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My first bass amp..................advice needed

P

pegdrums

Dec 29, 2016
101
70
#1
Howdy all! Total newb here so I do apologise if this is in the wrong section. I had a quick check and similar questions to mine have come up before but not for the amp in question.

Ive been a drummer for 20 years and now find myself with no band OR space for my gear so Ive been spending more and more time playing bass at home.

Im using my zoom h5 and logic as an amp which is grand but not a real amp!!

Im looking at the rumble 40 v3..............Its not too big for home use and has a di out for gigs.
Is this amp a good compromise does compromoise always fall short?

I like the 10" speqker......I dont think Id like to go any smaller.

At the moment Im not in a band but see it happening and the sooner the better hence why it needs to tick all boxes. If joining a band was out of the question Id be happy out with the rumble 15!

Im waiting til the shop re opens so I can try it for real.

Any help/ advice would be much appreciated.

p.s I am also looking at the second hand market and what Im finding are either practice amps or 100/ 150 w big lumbering monsters.I simplydont have the space!!!

Thanks for reading!!
 
#3
In an average band the PA handles vocals and maybe keys only. Not too many will be able to carry the bass. You should aim to be as loud as you need using your own equipment.

For home practice a much smaller amp is all that is needed. I use an Ampeg B15N as my practice amp though I’ll admit that’s a little over the top. :)
 
#4
The 40 may be o.k. for playing at home. But personally I wouldn't even think about gigging that amp. (I've tried the Rumble 40 before.)

Most larger amps play perfectly fine at home at low volume levels...and they sound better than the small practise amps too. Even with the volume really low.

I use my GK rig with two 12"s at home all the time. At that low level it isn't sucking up much juice at all.

If I want to go totally quiet I just plug my phones in.
 
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#6
If I were you I'd look into buying an older Trace Elliot combo of the SM or SMX series, those sounds tremendously nice in my opinion, and are also possible to get amazingly cheap used compared to the quality you actually get.

At least I am extremely satisfied with my Trace Elliot combo.

If you at a later point are going to not only use the amp as practice amp but also for rehearsals with band and eventually gigs, I'd look into something bigger than 40 watt though.

I personally keeped up with a really loud band with a hard hitting drummer with a 60W tube amp, admittedly driven extremely hard, and even did some smaller equally loud gigs on smaller venues with it, but tube amps are different than solid state, so I'd say at very least over 100 W with some sort of DI output (for the possibility of spiking the sound coming out of the pre amp stage of your amp up with some more watts from a PA).

I know I keeped up fine with a rock band on a 220 W Trace Elliot with 4 10", even if I at any point stayed way bellow the 12 o'clock mark on the master volume, but then again Trace Elliot are known to rate the watts of their amps a little conservatively and generally capable of playing louder than rated.

When that is said I heard good things about the Rumble too, and in the end it all comes down to personal taste and what sound you are going for.
 
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#7
NoiseNinja said:
If I were you I'd look into buying an older Trace Elliot combo of the SM or SMX series, those sounds tremendously nice in my opinion, and are also possible to get amazingly cheap used compared to the quality you actually get.

At least I am extremely satisfied with my Trace Elliot combo.

If you at a later point are going to not only use the amp as practice amp but also for rehearsals with band and eventually gigs, I'd look into something bigger than 40 watt though.

I personally keeped up with a really loud band with a hard hitting drummer with a 60W tube amp, admittedly driven extremely hard, and even did some smaller equally loud gigs on smaller venues with it, but tube amps are different than solid state, so I'd say at very least over 100 W with some sort of DI output (for the possibility of spiking the pre amp stage of your amp up with some more watts from a PA).

I know I keeped up fine with a rock band on a 220 W Trace Elliot with 4 10", even if I at any point always stayed way bellow the 12 o'clock mark on the master volume, but then again Trace Elliot are known to rate the watts of their amps a little conservatively and generally capable of playing louder than rated.

When that is said I heard good things about the rumble too, in the end it all comes up to personal taste and what sound you are going for.
Click to expand...

+1
 
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#8
Thanks for all the welcomes and replies. BTW Im based in Ireland....no guitar centre etc over here:rollno:
Im inclined to agree with the idea of getting a louder used combo. When I will need the power it'll be there.
Two amps (a practice and a gigging amp) is not an option. Space in my house and money in my wallet tells me that!!
What I liked about the rumble 40 was its size.Most affordable amps 100w+ are quite large. Fine in a big house........an issue in a small two bedroom cottage!!

Here are the best second hand options for my budget. Any thoughts/ advice/ things to watch out for would be HUGELY appreciated.:thumbsup:

[Invalid or Expired Link Removed] Ashdown EB 180W

[Invalid or Expired Link Removed] Peavey TKO 115

[Invalid or Expired Link Removed] Ampeg BA 110

[Invalid or Expired Link Removed] Laney rbw 300

[Invalid or Expired Link Removed] rumble 100
 
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#11
There's a lot more to a gig-ready rig, but I can try and lay out some guidelines to help. Of course, there will be lots of exceptions.

I have my own bare minimum speaker and wattage requirements based on moderate volume rock bands, with NO PA support.

For a single guitarist using anything smaller than a half stack, or less than 412's, 150-200 watts and a 210 or 115 could work.

For a single guitarist band using a half-stack, I need a minimum of 200 watts and a 115 or 210 cab. (Lots of combos fit these specs)

For two guitarists with half-stacks, 250-300 watts and at least a 410 cab (or 210's and 115)

You'll find that cab and amp efficiency can reduce the amount of speaker surface area, or the amount of watts needed. I posted fairly inefficient numbers to help with that based on personal experience. Also, genre and room size need to be considered. Nothing you posted I would consider for anything more than a bedroom amp.
 
#12
If you plan to play in public and space and funds are limited, a titchy practice combo is a false economy. Find yourself a second hand class D head in the 250W-300W @ 8Ω range. If it has a headphone out, so much the better. Connect the amp to a smallish 8Ω cabinet (112 or 210) and keep the volume down for home. It won't be much larger than a combo anyway. Later you can add a second cabinet for bigger gigs, and it *still* won't take up much space.
 
#13
12BitSlab said:
You may to look at an Ampeg MicroVr head with an SVT210AV cabinet. Small, easy to lift, great for gigs.

JimmyM can give you good advice. He certainly helped me.
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Thanks for the nice words! And that IS a most happening little rig that doesn't take up much space, for sure. I might sub out the PF350 for the Micro VR, though. An extra 150w and the same sound and price, if you can get past the idea the head isn't going to look quite as cool, that is :D

That said, I have really taken a shine to little tiny practice amps in certain applications. I just got a BA110 v2 and it rocks pretty good for a little 40w amp. But it ain't gonna tick all the boxes when it comes to playing out. Sure, I can make it work with my 8-pc 50's-60's-70's band as long as there's PA or if the room is tiny, but when we play harder rock stuff or some 70's R&B, I have to push it pretty hard. It's going to run out of gas in many applications, especially if rock and roll is in the equation.

So I'd say a micro rig with some power is in order, but the really good ones that can tick all boxes are still a little on the hefty side, not to mention the expensive side. A 210 or a 115 with at least 100w is about as small as I'd go with for a tick-all-boxes small rig that will ensure you don't get totally drowned out in a jam. And while I'm an Ampeg endorser, there are other ones you could take a look at before you decide to get a Micro VR or PF350 and 210av :D But for small size with some oomph that doesn't cost a fortune, I find it pretty hard to beat that rig.
 
#14
Hey, apologies for the tardy reply. I finally got my amp and have been a bit pre-occupied.

€190 for a Hartke A100. It ticks all my boxes for the budget. That was the max.....sold a bass drum pedal and that was all the money I could use for an amp.

Someone mentioned I should aim for up around 250-300w.......there was no way id find a rig like that for my money here.

Im over the moon with this amp. Graphic e.q......phones/ line out.....aux in......DI out and a limiter. Another cheeky thing I love is that all the knobs are notched at 0. Also the treble and bass are centered at '0' opposed to 0-10. It's nice as I can get a flat (ish?) eq and go from there. Plus it's a kickback!!

Happy days. Heard mixed reports about the aluminium speaker but each to their own. I wanna get playing and learning about different sounds from my bass and from the amp. I could have spent more and more time looking but this is perfect and I wanna get stuck in.


Thanks for all the advice
 
#17
Thanks! try and get a few pics up. It's spotless! Had to rotate the volume pot a few hundred times to elimiminate the crackle but that was it. It sat in a guys house who used it for the 'occasional bit of recording'.

€489 new!!!!!
 

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