 500W 210 will get you a hair more volume over the 200W version. Then you can use the 210 extension and not have to sweat the possibility of disliking the 115/210 combination of Fender cabs. And that 500W + four 10s might be loud as you will ever need.
