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What Power Amp do you take on Stage (v2)

What Amp power rating do you take on Stage (v2)

  • Total voters
    128
JimChjones

JimChjones

Aug 6, 2017
2,148
3,569
SE England
#1
New version of the poll to include Hybrid Rigs
There's a seeming consensus of what size rig you need to play live bass here, which is totally at odds with my experience. So I thought, what size rigs do we really use. Poll is limited to bands playing live with an acoustic drummer who uses sticks, otherwise it becomes too meaningless.
If you use a combination that doesn't deliver the amp's max rated power, eg 4ohm amp 8ohm driver, try for an estimate of what you reckon the amp is probably capable of into that cabinet. If multiple amps, add them all together.
Multiple choices for all your different rigs...
 
#4
[QUOTE="JimChjones, post: 23206717, member: 312710"
There's a seeming consensus of what size rig you need to play live bass here, which is totally at odds with my experience. So I thought, what size rigs do we really use.[/QUOTE]

Not sure what you are trying to accomplish. Also I don't think a poll is likely to give you what you want.

The first bass amp I ever bought was an MTI era SVT and 810. I had a hard time hearing myself because I like a more open sounding rig.

My last touring rig used an Eden D210XLT stacked on top of my rolling rack tilted back to aim at my ears. The cab was pushed by about 250W from one side of QSC power amp. I was able to hear much better and monitor at a much lower level than when I had the SVT and 810. But many players would rather have the rig I hated playing through.

One of my favorite rigs was a GK 800RB biamped into a Bag End S15D and a Ramsa WSA200 PA speaker. The speakers were stacked vertically on my rolling rack so I could hear them easily and monitor at the lowest possible volume. This was the most articulate sounding bass rig I have ever used, but it had absolutely no fat on the bottom. One time another bass player in my organization asked to use my amp on a shared bill. I said okay as long as you don't mess with the settings.

He did much more than mess with the settings. When I came back after changing into my performance clothes, the S15D was on the floor and the WSA200 was unplugged. He had also turned all the tone controls to zero except the Bass which was maxed. Obviously he hated the rig. I told him, "Next time you will bring your own amp instead of jacking around with mine."

The least powerful amp I have used was old blackface Fender Twin I had loaded with JBL E120s. Yes, an open back guitar amp. I used it in a cover band when I was stationed in Turkey. Unfortunately I didn't expect to have an opportunity to play in a band, so I left my SVT back in the states. I brought the Twin along expecting to use it as a practice amp, but wound up in a backup band for the base talent contest. This led to the formation of a cover band that played in the Enlisted Club and couple of outdoor fests.

My recommendation is that you find what works for you and don't worry whether anyone else approves or not. The size of the amplifier and speaker don't necessarily tell you that much. How you use them is far more important.
 
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#8
Fender Super Bassman and a pair of Bassman 410neo cabs. Picked up a Darkglass Microtubes 900v2 for silent practice and as a backup. Turns out I dig the MT900v2 just as much as the SB300, two different flavors of butt kicking gut punchers.
 
#9
I am usually using an all SS or Tube ore/SS power section hybrid in the 500-800 Watt rated range. I have some lower powered heads that work well too. However, truth be told I am not sure I ever actually use more than a few hundred of the Watts I have on tap in most cases. If I need to be that loud, I like to get some help from the FOH system to carry the venue to keep a nicer/more comfortable balance for on stage monitoring.
 
#10
half of a QSC plx 3002 for 900w @4Ω, driving two compact single 15 cabs with kappalite 3015s in them (driven by a sansamp pedal)

i never approach my clip lights and it's never not loud enough
 
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#11
Most often I use 300W of my SS power amps. It's usually enough.

I have never felt the need to use more than 500W of my SS power amps.

Recently, I have realized that I will probably be fine with 20W of my tube power amps for monitoring purposes...
 
#14
I have used 500 watt SS and D class amps for the last 20 years. For the last 10 years the 500 watt amps have moved towards a backup role and my 800 watt SS and D Class amps have generally taken over.
 
#15
When I was researching what bass amp I need, and read about people using kilowatts 'because it's the minimum', I thought I was smart and found a cheap power amp first, a QSC USA 900 - 900W at 8 ohm bridged, or 450W at 4 ohm per channel, takes even 2 ohms, so all sounded good. I couldn't find an equally inexpensive solution for a preamp, but then I stumbled upon a GK 400RB, one of the early ones, 200W at 4 ohms, so I thought I'll just use it for practice at home or as a preamp into the QSC.

But then I took the GK head out into a real world situation and got a surprise - volume never went above 9.30. So, where's the need for a kilowatt again?

Now I'm waiting for my Ampeg B25, a 50W tube amp, to have some old parts replaced, then I plan to gig with it. If I (ever) hit the volume limit, I guess it will be at a venue that's big and has PA, because I don't understand any longer why I would need a kilowatt just to hear myself. Oh, I play in an industrial rock band, so we're somewhat loud and we have a synth player too. A cab at the moment I have is a 2x10 with Delta 10's, moving to a 2x12 with Basslites soon, more for tonal than volume reasons.
 
#19
For small to medium rooms, no FOH: Either a tube preamp (Monique) into a 600W SS amp into an 8 ohm cab, or one channel of a WW stereo head (about 350 watts) into an 8 ohm cab.

For large rooms or outdoors, no FOH: Either the Monique into the SS amp into two 8-ohm cabs (1000 W into 4 ohms), or the WW bridged into the two 8-ohm cabs (1000W into 4 ohms).

If FOH, then whatever is the smallest rig that can give me good stage monitoring.

P.S. The cabs are identical Greenboy Fearless F112’s.
 
#20
My standard rig for my original rock/metal band is a preamp plus a QSC GX5 powering two 4 ohm 4x10 cabs, for a total of 1400 watts (solid state). If the venue is particularly small or if I know for a fact that I will have good P.A. support, I'll use only one cab with the GX5 (850 watts) or bring my GenzBenz Shuttle 9.0 (900 watts) for a change of pace.

I generally play with a clean tone and need a fair amount of headroom for dynamics and use of effects, and I typically deal with relatively loud stage volumes due to playing rock/metal with two distorted guitarists in venues with wildly varying P.A. capacities, so my power needs are pretty extreme.
 

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