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Which bass amps for a recording studio ?

#41
In the studio business, you can wind up with a large fortune if you start with an even larger one.

Studios attract clients based on the mic and equipment list so choose well.

Yes to an up to spec vintage B-15N.


One of these: Machines - Mara Machines

Some of these: BAE Audio

One or two of these: https://vintageking.com/undertone-audio-unfairchild-670m-ii

All the Chandler Abbey Road outboard stuff: https://vintageking.com/catalogsearch/result/?q=abbey+road+chandler

Distressors: https://vintageking.com/catalogsearch/result/?q=distressor

The fun never ends.
 
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#42
A few Preamp DI boxs like this will save a lot of space for you.
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#44
Every bass player loves to walk into a studio and see a Ampeg B-15 (SB-12 or B-18).
The bass will be recorded with one mic on the amp / and a DI.
 
#45
An SVT always looks the part although most time I've done any recording it's ended up just being a DI and through a Sansamp and call it a day. TBF it's always ended up sounding great although nowhere near as fun.
 
#46
That's a lot of answers, thanks everybody !

About the concerns for the space, don't worry about that. It's not my first rodeo, I know what it takes to isolate a bass amp. Also, as I said, I'm a sound engineer, so if I'm looking into buying some bass amps, be sure I already have quite a gear list to go with it :D Mics, preamps, compressors, pedals and even a good selection of DIs are already in the pocket. Maybe I should have said it before, but I though it wasn't relevant to my question, sorry about that.

I didn't know about the EA stuff, I'll look into it ;)

The B15 seem to have an edge on everything else. Funny because the one at a place I work is nearly never used in comparaison of the SVTs. But there is a lot of rock/modern music recorded there. Should I aim for a vintage B15 or a reissue would be as good ? I saw somebody selling a reissue from 2012 (from the limited run of 100), is it as good as the old ones ?

About my questions on the 8x10, I might just do a different thread, it will make more sense :)
 
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#48
Shortly after getting my first REDDI I went into a studio where the producer/engineer insisted we use his 72 SVT. I said ok but insisted we run my DI into another channel. After about 2 minutes of starting to work on the bass sound I hear through my cans "Um dude....your DI is stomping all over my SVT".

For amps I wouldn't invest too heavily in bass amps. A killer 50w tube head, a clean solid state head like a Mesa with 1x15 and 4x10 cabs and call it good to start. Cranking the **** out of an isolated SVT always seemed kinda pointless.
 
#49
Man, that's a tough one! The quintessential B-15 is the first that comes to mind but so much is dependent on proper mic'ing. The newer DI boxes like the Sushi Venus are simply amazing and will provide the desired results with minimal aggravation and expense.

Riis
 
#50
I wouldn't bother with big, loud rigs. The louder the trickier, recording amps can be small and relatively quiet. Also, just a good DI (not necessarily a tube DI) can help a lot. I would invest in decent microphones (usual choices are the MD421, a Royer maybe, a decent large-diaphragm condenser, not necessarily a top name), a smallish bass amp (maybe not so small as a fliptop, but not as big and loud as an 8x10"; also, a single speaker cab might be preferable for micing) and, yes, a good DI (which doesn't mean spending a grand on a Noble). Also, you might want to prefer a sealed cabinet because you don't really need either the low end extension (you can get that from the DI) or the added volume, and a drier cab can make it easier wrt room resonance).
 
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#51
Gizmot said:
This setup would work well because of its well balanced sound and the fact that the cabinet is easy to mic because the speaker is a coax. That means the LF andHF sounds all emanate from the same plane. I’ve been using an EA rig for years and they sound fantastic
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Yep. Engineer in a pro studio said that it is really an alternative to a B15. I had an AI head and he liked that too... But works great with EA as well. Works for Leland Sklar
 
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#53
It really depends on your budget. Like others have said, you can do very good bass recordings with DI and amp/cab sims these days.

Having said that, nothing beats a real tube amp and I think it's great that you want top quality equipment for us bass players in your studio. Great bass amps are expensive though so unless you have a huge budget you might spend your money more wisely on great mics, other studio gear and most importantly, superb rooms with professional acoustic treatment. No amount of expensive studio gear can fix a bad sounding room.

If you DO have a huge budget, sure, get some great bass amps. But spending a huge amount of money on building/equipping a recording studio is probably not the best investment you can make these days...

The SVT is a classic of course but they are also extremely LOUD. I wouldn't get an SVT rig unless you're planning on building a large, professional studio with acoustically treated rooms and good isolation. A cranked SVT will not sound great in a small and/or untreated room. As for the choice of cabs, different eras of Ampeg 810s can sound very different. My advice would be to test the cabs before you decide.

The B15 would probably be number one on my list of studio bass amp. Some kind of vintage Bassman would probably be second. I usually find that lower wattage tube amps sound better for recording, both for bass and guitars. This will depend on the rooms and the genre of music of course.

Personally I prefer vintage British amps like Hiwatt, Marshall Superbass, Matamp/Orange or Simms-Watts but these are really niche amps these days and most bass players would probably rather use an Ampeg. Then again, most bass players these days have probably never experienced the joy of cranking a Hiwatt DR201!

My favourite signal chain for recording bass might actually not involve any amp or amp sim at all: A good quality DI straight into a Neve 1073 with the input pushed into saturation. 1073 > Pultec > 1176 > LA-2A. No amp, superb tone! I do like to blend in a little bit of an amp for slightly more bite/presence in the mids but if I had to choose ONE signal chain for recording bass it would probably be DI straight into a 1073.
 
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#55
pelaurendeau said:
Should I aim for a vintage B15 or a reissue would be as good ?
Click to expand...

It really doesn't matter which era B15 you get. The most important thing (as I mentioned in my earlier reply) is to have a tech go over it to make it as noise free as possible. You do not need one that looks like it's brand new, in fact the more beat-up the cosmetics are the less you'll have to pay for it. But it has to sound good and not have any problems.
 
#56
pelaurendeau said:
Hello everybody,

Which bass amps would you want to have at your disposal in a studio ? I explain my question View attachment 5107018:)

I’m a sound engineer (not a bass player, sorry…) and I have in mind to open a recording studio in a few years. I want to put great recording instruments at the disposal of musicians, and to do so, I started buying a few.

Bass amps are often overlooked and I'm trying to be clever about my selection. I don't want to have to have hundreds of them, just a few really good and versatile ones. The studio will be open to all kind of musical genres.

So my first choice would be a SVT-VR (Made in USA - from early 00's). Somebody is selling one not far from me (I'm in Europe) and I'm considering buying it. I really like this amp.

The guy is also selling an Heritage SVT 810E, should I take it ? Or should I find an old 8x10 ? Somebody is selling one not far from me, but it's been painted in blue, including the speakers ... I already have a SVT 9 cabinet (which was for guitar & synths) who could work with the SVT head, but it's maybe not as good as an original 8x10.

What else should I look into ? A Blackface Bassman (could work also for guitars) ? An Ampeg B15N ? Or maybe a V4 ? A Vox AC50 ?

Where I worked before, I didn't see a lot of bass players coming with their amps. They were always using the gear of the studio.

I will have to buy some bass also, but that's another story !

All the help will be gladly appreciated View attachment 5107028:D
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I would get only the SVT and the B15 you mentioned. I feel like that covers any old school desireable bass tone. Any other tone apart from those could be achieved pretty easily through software or Helix/amp capture etc.

Don't get me wrong, I really like GK tone and Aguilar tone, but a lot of these non-tube bass amps are easy to emulate.
 
#57
Many of us on Talkbass are passionate gear nerds. Most real world bassists are not. I suspect the majority would be happy with a quality DI plus amp sims, but then I think why would I pay a studio when I can do that at home? A good selection of speaker cabs would entice me more than amps, especially since you could reamp a DI signal through a power amp. A vintage JBL 15, a flip top, an SVT 210, a modern ported cab with a tweeter, and something more FRFR would cover a lot of ground. My disappointment with recording SVTs led me to build a vintage mini fridge (4 ohm 2x10 built to the specs of a single 8x10 chamber with Jensen speakers). That with V-4B makes a much better recording rig. But I do drool over rare tube amps in a studio, so Hiwatt, Sunn, Reeves, Science and Verellen would all make me want to plug in.
 
#58
I ran a studio for many years and our house bass amps were a blue live SVT with a 4x10HLF cab, a B-15, and we also had an SWR rig, and an Eden rig (I forget the exact models), and I also had a tube DI (and Ampeg ST DI, then a REDDI). The vast majority of the times bass players opted for the tube DI right into a good pic pre. The times we did use an amp, we also did the tube DI in connection with it, and at mix down, the core sound was typically the tube DI track with some amp mixed in for flavor.

What I think is more important than having a good bass amp is outboard compression. Compressor plug ins do a great job of controlling dynamics, but I have always found them lacking in giving the bass track the weight and authority that a good 1176 can impart. You dont even need to track with a lot of compression, very light gain reduction will still impart the sonic character of the hardware. We had a few of the UA 1176s that did a great job, but in this day an age there are manufactures making 1176 closes for far less. I dont have any direct experience with these models, but I have heard good things about the Warm Audio and the Klerk Teknik models.

If I were getting back in the recording game professionally, I wouldn’t worry about a bass amp until I had a good DI and compressor. As an aside, I am still a gigging bass player, and about a year ago I picked up an Arkham Oracle tube di/preamp to gig with, and I really love it. I put a NOS tube in it and it sounds fantastic, and has EQ as well which the SVT DI and REDDI didnt have.
 
#60
I have recorded many dozens of songs with dozens of bands and used every conceivable combination of amp, mics, rooms and DI’s. The single best bass tone I’ve ever achieved was, and remains, the BAE 1073DMP. So much so that I bought my own and insist on its use whenever I record anywhere, with anyone, in any musical style, with any decent bass . YMMV
1073DMP
 

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