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TC Electroninc BAM 200 vs Warwick Gnome

Skumbas

Skumbas

Oct 7, 2014
66
17
44
Sweden
#1
Hi!
I'm gonna play some outdoor gigs this summer and don't wanna bring my Eich T500 in case it's gonna be some risk of rainy weather. I'm planning to buy either a BAM 200 or a Warwick Gnome to have on theese gigs. Wich one would you recommend in case of reliability? I think BAM 200 is the most popular one but have also read some unpleasant stories about them frying after one hour of playing. But maybe this is just really bad luck and a production failure? If I try it a couple of hours without any issues when I get it maybe I can rely on it after that? Would be really glad to hear your thoughts and experience on theese two amps.
 
#2
The only people who will actually have useful information are the manufacturers looking at their return rate. Everything else is just anecdote. I had a Gnome that went sick after a very short time, but it was replaced and the replacement has been just fine. Typically if a new piece of electronics is going to go sick it will do so within a short time, and if not be good for years. So as anecdote is useless, the rational thing to do is to get whichever you prefer and give it a good few hours of use well in advance of the dates.
 
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#4
The BAM is notoriously unreliable, mine quite literally went up in smoke after less than a dozen rehearsals. Just do a search here and you'll see how many people have had issues with them. They supposedly fixed the issues later on but I'll never trust TC again.

I've been gigging a Gnome a few times a week for a couple of years now. It has never let me down.
 
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#7
I am giving the BAM200 a second go around, I had one the smoked in short order from a few years ago. Because it really fit my needs and budget I ordered on a month ago and have been giving it a daily workout to see if it can be reliable this time. So far so good. It has been fine with my various 8 ohm cabs from a 1x10, 1x12 and 1x15.
 
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#9
DWBass said:
My vote is for the GK MB200.
Click to expand...
I've had a GK MB200 in my gig bag for many years as a backup for my SVTs in case I have any issues, which did happen once in a crappy bar where I got a power surge and my SVT went on standby so I swapped in the MB200 to be safe. Other times I've used the MB200 to power large cabinets, including an 810 which was originally just to see if it could handle it but I was surprised how well it did.

Having said that, I also recently bought a BAM200 and have only used it as a practice amp a handful of times but being one of the new ones I'm assuming it should be fine going forward. I like it well enough for what it is, a pedal-sized bass amp that costs a little over $100, but I wouldn't rely on it as a main gigging amp. Cheap electronics might work fine but durability is something I'd be concerned with especially with outdoor summer gigs!

So yeah my advice to the OP is try the GK MB200 if you're looking for amps in this class range, and if you really want something even nicer, get a Mesa D350.
 
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#10
I second Mastermold with the suggestion to get something that isn’t a cheapo if you are actually doing outdoor summer gigs. I’ve seen too many dudes have their cheap stuff go into safety mode or whatever it’s called on a hot day. Gk, Genzler, Mesa, even the lower power Markbass are all reliable enough to trust on a hot summer day. The Trace Elliot is what I’ve seen go down personally (it wasn’t broken though), so if you don’t want to be embarrassed and stressed, get a better amp. I think the really small ones are prone to shutting down on a hot day as they don’t have great cooling. The small Aguilar is another I would trust.

FWIW, TC is no longer anything like it was. It is now Behringer completely, as they’ve shut down everything that was related to the original TC. There may be some vestigial good engineering left, but not much.
 
#14
Re: BAM200, It looks like there was a period around 2020-21 where there was a spike in reports, but at the same time whatever the problem was (they all seemed to fail in a similar manner) it would become apparent very quickly, so if yours has been working regularly for years it's probably ok (but bear in mind is a cheap amp built to a price point, so I would not expect the same longevity as other more expensive designs).

I have a BAM200, I like the sound. It just works, makes enough of a noise when I've needed it, and I use it at home regularly. But the main reason I bought it was as a backup. I've been using a MESA D800+ as my main amp for a few years now, and kept a MarkBass LMIII as a backup. The thing is the MarkBass was a terrible backup, because I rarely took it with me 🤪
It's not big or heavy but it was one more item, one more loose thing that I could lose track of, so when packing I often decided to leave it behind. The advantage of the BAM200 is that it's so tiny I can carry it in my bass case, it doesn't make me carry anything extra and it's a nice&easy life insurance to have. I've driven a variety of 210 and 410 cabs with it and it's plenty for a good stage sound.
 
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#17
Jeff Hughes said:
Just buy a cover for your amp. Why buy an amp just for gigs where their may be rain? A thick garbage bag is much cheaper.

I have a BAM, and it used to run a 410 cab and it did admirably with PA support.
Click to expand...
And if it's getting wet on stage, I'd worry about other things.

And rather than a garbage bag, why not a padded bag? For my Ashdown EVO I found a metal toolbox I already had. I need to add some foam in there to make it totally snug and space for cables, but it should be secure and I could probably throw it into a lake and it would be fine (not that I intend to test this) for an outlay of about $30 for a nest of three in boxes, although I may have lost one (*), plus $10 of foam. So an outlay of $25, perhaps.

* I've just worked out where my small mixer in the attic is!
 
#18
I have both the Warwick Gnome 200 Micro amp and the Gnome 600. I primarily got the Gnome 200 as a backup amp that stays in my car (since it is so small). I do use it occasionally and is a solid little amp and plenty loud. Both Gnomes are built like tanks!! Here are a couple of pics of both my Gnomes in use.....

The Gnome 200
Kramer_Warwick_Micro.jpg



The Gnome 600
Gnome 600.jpg
 
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#19
Gut pics suggest that these are not radically different designs. Now, I don't think any of these are copies of the others, and many details could be different. But it's still interesting to see how the units compare.

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www.basschat.co.uk

Warwick Gnome Arrived Today

www.basschat.co.uk www.basschat.co.uk

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Invalid Link Removed

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somedevil

Thread 'Update On the Trace Eliott ELF That I Blew Up.'

Here is the backstory if you aren't familiar.

So I emailed Trace Eliott. There was no response for one and a half days so I sent them a reminder.

I got an email from a customer service guy named Chris and he essentially said that since the amp was bought in the US and carried outside of the US border, there is nothing they can do.

He said that there might be some local distributor (I searched, there is none) and they might or might not repair it for me since the unit was bought in the US.

That's it.

Well I wasn't expecting them to replace my unit. But I was surely hoping...
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