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Looking for a new head...any ideas??

M

mathanmlb55

Mar 14, 2010
16
0
#1
Im looking for a new head for my bass. Im thinking a tube head, but am open to ideas. Nothing above $2000. My top pick right about now is a Ampeg SVT 2 Pro, Fender Bassman 300, Peavey Tour VB-3, and and Traynor YBA200. Any ideas on those or anyothers that sound great. I play metal and want a lot of lows and growl, and a little bit of fuzz, but dont need much.
Thanks
 
#5
If you can find a Peavey Classic 400, you should check it out, those things destroy! The only problem is that it is probably the only bass head that weighs more than a vintage classic SVT.

That being said, I would not recommend any of the new Ampegs, if you can track down a vintage SVT, that is pretty much the holly grail.

Or, an old Sunn Model T. If I could have any vintage tube head of my choice it would be the Model T. The Fender Bassman is actually modeled after the Sunn Model T. Fender bought Sunn at some point and in the 90's rereleased "Sunn Model T's" for bass and guitar, they eventually discontinued the guitar version and changed the label on the bass version from Sunn to Fender. And so the Fender Bassman 300 was born.

If 200 watts is enough and you want to save some money, you can track down an old Sovtek Bass Head. They are a little harder to find than the guitar heads, but they do exist and sell for under 1000 usually. I think it would sound awesome for metal.

good luck.
 
#6
I have the Fender Bassman as well and its great. It is designed without a fan( open air design ) which believe me means a lot. the Svt-2pro just didn't work at all. Now this was a brand new right out of the box one, so maybe it just needed some kind of kick in the pants. All I know is I had to turn up the gain and the master vol. to max. to hear it at all. So for this level of $$$ be careful as to what you buy from Ampeg. They don't have the level of product consistancy that they should have. The Fender Bassman 300 is the one to get. :cool:
 
#8
do your self a favor and check out the T C RH450 head.You might be surprised by this little wonder. Lots of info on them here -do a search. Really cool amp.no tubes but it has a tubetone settings and a spectrocomp. its a hot little amp
 
#9
I'll toss in another good word for the Bassman. I absolutely love mine, murderously loud. Heavy, yes, but soo soo worth it. The two channels are nice, especially if you want to mix in more of a distorted sound, because Ch. 1 is pretty clean, which is why I love it. It does get hot, and it doesn't have a fan, it's just air cooled, but I've seen people put fans on them to keep the cooler, because you could cook eggs on the top of them if you play for a while. It's also a quite versatile head, with the graphic EQ and everything. Personally, out of all those, I'd buy the Bassman, hands down.
 

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