The Conclusions I've drawn about Micro Bass Heads

[MrUsefulAlien]

That's a great comparison, I didn't even know of some of these amps!
I have to admit that in 14 years of active gigging, sometimes with a pedalboard, I've never once used the FX loop.

 

[InkCow]

I gotta ask, what does the "Taste" knob do?

It lets you fine tune from uncouth boor to sophisticate.

 

[BobDeRosa]

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.

1. Smaller is Better. The ideal MBH fits in a back pocket, or at least, the pocket of a bass gig bag.
2. 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.
3. An FX loop is very useful (and for me, mandatory, because I rely on a multiFX pedal to shape different tones for different songs).
4. 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.
5. 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
6. Quiet cooling is important. Noone wants a hairdryer in the rehearsal room (well, other than the lead singer ).
7. Aux In could be handy to some (though not mandatory from my perspective).
8. 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.

View attachment 5163654

I hope you find the above interesting and maybe even kind of sort of potentially helpful.

Both interesting and helpful. Thanks very much for doing this research.

 

[bobbybass85]

Another addition ton consider would be the Asjdown OriginAL.

Size wise, it’s not much bigger than the tone hammer 350 and I’d plenty light, fits in my gig bag.

It is a very loud 300 watts. Sound is great with arguably the most versatile eq on your list. Very neutral set flat but can get a lot of character with the EQ and shape options.

Has a DI and an FX loop.

Has an input pad and separate gain control.

Fan is quiet. I will freely admit, my threshold, for what is considered loud is probably much different than a lot of people. I’ve not been once ever noticed a fan noise from an amp in 20+ years of rehearsals, gigs, and recording sessions.

The only items missing list are the speaker out is 1/4” only and the no aux in. But it does have a headphone out! For my purposes, I won’t need the aux in ever, but I would like to have the speak-on option

in terms of value, I bought mine used off reverb for about the same price as you can buy a used TC elf. The bang for the buck that this little amp offers is unbelievable. It’s not replacing my ABM 500 and live shows where is space and weight isn’t an issue, but it will be in my backpack as a back up all the time.

 

[aguacateojos]

I've had my Genz Benz Shuttle 9.0 since 2012 and I will only think about replacing it when repairs are more expensive than the price of a new amp.

And then I'll probably get something else in the Genzler family.

 

[basss]

IMO the big draw of a micro amp is that it fits easily in a gig bag. Some of the bigger ones on your list will fit if you have a large pocket but you'd really have to stuff it in there with no room for cables etc. This also stresses the pocket and leads to failure, which I know from first hand experience.

My GK mb500 fit ok with cables, my TC BQ 500 is too tall but I can stuff it in there. The Gnome I pro hits a sweet spot with enough power for smaller gigs, good sound and fits in the bag very easily, no effects loop though, which I don't need. This is with a Mooradian bag which has a large pocket that goes to the very edge of the bag.

I've owned the Acoustic Image Clarus sl which ticks all your boxes and fits in a gig bag easily. It was my main amp for about 5 years. I liked it but came to realize I enjoy an amp that's not so razor flat, which translates to more forward and plain sounding mids than most bass amps. Also, despite the 4 band EQ, I found that it was difficult to dial in a sound in some rooms. BGM did a bench test of this amp and found that one of the mid controls has a pretty narrow band and there were some freqs, notably right around 500hz, that the EQ couldn't alter without drastically changing everything around it. It had all the features I wanted and nothing I didn't and I loved the swiss watch engineering of the amp but had to let it go.

 

[Andy V.]

I've been using a shuttle 3.0 + a 4ohm neo 2x12 for a decade now.
During this period I bought various class d amps, Eden WTX500, TH500, MB LMIII.
All really nice, but the shuttles still here and the others were sold. For my taste, there's something about that fet preamp.

 

[Stranger Danger]

The input pad is a tone suck and completely useless if you have the finger dexterity to use a knob. The effects loop is also pretty useless to 99% of us that use effects in front of an amp.

And I’ve never heard a cooling fan that was louder than human speech.

Just my 2 cents after using micro bass heads for many years

 

[Genomatic8]

Thanks for putting that together, very informative! I'm going to be gigging the TE Elf setup soon.

oon.

 

[Stranger Danger]

I have a hard time imagining why this would bother you, or why you’d even remotely care in the least.

I can at least empathize with tube purists, not that I’m one in the least, but if someone’s going solid state and getting enough power, I can’t even pretend to understand what the issue is.

I think he means when people act like a 10x12 inch head that weighs 4.5 pounds is now “too big”. And he’s right. It’s really silly

 

[fhm555]

How loud do you think it is?

Don’t know about the Mini, but I had a full size Peavey amp a few years ago and the fan was loud enough to be a nagging distraction at practice volume. At stage volume it was fine but anything less than loud was accompanied by a constant whirring sound.

 

[2thAche]

I guess my GK MB800 Fusions are pigs at 5.5lb and 11". TBH though, I've never thought "gee I wish this was smaller" after lugging the stuff I lugged in the 80s.

 

[agedhorse]

The input pad is a tone suck and completely useless if you have the finger dexterity to use a knob. The effects loop is also pretty useless to 99% of us that use effects in front of an amp.

And I’ve never heard a cooling fan that was louder than human speech.

Just my 2 cents after using micro bass heads for many years

This is not necessarily the case, it depends very much on the design. One input pads or sensitivity switches have no impact on the tone because they do not affect the input impedance. There are some that do, but that’s a design choice rather than a function of the feature’s operation.

 

[Shlabotnik]

Cool diagram. I love my little GK MB200 even though it's not as small as some others.
I don't own any of the others on the list to compare it to but may main amp is a Genzler Magellan 800 and, comparably, the GK sounds fantastic.

 

[Stranger Danger]

This is not necessarily the case, it depends very much on the design. One input pads or sensitivity switches have no impact on the tone because they do not affect the input impedance. There are some that do, but that’s a design choice rather than a function of the feature’s operation.

I just don't see the point. Especially if the amp has a gain knob. I am sure you know far better than me, but personally I haven't heard one that I didn't think was a tone suck.

 

[ugly_bassplayer]

@agedhorse
Looking to go lightweight since my SVT 4 pro weights a ton when racked, love the sound hâte load in load outs since. I’m getting older.

How do you think the Mesa Subway D800 fit replacing my old 4 pro tank?

I use old pre 2000 Eden 410 cabs rated at 8 ohms 700watts.

How’s the warranty on the Mesa products for us up hear in Québec?

thanks for any help/opinion/guidance

 

[Jefenator]

I have found that fan noise can be a nuisance for practicing at home. It's always running on my Quilter BB800 and that does bother me. (ONLY at home, though.)
The B|Amp is substantially larger & heavier than the BB800 but still fully shoulder bag-able, therefore trip-neutral. I sometimes favor it for the convenience of the built-in tuner.
I would include a built-in tuner in my future unicorn amp spec's. But that's just me...

 

[Appogee]

I would include a built-in tuner in my future unicorn amp spec's. But that's just me...

The multiFX pedals I use all include a tuner, so personally, I don't so much need one on the amp.
I do though use the built-in tuner in the amp-speaker combo cabinet I use for practicing in my office.

 

[eddododo]

I think he means when people act like a 10x12 inch head that weighs 4.5 pounds is now “too big”. And he’s right. It’s really silly

I’m sorry, I just can’t buy what y’all are selling here. Like sure, the specific example that you gave of a sheet of paper 5lb amp being too big may be a little silly… but that’s not what the other comment said.

He said that it ‘makes him sad’ that many bassists feel that ‘smaller is better.’ I a) don’t understand why that would remotely be something that makes him ‘sad’ or even bothers him in the least and b) find it wholly indefensible on its face, as smaller is pretty objectively better if we’re not playing a tube amp.

Secondly, I’m just not sure who you’re seeing that says that your example, 10”x12” @4.5# is too big. Now if these people actually exist, then sure maybe that’s a little silly..

BUT at the same time, if we are heading to where amps can be smaller than that with ACTUAL power and not just these silly 200w deals… then I’m sorry again, but smaller just IS better, then. Until we reach the point where we are losing ubiquitous features of an amp, I just can’t take the complaint seriously… and considering the number of pedals that manage 10 knobs and a side chain, there’s room before we hit ‘too small’ (assuming the tech actually develops further to shrink amps in that way.)

I love tube amps, I don’t begrudge anybody theirs and I love the sound.. but I don’t at all understand what I interpreted as the previous commenter’s romanticization of size, and the loss thereof being a shame..

Personally, I don’t have any interest in a beeper-sized amp that you control through an App on your phone.. but there are people for whom the gear size arms race is opening new opportunities in their career. The absolute misery of playing in a big city, schlepping gear on subways or in cabs, is not something I miss in the least, and if bassists are able to downsize to a gig bag and a lightweight cab, then you’re just not going to convince me that’s a bad thing.. which is what he said made him sad

 

[Appogee]

I just don't see the point. Especially if the amp has a gain knob. I am sure you know far better than me, but personally I haven't heard one that I didn't think was a tone suck.

I think of the gain knob as a "distortion/thickener/compression" knob.
Today I plugged my Zoom B1 Four into my main amp head's instrument socket, with the -15dB pad engaged, (amp gain set at noon) and it actually sounded pretty good.
I'm going to experiment with it more tomorrow ... maybe I don't need an MBH to have an FX loop after all.