NAD - Warwick BC-20

[Pimmsley]

So I was looking for a little practice amp to leave in my front room for noodling and general practice at night (while others are sleeping), and noticed my local music store had one of these Warwick BC-20 on sale for $129AU... which to put into perspective is not much more than dinner and a movie for two these days in Melbourne... a cheap dinner

Just spent two hours playing with it and going through my current stable of basses through this thing and I am seriously blown away !
Not only does it exceed all my expectations and requirements, but I actually really, really like the tone (all on flat) of it...

I could only find two threads related to it on TB, without much comment on the quality, reliability or tone, but I am just stunned that even a low B is clearly reproduced, and not lower in volume, I'm really shocked at that for an 8" speaker... solid !

Two things that stand out as extra useful to me as a practice amp is that the volume is really linear, so you get a huge range of usable low volume control and it's background noise is almost non existent, which is also great for practice (even low level hiss drives me crazy when practicing).

Have not tried the headphone out or aux in yet, but they are secondary to my needs, so I'll get around to that when I can stop playing with it...

I know it's early days but no other little practice amp I have used has had such a rich and pleasant bottom end or top end for that matter, or been so cheap and seemingly well made...

Just thought to mention all this as it would be a fantastic practice amp for people starting out, or players on a tight budget IMO as the tone would keep me wanting to practice more

Very happy with it, anyone else use one for practice ?



sorry about the poor quality photo

 

[wooheehaa]

imo bc20 is a very outstanding amp by itself, not just for its size or price. other than the tone, the factor that differentiate this and other practice amp is that you could drive the amp hard without clipping unlike smaller combos that tend to clip even when the volume is just slightly higher.

not entirely sure why this amp isnt very popular but its definitely a keeper imo. i wasnt even looking for a amp when i got it, was trying out afew basses when i plug this in. quite a surprise, it really shows how far smaller amp technology had progress when you arent in the market for quite sometime

 

[SRCRS]

Hey I'm seriously about to buy the BC20 like today. Is it accurate that it really doesnt distored when the volume is cranked on it? And does it get pretty loud? (for a practice amp I mean). Anything else you could maybe say about it?

 

[Konza]

And the volume knob goes to 12! Eat your heart out, Nigel Tufnel.

 

[MinnieTBF]

Is this little amp still living up to expectations?

I've had a bit of a bad run trying to get an Ampeg practice amp, so now considering one of these.
Just for the living room, in front of the telly, that sort of thing.

 

[Pimmsley]

Is this little amp still living up to expectations?

I've had a bit of a bad run trying to get an Ampeg practice amp, so now considering one of these.
Just for the living room, in front of the telly, that sort of thing.

Yeah ! Still loving it, use it every day, lots of in front if tv noodling, also had to learn a new set of original tunes recently so plugged my iphone into the aux in, perfect for the job and the headphone out quality is also fantastic... Overall the amp is not super loud, but held up in a lounge jam with a drummer with brushes with ease... I think it's loud enough and the low end it produces astounds me, also has a really lovely tone... The tweeter is very sweet/warm and the balance warwick got between speakers is incredible for the price.
Very happy with it, really sounds great, well made and good tone controls too.

One thing I noticed and threw me at first is that the controls are all quite linear, so volume, tone etc all ramp up slowly... So 12 o'clock on the volume is really only half its total volume... when practising at night it makes dialling in low volumes much easier and helps getting a balance when blending with the aux input, but the controls is usable all the way up !

Edit: and the sound with a pick is also really chewy... Great stuff...

 

[Pimmsley]

Hey I'm seriously about to buy the BC20 like today. Is it accurate that it really doesnt distored when the volume is cranked on it? And does it get pretty loud? (for a practice amp I mean). Anything else you could maybe say about it?

Sorry I didn't get back in time... How did you go ?
In answer to your question, I've found I have to turn it all the way up to get it distort, that's with my ray34 plugged into the passive input... It's got a really usable volume range for a practice amp as stated above

 

[Herrick]

How much does it weigh?

 

[fmachia]

According to Warwick's website, 24lbs.
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I have the BC40 and can vouch these things do not distort. I dimed the master with EQ flat and my jazz bass sounds louder, but not hairier. The aux in and headphone out work great, no noise, and aux in is stereo. Cool little combo!

 

[Badwater]

How much does it weigh?

9.5 kg. or about 20 lb.

It's a great little amp for the apartment/home. I keep it on a chair for easy access to the power switch. And it is easy to position for optimal sound. The low power consumption makes it great for long practice sessions daily (easy on the power bill vs a 300w+ Class A amp). And the Aux input sounds great with a good dynamic range. I don't use the headphone out because the amp sound great at low volumes.

After having it for 3 months, I finally got around to recording with it (as I prefer the DI). And it gets good clarity in the low frequencies due to the cabinet design, and a wider usable range of frequency vs another cheap bass amp (i'll not bash the other cheap amp). I may change up the way I record DI and incorporate this amp and the Rode NT3 condensor mic.

 

[Skeza]

Hey @Pimmsley – was very happy to read this yesterday as I'd committed to buy one of these second hand (which I picked up last night) for 50 bucks. It's one year old and has had very little use and is in near mint condition.

Gave it a good bashing last night, mostly through the headphones while playing along with my playlist on the iPhone. Aux volume is controlled by the device and bass vol is controlled by the master volume….I found that I had to have the amp cranked up very high to get decent volume out of the headphones…. Curious if others have had this experience?

I only gave it a short go through the main speaker and was impressed with the tone, volume, lack of clipping at high volume and nice low volume tone as well. Best 50 bucks I've spent on my new hobby so far!

Was also mightily impressed with the aux sound quality from the amp.

Cheers.