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Good bass vs good amp
- Thread starter Ambrose barton
- Start date
No rhyme or reason, but I feel the amp and speaker(s) have more to do with it. Certainly subjective. A decent bass through a good amp and good cab sounds pretty good.
All I know is somebody is gonna sound like a dream with a Glarry bass and amp and somebody will sound like dropping silverwear with an Alembic and a pro rig. So splitting the difference and putting time into technique and a little cash into lessons might be the ticket.
The first question would, nowadays, be, if you needed that amp a lot.
My bass amp gets fired up about every two weeks. Most of my rehearsals and gigs are ampless.
In my personal situation I'd say the pedalboard is most important.
My bass amp gets fired up about every two weeks. Most of my rehearsals and gigs are ampless.
In my personal situation I'd say the pedalboard is most important.
I’ve heard many budget basses sound great through professional backline rigs (ie Ampeg, GK) that have a baked-in tone. I’ve also heard same said basses through “transparent” amps to less desirable results. Too many variables for a blanket statement as to which is more important, the bass or the amp.
Depends on the use situation: live band, studio, home, etc.
But, IMO...bass all the way.
Amps come and go over time...amps always get better, lighter, more powerful, more features. Plus, different gigging situations could require different amps. There is a lot of talk here of bringing the right amp to the gig that meets the gig's requirements.
A bass, once you find one that feels like it was built for you, never leaves your side. The amount of time you spend with your bass far outweighs the time you spend with your amp. Your bass will be in your hands most/every night.
All that being said, you can find the perfect bass for you without going the Alembic or Fedora route.
But, IMO...bass all the way.
Amps come and go over time...amps always get better, lighter, more powerful, more features. Plus, different gigging situations could require different amps. There is a lot of talk here of bringing the right amp to the gig that meets the gig's requirements.
A bass, once you find one that feels like it was built for you, never leaves your side. The amount of time you spend with your bass far outweighs the time you spend with your amp. Your bass will be in your hands most/every night.
All that being said, you can find the perfect bass for you without going the Alembic or Fedora route.
I'd like to challenge a few people to try to play through a small, cheap amp with their nice basses and let us know what you think. If you can at least.
Again, I'm not a gigging musician (I don't want to gig) but I record and write music. For what I'm doing, I've actually have become fond of the tone of my 10 watt Acoustic amp. I've almost exclusively played through that for a year now just to see if I can be happy with it and indeed I am. Now, when I play my Mesa, it feels weird to me. It colors my tone too much. Maybe it's that I'm starting to prefer less grit from my amps and more cleans? I'm not sure. It can get LOUD too. I used a Meatbox with it and my windows were shaking. LOL. I have also bi-amped two small amps (one is a guitar and one is a bass) and I love the way it sounds.
Current basses are an Elrick and MTD. For me, I have to have a certain neck profile to be comfortable and these two have that for me. Not too thick or wide, just perfect for my not super long fingers. lol
Again, I'm not a gigging musician (I don't want to gig) but I record and write music. For what I'm doing, I've actually have become fond of the tone of my 10 watt Acoustic amp. I've almost exclusively played through that for a year now just to see if I can be happy with it and indeed I am. Now, when I play my Mesa, it feels weird to me. It colors my tone too much. Maybe it's that I'm starting to prefer less grit from my amps and more cleans? I'm not sure. It can get LOUD too. I used a Meatbox with it and my windows were shaking. LOL. I have also bi-amped two small amps (one is a guitar and one is a bass) and I love the way it sounds.
Current basses are an Elrick and MTD. For me, I have to have a certain neck profile to be comfortable and these two have that for me. Not too thick or wide, just perfect for my not super long fingers. lol
It really depends on what kind of sound you want to achieve. Many sounds can be achieved for not very much money. Some require an investment in more expensive gear.
"Low end" and "High end" are relative. There are well made, budget-priced basses that are adequate for gigging and recording. A piece of gear that is functionally inadequate, however, often cannot be overcome with a 'better' or 'high end' piece of gear elsewhere in the signal chain, IMO and IME.
I agree with some others in that, if upgrading only one piece of gear to improve sound quality, a well-designed speaker cabinet is likely the best upgrade to make, providing everything preceding it in the signal path is of adequate quality.
I played a hi end bass with a TNT100 and sound was very dirty but good.
Some low end amp are very good for some types of music. I still like what I can get out of that TNT 100.
You should probably let someone take the Prodigy off your hands for the cost of shipping
For writing/ home playing maybe 10 watts is enough.
For playing with an unamplified vocalist and acoustic guitar, 10 watts is barely cutting it in most situations.
Honestly was not aware of any non-battery powered/portable bass amps with only 10 watts.
My "boombox" from 1984 had 3 way speakers, 6+ inch woofers and at least 20 watts-
That does not mean you don't get great tone for your wattage and needs - just that 10 watts for bass frequencies is very
limiting outside of your current setup.
I haven't gigged through an amp for about 20 years, so I would obviously say the bass. Having said that i appreciate a nice amp, just no need to own one lately. If I DID need an amp, I definitely wouldn't be happy with something for $300-400.
Well, if there's no PA, then the amp is the last thing in the signal chain that affects tone, so it would have the most influence on it.
The number of people who say things like "my Squier affinity sounds great through my Genzler/ SVT/ GK etc" almost certainly outweighs the number who say "My Sadowsky/Fodera/ Ken Smith kills through my rumble 100".
Good bass, you can run a wet fart through a fantastic amp and it will sound like a loud, highly detailed and articulate wet fart.
IMO the really, really bottom line is what you play rather than how you sound, so I'll vote for using the best bass you can get hold of. IMO the most important part of your signal chain is you, so a good bass will make you feel happy when you play, which will make you play better and better bass lines will shine through no matter what rig you are using or how you sound.
A good bass through a poor amp sounds like a bad bass, always. A poor bass through a good amp has at least a chance of sounding like a decent bass. Am in the latter category. Both my basses are really low end. My amp is really pulling them up. One sounds better than the other through it. I also have a tiny practice amp I bought when I was 14. Everything sounds like the same, weak, nonsense.
If you’re not a good player then the amp and bass really don’t matter.
I think the pickup and pickup location is the most important to tone. With my P and a J bass, for example, each sounds acceptable and also distinctive (different from each other) through a low end combo (well, it was a combo), a medium priced head ‘n cab and a high end combo. They sound better as the price category of the amp goes up, but the sound is good enough even with a butchered 80s solid state 4x10 combo ("butchered" as in it’s been sliced into a separate head and cab, lol). Then throw an SG bass into the mix with its TB+ pickup up next to the fretboard there and the sound is quite different again, doesn’t matter which amp.
Changing a pickup can totally save a bass whose tone you are unhappy about, and that pickup change that gives you what you were looking for will come through with pretty much any amp. Not sure how crappy people are talking about amp-wise though. If you’re talking about playing through a Smokey amp or something not much better, okay, maybe the amp will be the main issue
Anyway, since the pickup and pickup location are on a bass, my vote is "bass"
Changing a pickup can totally save a bass whose tone you are unhappy about, and that pickup change that gives you what you were looking for will come through with pretty much any amp. Not sure how crappy people are talking about amp-wise though. If you’re talking about playing through a Smokey amp or something not much better, okay, maybe the amp will be the main issue
Anyway, since the pickup and pickup location are on a bass, my vote is "bass"
