Lately I've been in the market for a compact, gig-worthy combo amp, mostly for blues/rock trio gigs in bars and smallish outdoor situations. I'm sure many of you know the type- tough load ins, small stages, quick setups, no PA support. For about a year I'd been getting by with a MarkBass Players' School combo, but I always felt like I was on the edge of its capability, and the tone was bland without an external preamp for flavor. So yesterday afternoon I went to the local Guitar Center after seeing online that they had two used combos in stock that might fit the bill- a Fender Rumble 500, and a Gallien Krueger MB212.
I was expecting to walk out with the GK, so I tried it first, and immediately did not like the sound. Loud and clean, sure, but very “pointy” in a way that made my P bass sound over-aggressive and thin. The contour helped but all the tones were very scooped, and hard and bright on the top. So I tried the Rumble, and though I liked it much better than the Rumble 200 I had a while back- the 10s in the 500 combo were a little more present in the mids- it was still sort of cloudy and muted sounding. The bright button helped but didn’t really get me there, and the Vintage took it in the wrong direction (though I did notice it added perceived volume).
Then on the other side of the bass section I saw a new Ampeg RB210. Being new, it was a couple hundred bucks more expensive than the others, but immediately it sounded better. Rounder, less constricted bottom, mid clarity, discernible top end but nothing shrill… It reminded me a lot of my old Ampeg Micro VR stack, but with a wider bottom end. I didn't want to spend the extra scratch, but it really did tick all the boxes. I walked out of there with that very floor model.
From there I went basically straight to a gig with the aforementioned trio. The venue is outdoors, but a small place- probably a dozen 4-tops and a small yard area that’s fenced in. No PA support for anything but vocals. The Ampeg sounded GREAT, with much more headroom and character than the Markbass, and throughout the gig I didn’t feel like I was pushing it hard at all. I really like the taper on the volume control- so many amps feel like they top out at noonish on the dial and just compress after that, but with the Ampeg every time I turned it up it actually responded. By the time we were done I was hovering around 2:00, with a little bump in the mids and bass, and I didn't feel like the amp or speakers were even close to running out of juice. We tune down to Eb standard, and I use an octave pedal every so often, and I didn't hear it complain at all. Very happy with its performance so far.
Tonight's gig will have backline provided, so no need to bring my amp, but on Sunday I’ll be subbing with another band and bringing that along. If it sounds as good as it did yesterday I’ll be a happy camper.
So far my only complaints (and they’re not really complaints yet) are:
I was expecting to walk out with the GK, so I tried it first, and immediately did not like the sound. Loud and clean, sure, but very “pointy” in a way that made my P bass sound over-aggressive and thin. The contour helped but all the tones were very scooped, and hard and bright on the top. So I tried the Rumble, and though I liked it much better than the Rumble 200 I had a while back- the 10s in the 500 combo were a little more present in the mids- it was still sort of cloudy and muted sounding. The bright button helped but didn’t really get me there, and the Vintage took it in the wrong direction (though I did notice it added perceived volume).
Then on the other side of the bass section I saw a new Ampeg RB210. Being new, it was a couple hundred bucks more expensive than the others, but immediately it sounded better. Rounder, less constricted bottom, mid clarity, discernible top end but nothing shrill… It reminded me a lot of my old Ampeg Micro VR stack, but with a wider bottom end. I didn't want to spend the extra scratch, but it really did tick all the boxes. I walked out of there with that very floor model.
From there I went basically straight to a gig with the aforementioned trio. The venue is outdoors, but a small place- probably a dozen 4-tops and a small yard area that’s fenced in. No PA support for anything but vocals. The Ampeg sounded GREAT, with much more headroom and character than the Markbass, and throughout the gig I didn’t feel like I was pushing it hard at all. I really like the taper on the volume control- so many amps feel like they top out at noonish on the dial and just compress after that, but with the Ampeg every time I turned it up it actually responded. By the time we were done I was hovering around 2:00, with a little bump in the mids and bass, and I didn't feel like the amp or speakers were even close to running out of juice. We tune down to Eb standard, and I use an octave pedal every so often, and I didn't hear it complain at all. Very happy with its performance so far.
Tonight's gig will have backline provided, so no need to bring my amp, but on Sunday I’ll be subbing with another band and bringing that along. If it sounds as good as it did yesterday I’ll be a happy camper.
So far my only complaints (and they’re not really complaints yet) are:
- The SGT dirt sounds terrible. It's farty and ill-defined. Not a huge issue as I have a couple dirt pedals I really like, and probably wouldn't be bothering with the SGT unless it was mind-blowing. I'll honestly probably use the overdrive section as a mute switch.
- I do wish there was a way to access the speaker in the back. Reliability hasn’t been an issue yet, but I'm the sort that likes to have a plan B for every situation, and I would like to be able to connect a speaker cable to the cab and use another amp in the event this head unit ever does go down.
- It's ridiculous to me that Ampeg doesn't make Rocket Bass extension cabs. If I had a matching 210 under this I could probably get rid of ALL my other rigs, and would be tempted to do so.
