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Great Tube Power Amp Recommendations

Adlerburg

Adlerburg

Aug 18, 2010
104
0
Woodstock, NY
#1
I'm looking for a rack mountable tube power amp specifically made for bass 300+W under $1500. I'm using a Marshall 100/100 all tube power section now, but would like to get something with more power for bass. I'm using an Bmax-T pre in front of it.
Thanks for your help.
-Mick
 
#8
adbass said:
Ampeg made a 'power amp only' version of the SVT. A sextet of 6550s.

They don't come up too often, but there was one last year at Daddys Junky Music for 600 bucks.

They had listed it under the PA amps section.
Click to expand...

Now that piques my interest! 6 6550's in an SVT power only configuration... do you know what the model number was/is?
And the Aggie has 8 6550's ... I'm sure that thing is crushing and sounds good! The Aggie sounds like it'd be out of my price range.

Classickbass said:
http://cgi.ebay.com/Mesa-Boogie-400...592?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item1e5ea313b0

Been quite a few of these floating around ebay as of late. You should have no problem picking one up for less than $1500.
Click to expand...
Thanks... this is a head. I'd like to pick up a rackmountable power amp.
 
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#9
Adlerburg said:
And the Aggie has 8 6550's ... I'm sure that thing is crushing and sounds good! The Aggie sounds like it'd be out of my price range.
Click to expand...

It is a phenomenal amp. The Demeter also has eight 6550's. You should be able to get either of them used in your price range.
 
#11
Adlerburg said:
Thanks... this is a head. I'd like to pick up a rackmountable power amp.
Click to expand...

Yeah but if you plugged your Bmax into its Effects Return jack you'd be bypassing the heads internal preamp/EQ and only using its tube poweramp section. A Mesa D-180, 400, 400+, SVT-II or SVT-IIpro could all be used like this, take up the same 4-rack space as their poweramp only variants, dont weigh much more, are usually much easier to locate and would also give you a built-in backup preamp in case you Bmax died, you wanted to blend/stack the 2 pre's together or someday you just wanted a different tone option.
 
#15
Between Aggie, Ampegs, Demeter, Boogies, Trace etc, I certainly have some great choices. Thanks to everyone for the help. My apologies if there was redundancy as a careful search unveiled a lot of previous info as well. Many choices and a lot to think about.
Thanks guys.
-Mick
 
#18
I had one years ago. Sold it. In my opinion, tube amps really shine when they are pushed hard. I don't mean they have to be at full distortion all the time, but they need that drive to get the rich harmonics out of the power tubes. Running a DB728 hard enough to get that sound means you a playing bloody loud. In my opinion, most of us weekend warriors are better off with a tube power amp in the 100-150 watt range.

thisSNsucks said:
I want an Aguilar DB728 so bad!
Click to expand...
 
#19
With all due respect, I'd be one to disagree with that. I use SVT's at low volumes all the time and I dig it a lot. Nice and clean and clear and just as rich to my ears, just quieter. I prefer playing them a little louder (who doesn't?) but it doesn't bother me in the least to keep the volume down.

Anyway, I'd just go full-on SVT. They're easier to find, and all the preamps in the different SVT's blow away the BBE preamp IMHO, and even if you decide you really have to use the BBE, you can just stick it in the effects return. I can pretty much guarantee you won't feel much of a need for it, though.
 

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