RedBear MK120(JCM800) Amp for Bass

[basslambdin]

Anyone ever played out of one of these red bear amps? They are almost identical to the earlier Marshall JCM 800s. I play both bass and guitar in various bands, looking for something to suit both needs. Anyone know anything about Bass through a JCM800 (guitar head not the bass head...)?? Advice and comments greatly appreciated!!

 

[Stompin Tom]

I'll chime in and say I've used 100 watt tube guitar heads for bass before with great results. My friends HIWATT 100 (from the 70s?) sounds fantastic through 4x12 using either a guitar or bass. I have an old univox tube head that sounds pretty good for bass on its own, but great with a different preamp (sansamp, etc.). I mean, they don't get the the super tight lows or anything, but they sound great (in my experience) for rock with nice beefy mids.

I did record a metal/hardcore record once a long time ago with an engineer who didn't know what to do with bass that had midrange. He had me run through a marshall of some sort into a 4x12 cab and it sounded awful in the end. Marshalls seem to be more focused in the upper mids than some other guitar amps... don't know, maybe that was the problem?

As always, try it and see if you like it! Let us know.

 

[basslambdin]

Thanks! I'm going to pick up the red bear. I'll be playing out of an ampeg 8X10, and I'm thinking about adding a 15 or 18'' cab with that. It seems extreme but it might add that low end...what do you think? I'll let you know how the amp sounds in a few days.

 

[chadds]

Hey Santa Cruz! Used to live their before the Quake. Frequented Guitar Showcase and Union Grove Music. Dumble amps were not as extremely valued or priced. I called Randy of Mesa and asked him could I use his amps for bass. They Boogies had just come out and he said they were planning a bass amp. The rest is history.

 

[fireincairo]

I'm currently using 120 watt Peavey Butcher (another JCM800 clone). I'm using the low gain input and I've loaded up the preamp with 12at7 tubes and it's pretty much all headroom. I used it last week during a practice and I didn't push the volume past 1 oclock, though we were jamming relatively quietly. Also, I had to crank the bass in order to get the thumping frequencies required, but it filled out the mix nicely then.

I say go for it. If youwant a grindy sound, even better. You can leave the 12ax7s in there and get more volume from it, too. Lemmy uses Plexi guitar heads, and many famous pro rock bassists have uesd guitar heads as bass amps.

 

[Blues Cat]

Anyone ever played out of one of these red bear amps? They are almost identical to the earlier Marshall JCM 800s. I play both bass and guitar in various bands, looking for something to suit both needs. Anyone know anything about Bass through a JCM800 (guitar head not the bass head...)?? Advice and comments greatly appreciated!!

I had a Red Bear MK 120 for a while. I wanted it to work for bass but it just didn't. The guy who bought it used it for guitar and just loved it.

It can break up pretty quickly. If you don't dig in it can be smooth, but as soon as you do it's distortion city.

Have you thought about looking into Electrosonic amps? You can get it built for bass specs and explain you want to use it for guitar too. They should be able to build it to your specs.

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Scroll down to the eclipse model.

 

[Objective Cee]

A RedBear head is 100% legit on bass for Stoner Rock and Doom Metal. People have even used stock Marshall and Orange heads for this use case.

The RedBears have extended bass into bass amp territory, so they perform this task even better.

Using the same head for guitar and bass goes all the way back to the birth of the genre of Doom metal with Iommi and Geezer sharing the same Laney amp head.

It creates a unified tone, and Doom bass is often distorted anyway so you don't have to worry about the amp breaking up too early. Many Doom bassists will even use fuzz pedals which are way more clipped than a RedBear will ever get, so don't stress about the distortion if Doom is the use case (which is what these bassy gainier 800's excel at imho).

You could put a bass pre like a Tone Hammer pedal up front (or in the loop if you have an MKE) for even more tone shaping options (and set the amp flat / mid and treble at 12 O'clock or below and bass dimed, with the pre / gain dialed back).

I have a RedBear MK60, I play a P Bass through it and an SG on (non bass) lead / rhythm (well, Riff, really for Doom). It is a totally 110% valid as a Doom amp for bass, for that particular use case is absolutely rips! On the low input it essentially is a Stoner / Doom bass amp.

 

[Kaa]

A RedBear head is 100% legit on bass for Stoner Rock and Doom Metal. People have even used stock Marshall and Orange heads for this use case.

The RedBears have extended bass into bass amp territory, so they perform this task even better.

Using the same head for guitar and bass goes all the way back to the birth of the genre of Doom metal with Iommi and Geezer sharing the same Laney amp head.

It creates a unified tone, and Doom bass is often distorted anyway so you don't have to worry about the amp breaking up too early. Many Doom bassists will even use fuzz pedals which are way more clipped than a RedBear will ever get, so don't stress about the distortion if Doom is the use case (which is what these bassy gainier 800's excel at imho).

You could put a bass pre like a Tone Hammer pedal up front (or in the loop if you have an MKE) for even more tone shaping options (and set the amp flat / mid and treble at 12 O'clock or below and bass dimed, with the pre / gain dialed back).

I have a RedBear MK60, I play a P Bass through it and an SG on (non bass) lead / rhythm (well, Riff, really for Doom). It is a totally 110% valid as a Doom amp for bass, for that particular use case is absolutely rips! On the low input it essentially is a Stoner / Doom bass amp.

Hey, if you haven't, check out the Doom/Stoner thread in the "Bassists" sub-forum.