First New Head in 13 Years

[LT131]

I thought from the title that someone was getting divorced. Glad it's better news.

Me too. Was gonna say been married since 97 so it's been longer than that for me. However, after reading the post, I realized this was not on topic.

 

[bdplaid]

I have a D800 and second, third, fourth, whatev, that's a great amp.

also consider the Fender Rumble 500. Surprisingly good. Tubey vibe, very versatile. Loud. Lightweight. Inexpensive.

 

[waveman]

I can vouch for the Peavey MiniMax (plenty loud enough and lots of features), Fender Rumble 500, and Markbass LM III. I have all three and they all are great. I have not tried the Mesa, but it looks like a nice one too.

 

[noahw1]

Genzler Magellan 800
Amazing amp. Extremely versatile. Powerful. Can get pretty much any tone. Check out the thread on here and read the review in Bass Gear magazine. Invalid Link Removed

 

[strictlybass_ic]

GK MB800 might suit you nicely (though a bit less "warm"), and if you can find one used an Orange Terror Bass 1000.

 

[dave64o]

I thought from the title that someone was getting divorced. Glad it's better news.

I admit that the 13 year old in me snickered when I read the thread title.

 

[esoxhntr]

Well, with everyone piling on about the Mesa D800, I'm going to be the contrarian and suggest you look at GK MB800. Oh yeah, former SWR owner here too.

Whatever you decide, you're shopping in the sweet spot for class D bass amplification, given your requirements. You have a lot of good options to consider.

I'm in this camp - the Mesa was a little "wooly" for me. Lots of folks love it, but I much prefer the GK MB800, it's brighter and punchier... just my opinion of course. The Genzler Magellan sits somewhere in between. All three are very good, one of them will likely float your boat. Can you get out to try them?

 

[BadExample]

I admit that the 13 year old in me snickered

Average male "normal" sense of humor stops development about there, when the short hairs come in. After that one can only develop different humor tones, dirty, dark, sarcastic, dry, etc.

 

[BlackCatBassman]

I'm in this camp - the Mesa was a little "wooly" for me. Lots of folks love it, but I much prefer the GK MB800, it's brighter and punchier... just my opinion of course. The Genzler Magellan sits somewhere in between. All three are very good, one of them will likely float your boat. Can you get out to try them?

Embarrassingly enough, I only have Guitar Center at my disposal (fly-over state known for it's red dirt music) and most of the little shops don't stock anything of quality...mainly Peavey combos. I'll probably just research the hell out of all of these then order one online and hope for the best. Guitar Center stocks GK, Fender, Ampeg, and Little Mark (and boy do they push that Little Mark stuff!) but I never see Mesa or anything.

 

[BlackCatBassman]

I admit that the 13 year old in me snickered when I read the thread title.

Well my other potential thread titles were: Ready to Stick it In Something New, I Need Some New Knobs to Fiddle With, Looking for a New Direction (say the last two words fast), or Advice on Getting Head

 

[/\/\3phist0]

As of now it's...

1) Mesa D800
2) Peavy MiniMega


The other that was on my short list was the Fender Rumble 500. It's lower on power but what do you guys think about those? I know the Rumble Club loves theirs (obviously) but hopefully I can get a more unbiased opinion haha

They work well. And for the money, they are hard to beat.
That said, it was very warm and thump, the highs were a bit brittle, and the drive feature was fun but not really useful.
I passed it along as it was "OK" not great.

 

[BadExample]

Embarrassingly enough, I only have Guitar Center at my disposal (fly-over state known for it's red dirt music) and most of the little shops don't stock anything of quality...mainly Peavey combos. I'll probably just research the hell out of all of these then order one online and hope for the best. Guitar Center stocks GK, Fender, Ampeg, and Little Mark (and boy do they push that Little Mark stuff!) but I never see Mesa or anything.

Carvins pro and con is direct order only. You might consider further, getting more bang for the buck with the direct only sales. Full refund up to 15 days (less shipping I think), replacement for failure in 60 days (free shipping both ways).

If you want clean, clear bright and the option to adjust the tone about anyway imaginable, I've never seen anything like a Carvin BX1500/1600.

Just look at the front and back: BX1600 Dual Mono Block 1600W Bass Amp Head the 1500 is virtually the same, less bling and more metal switches.

The closest I've seen is the BX700: BX700 Mono Block 700W Bass Amp Head Which would probably serve 90% of us just as well.

Hartke has some similar, less features, lower yet adequate wattage, a few different or implemented differently features: Bass Guitar Amp Heads | Sweetwater.com For some reason, the new TX600 feels like it might be a goody.

Excluding digital/DSP programmable stuff of course. Those can have a zillion features, but at the expense of having a physical knob to turn, possible signal losses from the ADC and DAC conversions (one would hope not) and being at the mercy of a programmer to offer quality patches in the firmware (also hope not an issue, but common in multi-effect stuff outside of amps). I'm sure some of these are the rat's tush.

 

[/\/\3phist0]

Embarrassingly enough, I only have Guitar Center at my disposal (fly-over state known for it's red dirt music) and most of the little shops don't stock anything of quality...mainly Peavey combos. I'll probably just research the hell out of all of these then order one online and hope for the best. Guitar Center stocks GK, Fender, Ampeg, and Little Mark (and boy do they push that Little Mark stuff!) but I never see Mesa or anything.

Mark bass firmer owner too, last decade they were the bees knees (and bee colored) but the quality has plumited recently and warrany support is difficult.
Again, I passed it along.
The D800 I have now dethroned a Mesa Titan V12..

 

[BadExample]

Average male "normal" sense of humor stops development about there, when the short hairs come in. After that one can only develop different humor tones, dirty, dark, sarcastic, dry, etc.

Well my other potential thread titles were: Ready to Stick it In Something New, I Need Some New Knobs to Fiddle With, Looking for a New Direction (say the last two words fast), or Advice on Getting Head

New Direction NewDirection, Noodirection, Nood iRection? an Apple product?

Case in point! You did however demonstrate an over 13 capability of exercising restraint. I need to try that!

 

[The Regulator]

I still own an SWR 750X and I used it for a gig this weekend. Nice sounding powerful amp, especially with a SansAmp pedal in front.
Never used the Mesa D800, but I've used the GK MB series before and IMO they come close to the SWR sound.

 

[monsterthompson]

What do you like about the SWR that you want in the new amp?
- Reliability, ease of use, clean and warm tone that still cuts through the mix

What do you dislike about the SWR that you don't want in the new amp?
- Weight, bulky size, hard to source parts for, power/tone seemed to "fade" at higher volumes

How much important to you is weight?
- easily an 8/10...I move a lot and would really like something light to save my back

How much power do you think you need?
- I'm never a great judge of power but I'd think anything between 300w and 500w. Needs to be able to handle anything from a small bedroom to a large bar (think 100-200 people)

Edit: forgot to add...cabs are SWR Goliath Jr. III (8 ohm) and SWR Son of Bertha (8 ohm)

Punch this info into your original post so people don't ask you for it in later posts.

The Mesa products get my vote. There are better amps out there, but the D800 is pretty likely to deliver and be as good as or better than most others out there. It can also be sold relatively easily and the proceeds can fund another head. The GK MB heads seem like another good route, which might be in the tone range you are looking for.

Don't get sucked into the "tube" thing if there is a 12AX7 jammed into the preamp section. In most cases, I find it a marketing point more than a performance point. For example, the TecAmp Puma heads sound great, and there's no tube in there. One less thing to worry about for reliability. That said, the TecAmp heads aren't being made any longer, so if you aim to have a head for many years, then you might want to look elsewhere.

 

[BadExample]

Don't get sucked into the "tube" thing if there is a 12AX7 jammed into the preamp section. In most cases, I find it a marketing point more than a performance point. For example, the TecAmp Puma heads sound great, and there's no tube in there. One less thing to worry about for reliability. That said, the TecAmp heads aren't being made any longer, so if you aim to have a head for many years, then you might want to look elsewhere.

I agree that a 12AX7 in an integrated amp shouldn't be much of a consideration. There are other ways to get more vintage warmer sounds in SS or an external tube pedal. I do not agree that reliability is a big deal since they last a long time and most, if not all, can be bypassed to use the SS preamp. I expect problems from setting up in haste or operator error are more likely to cause failure. Certainly would for me! For reliability, just my opinion and I have never and will never gig. I may get on a stage, but only after I retire to the third world where I can pay people to like my music (term music used loosely!). Some people say you can't hear the difference. Here's my experience with the only 12ax pre-amp'd amp I have:

Carvin ships JJ or another brand. The other brand has no label and I can't remember what brand it is, but it's on their site available as a spare. The no label, I could not hear a difference. The JJ I could. I have a bunch of different NOS tubes I tried and all I could hear a difference. A couple sounded very good to me. The JJ was about in the middle between the best and the no label. Most of the others were about = or better than the JJ. I did not try any of the current production "better" tubes. My conclusion is it's a good option with the right tube if you want some tube sound, a more subtle effect. If you want huge amount of tube sound, I think it's best done with pedals or just bite the cost and weight penalties and get a tube amp. Of course, there may well be other variables involved in the sound of a 12ax pre, as well as simulation via pedals, so YMMV!

 

[tpaul]

I thought from the title that someone was getting divorced. Glad it's better news.

Then the title would have been "First Head in 13 Years"

 

[phillybass101]

Not my cup of tea but when considering quality, price, weight, power hard to beat the Mesa D-800 at $699

 

[dave64o]

Well my other potential thread titles were: Ready to Stick it In Something New, I Need Some New Knobs to Fiddle With, Looking for a New Direction (say the last two words fast), or Advice on Getting Head

That's an impressive list! My inner 13 year old heartily high fives YOUR inner 13 year old!