Recommendations for starter gear (possibly including a power amp)

[Bassment Goblin]

Hi everyone!

I just started bass a month ago after having been a guitarist for quite a while. I wish I'd tried sooner!

I picked up an inexpensive Yamaha bass (late 90s era) with both the straight pickup and an offset/split one (apologies for the lack of terminology on my part) in very good condition. I really enjoyed playing for a week or two (I needed to check if this was something I wanted to pursue), and ultimately decided that I did want to give bass a proper go.

So I got myself an Orange Crush Bass 100 (new) and a Hartke 410XL cab (2nd hand). I have a Joyo Badass on backorder (I like these little amps, though I am well aware that they are nothing fancy), and I also have some Joyo pedals/preamps on the way - the Joyo Tidal, Monomyth, Double Thruster and Scylla compressor.

I am not worried about getting an EQ as I have a 31 band one in my guitar rack. I also picked up a Washburn XB400 bass with active pickups pretty cheap. I like both of these basses for different reasons. They are both so easy to play.

I think that I've got pretty much everything that I need now, but happy to take suggestions if you think there is something missing from my setup (studio setting).

I guess my main question is whether I should pick up a power amp for those preamp pedals. With the exception of the backordered Badass, I don't actually have a bass power amp that I can use. I have lots of power amp options for guitar, but I suspect they will not be suitable for bass. Is that correct?

If I should pick up a power amp, does anyone have any suggestions? This will be mainly for studio use, and rackmount would be preferred. I know that I can DI, but I like playing amps - especially heads/preamps into cabs.

Appreciate any guidance that you may have. Thanks!

 

[gtirard]

Hi everyone!

I just started bass a month ago after having been a guitarist for quite a while. I wish I'd tried sooner!

I picked up an inexpensive Yamaha bass (late 90s era) with both the straight pickup and an offset/split one (apologies for the lack of terminology on my part) in very good condition. I really enjoyed playing for a week or two (I needed to check if this was something I wanted to pursue), and ultimately decided that I did want to give bass a proper go.

So I got myself an Orange Crush Bass 100 (new) and a Hartke 410XL cab (2nd hand). I have a Joyo Badass on backorder (I like these little amps, though I am well aware that they are nothing fancy), and I also have some Joyo pedals/preamps on the way - the Joyo Tidal, Monomyth, Double Thruster and Scylla compressor.

I am not worried about getting an EQ as I have a 31 band one in my guitar rack. I also picked up a Washburn XB400 bass with active pickups pretty cheap. I like both of these basses for different reasons. They are both so easy to play.

I think that I've got pretty much everything that I need now, but happy to take suggestions if you think there is something missing from my setup (studio setting).

I guess my main question is whether I should pick up a power amp for those preamp pedals. With the exception of the backordered Badass, I don't actually have a bass power amp that I can use. I have lots of power amp options for guitar, but I suspect they will not be suitable for bass. Is that correct?

If I should pick up a power amp, does anyone have any suggestions? This will be mainly for studio use, and rackmount would be preferred. I know that I can DI, but I like playing amps - especially heads/preamps into cabs.

Appreciate any guidance that you may have. Thanks!

The Bass market is too small for a specific Bass Power Amp product, given the cost of R&D + certification and smaller economy of scales - that's why there are almost no specific power amps for bass. In fact there are a few, but they are not much cheaper than full featured amp, for the above reasons.

Most of us use a regular (full featured) bass amp, and we plug our external preamp into the "FX return" of the amp in order to bypass its preamp section, it's like if your external preamp was directly pluged into the power section of the bass amp. And you've got a backup in case you can't use your preamp pedal.

Note that you can also plug the preamp pedal into the regular input of a normal bass amp, no technical issue. The only "issue" would be the risk of altering the signal by doing opposite EQ settings on the external preamp and the amp, but sometimes I do that and either keep the EQ knobs at noon on the amp (neutral), or use the pedal's EQ for the main tone of my song, and adjust the EQ of the amp in order to adapt the tone to the room's acoustics.

Some power amp designed for guitars may also work well with a bass, but you have to try first - some of them remove the low frequencies (because they are designed for 6 string guitars).

The other popular option is to use a PA power amp (Crown or QSC for example), that's what I would recommend if you want to put it in a rack. The cab must be specific for bass. PA power amps don't remove the low frequencies because they are designed to amplify all instruments (including the drum kick and keyboards for example). The only drawback is that they are stereo and you only need to use them mono (one channel or bridged).

Powered speakers is the last option, but very few are designed for the bass.

 

[Bassment Goblin]

Thanks for all of that.

Yeah, I noticed that power amps for bass were as expensive as full amps. I guess scale/low demand make sense as to why that's the case.

My stop-gap measure for now is/will be [preamp -> Badass return -> Hartke 4x10 cab] or [preamp -> crush]

Thanks for the tip on PAs. I'll have a look into that as a starting point.

Follow up question: does anyone have any recommendations for a rackmount bass head?

The Orange OB1-500 looks pretty good, but I do already have the Crush 100. Noting that I am not a full time bass player, I am more than happy to go 2nd hand to save some money. Anything 90s onward is usually safe in my experience. Any 'sleeper' rackmount amps out there? There is a Crate BT-350 selling nearby - any good?

 

[Nuisance]

Most of the older GK RB series amps are rack mountable, and you can find many for sale still with the rack ears on them. They are killer amps.

I believe you can find rack ears for a lot of the newer class d amps as well.

 

[2saddleslab]

The SAPA [Straight Ahead Power Amp] might be a good option as they are light, inexpensive, small, & 500W @ 4 ohms. You can order Speakons or 1/4 jacks as well.

 

[Bassment Goblin]

Has anyone used the Crown XLi 1500 (450W @4 Ohm / 900W @ 8 Ohm bridged) for preamps?

Are there any issues with this that I should know about? Or is it pretty much plug and play? I would be running this into my Hartke 410XL cab (4 x 10" and 400W RMS @ 8 Ohms)

 

[FugaziBomb]

Has anyone used the Crown XLi 1500 (450W @4 Ohm / 900W @ 8 Ohm bridged) for preamps?

Are there any issues with this that I should know about? Or is it pretty much plug and play? I would be running this into my Hartke 410XL cab (4 x 10" and 400W RMS @ 8 Ohms)

I'm using an XLi2500 to power the subs in the bi-amp rig I run. It's nice because it's got buckets of power (500w a side/1500w bridged @ 8 ohms), but it's not the nicest amp Crown has ever made. If I recall, the THD spec isn't great. It's ok just for pushing subs, but I'd look for an old XTi2000 (not the newer 2002) for a regular bass amp set up. They can be had for pretty cheap now and still sound fantastic. I used to use one to power two Hartke 410XLs with a GK 400rb acting as a preamp and that rig slayed.

 

[Bassment Goblin]

The outcome...

I ended up buying a second hand power amp locally (I got lucky...). Just waiting on the speakon to TS cable to arrive to connect it.

For about US$70 I got an Inter-M M500 (2x250W at 4 Ohms / 1x500W bridged at 8 Ohms). Korean, rack mountable, built like a tank, and in great condition for an older piece of gear.

My reason for going this direction is mainly price (being a guitar and synth player for the most part), and that I will likely pick up either a Hartke LH500 or LH1000 if I am still going in a year's time. Either would allow me to slave to my preamps, is/are rack mountable, and seem to go on pretty good specials throughout the year. More than happy to take suggestions on other amps worth considering down the track.

I am pretty happy with this outcome as it means I can save the money for later upgrades if I choose, but I still have the functionality that I was after. I essentially have four amps (the Orange and 3x Joyo preamps), and arguably more when you consider that my 31 band EQ can give me pretty much anything I could want. I've already got one channel on it that I wasn't using, and I'd rather use what I've already got than spend a whole lot of money on another gadget. I also know that I can repurpose this preamp for my stereo (it sounds really good!) if I ever want to upgrade my bass PA.

Thanks to everyone who made suggestions. I did take everything into consideration for my final decision. It's good to know that there is a helpful bass community out here for when my next question arises!

Thanks again!