Good bass vs good amp

[Lowbrow]

A bad amp will make the most expensive bass sound like garbage.

 

[groovaholic]

Which one do you actually hear; the amp or the bass?

“Good tone” comes in lots of flavors - from a sophisticated active bass to the most rudimentary P-bass, all have plenty of bassists who love THAT sound.

The amp needs to reproduce either of those sounds accurately...maybe with a little added flavor.

Bottom line for me is that I could enjoy a gig on a $199 Squier Affinity Precision, but I’m not sure I’d enjoy gigging a $199 amp.

 

[mark roberts]

You really need both...but, a good amp and speakers really makes the difference. If your bass has a good set-up and is “comfortable” for you to play in the manner to which you have become accustomed or the way you wish it to be, a reliable amp head with plenty of power, a broad power bandwidth and the proper speaker(s) will make the difference. Also, there are effects that can bring an average sounding bass new life.

 

[TheArchitect]

With guitars, good amp all day everyday. With bass it is not as clear. Bass is taken DI so often, the bass becomes a much more crucial element. I do just a DI in the studio more often than not. Even on stage the house feed is a DI quite often. I vote Good Bass

 

[GIBrat51]

Thinking from a pure tonal perspective, what's better, a low end bass with a high-end amp or a high end bass with a low end amp.
What are your thoughts?

Over on the Miscellaneous forum, there's a sticky about - essentially - this very thing. And, IIRC, I posted about this subject there, too...
This is my first bass ('78 Fender P), and my first amp ('88 Marshall Combo 12). The friend I bought the bass from, had a band when we were stationed in the UK. He played this bass thru one of these amps. So, I bought one too. Not a super low end amp - there were cheaper, no name ones at the time - but in no way a high end amp, either. It's not real powerful, but it sounded good then - and still does. My thoughts?
I think that there is a ... threshold, if you will... past which a bass will no longer compensate for the amp/cab. There's also one past which the amp/cab can no longer compensate for the bass. I also think that those threshold points are not at the same point along the... "Goodness Curve", for want of a better description. In my opinion and experience, a high end amp/cab-low end bass' threshold will be further up the "Goodness Curve" than will a low end amp/cab- high end bass combination. For example; my little Marshall combo amp sounds great with the P-Bass. Not terribly Loud, but plenty loud enough - even live, in a small venue. And, the tone was/is very good. It's sounded very good with every other bass that I bought - until I got an active bass. With that Alembic, the little Marshall just sounded like...well, like . So, I had to get a "better" amp/cab. But, the little Marshall went a long way up the Goodness curve - with a lot of basses. From $130 Chinese ones, through Gretsches, Gibson thunderbirds, and a couple of Ricks. So...
I'd say - get the best bass and the best amp you can afford. But, if you want/need to spend the majority of your budget on one thing? Spend it on the amp. If for no other reason than that it's a lot easier to hot-rod an inexpensive bass, than it is to hot-rod an amp/cab...

 

[JRA]

i think it comes down to which one of those items your fingers need the most, at any given time: a bass or an amp?

i've needed one over the other before. not now of course...i have everything my fingers need. i voted "speaker cab of my dreams."

 

[somebrains]

Good amp everytime, good meaning I get to choose/bring the specific amp.

Otherwise all things being equal I just want to be audible, to myself, bc f everyone else.

 

[Jeff Hughes]

A good amp. I have heard some amazing players make crap instruments sound amazing.

Look at it this way: A bass player gets injured, and you are asked to finish the last two sets of the gig. What would be more annoying: a bass that maybe didn’t have the best action or body resonance, or an amp that farts out on any note below the fifth fret E string?

Now if we are talking 6 string guitar, I think a good guitar matters more than a good amp. You can make a lousy sounding guitar amp work for you if need be.

 

[MegaSwing]

Not much you can do to improve an amp with insufficient cojones.

 

[gelinas666]

Both with some good technique in the mix..

 

[Basta-bass]

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.

That's what I'm trying to make understand for 7 pages now, but with little to no success...

 

[bobyoung53]

I'll tell you what, take any boutique bass and plug it into a SS 10 watt practice amp with an 8" speaker or take a Squire P bass and plug it into an SVT, which one is going to sound better? Even more so, go do a gig with both, which would you stick with if you had to?

 

[JoeWPgh]

It starts with your fingers, and then the bass. Of course a good amp is crucial. But it cannot add things the bass and your fingers can't deliver.

 

[Basta-bass]

Come on guys... let's face it.
EVERYDAY WE USE LESS AMPS.
you might think it's sad, but it's the way it is...
Nowadays with modelisation preamps and cabinet simulations, we can take our rig in one bag instead of a truck!
The age of kempers and helix is come!
Even in rehearsal rooms, we use everyday more DI and PA. Or IEM..
Don't be in denial... get a good bass and a small amp for playing in your room!
And rock it!

 

[bobyoung53]

As a famous bassist once answered when asked a similar question.... "Jaco took an older, somewhat beat up bass. Ripped the frets out himself and put a marine lacquer coating on the fingerboard. He also played out of numerous stage, rental, and his own amps when touring. He sounded amazing! He made it all work because he transcended the gear." He played the music.

But... a 62 Jazz is almost universally recognized as being a great sounding bass and he almost always used his 360's which in their day were also great amps. I never even liked his tone but recognized his talent which yes would have been apparent no matter what kind of crap he had played through but talent and good sound are not always synonymous.

 

[bobyoung53]

Come on guys... let's face it.
EVERYDAY WE USE LESS AMPS.
you might think it's sad, but it's the way it is...
Nowadays with modelisation preamps and cabinet simulations, we can take our rig in one bag instead of a truck!
The age of kempers and helix is come!
Even in rehearsal rooms, we use everyday more DI and PA. Or IEM..
Don't be in denial... get a good bass and a small amp for playing in your room!
And rock it!

Not all of us use small amps, look at my avatar, those are mine.

 

[DrMole]

Come on guys... let's face it.
EVERYDAY WE USE LESS AMPS.
you might think it's sad, but it's the way it is...
Nowadays with modelisation preamps and cabinet simulations, we can take our rig in one bag instead of a truck!
The age of kempers and helix is come!
Even in rehearsal rooms, we use everyday more DI and PA. Or IEM..
Don't be in denial... get a good bass and a small amp for playing in your room!
And rock it!

Do not disagree with your sentiment but you are moving the bar and changing( adding to) the parameters of the original question

 

[bobyoung53]

Why not? Most dont use amps. When they do, the audience cant hear it anyway.

There are many of us here who's sound comes right off the stage.

 

[bobyoung53]

True... nonetheless 90% of the bass players would swear there's nothing better than a fifty years old SVT with a fridge sized 8x10 cab...

And 100% of them are correct.

 

[Rib 13]

I'm one of those weirdos where it's neither: for me, it's strings - and I like them fresh and new. I can sound mostly like me using my preference of strings on most set-up-to-my-taste basses, D.I.s , or amps( within reason) regardless of pricetag


Edit: Keeping the above in mind, if just given a choice of bass or amp, I'm going to say bass (with fresh strings) -- an amplifier does what it says: it amplifies the source.....I need a good source first.....I come from the school of "You can't polish a turd"