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practice amps

Obstacle 1

Obstacle 1

Sep 13, 2005
476
0
Australia
#1
Ok, so I have decided its about time to upgrade from my Crate BT-15. At the moment I only jam with a couple guitarists, no drums so I do not need any large amounts of power. iI am more interested in the tone.

The ones i have narrowed it down to at the moment are (prices in AUD):
- Fender Rumble 60w $511
- Roland Cube 30w $399 (Heard it in the shop today with a jazz, a P-bass and Musicman, it had a nice tone)
- Warwick Blue Cab 30w $399

Any opinions on any of these? or which one is better?:D
 
#5
i think you should look on the used market. you can find used peavey, swr, yorkville, and ampeg amps for great prices. Plus, you can get one with more power (say around 100 watts) so if you do start jamming with a band, you won't need to go out and buy more gear. I suggest looking for these

ampeg b100r
swr workingman's 12 or 15
yorkville xm100c, xm200c or older 100b or 200b

these are all at or above 100 watts and can be had for around $300-400 used. You can get a lot more bang for you buck if you buy used.
 
#6
Hey all thanks for the replies,

the cheapest I found the Roland Cube 100w was $699 Australian dollars on sale, the Warwick Sweet 15 150W is $799. Most decent setups from the quick look I had in the online stores are over $1k. I will note down the amps suggested just incase a deal comes along somwhere.

I think I will just upgrade to a new bass first as that is probably what I need more now that I look at how much I will have to spend for a decent amp.
 
#7
ehque said:
i would just simply not upgrade. if youre just jamming, i would save the money till i know the sort of gig i play to, then get a combo / amp+cab to fit the bill.

imho.
Click to expand...

+1
Good advice. A combo or an amp+cab (to suit a certain type of venue) is a more ecomonical route. I have a very nice Rumble 100 (she winks, she blinks, and she has an elevated stand and casters) which sits beside my amp, tuner, and cabs. If I had bought the a-t-c setup first, I might not have purchased the Rumble 100 for practice.
chuckee:bassist:
 
#9
I've had a yorkville block 80 for the last 20+ years....small gigs rehearsals, practice amp. It really does the job. knowing this, I would probably have to recommend that you look seriously into the Yorkville line. I would also agree that if the extra weight added with a few extra horsepower is not too significant to you and the price isn't that much more, again get as much as you can wattage wise. There's plenty of times I've been just jamming, last week for example, with a guitar and keyboardist, and the Beringer "kickbacklike" with a 10 or a 12 but underpowered sounded like crappola to me.

There hasn't been a time when the ole block 80 wasn't enough and I actually used it with a Rob Allen fretless and mic'd it on a classic rock gig. Much better sounding for that application than having a bigger rig that just had way too much bottom end rumbling around the room.

I never recommend not buying something vs saving up. That's why I'm always short on cash!!!

Have fun.

LK
 
#11
it doesnt make sense to me that your gunna spend $300+ ona n amp that you cant even gig with. Go buy a cheep used amp around 100 or 150 and get atleast 100watts. you wont be able to gig it most likly but itl be a hell of a lot better then a $500 30w amp.

hell il sell you one of my amps for alot less that that
 
#12
go into your local music store and see if they have any small combo amps used with more horsepower. You're gonna find that one time you want to try and get some "tone" and "volume" outta that 30 watt head and it will end up seeming like some sorta toy instead of just a downsized professional piece of equipment.

LK
 
#13
One thing I wanted to clear up was with the prices. They are in Australian Dollars so they will be higher than in the US, and the whole import thing doesnt help.

Larry Kaye said:
I've had a yorkville block 80 for the last 20+ years....small gigs rehearsals, practice amp. It really does the job. knowing this, I would probably have to recommend that you look seriously into the Yorkville line.
Click to expand...

I had a quick look and I found a place that sells the 100w and 200w combos which seem a reasonable price.
Invalid Link Removed

MarkMyWordsXx said:
it doesnt make sense to me that your gunna spend $300+ ona n amp that you cant even gig with. Go buy a cheep used amp around 100 or 150 and get atleast 100watts.
Click to expand...

Yeh I am looking at getting 100watt ones now but yeh they are at least $800, and in terms of second hand there isnt much of a market at least where I live, but ill definetley look around online.

Well at least I know now not to bother upgrading to an "in-between" amp, so im just going to buy a new bass first :bassist:
 
#14
Ok I was looking in the trading post and I found a couple interesting ad's.

They were both for behringer equipment:

- one was Behringer 450 watts (im not sure what) with 4x10 1200 watt box for $895 (again Australian dollars)

- the other was a behringer half stack 120 watt head and quad box for $650. - I would be more interested in a half stack due to the fact I dont need any more wattage, and at least its easy to add stuff to it later.

Now the question is, since everyone said I should get a proper rig rather than a smaller combo, should I go give these setups a try? They are in my price range (well more the second) because i cant really afford anything great, nor do i need anything great as I wont be doing any gigs.. just for jamming really.

OR should I just look at getting a decent 100W combo?
OR should I just get a new bass like I said? :p
 
#15
DaRK_CaRNiVaL said:
Ok I was looking in the trading post and I found a couple interesting ad's.

They were both for behringer equipment:

- one was Behringer 450 watts (im not sure what) with 4x10 1200 watt box for $895 (again Australian dollars)

- the other was a behringer half stack 120 watt head and quad box for $650. - I would be more interested in a half stack due to the fact I dont need any more wattage, and at least its easy to add stuff to it later.

Now the question is, since everyone said I should get a proper rig rather than a smaller combo, should I go give these setups a try? They are in my price range (well more the second) because i cant really afford anything great, nor do i need anything great as I wont be doing any gigs.. just for jamming really.

OR should I just look at getting a decent 100W combo?
OR should I just get a new bass like I said? :p
Click to expand...

I would for sure go for something in the 200 watt or over range if you want a real upgrade.

I know Behringer is attractive because of the price but myself, I'd avoid it. Yorkille, Peavey and a few others are reasonably priced and far more reliable than the real cheap stuff. I don't like the budget line from SWR or GK (the Backline series) The higher end GK is great but more expensive.

Looking at what your link shows for the prices of Yorkville in Australia, that's not out of line when you consider the difference in the dollar and added shipping charges. Here in Canada, for example, the Yorkville 200 combo would sell for about $600 Canadian plus about 15% in taxes. The 200 is something definitely worth considering and you can add the Yorkville extension cab later. I've used it for gigs and it's a pretty solid sounding amp and built like a tank. You could spend double that on a boutique combo and not notice much of an improvement in the real world playing live with a group.

For now, your little combo is doing the job, so why change it? Work on getting to be a better player. As you do so your ears will improve and you'll be able to make a more informed choice when you need to upgrade.
 
#16
Something to look at: the Ibanez amps. I had the 60 watt 12" model and exchanged it for the 100w 15" one. They are very reasonably priced and, the part that stunned me, sound incredible. I can get all kinds of sounds out of this thing. It ain't loud, but I have more fun practicing and recording with this amp than anything else I have used. It doesn't have the horsepower I need for my gigs but that isn't what I got it for. I think they are well worth the money.
 

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