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Small yet powerful combos

#21
44me said:
My small club / rehearsal amp is an NC210 – well under 50lbs, small, nice tone, reasonable volume, and well built. The Eden is a nice sounding combo if you don’t mind the extra weight. I don’t think you are going to find anything close in the 30lb range. If I were looking for something easier to move I’d go with a lightweight head and a cab. Pulling 10 – 15 pounds out of the cab is pretty significant, and opens the door to a lot of great gear.

- John
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Again, your idea of small and light is very different. Me = very, very weak. I do love the sound of Nemesis, but even smaller is the way for me to go at this point.

I'll definitely review the Bassman amps when I find one. On paper the look really nice. Looking forward to checking them out.
 
#23
Snarf said:
Again, your idea of small and light is very different. Me = very, very weak. I do love the sound of Nemesis, but even smaller is the way for me to go at this point.
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Right – that’s why I said that if I wanted to go smaller, I’d get a separate amp and cab. A sub-15lb amp is small and easy to carry, and there are a number of good sounding cabs that weigh in around the 30lbs. This is virtually as easy to move as the smallest combos, and much better sounding (but more expensive).

- John
 
#25
Polytone amps are still available new. In fact they have a couple of specific bass combo's now at 36 and 37 lbs- the Sonic 1 and Sonic 2. They also have a website. Polytone's are great little amps. I used one of the early model Minibrute's for over 10 years for recording, small rooms and practice. Went on the road with me many times and never failed.

They're worth checking out.
 
#29
The Polytones are fairly expensive. I paid about $450 for mine in the 70s when it was made.

The one shown looks like a Minibrute 3 or 4 and they're about $925 now.

The Sonic bass amps (which replaced the Minibrute 3 for bass) run between $875-$975 I believe. The web site is at Invalid Link Removed

Nice amps with a great tone and deceptive volume. I passe4d up a chance to get a used Minibrute 3 a year ago for $500. I should have bought it. They're a bit hard to find used.
 
#30
embellisher said:
Are you certain that the weight on the Fender Bassman 100 is not a misprint? I have a Bassman 25, which is 25 watts and a 1x10, and it weighs about 30 lbs.
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I was curious as well. The fender site shows the Bassman 100 at 25 Lbs but it has a relatively small cabinet at only 2.1 cubic feet whereas the Bassman 150 (1x12) at 4+ cubic feet at 39 lbs.

The rumble 60 (1x12) is a 3 cubic foot amp and is 46 lbs.

If all of this is true, it looks like the new Bassman's are less volume per watt and accordingly less weight as compared to older designs. Lack of air in the cabinet may limited output some, even with higher wattage.

I would really be interested in a Bassman 100 review.
 
#31
gapupten said:
Lack of air in the cabinet may limited output some, even with higher wattage.

I would really be interested in a Bassman 100 review.
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That is what I don't like about the MB150 and the Polytones. They don't have any volume relative to their driver sizes, which means you are not moving air. But I suppose the midbass would be really, really loud and tight with such a high Q design.

I would love to hear the polytone. There is an old straight ahead act that plays outside in Downtown St. Pete. The bass player looks to be in his 70s and he bangs away at his upright through an old beat up polytone and you can hear it a block away.
 
#32
What about the new Nemesis models?

I've got the new NC115P model - it comes in below 50lbs and is 250W - retails new for about $700-750.

I show up to the gig with the amp in one hand and the bass in the other. Couldn't be more portable and is loud as you need for rehearsal and/or small club gigs without PA support. Nice DI out for PA supported gigs.

DD
 
#36
Snarf said:
Price should be no more than $400.
12 or 10 inch speaker.
100 watts or more.
30 lbs or less.
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You can get small but you won't get powerful or toneful IMO. Have realistic expectations. I had a Carvin combo once that met those criteria. It would not compete volume-wise with an acoustic drum kit. Adding a 15" 40 lb ext cab (which upped the output to 150w as well) made the volume passable but the tone still was sub-par. Good construction though.
 
#38
this may be too late, but did you check out SWR WM10 (80w x 10" for 31 LBS) I had one when I was starting out (2000) and it was pretty loud, but I don't like the tone anymore, but it was easy to move and with and extension speaker output it could easily handle low to medium loud gigs.
 
#40
62bass said:
Polytone amps are still available new. In fact they have a couple of specific bass combo's now at 36 and 37 lbs- the Sonic 1 and Sonic 2. They also have a website. Polytone's are great little amps. I used one of the early model Minibrute's for over 10 years for recording, small rooms and practice. Went on the road with me many times and never failed.

They're worth checking out.
Click to expand...

Invalid Link Removed
 

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