Guitar Amps for Bass Players

[groooooove]

this is not a very "sexy" answer,

but the gen 3 boss katana is so great.

huge range of very authentic sounds. the effects are good. the univibe in particular is exceptional. all of the mid/high gain sounds are incredible, the clean is impeccable, and mild breakup sounds are extremely nice.

i use one in my classroom and in my home studio, i'd probably never play guitar with a band. the .5 watt, half power, or full power settings make it great for practice.

 

[James Hart]

I've never tried one, but it is always a solid response whenever people are asking for a killer practice amp.

 

[Podgorny]

Hiwatt DR-103 is great for bass AND guitar.

 

[Pocket Dave]

I did Fender warranty repair a lot for several years and even worked briefly in the factory when it was in Oregon. Never liked the little ones or tweed series for my use cases, as I need clean headroom for jazzy chordal stuff. My last one was a highly modded Fender 30, which was very similar to a silverface Vibrolux Reverb. I prefer Twins if I don't have to move them though.

As you know from your Fender warranty work, there's at least one Fender authorized field fix for the early '90s USA production tweed series amps' channel switching, and Fender finally went to a better reinforced, Cliff style, barrel input jack for Hot Rod, Blues and Pro Jr amps.

Still, the current Blues, Hot Rod and Pro Jr series use flimsy, single-sided PCB's, those terrible ribbon connectors (on ALL Fender production tube amps), and the Hot Rod and Blues Deluxe series still mounts two large power resistors TOO CLOSE to the PCB for their high radiant heat levels - remounting them with standoffs or starting fresh with longer leads is a good longevity mod.

They're serviceable amps, but barely in places.

And then for other fusion-y stuff I do like high gain noise toys - not pedals, drive from stacked gain stages in the amp. Had an old Laney AOR 100 that I modded down to 60 watts with gain/gain/master controls and both pre and post EQ, running into a low sensitivity single twelve. I have most of the parts on hand for an AC-30 based build, but it'll probably end up being much gnarlier than a real Vox.

For fusiony stuff, I lean more toward a maybe-lesss-gnarly, midrange-forward guitar tone. This was a weekly residence gig from about 11 years ago, guitar straight into a stacked-gain Fuchs ODS prototype Dumble style head. There was one pedal in line for this clip - a Strymon El Capistan tape delay simulator "tapped" to delay in time with the rhythm:

Right now I just have a Spark 2, which kills for clean low volume Twin Reverb and JC-120 vibes at home. The edge of breakup thing is not my jam really, I'm much more into an all or nothing contrast for the most part. Not a classic rawk or blues guy at all, needless to say!

Not much of a classic rawk player here either. I like the edge-of-breakup thing because it lets me lean in or back off with both touch and guitar knobs to get from clean to mean. Example - guitar plugged straight into a lowly Blues Junior:

 

[grubdumpling]

I'm not much of a guitar player any more, but I keep one around and if needed I use a Traynor YBA1 that I primarily use for bass.

 

[PennyroyalWe]

Here's my current set. A Monoprice Stage Right 15, and a Fender Musicmaster Bass Amp.

I don't hate how the MMB sounds with a bass. Funny enough, the SR15 has a vintage MMB speaker in it, I found it in reverb for $30, while the MMB has a late 90s fender eminence speaker.

 

[definenredefine]

Either a Peavey Heritage 2x12 combo (with one Scorpion and one Black Widow) or a Music Man HD 130 Reverb into an old Peavey 4x12 (also loaded with half Scorpions/half Black Widows.) I've only ever taken the HD 130 out for a show (literally my only time playing guitar exclusively at a show.)

I've put my bass through the HD and it sounds pretty great, just harder to get volume than with a proper bass amp. I've also put my guitar through an old Peavey 400 Bass, and that sounds pretty great too.

 

[andare]

This is my guitar amp. Hand built solid pine cabinet and hand wired by a local guy. It's based on a Princeton Reverb but it's 30W, 12", with a switch for Tweed/Blackface and Master volume. Got it for a steal too.

 

[Ondoval]

I recently sold my Fender Hot Rod Deville (USA, 410) and bought a Laney GH100L head. The Laney is based of a Marshall JCM800, but has more low end/tighter low end (they say). I dont know abouot the JCM800 comparison as I have never owned one, but Im very happy wityh this amp. Great clean tones!

 

[EvilJ]

I have a Peavey 5150. I swapped the stock garbage speakers for a pair of Neo Creambacks.

 

[Passinwind]

As you know from your Fender warranty work, there's at least one Fender authorized field fix for the early '90s USA production tweed series amps' channel switching, and Fender finally went to a better reinforced, Cliff style, barrel input jack for Hot Rod, Blues and Pro Jr amps.

Still, the current Blues, Hot Rod and Pro Jr series use flimsy, single-sided PCB's, those terrible ribbon connectors (on ALL Fender production tube amps), and the Hot Rod and Blues Deluxe series still mounts two large power resistors TOO CLOSE to the PCB for their high radiant heat levels - remounting them with standoffs or starting fresh with longer leads is a good longevity mod.

They're serviceable amps, but barely in places.


For fusiony stuff, I lean more toward a maybe-lesss-gnarly, midrange-forward guitar tone. This was a weekly residence gig from about 11 years ago, guitar straight into a stacked-gain Fuchs ODS prototype Dumble style head. There was one pedal in line for this clip - a Strymon El Capistan tape delay simulator "tapped" to delay in time with the rhythm:





Not much of a classic rawk player here either. I like the edge-of-breakup thing because it lets me lean in or back off with both touch and guitar knobs to get from clean to mean. Example - guitar plugged straight into a lowly Blues Junior:

I pretty much retired from MI repair work by the early 00s, and from gigging on electric guitar about ten years later. I took up acoustic guitar for the first time time two years ago though, and oddly enough that's inspired me to start designing and building a few pedals. Now I've refurbished my last remaining electric and have an excuse to do a new tube guitar amp build, but I have a bass one to finish up first and it may suffice for my modest guitar needs too. I'm not too keen on working on other people's designs these days, but that's still all interesting stuff to me, for sure. FWIW, I always thought the More Gain circuit should be Less Gain, and those problems you mentioned went all the way back to the Blues Deluxe And DeVille models, which was mostly what I worked on in the factory. I didn't make a good production droid, although I did pump a whole lot of them out during my brief time there.

These days I'm kind of gravitating towards copping a big body jazz box and just using one of my DIY dead clean solid state amps and calling it a day, but serious health issues make learning new tricks kind of tough. As I said, the Spark 2 works fantastically well for now, but if I should ever decide to gig again playing rude original music on electric guitar I'll figure something more upscale out.

 

[tris66]

I'm with you with the 'edge of breakup' sensitivity, Pocket Dave.
I have a late 60s silver face Super Reverb that was hot rodded for me a long time ago. It was a bit mangled when I bought it. It has a master volume where I can dial in the edge of breakup at lower volumes.
I pretty much just record stuff in my back room now, so I generally use a couple little amps. I have a Gibson Falcon and a VHT Special Six that give me a decent range of sounds. I plug the VHT into an old ADA 2x12 that has some Celestions for more closed back, agressive tones. Put your favorite pedal in front of that and it can go from break up crunch to some pretty thunderous distorion pretty well. I just remembered I have a little 1980s Peavey Audition. I added a speaker out jack on that one, too, for the same purpose.
Others... blackface Vibro Champ that I don't like.... 60s Kalamazoo Model One.... Electro Harmonics Mig50... and a couple 80s-90s Carvin 60/100 tube combos.

 

[bassfran]

Fender Prosonic, LO series. Was Fender's kinda' BoogieMarshall designed by Bruce Zinky.

 

[Dollar2]

I had a Boogie Caliber 50+ many years ago. I had to sell it to fund my switch to bass. When I wanted/needed a guitar amp again, I had enough cash to pick up a Boogie Mark V when it came out. An unbelievable amp.

 

[Nedmundo]

I haven't played guitar on stage for over 30 years, but I've always had a guitar amp. For awhile it was just a Peavey Decade 10w solid state combo, but since about 2004 I've gone from a Roland Cube 60 to a Fender '68 Custom Deluxe Reverb to a Fender Tone Master Deluxe Reverb.

The Tone Master is perfect for my purposes. I can get decent breakup at low volume thanks to the low wattage settings, and after a firmware update the reverb is solid. I wasn't sure how it would sound on stage, but a former bandmate used it for a show with a double humbucker PRS SE, and it sounded great. I have a feeling one of my current bandmates is going to use it too.

Here it is with my 2004 Strat and a G&L Comanche, which I sold a few years ago. I now have a GC exclusive Fender Am. Ultra II HSS Strat.

 

[mellowgerman]

Carvin X100B tube heads are great sounding, versatile amps, cool aesthetic, and cheap on the used market. Features switches on the back for speaker ohm matching and output attenuation, so you can use them with a lot of different cabs and get the most out of them at different volumes. Extra bonus is that these sound great with bass too, if you use a proper modern bass cab (preferably without tweeter).

 

[Phreaky Phriday]

I started out on guitar, bass is a more recent thing for me. I have a 1973 fender vibro-champ i bought about 20 years ago for a few hundred bucks. It sounds great, but the vibro part does not work. Not sure if i ever used it when it did work so not worth getting it fixed. I also have a newish 5-watt marshall dsl5.

Between the two amps, i am satisfied with clean and high gain sounds. Way more gear than i need for my half hour a week of guitar playing lol

 

[ThudThudThud]

I did a gig with a female singer/songwriter/acoustic guitar in a converted church hall. I used an ABG through a little Fender Princeton. It was magic. The acoustics were just incredible. When we added a piano player it was so sweet.

 

[Pocket Dave]

I'm with you with the 'edge of breakup' sensitivity, Pocket Dave.
I have a late 60s silver face Super Reverb that was hot rodded for me a long time ago. It was a bit mangled when I bought it. It has a master volume where I can dial in the edge of breakup at lower volumes.

My first Fender amp was a '64 Super Reverb I bought for $200 in 1976 to play in a band. It worked well - loud was a thing back then. Around '81 I was living in Austin and wanted a more modern, fusiony sound at less than airplane-hangar volume levels, so I had the Super Boogie-ized by Fred Bonty with the help of Eric Johnson, with whom Fred was equipment manager. The modded amp had an articulate and velvet tone that I loved - great for those early Holdsworth type tones. I restored the amp to stock blackface circuit in the '90s and sold it.

I've also owned 4 other vintage blackface Super Reverbs and one 1970-ish silverface.

I pretty much just record stuff in my back room now, so I generally use a couple little amps. I have a Gibson Falcon and a VHT Special Six that give me a decent range of sounds. I plug the VHT into an old ADA 2x12 that has some Celestions for more closed back, agressive tones. Put your favorite pedal in front of that and it can go from break up crunch to some pretty thunderous distorion pretty well. I just remembered I have a little 1980s Peavey Audition. I added a speaker out jack on that one, too, for the same purpose.
Others... blackface Vibro Champ that I don't like.... 60s Kalamazoo Model One.... Electro Harmonics Mig50... and a couple 80s-90s Carvin 60/100 tube combos.

What do you not like about the Vibro Champ? Ever have it serviced?

One of the best sounding, most touch-sensitive amps I ever owned was a '59 tweed Champ. Only real amp-sale regret.

 

[wompwomp]

I have a 1973 fender vibro-champ i bought about 20 years ago for a few hundred bucks. It sounds great, but the vibro part does not work. Not sure if i ever used it when it did work so not worth getting it fixed.

those circuits are so simple I think it would be inexpensive to get a tech to go through and fix the trem. you might just need to replace the tube that drives it (iirc it's one of the 12ax7s).

imho well worth it for that lovely tube bias trem