Now this is something nice to hear! Being the GK convert that I am, this sure is a relief
Why?
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Flamers Prepare: Ampeg and Fender
- Thread starter totallybacan
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Why?
ive tried GK's, Genz Benz, Aguilar, and mesa's in many of their various forms. all well known and all well respected. i chose ampeg (svt -4) for the sound and price i don't see any issues with individuality and i don't see my tone as standard by any means. however i can't say i'm a huge fender fan they're a great bass for what they are but i just can't say i've ever found one that really worked for me i find ampeg is the standard cause of their history, pricing and good tone.
Some of us have and still come home to the ampeg/fender combo. It's no a "conformist vs individual" thing, it's what works for a lot of people. As said multiple times already, the sound you get is 99.9% the musician and not their gear.
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Ya, really. Who gives a crap what the top selling brand or the so-called industry standard is? Does it make you like an amp more or less? I buy what I like and I really don't care what the market tells me. Seems like you're a little too caught up in this. Just play what you have and have fun.
Much of this has to do with Tradition, Comfort and Predicatability.
Overall.. sound guys know what to do with a PBass
Guitar players can hear familiarity and tradition of an Ampeg
A combination makes it easy to predict what the sound will be like.
I understand your question (I'm of the same camp).. I bring a PBass and known amp until everyone gets over it..
I then bring what I want to play and work to fit it in.
It's kind of like being a carpenter and bringing a Estwing framing hammer.. there are better and worse.. you can throw it to a pal on the job and he is familiar with it.
I like obscure gear.. not something I pull out the first day on the job...
Funny thing is I have Fender copies that play loops over the Fenders.. unfortunately this is one of the initial expectations.
Overall.. sound guys know what to do with a PBass
Guitar players can hear familiarity and tradition of an Ampeg
A combination makes it easy to predict what the sound will be like.
I understand your question (I'm of the same camp).. I bring a PBass and known amp until everyone gets over it..
I then bring what I want to play and work to fit it in.
It's kind of like being a carpenter and bringing a Estwing framing hammer.. there are better and worse.. you can throw it to a pal on the job and he is familiar with it.
I like obscure gear.. not something I pull out the first day on the job...
Funny thing is I have Fender copies that play loops over the Fenders.. unfortunately this is one of the initial expectations.
+1
Sounding "Familiar"
Looking "Familiar"
Then all of a sudden there's a new breakaway artist who breaks the mold ...
Well now I'm mad that the brand I like doesn't get the recognition it deserves. I guess I'll have to sell them to some idiot who doesn't realize that you should only buy the most recognized brand and buy a GK head.
Bacan, you're a good guy, but this is so very unimportant to anyone except the people who work at the companies that I'm completely mystified that it's so important to you. It doesn't make you a better or worse bass player, nor does it give you any credibility.
BTW, if you're going by the most sales, and if you believe Larry Hartke, his heads are the biggest selling heads on the market. So really, all of us are all wet and we should all buy Hartkes. That'll happen.
They really do sound good together and "traditional".
However traditional cats like country players are seen with multi-stringed boutique basses and other amps. The combination was adopted by the "punk/grunge/etc." folks who wouldn't be seen dead without it and their bass down around their ankles.
Ampeg really did make a quantum leap in giving us a bass amp that reproduced bass, the B-15. When the SVT came out it was widely accepted but not as it would seem. It survived the shake out as the other companies folded for different reasons. It was not heads above the Sunn 2000s or Acoustic 360. (insert flames here). They too where different flavors of great.
Ampegs with their rich tone fill out all the characteristic "weaknesses" of Fender basses. The tone is so fat that the Fender is the starting point of the warm width. "Warm width", not bad.
Yeah, just watch a DVD of Joe Cocker at Woodstock and you'll get it. That amazing P-bass tone into an SVT.
I don't own an Ampeg anymore and prefer my sound from a different restaurant. I do have two Fender basses and there are some forms of music where nothing else is appropriate.
However traditional cats like country players are seen with multi-stringed boutique basses and other amps. The combination was adopted by the "punk/grunge/etc." folks who wouldn't be seen dead without it and their bass down around their ankles.
Ampeg really did make a quantum leap in giving us a bass amp that reproduced bass, the B-15. When the SVT came out it was widely accepted but not as it would seem. It survived the shake out as the other companies folded for different reasons. It was not heads above the Sunn 2000s or Acoustic 360. (insert flames here)
. They too where different flavors of great.Ampegs with their rich tone fill out all the characteristic "weaknesses" of Fender basses. The tone is so fat that the Fender is the starting point of the warm width. "Warm width", not bad.
Yeah, just watch a DVD of Joe Cocker at Woodstock and you'll get it. That amazing P-bass tone into an SVT.
I don't own an Ampeg anymore and prefer my sound from a different restaurant. I do have two Fender basses and there are some forms of music where nothing else is appropriate.
Translate the entire discussion over to brands of peanut butter and maybe you'll start to realize what an exercise in futility that is.
This is right up there with talking about which bassists are "underrated" or "overrated".
Quote taken from the OP & I think you answered your own question right there.
I'm a Fender guy, and would be an Ampeg guy, except that my band plays mostly small clubs these days and I just don't want to haul an SVT around. So, I use a 2x10 combo with a VT Bass pedal in front of it. I'm pretty sure that everybody on TB who took part in Jimmy's poll comparing an actual SVT to the VT Bass will tell you that's the next best thing, if that's your thing.
Now then, if that's not your thing, then you're one of those who are in a different tone camp, which is all fine and well. Just because "your sound" is different than mine is fine. We're all still "brothers of the bottome end," aren't we?!?
Almost up to 5 pages of this. THAT, I find impressive. The discussion is undeniably moot. though.
That's it.
Part of the problem is that people listen with their eyes and not their ears.
Our guitar player prefers recording bass using our old tube Fender Bassman 100 played through an Ampeg SVT 410 HLF.
No preference for what bass is being played (Fender, Spector, Factor, Stingray, FrankenMustang...).
So where does that leave us? 
No preference for what bass is being played (Fender, Spector, Factor, Stingray, FrankenMustang...).
So where does that leave us?
Sorry, but I don't see it that way. If I say to a guitarist, "I think your SG works better for this music than your Strat," or say to a drummer, "That big snare drum sounds better than that smaller one" (and believe me, I have said similar things many times), I'm not listening with my eyes. I'm listening to the characteristics of each piece and making value judgments based on my ears and not my eyes. It's a fact that a Strat and an SG sound different. So if I can hear a difference, why is it a stretch to believe that other musicians can tell the difference between a Fender/Ampeg and another rig?
Maybe you're not. You seem to be intelligent.
However, there are alot of people who get an idea in their head of what a good tone should look like.
I've said it before, but some people seem to listen to buzz words more than tone. Who would want something that is cold and sterile, when you could have something warm, organic and rich? Not me---only---sometimes, I do. But, I call it detailed, full bodied and precise.
This really seems to be one of those pointless TB threads in which people try to feel good, or to justify, their own choice of gear. I must confess myself to having been guilty of starting the odd one and being influenced by several over the years. But while it is pointless, it is still good fun.
Having been a bass player at various low and high visibility gigs over nearly 40 years, having owned and professionally gigged GK, Fender, Mesa SWR, Warwick.....I finally find myself in a position where finally I can afford pretty much what I want (within reason). So what am I using at gigs - Fender Jazz and Precision into SVT VR. What do most of my students aspire to - Fender into Ampeg, and not from my influencing them, from what they have seen others use, I suppose. Works for me.
Having been a bass player at various low and high visibility gigs over nearly 40 years, having owned and professionally gigged GK, Fender, Mesa SWR, Warwick.....I finally find myself in a position where finally I can afford pretty much what I want (within reason). So what am I using at gigs - Fender Jazz and Precision into SVT VR. What do most of my students aspire to - Fender into Ampeg, and not from my influencing them, from what they have seen others use, I suppose. Works for me.
yeah...I dunno.I went to a Metal concert a couple months ago (of a well known, professional group) and the bass player had an Amgeg rig. It was just a giant black box. I recognized the little, square Ampeg logo in the corner of the unit but otherwise the amp didn't really look like anything but a large black box. So, I don't follow your thinking there. Cosmetically Ampeg looks more Metal?
I don't see it. To me, Ampeg looks like...well...nothing, really. At least Peavey slaps a cool font logo on the front. Ashdown as a cool look with the classic style VU meters, SWR has some red amp heads. I mean, there are plenty of other rigs that LOOK cooler than an Ampeg rig.
I think people like Amepg for the sound not the look...but what do I know?
This whole thread is hilarious!! It's totally pointless and there won't be a clear "winner", but every once in awhile (like once a week) someone on TB just wants to see everyone get online and have a huge water balloon fight. So welcome to another silly water balloon fight!
I haver to agree with that one, I am not in US and a see gk as a back line everywhere never played a ampeg as a backline( off us) besides mine
But you do, because your are judging by the sound.
That's not to say that looks have no influence, but to me, sound should be #1.
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