Suggestions needed for a bass head with 2 amps

[BILL BO SAGGINS]

I personally use a pre amp and power amp. My pre is rack mounted, but the mark bass pedals are fricken awesome. The power amp is 3,000 watt class D but at 4ohms it's around 680 watts. Plenty of head room. Just my 2 cents off drop tuning

 

[agedhorse]

Some great suggestions here. Me personally, I would run two Mesa D800 or D800+ heads in Master/Slave with the effects loop, 4ohms to each head, light enough to carry to any gig and easy enough to pocket in your gig bags, plus not a bad price used for two... offering up 1600w (800 per 4ohm rig).

Les's Master Slave Mesa D800 to (2) 4ohm setups

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I would not recommend a pair of Subway amps with the OP’s cabinets. That would be a quick way to unintentionally damage the cabinets from way too much power. (exceeding echanical limitations)

This is exactly why I do not recommend small 4 ohm cabinets, it greatly limits the options.

 

[Valvehead]

I know Hartke makes the LH1000 but that's too darn heavy for me.

31.9LBS too heavy? ROFL! Ask your wife to lift it for you.

 

[davidjbass]

Thanks to all for your input. A lot of great ideas. I just bought a Mesa Subway. Small, lightweight and portable and it can go down to 2 ohms.

 

[davidjbass]

31.9LBS too heavy? ROFL! Ask your wife to lift it for you.

You obviously didn't read the original post. I quote it

"What I would like to find is a small bass head that is light and has 2 amps that can go to 4 ohms each"

At age 57 I am done hauling heavy gear. And I did borrow a Hartke LH1000 for a couple of weeks to try out. The thing is dam heavy. If would like to come over from Europe and roadie for me you are welcome to because my wife is to smart to haul heavy ass gear like that bass amp.

 

[Sid Fang]

I personally use a pre amp and power amp. My pre is rack mounted, but the mark bass pedals are fricken awesome. The power amp is 3,000 watt class D but at 4ohms it's around 680 watts. Plenty of head room. Just my 2 cents off drop tuning

This. I've got a pair of 4 Ohm 212s that can handle ~600W each. For all but the most absurdly loud gig, my EBS HD350 is good enough, but I wanted a backup with more headroom and wasn't going to pay for a Faffner II. At first I thought I'd use a Crown XLS 1502 in a 2-Ohm mode to drive the stack, but then found an old EBS1 pre-amp that has stereo outputs (after all, it has a stereo effects loop). So I just run the Crown in stereo, 2 x 4 Ohms, ~525W/channel. If that's more than you need, there's the XLS 1002 (and similar from other vendors).

 

[Killing Floor]

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[Sid Fang]

To some degree, it depends on how much you care about weight vs. volume vs. cost. The sort of power amp rig that Bill Bo and I were ranting about sounds fabulous and is light and cheap, but bulky. I figured it's still tiny compared to a cab, so light and cheap wins it for me. But I ain't movin' gear by public transport.

 

[Matty Koff]

Thanks to all for your input. A lot of great ideas. I just bought a Mesa Subway. Small, lightweight and portable and it can go down to 2 ohms.

Chances are you're going to be real happy with it. I was playing an Ibanez TMB505 through my WD-800 and an Avatar b410 yesterday standing a good 5 ft in front of my cab. So much yum. And so well built imo.

 

[Matt B]

The Warwick LWA1000 is exactly what you are describing.

I was never a fan of Warwick amps but needed something light weight with a lot of headroom for my double bass. I found a deal to good to turn down on the LWA1000 and have been really impressed by it.

the preamps are very neutral to my ears. I put a different pre in front if I need something with a bit more color. Used they can be had for real cheap too.

 

[2112]

Lately I've been fooling around with a Crown xls2502 in the shed, running 2 x 8Ω, getting 440W per. Solid, lightweight, reasonably sterile sound, can take down to 4Ω and 2Ω per or I can bridge. I'm not impressed with how they made the front panel look like a UFO, but otherwise it works for me.

 

[AdamR]

Thanks I never thought of the 2 ohm possibility.

lots of 2ohm capable class d amps now, Mesa, Darkglass, even the new GK heads will do 2ohm.

 

[mmbongo]

Thanks to all for your input. A lot of great ideas. I just bought a Mesa Subway. Small, lightweight and portable and it can go down to 2 ohms.

A very wise choice and a happy ending!