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Good Looking AND Playing Amp
- Thread starter ajsmcs
- Start date
The Fender Excelsior Pro (or original with a Jensen added) will keep up with the 15 assuming you're not running it REALLY hot - the 15" creates more sound and the Jensen in particular is one of the most efficient instrument speakers available. Bonus - when she gets "good' and wants something bigger you'll have another cool low watt guitar amp to play with - also if you get the pro she can get baby blue, seafoam green or a pinkish white (blush), but the original with a replacement speaker will cot the same and (to my eye) would "go" better with the Vox and look more living room friendly.Hello,
This is my first post here. I've been playing guitar for about 10 years now. My fiancee had always wanted to learn to play bass, so I bought her a Sterling SUB4 Stingray for Christmas last year. Really great bass for the money.
I recently bought myself a Vox AC15, and she's become rather smitten with it, particularly the way it looks. (Isn't it great when you buy something that sounds fantastic, but is pretty enough that your SO lets you keep it in the living room?)
Anyway, now she wants to upgrade from her (actually my...) little bass practice amp. She hasn't progressed far enough to know exactly what she'd like out of it, soundwise. But she'd really like something that looks as classy as my AC15. Yeah, I know. Priorities...
Basically, here are my requirements:
-Must look nice enough to be displayed in a living room.
-Must sound great. I don't really know enough about bass amps to describe what I'm looking for, so all I can ask for is "good."
-Must be loud enough to cleanly keep up with my AC15, which is a 15W tube amp. It gets pretty loud.
-I'm looking for something in the $200-$400 range. I'm pretty flexible on price. I'd rather buy nice now and have it last. I don't mind buying used provided it looks like new.
Any recommendations or advice are fully welcome.
Thanks in advance!
~Andrew
Either option will cost you about $400 new and there are a tonne out there used as many people bought them expecting heavy metal amps or something else they are not.
I love the look of the Ampegs- especially the tube ones- but she isn't too crazy about them.
I don't know how she'd feel about the Excelsior. She's hard to pin down. It has to be flashy. But not too flashy. And classy, but not boring.
I've always liked the look of the Oranges, too. Is the Pix ballsy enough to be a performance amp, or is it more for practice? When we finally move out of our apartment and buy our own house in the next 2 years, I'll be taking my big, loud John Bonham-style Gretsch drumkit (I play that too) from my parents. I need it loud enough to play over that.
I'm digging the look of the Fender Rumble.
Stupid question: Do bassists generally prefer tube over solid state? I mean, with guitar amps, most players prefer tube for the nice warmth and natural distortion when cranked. Obviously. But with bass, I imagine you'd want to take advantage of the quicker response and larger amount of clean headroom that you'd get from solid state, although I could still see valuing the tube warmth I guess what I'm asking is if solid state amps are more accepted in the bass community than the guitar community?
I don't know how she'd feel about the Excelsior. She's hard to pin down. It has to be flashy. But not too flashy. And classy, but not boring.
I've always liked the look of the Oranges, too. Is the Pix ballsy enough to be a performance amp, or is it more for practice? When we finally move out of our apartment and buy our own house in the next 2 years, I'll be taking my big, loud John Bonham-style Gretsch drumkit (I play that too) from my parents. I need it loud enough to play over that.
I'm digging the look of the Fender Rumble.
Stupid question: Do bassists generally prefer tube over solid state? I mean, with guitar amps, most players prefer tube for the nice warmth and natural distortion when cranked. Obviously. But with bass, I imagine you'd want to take advantage of the quicker response and larger amount of clean headroom that you'd get from solid state, although I could still see valuing the tube warmth I guess what I'm asking is if solid state amps are more accepted in the bass community than the guitar community?
The Micro CL sounds really good even when played in a Guitar center. I almost bought one.
I love the look of the Ampegs- especially the tube ones- but she isn't too crazy about them.
I don't know how she'd feel about the Excelsior. She's hard to pin down. It has to be flashy. But not too flashy. And classy, but not boring.
I've always liked the look of the Oranges, too. Is the Pix ballsy enough to be a performance amp, or is it more for practice? When we finally move out of our apartment and buy our own house in the next 2 years, I'll be taking my big, loud John Bonham-style Gretsch drumkit (I play that too) from my parents. I need it loud enough to play over that.
I'm digging the look of the Fender Rumble.
Stupid question: Do bassists generally prefer tube over solid state? I mean, with guitar amps, most players prefer tube for the nice warmth and natural distortion when cranked. Obviously. But with bass, I imagine you'd want to take advantage of the quicker response and larger amount of clean headroom that you'd get from solid state, although I could still see valuing the tube warmth I guess what I'm asking is if solid state amps are more accepted in the bass community than the guitar community?
I have the Pix 100 watt version and when turned up, it can be heard over my drummer who really hits very hard. I love the look and the controls on it are great for many different bass tones. I think it would be great because not only does it look and sound great, but the controls are easy enough to use to get what you want.
Stupid question: Do bassists generally prefer tube over solid state? I mean, with guitar amps, most players prefer tube for the nice warmth and natural distortion when cranked. Obviously. But with bass, I imagine you'd want to take advantage of the quicker response and larger amount of clean headroom that you'd get from solid state, although I could still see valuing the tube warmth I guess what I'm asking is if solid state amps are more accepted in the bass community than the guitar community?[/QUOTE]
The short answer is yes, the honest answer is not as much as guitar players, the correct answer is NO, there is not the same stigma for SS as in the guitar community.
For practical reasons (cost, weight, need for power, difference in reproduction of low frequencies), most inexpensive to medium-end (meaning actually decent semi-pro level) bass amps are SS. As far as tubes you'll find them in small "recording/practice" amps and relatively serious large amps with little in-between. Also, because of those practical reasons, the companies have spent more time with SS bass amps making them sound good(not exactly like Tube, but GOOD) instead of the shortcut they took on guitar amps when tubes became once again readily available. (People have forgotten that in the late 80s and early 90s, both Fender and Marshall were producing serious, pro-level SS amps which actually SOUNDED GOOD, but when tubes became easy to get again thanks to Mike Matthews (EHX) and the Chinese, they went with the mythology and reverted to SS for all but their low end crap - which incidentally has just fed the legend (note: a legend is based on some truth) of tubes - people only have experience with cheap sounding SS amps - so they think SS sounds cheap. If you compare Grade B beef to Grade A pork the winner will be obvious.
If you want something that can make the transition to small performance I'd say +1 on the rumbles - they're great and cool little amps (they just don't look all that "wife-y" to me - they look like amps).
That's why I suggested the Excelsior - on all the forums they get comments like " my wife actually lets me keep it in the living room" and the brown is pretty classy.
The short answer is yes, the honest answer is not as much as guitar players, the correct answer is NO, there is not the same stigma for SS as in the guitar community.
For practical reasons (cost, weight, need for power, difference in reproduction of low frequencies), most inexpensive to medium-end (meaning actually decent semi-pro level) bass amps are SS. As far as tubes you'll find them in small "recording/practice" amps and relatively serious large amps with little in-between. Also, because of those practical reasons, the companies have spent more time with SS bass amps making them sound good(not exactly like Tube, but GOOD) instead of the shortcut they took on guitar amps when tubes became once again readily available. (People have forgotten that in the late 80s and early 90s, both Fender and Marshall were producing serious, pro-level SS amps which actually SOUNDED GOOD, but when tubes became easy to get again thanks to Mike Matthews (EHX) and the Chinese, they went with the mythology and reverted to SS for all but their low end crap - which incidentally has just fed the legend (note: a legend is based on some truth) of tubes - people only have experience with cheap sounding SS amps - so they think SS sounds cheap. If you compare Grade B beef to Grade A pork the winner will be obvious.
If you want something that can make the transition to small performance I'd say +1 on the rumbles - they're great and cool little amps (they just don't look all that "wife-y" to me - they look like amps).
That's why I suggested the Excelsior - on all the forums they get comments like " my wife actually lets me keep it in the living room" and the brown is pretty classy.
Agreed on them looking classy. I dig the look of the Fender, though, and I like its potential for smaller performances.
I guess my issue is that a lot of the amps I've looked at just look like PA's. Functional, but that's about it. There have been a lot of good suggestions on here, though.
Should I just avoid low-end tube stuff altogether? Tube amps are finicky enough as it is when they're nice and well built. I can't imagine how much of a PITA a cheap tube amp might be...
Especially since you wouldn't utilize the benefits of the tube overdrive as much on a bass...and for when she does, I have a pedal I built that sounds pretty great with a bass.
Do you think the Fender Rumble would be a good tonal pairing with her Stingray's active humbucker?
I guess my issue is that a lot of the amps I've looked at just look like PA's. Functional, but that's about it. There have been a lot of good suggestions on here, though.
Should I just avoid low-end tube stuff altogether? Tube amps are finicky enough as it is when they're nice and well built. I can't imagine how much of a PITA a cheap tube amp might be...
Especially since you wouldn't utilize the benefits of the tube overdrive as much on a bass...and for when she does, I have a pedal I built that sounds pretty great with a bass.
Do you think the Fender Rumble would be a good tonal pairing with her Stingray's active humbucker?
So what have I learned from this thread? That being a talented bassist and being a talented interior designer are definitely two different things! 
If you are just starting out solid state is fine. There are tons of awesome hybrids these days and tons of awesome amps in general (just hang around here for a while).
Tube amps for bass are generally in the category of "serious gear" - expensive, heavy, bulky, etc. You basically have to go all in. There's no Fender Blues Jr-equivalent starter tube amp for bass. For the price of a new low-wattage tube amp (100w or less- and these barely cut it in terms of clean output) for bass you can go used and take your pick from the classics which are more like 200-300w.
The beginner wont even notice the difference in tone and the audience probably won't hear it in the mix but most bass players who have developed more sophisticated GAS find it necessary to at least try one at some point.
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She has a surprisingly advanced case of GAS...I can't go into Guitar Center without her ogling the expensive basses...
"When you get good enough at playing the one you already have, then we'll start talking about $1800 Rickenbackers..." (she picked wisely in that instance, though. I rather fancy them myself...)
"When you get good enough at playing the one you already have, then we'll start talking about $1800 Rickenbackers..." (she picked wisely in that instance, though. I rather fancy them myself...)
You'd have to talk your wife into expanding the budget, but Emery Sound makes the Bass Baby 40 watt all tube in Mahogany Cabinets.
40 watts would be cool for low volume and recording
Also if you have an amp you already like, but want it to fit in, you can try Bob Burt Custom Cabinets.
40 watts would be cool for low volume and recording
Also if you have an amp you already like, but want it to fit in, you can try Bob Burt Custom Cabinets.
So I take it all of these could be had in the two to four hundred dollar range as specified by the OP? They are pretty. Do they sound worth a toot?You'd have to talk your wife into expanding the budget, but Emery Sound makes the Bass Baby 40 watt all tube in Mahogany Cabinets.
40 watts would be cool for low volume and recording
Also if you have an amp you already like, but want it to fit in, you can try Bob Burt Custom Cabinets.
Chef
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