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Good bass vs good amp
- Thread starter Ambrose barton
- Start date
Amps certainly aren't as "sexy" as basses and a bass that feels like "home" is one that you will want to play all the time and what will allow you to best translate your musical thoughts.
However, a good amp is super important, especially if you play in high-volume musical settings like punk or metal. If your amp doesn't have enough power to stand up to a gorilla-fisted drummer and two loud guitarists constantly trying to one-up each other, then even the "best bass for metal" is going to sound like a toy. This is especially true if you play in low tunings or with extended range instruments. You need decent power and headroom to articulate that low B.
That's why in this case I voted amp.
However, a good amp is super important, especially if you play in high-volume musical settings like punk or metal. If your amp doesn't have enough power to stand up to a gorilla-fisted drummer and two loud guitarists constantly trying to one-up each other, then even the "best bass for metal" is going to sound like a toy. This is especially true if you play in low tunings or with extended range instruments. You need decent power and headroom to articulate that low B.
That's why in this case I voted amp.
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That's just not true.
You may not be able to achieve THE tone you want, but you'll always manage to found a decent sound...
True, but not germane to the issue, as there are many more people who own Rumbles than Genzlers or Mesas or whatever.
Well...
There is so much certainty in some people speaking...
It seemed right to remember that many that speaks, never had the chance (yet) to put their hands on high ends basses.
High end amps, on opposite, we come across when playing in big venues or studios.
Don't get me wrong, of course, it's better if you use an amp to have a good one... but the point here is: I don't have great an amp, shall I get one? I'll say first get a good bass and then... why not?
There is so much certainty in some people speaking...
It seemed right to remember that many that speaks, never had the chance (yet) to put their hands on high ends basses.
High end amps, on opposite, we come across when playing in big venues or studios.
Don't get me wrong, of course, it's better if you use an amp to have a good one... but the point here is: I don't have great an amp, shall I get one? I'll say first get a good bass and then... why not?
A good amp, especially if you're playing a five string (or higher). That doesn't mean you can have a bad bass, but a $6k Sadowsky is still going to sound blah through a crappy amp.
I think you can get away with a cheap bass if it is set up well with good strings. I have a $135 Squier Affinity Jazz with Chromes and it sounds great. If you want to get loud with good tone then you need to spend some money on the amp and speakers. In your bedroom a lot of combos can sound good. If you are recording then all you really need is a VT bass pedal.
My son has a $65 Glarry IB that I set up with TI Jazz flats and it is a really expressive nice sounding bass and it weighs 5.5 lbs
My son has a $65 Glarry IB that I set up with TI Jazz flats and it is a really expressive nice sounding bass and it weighs 5.5 lbs
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For live, the amp is more important, unless you're going direct, then the bass. it's all a tradeoff depending on the situation. Fortunately the low-end quality is much, much better for both basses and amps than it was 20 years ago so there is a lot less tradeoff necessary. But when we're starting out, it's easy to want to put more money into the bass because that's what we touch, but the amp is really what people hear.
I've done little tours where every amp I was givin was crap. I once mentioned it to the artist. His answer was.... You have your own bass, you have no excuse for not playing well.
That's not really my experience. I own a 3k and a 6K Sadowsky, and both sound good even in some crappy amps. Not as much as they should for sure, but still great. However, you might need to lower the preamp on the bass and make some compromises for sure.
Now, I admit, it's a complete nonsense to own a crappy amp with such instruments.
I chose bass. While I agree that in a band or live setting it's far more important to have an adequate amp to be heard, I'm fortunate enough to have usually played in scenarios where either the PA was capable enough to handle the load, a backline is available, IEM's or all of the above. In those scenarios, I'd much prefer to have a bass that I know, love, with stable tuning and a great neck, am familiar with that has great versatility for a variety of musical styles. I haven't had a "vocal only" PA scenario in quite a few years.
I have a friend who (up until recently) was gigging about three nights a week with a very cheap MIJ imitation P bass but he has a really good amplification system. (Bergantino) He always sounds great.
It's almost hard to buy a really bad bass now. You just need to get something that works and has decent sound. Something on the level of the Squier by Fender series will give you good sound and playability without spending much.
I bought a piece of junk Japaneses bass when I started playing in 1965 (long before Japanese basses became good). Sold it in 1966 and bought a used 1965 Fender Jazz (YES!!). That was stolen in 1976 and I replaced it with my "White Lady" ('82 Jazz with maple neck and same neck profile that my '65 had) in 1985. It's a great sounding bass. But there's more to a bass than how it sounds. How it plays and how it feels to play it can be night and day different between basses. You reach a point of diminishing returns rather quickly once you start going over ~$500 or so. You can pay a lot more for a little bit better bass.
So get a decent amp first and then get a different bass if you want one later. One bit of advice on buying amps and basses though. Research the crap out of them and try them out if you can. On amps especially though, buy the best you can "almost" afford and always buy something capable of more than you need right now. That way you won't have to upgrade again anytime soon.
Why buy the best you can "almost" afford? Because it only hurts once to buy when you first make the purchase. Every time you use it afterwards you will be so glad that you bought it. If you don't go that route, you may very well find that it felt good to spend less money when you made the purchase, but you end up regretting that decision every time you use it - and that's an abysmal spot to be in.
So get a decent bass to begin with and then get the best amp and cab you can almost afford. I'd suggest you get amp and cab instead of combo just because it's easier to upgrade. Usually with a combo, you only get half the watts out of it as-is, but you have to add another 8 ohm cab to the rig get everything out of the amp. Not a bad thing until you need to get a better amp. Then you end up not only retiring the old amp but one of your two cabs.
Another combo approach is like the newer Eden E-series combos (EC). They are 4 ohm minimum amps WITH 4 ohm speakers included so you can get everything out of the amp that the amp has to give just with that combo. That's great at first, but expansion is difficult with this approach because the amp is already operating at its highest level. So to get around the chance of going below a 4 ohm load, it unhooks the internal speaker when you use the "external speaker" output so you don't accidentally run a 2.67 or a 2 ohm load on the amp and melt it. So now you have two speakers and only one is working. It's really only worth doing if the external speaker is a 410.
If I were forced to use a combo, I'd go for one like the Fender Rumble series that is OK to start with and you can add a second cab for larger venues for more power. This is especially true if you start with their 500-watt amp, which uses 350-watts by itself and ups that to 500-watts with an 8 ohm extension speaker. You can't do this very well with their Rumble 300 or lower. Even though the Eden combos are better sounding (IMHO), those who use the Fender scheme make more sense to me.
Again, the separate head and cabs will be more expensive to start with, but it makes upgrading as your gigging position changes much more versatile AND less expensive than it otherwise might be. And you never end up with an amp with built-in speaker that you can no longer use.
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A chicken-egg question. Doesn’t matter which side of the equation you skimp on, your sound is going to be compromised. I would suggest a better bass mainly because it will likely play better even though the amp may not give you the best representation of how well the bass may sound. Over time it’s less expensive to upgrade you amp situation than to sell a lower quality instrument, and buy another one.
Agree with all who chose the amp. Hands down winner imo. I have played a piece of firewood with strings through my SVT and it sounded great
The bass is your interface to making music; it's your muse. Get a good bass.
All I know is that even when sitting around playing through this crappy little amp, the tone of the bass still translates...
There is a lot more to consider in a bass than just raw tone of playing open strings- I believe lots of people choosing bass are considering those aspects of balance, playability, neck feel and overall quality- as they should- and if those had at all been addressed in the OP I would tend to agree.
The discussion is limited severely by the way the question was originally asked.
If we consider the non-tone aspects and other qualities that make a great playing bass and throw in the caveat that "everyone" goes direct and the PA will handle it; the amp barely matters- of course the answer is bass.
Based on how the question was asked- playability, feel and use of DI or PA are irrelevant to the OP...Should all these other things be considered, including practice? Absolutely.
