Which is 'more' important

[Blues Cat]

LOL. Totally sigged.

I feel like a good amp is much more important then a good bass or good effects. I feel like a good bass and good effects through a bad amp will sound bad, no matter what.

I'm siggin' it to.

Bass

 

[JMBassist]

IMO it's not possible to split the responsibility of having a good bass sound if you don't have a good bass and a good amp, unless of course, you don't use amp..

 

[JimmyM]

IMO it's not possible to split the responsibility of having a good bass sound if you don't have a good bass and a good amp, unless of course, you don't use amp..

i would disagree with that. i've done gigs with an sx bass where i thought my tone was the shizz. definitely isn't the world's greatest bass, but worked out very well on some of my gigs.

 

[Captain Marvel]

fiorgetting the skills for a second, a good cab is the most important, followed by a good bass, then a good amp. i've played crap basses through crap amps and great cabs and sounded like hot buttered jesus, and i've played great basses through great amps and a crap cab and sounded like ass.

the cab is the bottleneck that determines tone. if you have to skimp, skimp on anything else but the cab.

Totally agree with every word of this. My original answer was a good amp but I always think of bass amp as meaning the head and cab together as bass amplification.

When I turned up for my first ever recording session with a SVT 4PRO, a SUNN 300T and a hartke vx410 cab the engineer look at me like I was mad and told me to put the cab back in the van! (I was in the process of accumulating my gear and had alot to learn at the time!)

 

[Mark Olson]

Give me a crummy bass (my SG Bass sounds terrible, I'll be honest) give me some low priced EHX effects, just don't give me a junk amp! I don't need no coffee table wood bass, I think they sound like junk anyways.

 

[JMBassist]

Well..opinions are just opinions and each one have its own...

I can tell you mine, and I'm a bass player for 30 years and during this time I had several amps and several basses, and always have to find the best pair to get the best sound.

You know...is like having a Ferrari with a Fiat engine......it just doesn't work!

 

[jelenko]

1. amp.

if you use effects alot and almost all the time and they shape your tone alot than they would be #2, if you dont use them too mouch or too often or you just slightly colour your tone like a little compression or a subtle overdrive that doesent affect your tone much than the bass is #2.

But nothing will sound good through a crappy amp.

still for some reason we all like basses best, and we're urged to spend money on them far more than on the amps or effects.

 

[somegeezer]

I reckon the head and cab come as one package really. Both have to be good and your bass will be alright. Head and cab would come equally for me, then bass. I don't use effects as of yet, so I can't really comment fairly. ;P

 

[Sundogue]

I can't believe any musician would list anything ahead of the instrument they play.

I play my bass so that's numero uno. The rest changes so much that I use an amp modeler/effects pedal to plug my instrument into so I can play through headphones, go direct, or use any combination of amp/cabs.

What good is an instructor or an amp if you got nothing to play on? Or what good is it if the intrument you play can't stay in tune, has dead spots or is set up improperly making it difficult to play? Heck, most of the time I practice without any kind of amplification and do nothing more than rest my chin on the horn. One can practice their instrument through even the slightest amount of amplification. It only needs to be audible to learn how to play your instrument.

Definitely the instrument at No. 1. If you ain't got that nothing else matters. Obviously if you play electric bass it needs amplification most of the time (as in playing with others). Of course you want a good amp to go with it and one that matches the purpose of your playing.

But really this is such a dumb question. It's like asking what's more important...your brain, your heart or your lungs?

Duh.

 

[MK1]

Hands down a good amp. A $200 squier or an sx will sound decent through an SVT and an 810. But a $3,000 Lakland will sound terrible through a practice amp. You can have a cheap bass that's very playable. I've seen so many young players frustrated because they dropped $2,000 on a bass and $300 on a 100W combo and wonder why their rig sound like crap.

 

[progmanjum]

Thank you all for your advice.
I've only been playing for a year and wanted to know peoples opinions. Remember, there is no such thing as a stupid question. And judging by the range of answers there is no obvious answer.

 

[Sundogue]

Thank you all for your advice.
I've only been playing for a year and wanted to know peoples opinions. Remember, there is no such thing as a stupid question. And judging by the range of answers there is no obvious answer.

You are right, there are no stupid questions...only stupid people asking.

I kid (it's an old joke, I know).

Your instrument is what you actually play and that is most important. Everything else follows. Just because it is most important does not mean it needs to be expensive or some high end boutique model. But it is the very thing you play music on. The rest is only a necessity because it is an electric instrument.

Imagine double bass players or violinists, etc. saying their amp is more important.

It all starts with the bass itself. I agree that a crappy amp won't make a million dollar bass sound good, but equating the quality of the components with their importance is missing the point. All things being equal (meaning a decent instrument and amp) the bass is what you play. You don't play music on an amp...it only amplifies what you play on your instrument.

OK...so the question isn't stupid. It's simply pointless. What's more important to life...air or water? What's more important to drive a car...the engine or transmission? Which came first the chicken or the egg?

I can play my bass even without an amp. Try playing your amp sometime without a bass.

Duh.

 

[MK1]

Using a Double bass and a violin as an example isn't even applicable, those instruments were designed to be played without amplification. You could play a small venue with a double bass without amplification, try doing that with an ELECTRIC bass. If you don't have any amplification for your bass guitar it's pretty useless in a live setting.

And as far as saying this question is pointless I have to disagree. I don't think the OP is asking just for the sake of debate, I think he is trying to prioritize what to invest in. And I still think a great amp is a better investment. If you have to skimp, skimp on the bass (buy a playable squier) and invest in a good amp.

 

[JimmyM]

sundogue, no need to insult anyone's intelligence over what they feel is more important. of course you have to have a bass...as you say, duh! but unless you want to be the only one hearing it, you also need a means of amplification, so duh to you right back! and nanny nanny neener neener!

but you can buy a $200 bass that may not be the best bass in the world but it's perfectly usable and will sound great through a good cab. buy a $200 amp and see how far that gets you. what do you get for $200? unusable crap. not even debatable.

 

[mulchor]

I think I'm with jimmym, what you hear comes from the speaker

 

[Bmorefoozler]

I think I'm with jimmym, what you hear comes from the speaker

I happen to be in this camp as well.
Once you have the minimum's in place(usable, in tune bass, amp that projects sound) you will get far more smile value SOUNDWISE from dollars spent on amp. Playability-wise the bass may in turn also improve sound as well as improved elsectronics, but there is a much bigger difference IN SOUND between good and bad speaker combinations compared to combinations of woods, and pick-ups.

 

[plangentmusic]

It would be more important to me as an artist to have a good bass. Amps can get more and more elaborate, but an instrument is forever.

However, as a working musician you can get by with a mediocre bass if the amp is great. But a great bass with an amp that doesn't cut it would be worthless.

 

[St Drogo]

Practice > Amp > Practice > Bass > Practice

I never put my practice first in the chain, it'll muddy up the signal.

Harhar.

But really, it's all important. In a bass I think playability is more important than tone or looks, because you need to have a bass with which you're comfortable to get your ideas across, to do your job well. I would say amps are next in line, because a good amp makes you go

"Whoompf!"

instead of

"clank"

Effects are a strange thing, because it depends on how you use them. if you just use them to color some parts, they are not really that important to you. However, if you use effects to completely create your sound, then it's just another instrument you're playing and I would put it as just as important as your bass.

 

[naturalkinds]

I can't believe any musician would list anything ahead of the instrument they play.

Sure. But consider an example from synthesizers. You touch the keyboard, right? That's what you feel, right? And, without no keyboard -- or MIDI sequencing -- no sound comes out of the synthesizer, right?

But the keyboard, I wager to say, is less relevant than the rest of the chain that outputs sound, despite the fact that it's what you interact with.

Sure, different keyboards have better or worse touch sensitivity, and better ways to control the synthesizer hardware, but, ultimately, that hardware and its amplification have a lot more to do with the sound (and your satisfaction with it) than the interface you use to get there -- i.e., the keyboard.

 

[odin70]

If you have a good amp and bad bass, you can still sound good. A bad amp will make your Shadowsky sound like s...