After a lot of researching, measuring and listening, I've reached the following personal conclusions about Micro Bass Heads (MBH).
What I* Want from a MBH
*Note: What I was looking for, and the relative priority I place on each feature, could be very different to what you or anyone else is looking for.
My Assessments of Various MBHs (listed in order of size)
Trace Elliot Elf: the smallest MBH, offering 200W at 4Ohms, 3-band EQ and a DI. But no FX loop, no Speakon out, a combo gain/compressor control that many reviewers feel squashes the signal too much too soon, a noisy fan, and that signature TE tone which you either like or you don't.
Warwick Gnomes: still small, offer an uncoloured tone, 200W at 4Ohms, DI out. The "i" versions provide a USB interface for your DAR, and the i Pro offers 80 more watts. But still no FX loop, and no Speakon output.
TCE BAM200: slightly bigger than the 200W Gnome, and functionally and tonally equivalent.
Ashdown Ant: Relatively small, though bigger than the MBHs listed above. More EQ options, and a Speakon out. BUT no gain control, and no FX loop.
GR Bass Minione: 350W at 4Ohm, Speakon out, DI out, and more EQ options. But no FX loop.
Phil Jones BP-200: Well featured, but no FX loop. D-Class power am, but a single channel Class A pre-amp.
GK MB200: Roughly double the size of the Elf, and well featured, but still no FX loop.
Aguilar Tone Hammer 350: Well-featured, but still no FX loop. (The TH-500 is the first of the Tone Hammers to offer an FX loop, but it's significantly larger.)
Harley Benton Block 300B: Roughly the size of the GK BM200, well featured, but no FX loop.
Quilter Bass Block 800: discontinued. It offered many more watts, and met many other requirements, but still offered no FX loop.
TC Electronic BQ500: It offers more watts than the small BMHs, but still no FX loop.
Nano Mark II: With the largest footprint so far (20cm x 21 x 5.3) it's the first to meet all the requirements I listed. It also offers 300W at 4Ohm. Its only downsides are that it's relatively expensive compared to most of the above MBHs, and provides a MarkBass-coloured tone which you may or may not like.
Darkglass Alpha Omega 500 and Microtubes 500: Both taller than the Nano Mark II, the Darkglass 500s are fully featured, and meet all my criteria. They allso variously offer other nice-to-haves including analog pre-amps, smarts like a choice of cab sims, twin distortion circuits, and atypical approaches to EQing. These all come at an increased cost vs the simpler and smaller MBHs. It could also be argued that they're too big to be fairly compared considered a genuine MBH, relative to the other offerings listed above.
Peavey Minimax 600: Offers 600W and meets almost all requirements, except that it has a very noisy fan (and is the tallest MBH listed here).
Other Contenders
Bergantino Forte D: many more watts of power from this excellent, fully featured and high quality amp. But it's a good deal bigger than the others, and so I think in a different category than the other amps listed above.
Darkglass e500: No doubt a versatile amp, but I am wary of anything that relies on the future availability of an app to provide its core functionality.
---
Here's a diagram showing the footprints and heights of the MBHs I compared.
I hope you find the above interesting and maybe even kind of sort of potentially helpful.
What I* Want from a MBH
*Note: What I was looking for, and the relative priority I place on each feature, could be very different to what you or anyone else is looking for.
- Smaller is Better. The ideal MBH fits in a back pocket, or at least, the pocket of a bass gig bag.
- Louder is Better. The greater the achievable volume, the more useful an MBH is for a variety of gigging purposes, and the more headroom you have on tap when the lead guitarist goes feral.
- An FX loop is very useful (and for me, mandatory, because I rely on a multiFX pedal to shape different tones for different songs).
- A Balanced/DI Out with Ground Lift is Very Useful. It enables the MBH to plug straight into a FOH desk, leaving the speaker output for stage monitoring.
- A Speakon or combo output is better than a mere TRS out. It just is, and I'm not prepared to hear arguments to the contrary
- Quiet cooling is important. Noone wants a hairdryer in the rehearsal room (well, other than the lead singer
). - Aux In could be handy to some (though not mandatory from my perspective).
- Input pad to select between active and passive basses could be handy.
My Assessments of Various MBHs (listed in order of size)
Trace Elliot Elf: the smallest MBH, offering 200W at 4Ohms, 3-band EQ and a DI. But no FX loop, no Speakon out, a combo gain/compressor control that many reviewers feel squashes the signal too much too soon, a noisy fan, and that signature TE tone which you either like or you don't.
Warwick Gnomes: still small, offer an uncoloured tone, 200W at 4Ohms, DI out. The "i" versions provide a USB interface for your DAR, and the i Pro offers 80 more watts. But still no FX loop, and no Speakon output.
TCE BAM200: slightly bigger than the 200W Gnome, and functionally and tonally equivalent.
Ashdown Ant: Relatively small, though bigger than the MBHs listed above. More EQ options, and a Speakon out. BUT no gain control, and no FX loop.
GR Bass Minione: 350W at 4Ohm, Speakon out, DI out, and more EQ options. But no FX loop.
Phil Jones BP-200: Well featured, but no FX loop. D-Class power am, but a single channel Class A pre-amp.
GK MB200: Roughly double the size of the Elf, and well featured, but still no FX loop.
Aguilar Tone Hammer 350: Well-featured, but still no FX loop. (The TH-500 is the first of the Tone Hammers to offer an FX loop, but it's significantly larger.)
Harley Benton Block 300B: Roughly the size of the GK BM200, well featured, but no FX loop.
Quilter Bass Block 800: discontinued. It offered many more watts, and met many other requirements, but still offered no FX loop.
TC Electronic BQ500: It offers more watts than the small BMHs, but still no FX loop.
Nano Mark II: With the largest footprint so far (20cm x 21 x 5.3) it's the first to meet all the requirements I listed. It also offers 300W at 4Ohm. Its only downsides are that it's relatively expensive compared to most of the above MBHs, and provides a MarkBass-coloured tone which you may or may not like.
Darkglass Alpha Omega 500 and Microtubes 500: Both taller than the Nano Mark II, the Darkglass 500s are fully featured, and meet all my criteria. They allso variously offer other nice-to-haves including analog pre-amps, smarts like a choice of cab sims, twin distortion circuits, and atypical approaches to EQing. These all come at an increased cost vs the simpler and smaller MBHs. It could also be argued that they're too big to be fairly compared considered a genuine MBH, relative to the other offerings listed above.
Peavey Minimax 600: Offers 600W and meets almost all requirements, except that it has a very noisy fan (and is the tallest MBH listed here).
Other Contenders
Bergantino Forte D: many more watts of power from this excellent, fully featured and high quality amp. But it's a good deal bigger than the others, and so I think in a different category than the other amps listed above.
Darkglass e500: No doubt a versatile amp, but I am wary of anything that relies on the future availability of an app to provide its core functionality.
---
Here's a diagram showing the footprints and heights of the MBHs I compared.
I hope you find the above interesting and maybe even kind of sort of potentially helpful.
