I'm looking for a 500w Amp Head, any recommendations?

[RoketRdr]

I’ve never owned the TC electronic. They seem to be highly regarded. I can’t say that the sound was my preference, but it could have been the speaker cabinet I suppose.
I do have experience with the peavey. I bought two of them In 2018 (one as a backup) for a bunch of road dates I had committed to and didn’t want to have my “nice” rig Bouncing around in a van all summer, getting abused nightly.( and daily)
I agree that the fan was noisy but for My application it for it was a non issue.
I never had any FOH issues with my D.I. At least none of the sound engineers bothered to mention it to me.
They never failed on stage or acted unreliably. The mute button would make a popping sound when engaged but that’s about it.
Perhaps the peavey are junk as you suggest. I simply based my recommendation on my personal experience Of using the product .

For the record I'm a Peavey fan as well. I currently use a Peavey IPR2 3000 and love that amp. I still have a Peavey Bandit, that I bought back in '84 or '85 and its still a great amp, as well as a 5150 Combo which I will NEVER get rid of!! I was just saying that the Mini Max is one of the worst products they've ever produced. Just way too many problems with them that makes them unreliable and the DI output on that thing is substandard. Damn shame because Peavey has always made some great gear but they just got it wrong on that one. If you had good experience with that amp then by all means keep using it!!! But a lot of them that got released to market seem to have issues. You got one of the good ones.

 

[Lesfunk]

For the record I'm a Peavey fan as well. I currently use a Peavey IPR2 3000 and love that amp. I still have a Peavey Bandit, that I bought back in '84 or '85 and its still a great amp, as well as a 5150 Combo which I will NEVER get rid of!! I was just saying that the Mini Max is one of the worst products they've ever produced. Just way too many problems with them that makes them unreliable and the DI output on that thing is substandard. Damn shame because Peavey has always made some great gear but they just got it wrong on that one. If you had good experience with that amp then by all means keep using it!!! But a lot of them that got released to market seem to have issues. You got one of the good ones.

Oh, I don’t use them anymore. I just sold them after that season of road work ended.
I just found them to be good for what I needed at the time. A cheap, Portable, reasonably powerful Head that fit the bill. Something that I wouldn’t stress over being stolen or breaking.

one thing I forgot to mention...
thePeavey amp that I had A terrible experience with was the mini mega.
I wouldn’t wish that one on an enemy
In fact, that’s how I wound up with the minimax heads. I returned it and traded it for the two smaller units

 

[dbsfgyd1]

Did you really just say that? A 25% increase in power is negligible????



This!! And also weather he's looking for a clean or colored tone.

True. The extra wattage will not create 25% more dBs which is the point of the exercise. I’m not sure what the ratio is, but increase in additional dBs is not as much as you think. A HPF Taking out the ultra low frequencies that you can’t really hear, not to mention are major wattage hogs, A 400 watt amp with an engaged HPF will more than likely sound louder than a 500 watt amp without.

 

[RoketRdr]

True. The extra wattage will not create 25% more dBs which is the point of the exercise. I’m not sure what the ratio is, but increase in additional dBs is not as much as you think. A HPF Taking out the ultra low frequencies that you can’t really hear, not to mention are major wattage hogs, A 400 watt amp with an engaged HPF will more than likely sound louder than a 500 watt amp without.

An increase in dB is half the exercise. Increased overhead is the other half (at least it is for me). But I agree is you run a HPF (60-100hz) on a 400w head it will get close to the same dB output as running a 500w head without. And then we have the "500w head while running a HPF on a 400w cab". We could run this in circles over semantics but the bottom line is we both agree.

 

[Funk With Me]

EBS Reidmar 750. Class D power amp with a solid state analog preamp section. Great eq, compressor, drive circuit, effects loop, dangerous punch and power. Reasonably priced, a few excellent used deals out there.

 

[hbabels]

Really? I've run certain pedals in the effects loop (stuff I wanted to insert after the amp's drive section) of my guitar amp for years with no issues.

Agreed effects loops on most amps can accept either rack type effects or pedals. with guitar Amp the effects loop is often the preferred location for time based effects like delay / reverb and anything else you want post gain.
I’ve heard several amp builders comment that not all effects loops are created equal so some poorly designed ones can have a negative impact on tone or not play nice with some effects. The best is to experiment with your particular setup and let your ears decide what sounds best.

 

[Bassboy 76]

I would strongly consider checking out the new Blackstar U700 which is priced very low ($599.) for their special promotional entry into the bass amp market. It has a killer built in OD/Distortion and Fuzz section with the the distortion circuit based on the incredibly good Darkglass B7K pedal and the fuzz circuit is the Bigg Muff. It has an octaver, chorus and compressor plus a preamp that has three different voicing options (classic, modern and flat) and three different power amp responses (linear, 6L6 and 6550) for a wide range of really good bass tones. I’m pretty sure you can find your favorite tones and textures easily, no matter what you’re going for with so many options. Plus it’s 700 watts!
I would also be sure to check out the Darkglass Microtubes 500 at $599 also, as it’s the same as it’s big brother (amazingly good amp) with just less power. I don’t think most people need 900 watts anyway. My next option would probably have to be the Tech 21 VT Bass 500 which is the cheapest of the three and extremely good as well. You have a lot of really good choices but those are just my faves. Good luck!

 

[Iristone]

I remember liking an SVT-3Pro with its input gain cranked for overdrive. 450 watts, but I guess it's not that important given that the loudness scale is logarithmic

 

[Bassboy 76]

Agreed! I like the way the Aguilar TH is designed with a drive control after the input gain level control for the same reason.

 

[hbabels]

I would strongly consider checking out the new Blackstar U700 which is priced very low ($599.) for their special promotional entry into the bass amp market. It has a killer built in OD/Distortion and Fuzz section with the the distortion circuit based on the incredibly good Darkglass B7K pedal and the fuzz circuit is the Bigg Muff. It has an octaver, chorus and compressor plus a preamp that has three different voicing options (classic, modern and flat) and three different power amp responses (linear, 6L6 and 6550) for a wide range of really good bass tones. I’m pretty sure you can find your favorite tones and textures easily, no matter what you’re going for with so many options. Plus it’s 700 watts!
I would also be sure to check out the Darkglass Microtubes 500 at $599 also, as it’s the same as it’s big brother (amazingly good amp) with just less power. I don’t think most people need 900 watts anyway. My next option would probably have to be the Tech 21 VT Bass 500 which is the cheapest of the three and extremely good as well. You have a lot of really good choices but those are just my faves. Good luck!

Damn that Blackstar amp looks really cool feature / price wise. Would love to hear some more sound demos of it. ive been impressed with the sound of Soen of their guitar amps so this is interesting.

 

[Bassboy 76]

Another great option for getting a lot more tonal versatility from your solid state or class D amp is to use a preamp that gives you a great warm clean tone and an overdriven tube amp sound and feel while also being very responsive to your playing and dynamics.

 

[Bassboy 76]

Damn that Blackstar amp looks really cool feature / price wise. Would love to hear some more sound demos of it. ive been impressed with the sound of Soen of their guitar amps so this is interesting.

I will post some sound clips from the Blackstar U700 soon when I have a little more time to do some recording

 

[bbh]

Genz Benz Shuttle max 12.0. Gives you 2 - 600W amps, lots of eq points and most everything you could want. Not too expensive. Peavy minimax might be 1KW but again a lot for the $300 they go for used.

 

[Rojd]

I'd recommend a Peavey Minimax 600. I bought one recently and am happy with it.

 

[bbh]

I'd recommend a Peavey Minimax 600. I bought one recently and am happy with it.

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I use that in 2 places I jam at. They didn’t want to spend much since they’re guitar players. For what it is, I’m quite impressed. My rig cost 10 x that head and I don’t mind using it in multiple styles. Powering 2 18’s at one place and 4 12’s at the other. Gobs of headroom.

 

[Rojd]

I use that in 2 places I jam at. They didn’t want to spend much since they’re guitar players. For what it is, I’m quite impressed. My rig cost 10 x that head and I don’t mind using it in multiple styles. Powering 2 18’s at one place and 4 12’s at the other. Gobs of headroom.

I have it with a 2x10 & a 2x12. Lots of power under the hood.

 

[Bassboy 76]

Genz Benz Shuttle max 12.0. Gives you 2 - 600W amps, lots of eq points and most everything you could want. Not too expensive. Peavy minimax might be 1KW but again a lot for the $300 they go for used.

Yes! If I knew what I do now and I were in the market for a head to upgrade from a combo to my first real gig worthy rig like a 4x10” the OP is keen on I would personally be looking for something used, like the Shuttle (even the old 600w model) by Genz Benz rather than the new Peavey. I loved the old Peavey amps and PA’s I had over three decades ago but they’re just not the same for me anymore and the new class D heads seem to have a high failure rate along with a few other common complaints that I’ve heard firsthand (like the noisy DI and a faulty grounding issue). I would even think about going with the 350 watt Genzler Magellan because I can tell you from experience that it’s power is very conservatively rated..it’s a loud amp that sounds incredible and will definitely cover medium sized venues with the way it can cut through the mix while still keeping the fundamental bottom end intact and it has a studio quality DI to run to FOH if you need more volume. It has plenty of volume for the stage, even with a heavy handed drummer and a couple of deafening guitar players.

 

[Valvehead]

Welcome to forumland. Now you've heard 50 opinions and over a dozen of different options any webshop would have provided.

Can you be more specific on the type of dirt you expect from the head? This will help us point you in the right direction

For modern prog like tones I'd go for Darkglass, for more oldskool mid heavy girth the already mentioned Tech21 VT500. Aguilar TH500 sits somewhere in between etc. etc.

 

[Downunderwonder]

Agreed effects loops on most amps can accept either rack type effects or pedals. with guitar Amp the effects loop is often the preferred location for time based effects like delay / reverb and anything else you want post gain.
I’ve heard several amp builders comment that not all effects loops are created equal so some poorly designed ones can have a negative impact on tone or not play nice with some effects. The best is to experiment with your particular setup and let your ears decide what sounds best.

You have got it backwards. The fx loop will do what it does. Woe betide the signal that hits a pedal that can't work with 10x the voltage it's expecting.

 

[Thundar]

Oh, I don’t use them anymore. I just sold them after that season of road work ended.
I just found them to be good for what I needed at the time. A cheap, Portable, reasonably powerful Head that fit the bill. Something that I wouldn’t stress over being stolen or breaking.

one thing I forgot to mention...
the Peavey amp that I had A terrible experience with was the mini mega.
I wouldn’t wish that one on an enemy
In fact, that’s how I wound up with the minimax heads. I returned it and traded it for the two smaller units

I am interested in your experience with the Minimega . I have been gigging one for about 4 years and have had absolutely no issues with mine at all.....granted, I probably don't gig nearly as much as you, but I have driven it quite hard, and after I learned how to use all its features correctly, I think its a fine amp..and will run four 15's or eight 10's quite nicely..seems like the one man's Minimax is another man's MiniMega