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Mini / Micro Head Reco

twiz

twiz

Jun 4, 2003
115
1
Los Angeles
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#1
I've got up to $1k burning a hole in my pocket toward a new or used micro/mini head. I'm looking for:

- "loud" gig volume (at least 300 watts or so, more clean headroom is good)
- as light/compact as possible
- I'm a pick player in the Carol Kaye vein with flatwounds on a variety of humbucking basses (mostly inexpensive functional stuff)
- I'm looking for thumpy bassy old school -- no need for distortion/midrangey poppy slappy type stuff

I had tried a GK micro head (I think the smallest one) a while back and was pretty bummed at how loud the hiss was -- I'm sensitive to this stuff, so "dead quiet" would be really nice. I had an Acoustic Image set up that spoiled me on how quiet stuff can be.

Any reco would be deeply appreciated. I really don't know which of the major companies are better known for more of the 50's / 60's era thumpy bass (versus the more contemporary modern sound), but I'm definitely looking for old school.

Cheers and thanks in advance!
 
#3
I have recently become a fan of the MarkBass products. I tend to play primarily jazz and worship stuff, so was looking for a combo amp that didn't break both my back and my budget. I ended up with the MarkBass CMP 121, which has the "Little Mark" (or very similar variant) amp built into the smallish cabinet housing one neodymium 12" speaker. The output is rated at 300 Watts RMS into the one speaker and if another cabinet is connected, the output goes up to 500 Watts RMS. I believe this unit sounds better and has just as much punch and headroom as did my old SWR Super Redhead combo. I bought the MarkBass New York 112 cabinet (which essentially matches the combo unit) as an extension cab, should I want the extra bottom and output, but so far, have not needed to use it.

If you're looking just for a small head, check into the MB units; some even have tube preamps in them, but are a bit more expensive. I have a DI box with a 12AX7 which I use if I need that tube sound. Hope this info helps.
 
#5
+1 on the Aguilar Thunder Tone 500 (TH500). After reading hundreds of pages of TB postings discussing the merits of the TH, Streamliner, and Markbass micros, I decided to pick up a TH500 this weekend at Amazon ($550 using the discount link).
 

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