Help me spend money on bass amp

All those clips sound fantastic. I haven't played the Darkglass but yeah, they sound great. I have played all the Genzler models and they are wonderful too.

 

I’d go with the Magellan/ AO pedal solution. This covers all of what you want, with fewer fiddly features.

 

Let me preface by saying I voted based on my knowledge of the Magellan and your excellent description of goals and considerations. I have never played or heard the Alpha Omega so my comments are based solely on the Magellan.

The Magellan is really versatile, which is a feature I consider indispensable in an amp. I have no interest in having five different heads for different tonal goals. I was considering getting one until I tried out a Walkabout. I was having an internal debate, deciding between an older, out of production amp versus the Magellan. (Then the WD 800 came out while I was trying to make up my mind, and I found my home.) Similar to the WD, the Magellan can do loud and clean or with drive. The WD is a little more of the flavor I like, as it’s inspired by the Walkabout. For an all solid state head, I thought the Magellan had really good tube emulation. What ultimately resulted in me holding off on the Walkabout was the lack of modern features, especially an aux input and headphone output. The Magellan, of course, has both of these features, and is also switchable down to 2.67 ohms.

I liked the tone shaping controls on the Magellan and you can get really different sounds from it. I played it through a 410 at a local music store, can’t recall what brand, but it was a good cab. Played my Aerodyne PJ, which can put out a good range of tones. It was really good at old-school and reggae tones, and with some adjustments, you could get very nice, mid-forward, clean tones that sounded really sweet and modern.

As long as the power handling requirements are well matched, I wouldn’t make too big of a deal about mixing brands. That can work out really well sometimes. But I have found, with my Mesa equipment, that it plays especially well together compared to an excellent GK 212 cab I initially drove with the WD 800. Ultimately, I think it’s just the innate voicing of the cabinets, but I get more of what I want with the Mesa cabs than with the GK cab, which also sounded really good.

One of the reasons I suggest the Magellan is the excellent design and support that is typical of Genzler products. I recently picked up a Genzler 4 on the Floor overdrive pedal and it shares some drive shaping strategies with the Magellan. I love the way it works and it reminds me quite a bit of the Magellan. Genzler’s reliability and support are widely known as being excellent.

 

Don’t forget to join the Genzler club when you get it. Many users there with helpful tips and Jeff Genzler will help out if you have any issues. Had personal contact with him when I bought my Magellan. Stellar service.
Genzler Amplification Club

 

Good choice - very versatile amp, best quality and top notch service if you ever need it (which is very rarely).