Help me choose amp rig options under $1000

[MrLenny1]

The new Rumble 2x10 combo gets a lot of love around here.
Very light and sounds good.

 

[bherman]

At your budget, you can do far better buying higher quality used gear from fellow bassists on this forum. Here's my choice for a killer small but mighty rig from TB classifieds:

Genz Benz Uber 15 cabinet - the Uber series were amazingly good, cabs. This one is in TX for $350 plus shipping - maybe add $75 for shipping?

For Sale/Trade - Genz Benz Uber 115 **Price Lowered to 0**

Genzler Magellan 350 amp - great little amp, pro grade, light and powerful.

For Sale - Genzler Magellan 350

Total price maybe $850. If Uber cab is too heavy, I am sure that you can find something lighter that will do the trick. I have (and love) a RevSound 28, 19 lbs and can handle up to mid-sized gigs. Shop around, I think that you can find something that'll work. Buying new is limiting with a low budget.

 

[StringslamDan]

+1 For the GK!

 

[Pings Bass]

Give my regards to West Music. Then go buy from Rondinelli in Dubuque. That's what I did when I lived there.

I'm happy with my MB200 + Neo 112-ii, but that's maybe not the tone you're after. It's got a baked in scooped tone with a "contour" switch, but sounds reasonably flat-ish with that off. It's got a 4-band EQ, so you could probably dial in your tone, but you might find a head and cab that produce your tone natively. Maybe a sealed cab without a tweeter?

 

[Chris Munro]

I'm a bit wary of people's amp recommendations for Stingrays. I find them naturally more scooped compared with J's or P's which are more prevalent. I have a Rumble 100 which scoops the mids even more when the EQ is flat so I lose a lot of of mids compared with the dry signal and the lo-mid & high mid EQ in the rumble overlaps my bass's EQ so I can't bring back the mids with the amp easily. Having a sweepable/selectable mid I think is important to overcome amp manufacturer's bias for Fender bass tone preferences.

 

[_One//Man//Mutiny_]

Fender rumble 115s are sweet, I have 2 of them add the rumble 500 head and you got a light roaring 2x15 stack in budget. I still think that in the price range it can't be beat and has a great onboard drive sound.

 

[Killens84]

I have a Fender Rumble 500 combo for home use. It sounds so good, and has a ton of volume for just a 210.
I’ve been telling people, if I were looking for a gigging amp rig under $1,000, it would absolutely be a Fender Rumble 500 combo, stacked on a Fender Rumble 210 extension cab.

 

[Ggaa]

Dont have it yet, but I just did some testing and I've got my heart set on a Rumble 500. 350 watts at 8 ohms, 500 @ 4. I have the 100 combo, love it and want a bigger one now!

What I like is they are cheap, powerful, and light. I also like the tone and simplicity of controls. The biggest complaint I hear about them is the "baked in" fender tone, that you either like it or not. But definitely worth adding to the list!

I went in thinking I would prefer the 15, but i really liked the 2x10. So crisp and clear!

I really dig my Rumble 200 head. Good tonal control(I punch up lo mids)decent onboard overdrive Plenty loud with stacked GK115s(@ 4Ω) No pre eq choice on xlr out but I get that at the wireless receiver. Don't use the eq buttons much, occasionally the Vintage one.
Run my pedals through the fx loop.

 

[Boundary Effect]

I'm gonna diss the TC Electronics stuff. It sounds good when you've got a complete TC system. But put the TC head on another manufacturer's cabinet, or drive a TC cabinet with another brand head, the result not good sound.

 

[JimmyM]

I'm a bit wary of people's amp recommendations for Stingrays. I find them naturally more scooped compared with J's or P's which are more prevalent. I have a Rumble 100 which scoops the mids even more when the EQ is flat so I lose a lot of of mids compared with the dry signal and the lo-mid & high mid EQ in the rumble overlaps my bass's EQ so I can't bring back the mids with the amp easily. Having a sweepable/selectable mid I think is important to overcome amp manufacturer's bias for Fender bass tone preferences.

I think it's the voicing of the Rumbles in general and not so much the need for a sweepable mid. Rumbles are fine little amps but I find they don't easily lend themselves to mid forward sounds regardless of the bass.

 

[SlapPopBass]

So far I'm leaning towards the MB Blackline. In no shortage thanks to Jimmy giving a very concise description of what I was looking for in terms of sound and tonal descriptions.

This thread has also pointed me to the existence of Revsound cabs, and based off what I found off of 20 minutes of Googling, I like the idea of using those cabs a lot with whatever head I wound up deciding on. Thanks guys!

I did happen to catch a glance at one of the music stores having a TC BH250 in store, so I'll probably pop in to bother them and try it out for reals. I vague recall some GKs lying around so I'll see what I think of those too.

 

[Rip Van Dan]

Hello,

After years of playing loaners and out of low-wattage practice combos, I would like to dip my toes into actually setting up a small but decent bass amp rig.

For my intents and uses (home recording and small occasional bar gigs, all usually with a PA) I've been looking at something around the 200-300 wattage range. I have no need to go much bigger than that, and budget constraints obviously play a factor in that too.

To start, I've been looking exclusively at Class D stuff, particularly those of the 'ultra compact' variety. Ideally I would like a relatively small amp and a small accompanying cab (110, 112, 115, etc.) with the far future plan of adding an additional cab as needs and purposes arise.

I'd like to ideally avoid combos, but if someone has an opinion on one that can be hooked up to cabs to later expand upon, I'm game.

Sound wise, something straightforward that I can tinker for just a touch bare smidge of flavor in tone is ideal.

Here's a list of what I have more or less narrowed it down to:

1. TC BH250
2. Markbass Nano 300/ Little Mark Blackline 250
3. Trace Eliot Elf
4. GK MB200

If possible, I would like to hear everyone's individual experiences and opinions, and possibly comparisons between any of them. Any separate individual threads on any of these are usually just people GASing over them, with not much objective descriptions of the sound.

I live in small college town of Iowa City, and there are only two close by music stores, both of which don't have a very good selection of bass amp rigs to test play, so I'm mostly gambling my choice with online references and opinions. (and I'm ok with that)

Well, brand new I could recommend you get an Eden TN501. It's a class D amp that weighs 5.3-lbs and puts out 500-watts rms. I have the TN226, which is the 225-watt version. Would have preferred the 500-watt version but got a good deal on this one used. The TN501 is $649 new. It has the same preamp as mine, but more than twice the watts. Comes with inputs for passive and active basses and has an auto compressor that sounds better than the one on my WT500/800 (I actually use it on my TN226).

EQ includes Bass and Treble shelving-type controls as well as a low-mid and high-mid semi-parametric controls (you can choose the frequencies in both ranges to cut or boost). Also has their Enhance control that is a shaping control and sounds good for personal practice, but if you turn it up about 9 o'clock, you'll get lost in the mix playing live (scoops out the low-mids). I keep mine turned off and I boost my low mids at ~250Hz while running the bass, high-mids, and treble flat. I also has a mute button that mutes everything except the tuner out jack.

It has a bass boost button that is nice when you are playing softly; pre/post select for DI with line level/mic level switch (line is hotter and pushing this button will pad the DI signal significantly), Ground lift; aux in with 1/8" input for use with MP3, CD player, etc.; effects loop; and two 1/4" speaker outputs. There is also a 2-button foot switch available for it. A lot of features in a small, lightweight package.

Here's a link to pics and more info on it:
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I'd suggest you pair two Eden EX-112 speaker cabs with this. Had a friend from the UK recommend them to me and now I have two of those myself. I bought one at 4 ohms to play specifically at a small venue where we host an open-mic night almost every week. They have a small footprint because they use a whizzer cone on the speaker for the highs instead of a horn. I liked the sound of that cab so much, I ended up ordering a second one a week later.

If you order two of them in 8 ohm, the TN501 will run them nicely. The speakers will handle 300-watts each and you'd be feeding them 250-watts each. Street price on them is $269, but they are discontinued. They are available in most spots now, but Eden dropped them from the line up and went straight from their 110 to their 115 cab in the E series.

I wasn't planning on buying two, so I ordered the 4 ohm to get the most watts out of the amp I was planning to use. When I use both, I have to use my dual power-block amp (400-watts per channel at 4 ohms) and plug one into each channel because the TN amps have a 4 ohm minimum load and two 4 ohm cabs would be a 2 ohm load.

My big amp works great but my amp in its rack is 36-lbs. as opposed to the 5.3-lbs of the TN501. Then I bought a TN226 with shoulder bag from another Edenite friend of mine, and I use that now for the brewpub open-mic nights. It's really nice to throw that light bag over my shoulder; grab one EX-112 in one hand and my bass in the other hand and walk it all in at once.

Below is a picture of the two EX-112s with my big amp running them. I had to turn my two cabs on their side to minimize the overhang. Dimensions are 15¼"w x 16"h x 14¾"d. The TN501 won't hang over the sides like this one does. The TN501 is 12¾" wide, so it will fit nicely.

Well, looks like I went over your budget a bit. $269+269+649 = $1,187. So it's a bit over. Looks like there are some used TN501's online that would bring you under $1000, so you might check into that. That Eden TN501 amp with two EX-112 cabs is a great sounding, lightweight, and modular rig. Use just one of the 112's in the smaller clubs and two of them in the medium and large clubs. It's really a great sound and I highly recommend it!

 

[JimmyM]

So far I'm leaning towards the MB Blackline. In no shortage thanks to Jimmy giving a very concise description of what I was looking for in terms of sound and tonal descriptions.

Thank you very much.

You see that, folks? I've had people write to Talkbass mods occasionally complaining that all I do is pimp Ampeg all day, and I just steered a guy toward Markbass because I thought it was the strongest for what he was looking for out of the choices he listed. Now had one of his choices been Ampeg, I would have told him to get the Ampeg but but I would have mentioned the Markbass as being a strong contender as well. And if I thought one of his choices shouldn't be the Ampeg, I'd have told him that, too.

So you tattletales can just stop the whining.

 

[CallMeAl]

I really dig my Rumble 200 head. Good tonal control(I punch up lo mids)decent onboard overdrive Plenty loud with stacked GK115s(@ 4Ω) No pre eq choice on xlr out but I get that at the wireless receiver. Don't use the eq buttons much, occasionally the Vintage one.
Run my pedals through the fx loop.

Nice to hear a positive review of the 200 head! I know theres a lot of love for the 200 combo here.

With my p bass, mids are nice and punchy. A lot of the rooms we play are boomy, so I often cut the bass. I love the vintage button, but it also seems to contribute to the boom.

I was thinking about head/cab. But when I tested the combos, I was surprised that I preferred the 2x10 over the 15. I was gunning for a 200 for a while, but I figure I'll just get the 500 and "future proof" myself. I've been scanning the local classifieds and the used combos are stupid cheap. I've seen 200s for $250 and 500s for 300!