The Best Seller bass head

There was a time that every bassist I knew personally had either a Gallien-Krueger 800RB or an Ampeg SVT. I think it's one of those two, with favor to the G-K.

 

Of course it's been and still is the SVT. No other amp out there has been in constant production longer or is seen on more stages. GK's amps I would rate second, though. They're probably used by players in a wider variety of styles, but the SVT pretty well dominates rock and pop.

 

The SVT without a doubt.

 

According to Larry Hartke in the interview in Bass Gear Magazine, the Hartke 3500 is the best selling bass amp ever.

Alex

 

When I had to make a guess I'd say the Hartke 3500 as well. I live in Holland and everybody has had one of those at some point in their careers. SVT's, and I mean the REAL SVT's and maybe the SVT CL's are rare overhere. And for the rest of Europe... even rarer.

 

Ampeg. I love gk heads, but when ever we do a multi show... It's me and maybe one other bassist with GK. EVERYONE else has an Ampeg head. And it seems they're mostly tube...

 

I agree.. I was goin to add that one could probably flip through the pages of Rolling Stone & see a LOT of Ampeg (and it wouldn't be in a gear magazine). But, that would be just for famous people & not the lil giggers like myself.

SVT heads are often used as backlines... I have no facts to back my own beliefs - but, I'd say hands down the SVT due to it always being in production.

 

svt hands down

 

I gotta think the number of GK 800RBs alone would be staggering.


... And Peavey Mark IIIs ... they never die

 

I definitely saw a BUNCH of 800RB's back in the '80's. Hell, I HAD one back in the '80's. I had an SVT for a while. I sold it because the tone changed after a re-tube and I didn't like the new sound. Over the next six years I saw my old SVT head show up in several different bands, only two of which used the same bass pl ayer.

On the other hand, the multiple 800RB's I was seeing back then were all different amps. They were also a lot cheaper than an SVT, so poor musicians were able to afford them more easily.

The SVT probably wins based on how long it's been in production. SVT's are for bassists what Marshall's are for guitarists. They're practically reequired at some point.

But I bet the GK 800RB is high on the list.

 

Commodore C64.







Oops. Wrong forum.

 

Although the SVT had at least a 10 year head start, they were price prohibited to the average player, where as the G K was much cheaper. My money is on the G K 800RB but dont discount Peavy for shear numbers either.

 

That was kind of my point as well. I bought my SVT 'desperately used' and therefore cheap, for an SVT. I never could have afforded a new one. I still couldn't. And that same SVT kept making the rounds long after I let her go.

But I bought my 800RB new.

Yeah, there's a lot of Peavey gear out there too, mostly for the same reason. It was cheap and it was loud. It didn't always have a GOOD sound, but it generally made a LOT of sound. When you're in your first band and you want to be heard over two guitarists, you're pretty happy just to be loud. Only later do you reallize how 'bleh; your bass sounded through them. If I sound bitter, there was a TNT130 causing it.

But in fairness, most eavey products I've seen in the last several years are definitely superior to what was around while I was in high school.

 

Here in America,at one time(70's-early80's) it was probably the SVT.
Most road gigs I've done where backline was supplied or rented it was almost always the GK800RB.I'll bet there's more of them out there than anything.
Lately a lot of sound companies are sneaking those Behringer heads into the backline,especially in Europe.
A bassist friend of mine,who plays in places like Turkey & Dubai says he encounters nothing but Behringer heads in those countries.He says he wouldn't be surprised if they were the most common head worldwide.

 

I'll give you the SVT and 800RB, but wouldn't you consider the Bassman as on of the all time best sellers?

It has been around a long time and used by a lot of players at one time or another.

 

I see more Bassman's (Bassmen?) being used by guitarists than bassists.

I had one for a while in high school, before the Peavey mentioned above that came before the SVT mentioned above. It was fine for low to medium volume stuff, such as with the schools jazz band. But in an electric band context, it was woefully underpowered. Although the tube distortion was pretty fun.