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Park bench amp?

Chicory Blue

Chicory Blue

Secretly Queen of the Moon
Oct 9, 2016
1,264
6,209
Tralfamadore, Nubecula Minor
#1
Hey all. I've been working on an ultra-portable livelooping setup for entertaining myself on my wanderings, and I've found that, surprise surprise, when you play bass on a park bench people get pretty curious about what you're doing.

My current setup is headphone-oriented, and while I have a cute little honeytone amp in tow, it's basically a toy and has no intention of either producing a faithful sound or lasting particularly long.

Thus, once again I appeal to my betters for inspiration on amplification.

My main priorities are that I need something small and casually carriable over nature trails and such, and that can run on batteries for a long time. Something rechargeable would be even better, as I don't so much aim to be out for several hours at a time, but would like to be able to squeeze as many few-hour sessions out of it as possible before having to buy new batteries. I'm not made of battery money, here.

While I'd prefer it not absolutely butcher my sound, I'm not looking for enormously high quality or volume. Just enough to share with passersby in an otherwise quiet setting.

Does such a tool exist?

Thanks for listening.

--^@
 
#2
There's a used Roland Bass Micro Cube on GC.com right now, but it would cost you $175 after shipping. That's just a little over half of what they cost new.
It's about a foot by a foot tall & wide, 8 or 9 inches deep, and 15 lbs.
Their non-bass cubes are half the weight & smaller, but you'd probably blow the speaker if you turned it up...

Maybe Pignose makes a bass specific amp?
or maybe there's a portable keyboard amp, because they should be able to handle the lower frequencies.

I just ran across these:

Invalid Link Removed

Fly3Bass-large.jpg

upload_2017-4-24_12-4-26.png
upload_2017-4-24_12-4-26.png

BTW, people just stare at me when I'm on the park bench with my u-bass, but I must look formidable or just sound like crap, because no one ever says anything.
 
Last edited:
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#3
Killed_by_Death said:
There's a used Roland Bass Micro Cube on GC.com right now, but it would cost you $175 after shipping. That's just a little over half of what they cost new.
It's about a foot by a foot tall & wide, 8 or 9 inches deep, and 15 lbs.
Their non-bass cubes are half the weight & smaller, but you'd probably blow the speaker if you turned it up...

Maybe Pignose makes a bass specific amp?
or maybe there's a portable keyboard amp, because the should be able to handle the lower frequencies.
Click to expand...

That's a hell of a deal! I fear it may not last in time for me to scrounge up the cash though... I'm down to rice and candles as it is after splurging on my RC300, but my birthday's next month and I figured I might be able to drop some hints to the family... :p

I do actually have the non-bass version, from years ago when I flirted with guitar, but as it's my only guitar amp I'd been afraid to use it much for fear of damaging it with my growls and booms.

--^@
 
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#4
I've been looking at the Blackstar as well. Sweetwater offers an extension cab setup for a great price as well.
Blackstar Fly 3 Bass Pack - 3W 1x3" Bass Combo Amp w/Cabinet and Power
Killed_by_Death said:
There's a used Roland Bass Micro Cube on GC.com right now, but it would cost you $175 after shipping. That's just a little over half of what they cost new.
It's about a foot by a foot tall & wide, 8 or 9 inches deep, and 15 lbs.
Their non-bass cubes are half the weight & smaller, but you'd probably blow the speaker if you turned it up...

Maybe Pignose makes a bass specific amp?
or maybe there's a portable keyboard amp, because the should be able to handle the lower frequencies.

I just ran across these:

Blackstar FLY3Bass - 3W 1x3" Bass Combo Amp

Fly3Bass-large.jpg
Click to expand...
 
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#7
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#9
if your looking for a low cost battery powered amp, i see used pignose hog30 go for like 60 to 80 bucks, they use a pair of agm 6 volt batteries for power and usually sold dirt cheap cause the factory batteries are toasted. there is a few threads up here where users have bought agm batteries from online sources with the same or even more capacity than the replacement batteries from pignose. cause the amps are cheap but the battery replacement can be same if not more than the used amp. all together still the cheapest easily carried route. likewise the posted roland amp is popular,
or like i have done in the past is use any 30 to 100 watt standard used combo and just use a 12 volt to 110 ac power converter. youll need to again invest in a marine duty cycle battery cause car starting batteries are not designed to be drained excessively and recharged like a marine battery. you basically get the biggest one your willing to carry/buy and just strap it and the invertor to a cheap dolly and wheel it around.

i needed a battery powered amp to keep up with a huge drum circle that met in a park every sunday. and to get a decent level i found a standard combo with a more efficient 12" or 15" speaker worked way better than the typical small speaker powered battery amps. so i used a invertor and a cart to carry around a healthy sized battery. but likewise as mentioned every street performer i have seen used a roland or the older fender amp cans. other than that larger street bands used small gas powered generators which i had no interest in dealing with.

likewise if you perform near a parking lot you can just use your car battery and perform right there in the parking lot. being careful not to kill your battery. after a hour of perfoming i would just drive a bit and charge the battery and return to the spot and rock again. this is a much much simpler/cheaper solution than a cart with a battery. just atleast have a pair of jump cables in case you run the battery dead. oh dont worry on a good day and location with alot of people watching, im sure youll easily forget to charge up and run that car battery dead flat. likewise i learned to just buy dirt cheap batteries from the junk yard and abuse those. and carried my good battery as well. yes you can get beefy 750/900 cold cranking amp batteries from the yard for 25 bucks and not waste 130 to 200 bucks on standard new car/marine 500/600 cranking amp batteries. with good practice and not excessively draining the battery in your car its really no big deal.
 
#11
Killed_by_Death said:
There's a used Roland Bass Micro Cube on GC.com right now, but it would cost you $175 after shipping. That's just a little over half of what they cost new.
It's about a foot by a foot tall & wide, 8 or 9 inches deep, and 15 lbs.
Their non-bass cubes are half the weight & smaller, but you'd probably blow the speaker if you turned it up...

Maybe Pignose makes a bass specific amp?
or maybe there's a portable keyboard amp, because they should be able to handle the lower frequencies.

I just ran across these:

Invalid Link Removed

Fly3Bass-large.jpg

View attachment 1115647View attachment 1115647

BTW, people just stare at me when I'm on the park bench with my u-bass, but I must look formidable or just sound like crap, because no one ever says anything.
Click to expand...
But do they drop money at your feet?

Park bench playing seems a lot more honorable than just standing at a busy intersection holding a sign.

"Will groove for food."
 

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