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looking for amp / cab

crispygoat

crispygoat

Aug 22, 2006
1,172
3
London, Ontario
#1
Graduation is coming soon and well.. the thought of combining my birthday gift and graduation gift came to mind and get a new amp. I currently own a Valenti Jazz, 4 strings, active. I play mostly anything except metal and country/western. I plan on moving to Toronto next year for university and start a new band. I plan / wish to be part of a piano rock group such as Coldplay, The Fray, Radiohead (some of their stuff), Augustana and such. I'm looking for a Head and Cab. I'd like the cab to be 1x12 or so, but if a bigger cab is insisted then I guess I could consider but I do not believe the need. Maximum of 1000$ I guess ? I also have a Line 6 Pre Amp.. which I was early told it would not fit with two channels, so maybe I could stick to that and simply get a cab and a power amp ?

Thanks !
 
#3
If you like the sound of the line 6 go with either a crown or QSC power amp. Those are the most transparent amps there are. By specifications the QSC PLX series has almost 0 coloration. If you are looking at a 112 I would first look at the GK Neo series, i have heard nothing but good reviews about them. Also, aguilar or a berg would be good.
 
#4
Ampeg, Hiwatt and Orange (and maybe Hughs and Ketner but dunno what their bass stuffs like) are the big soft rock vintage sounding contenders as far as I'm aware and they're all quite expensive, although $1000 might do it considering you lucky yanks get most amps cheap compared to what we have to pay in Europe. Take a look on ebay, had a quick look and there's plenty of Ampeg stuff that's cheap enough to get you a full setup easily for $1000 if you only want a small 1/2x10/12 or 1x15 kinda setup. I can't see how anything less then a 1x15 will hold up against guitars, drums and vocals but I'm not really down with the whole compact amp thing, so I dunno how much you can crank out of them when you need to.

Like the guy above said though, if you REALLY like the sound of your line 6 a power amp and flat sounding cab would be the best bet. If it were up to me I'd burn it, launch it into space, then fire some kind of missile at it so the worst that could happen is some poor aliens might come across its charred remains, recreate it somehow, then put it in a museum to show what an awful state humanity is in... My advice would be to try out some real amplifiers without the pre-amp if you didn't already get that :p
 
#8
You'll probably need to first clarify some things:
  • Speakers - Do you want old-school 15" drivers, tighter-sounding 10", or something else?
  • Coloring - Do you want something that is very "clean" (like a PA), or something that provides a lot of "color" to your sound?
  • Build Quality/Design - Do you need something that can handle tremendous low-end old-school flat-wound "thump" (some amps will rattle & fart instead). Do you want something that can handle crystal-clear high-end slap-tones?
  • Effects - Do you want built-in effects?
  • Combo - Are you certain you want a separate head and cab? That gives you the most flexibility, but there are some good combos, depending on your budget.
 
#10
Your budget should get you something very nice. I suggest reading-through the various topics in the Amps forum. That's what I did recently when deciding on my next bass. When you get to the point of having a few specific models you're looking at, "google" the make/model (be sure to include "review" as a keyword). You'll get the experience gained by past owners. While talkbass is quite good, there are a lot of other review sites as well. In googling a few models you're leaning towards, you'll also see comments like "if I had it to do over, I'd have bought an X instead...".
 

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