Depends on what you currently own. If you have a $69 bass, I would say bass. If you have a 20 watt first act amp, I would say amp.
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Which would you upgrade first? An amp or a bass?
- Thread starter StrudelBass
- Start date
Voted for bass but Amp is also a good idea. By buying a good amp you set you free and then can improve over time the instrument. But.. the difference in sound by going from my Chinese Squier to my Mexican JB was kinda huge (mostly the pickups I think because my Squier quality was amazing). I started with a 200 euro Squier JB. Wanted to buy a 60's JB and went to the store with my bass teacher and I came home not with the 60's model but the 70's model. So much punch and ability to move to front. I don't know. I like to play old Motown stuff but that 70's bass felt like "at home". The neck. The feeling I got from her. It's not even the sound. As the bass body warmed against my skin.. I felt at home with that bass. She has some kind of a soul, it's not just a piece of wood. Brought her to the luthier and.. well. For the first time in my life after buying an instrument he told me "seriously, besides putting brand new strings I really didn't do anything at all. Nothing. Everything is perfect". And buying this bass instead of replacing my Fender Rumble 15W made me much happier than improving the amp before the bass. I'm now looking into finding a bass head 
I'll tell you something guys, and you probably already know this - we are living "the good old days" of music gear. No longer does one have to spend a lot of $$ on a guitar or amp to get great tone, playability and quality. I have a Classic Vibe Strat that my kids gave me two Christmas's ago, I just got a Squeir Vintage Modified Jazz five string and a Rumble 500 combo. All were very reasonably priced and they all play and sound as good or BETTER than any gear I've ever owned in the past regardless of price and I owned a lot of gear! Not to mention the recent trend in lightweight amps too. Enjoy!!
The hardware we get today for the price is very good. My first bass was a Squier, one made in China. She sounded amazing. From the people I played with to the luthier that checked her, she had an amazing natural growl to the sound which I have.. lost in my MIM Jazz Bass. I offered that Squier to someone learning bass and I have to admit.. I regret it.
Flat out, never buy a bass that doesn't sound good without an amp at all.
If it can't sing without an amp...it ain't gonna sing much better with one.
Start with the basics. Good tune, proper intonation, setup properly.
Picked up an $80 bass because it sounded better than anything else in the pawn shop
Unplugged...it sounded like a drop of heaven had been put into it! Intonation Dead On!
So...get it home, plug it in, test everything out...electronics sucked...
and we knew it was the electronics why? Because it sounded good un-plugged!!
change out the pots & wiring, shield the pickups, new jack, NOW it sounds RIGHTEOUS!!
Altho...still thinking about getting different pickups...but they'll do for now.
The beautiful sound the bass makes is then routed through a darn good amp...
Amps...get the most bang for your buck. I'm on a Fender Rumble kick lately,
but have no problem with Orange, Hartke, Peavey, or any other quality maker.
For amps, always get the best you can afford...it'll pay you back in rich sound!
DO know what you are getting in a pawn shop/Craigslist amp!
Test it first, preferably with your own Known bass...so you know what sounds to expect out of the amp.
Sounds good, looks good, party on!
Realize you ain't ever gonna have just ONE of anything for long...
bass & amps are like kids...if ya keep playing with 'em, more show up
Magically multiply...like rabbits..."No, Honey, I have no idea how suddenly
there are 5 Coffin Cases in the music room when last year there were only two...
If it can't sing without an amp...it ain't gonna sing much better with one.
Start with the basics. Good tune, proper intonation, setup properly.
Picked up an $80 bass because it sounded better than anything else in the pawn shop
Unplugged...it sounded like a drop of heaven had been put into it! Intonation Dead On!
So...get it home, plug it in, test everything out...electronics sucked...
and we knew it was the electronics why? Because it sounded good un-plugged!!
change out the pots & wiring, shield the pickups, new jack, NOW it sounds RIGHTEOUS!!
Altho...still thinking about getting different pickups...but they'll do for now.
The beautiful sound the bass makes is then routed through a darn good amp...
Amps...get the most bang for your buck. I'm on a Fender Rumble kick lately,
but have no problem with Orange, Hartke, Peavey, or any other quality maker.
For amps, always get the best you can afford...it'll pay you back in rich sound!
DO know what you are getting in a pawn shop/Craigslist amp!
Test it first, preferably with your own Known bass...so you know what sounds to expect out of the amp.
Sounds good, looks good, party on!
Realize you ain't ever gonna have just ONE of anything for long...
bass & amps are like kids...if ya keep playing with 'em, more show up
Magically multiply...like rabbits..."No, Honey, I have no idea how suddenly
there are 5 Coffin Cases in the music room when last year there were only two...
well my first bass was a 'Karina' - Fender P copy, black with white pick guard made in Korea... I looked at buying a new bass (this was 1991?) and saw these flash new quite cheap bass guitars in a music shop and the guy in the music shop said my Karina was better made and urged me to keep it..... I did for a while, then I saw a Westone Headless bass in another music shop and thought it 'looked really cool' - so traded the Karina in on it....
I voted to upgrade the amp.
From what I've seen in bass life, a crappy bass through an awesome amp can often sound awesome, but the opposite is not true.
From what I've seen in bass life, a crappy bass through an awesome amp can often sound awesome, but the opposite is not true.
A decently set up Squier through the world's best PA system will sound better then a pristine Fodera through any practice amp. Most of the time, unless something on the bass is literally broken, upgrading the amp is the logical choice.
Then again, as I play places where someone else supplies the PA, I am able to avoid this quandry, and thus I can rationalize spending otherwise irrational sums of money on nice instruments. As I don't hear the final result, but only what's in my ears, whether or not the difference between my basses and a bargain basement Squier is audible to the audience is something I'm not very concerned with. I live in a happy, carefully crafted self protective state of self denial. If I started a club for people like me on TB, I'd probably get darn close to 100 percent membership. Those that wouldn't join are most likely just too deep in denial to admit that they're in denial.
Then again, as I play places where someone else supplies the PA, I am able to avoid this quandry, and thus I can rationalize spending otherwise irrational sums of money on nice instruments. As I don't hear the final result, but only what's in my ears, whether or not the difference between my basses and a bargain basement Squier is audible to the audience is something I'm not very concerned with. I live in a happy, carefully crafted self protective state of self denial. If I started a club for people like me on TB, I'd probably get darn close to 100 percent membership. Those that wouldn't join are most likely just too deep in denial to admit that they're in denial.
Well I'm beginning with a $180 Ibanez TMB30, and a Rumble 100, and even though the bass is not high end, or even medium end, it sounds pretty darn good with the Rumble. My next thing would likely need to be another amp (R200?) to daisy chain to the R100 for more volume in a band setting, even though eventually, I'll want a better bass, and a bit lighter one. So I guess, good amp first?
I went for amp.
Yesterday I got a gallien Krueger 800RB bass head.
My ibanez sr390 has never sounded so good
later
Same thing here. Acquired a Fender SB300 amp & Neo410 cab. I simply can't put my Ibby SR650E down despite having a Fender PJ. The Ibby never sounded so good.
With low cost gear - if you have a cheap amp that's loud - you're fine. Upgrade your bass. If it's not loud then upgrade the amp. For me - I've owned Markbass gear for two or three years now. No complaints except... last year, before the pandemic, I managed to see Wooten, Miller, Bona and a few others all in the same six months. All, of course, had great sound though only Marcus was using Markbass gear. Then I went to a pub gig where the bass player had a sound that really impressed me. To my surprise he was using Markbass gear but I'd never got his sound. I should say I was using a US Spector NS5XL-great bass. Then I bought a Fender PJ and, surprise surprise, there was the sound he had. I could have started with the PJ and a lesser amp and got to the same conclusion but I suspect an amp can only process what you put into it and if what you're looking for isn't in the bass it's not going to come out of the amp easily. Nowadays people are relying on amps less and less and DI boxes are selling well.
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Personally, I bought a nice bass (83 'Ray) and went over a year with no amp. Then I cobbled together an Eden rig when I could afford it. But I would rather play a nice bass unamplified than a POS with a killer amp.
Hi Everybody,
I've been playing about a month or so and have a bass a friend has loaned me indefinitely.
It's a pretty nice mid range instrument (Schecter Custom 4 w EMG pickups). The only thing is that I hate the color (which I know is a shallow bc it doesn't impact sound, but I wish it were black).
I'm mulling over buying a much nicer bass (am currently eyeing the Evil Twin 4 at the moment or another higher priced Schecter in the $900-1400 range).
I'm currently using an old 120w Berrhinger amp that looks like it's seen better days at the moment, however I'd really like the Orange Crush 100w amp.
The amp is about $600 after tax which is considerably less than the bass ($1,250).
While I think I'll probably end up with both at some point I'm just curious which you think is the smarter move to upgrade first-The bass guitar or the amp. I'm a little torn on the amp bc it's only 100w, but on the other hand I'm only playing on my own at the moment and not sure if I will ever join a band.
Other possible options would be to shell out $1300 for the Orange 300w combo amp or build a cabinet/head combo (which I know almost nothing about heads and cabs). I think my existing amp has an output so I'm not sure (?) if I could use it to run an output to a cabinet and buy the head later (???).
I don't practice very loud because I'm in a townhome...Neighbors have never said anything to me about noise, but I also wouldn't be blaring my amp while I practice out of courtesy (plus I still absolutely suck even though I'm practicing 90 mins a day)...I might have no clue on this, but I thought a higher wattage amp made better sound at lower volumes than a lower wattage amp.
There aren't any wrong answers here, but for the more experienced people on this thread-I'm curious which you would upgrade first (and why bc I'm interested in the logic behind your decision).
For some reason I seem to think that spending a lot of money on an amp is the least attractive option, but I'm also not sure about running a higher end bass thru my existing amp bc its pretty pedestrian (I don't hate it or anything it's just very "Meh").
I probably don't know enough about either (the bass or the amp) maybe at this point to make a decision bc I'm so green to playing. I'm about 99.9999% sure I'm going for a high end Schecter at some point bc I've had a pretty darn good experience with them.
I've also about decided I want an Orange bc the only other brand I've seen as an amp I was even sort of interested in was Mesa and they are pretty steep as I'd be looking at building a head/cabinet w them -it would just cost a lot more so it would probably take me a while to save up for that.
Thanks in advance for any advice...
I've been playing about a month or so and have a bass a friend has loaned me indefinitely.
It's a pretty nice mid range instrument (Schecter Custom 4 w EMG pickups). The only thing is that I hate the color (which I know is a shallow bc it doesn't impact sound, but I wish it were black).
I'm mulling over buying a much nicer bass (am currently eyeing the Evil Twin 4 at the moment or another higher priced Schecter in the $900-1400 range).
I'm currently using an old 120w Berrhinger amp that looks like it's seen better days at the moment, however I'd really like the Orange Crush 100w amp.
The amp is about $600 after tax which is considerably less than the bass ($1,250).
While I think I'll probably end up with both at some point I'm just curious which you think is the smarter move to upgrade first-The bass guitar or the amp. I'm a little torn on the amp bc it's only 100w, but on the other hand I'm only playing on my own at the moment and not sure if I will ever join a band.
Other possible options would be to shell out $1300 for the Orange 300w combo amp or build a cabinet/head combo (which I know almost nothing about heads and cabs). I think my existing amp has an output so I'm not sure (?) if I could use it to run an output to a cabinet and buy the head later (???).
I don't practice very loud because I'm in a townhome...Neighbors have never said anything to me about noise, but I also wouldn't be blaring my amp while I practice out of courtesy (plus I still absolutely suck even though I'm practicing 90 mins a day)...I might have no clue on this, but I thought a higher wattage amp made better sound at lower volumes than a lower wattage amp.
There aren't any wrong answers here, but for the more experienced people on this thread-I'm curious which you would upgrade first (and why bc I'm interested in the logic behind your decision).
For some reason I seem to think that spending a lot of money on an amp is the least attractive option, but I'm also not sure about running a higher end bass thru my existing amp bc its pretty pedestrian (I don't hate it or anything it's just very "Meh").
I probably don't know enough about either (the bass or the amp) maybe at this point to make a decision bc I'm so green to playing. I'm about 99.9999% sure I'm going for a high end Schecter at some point bc I've had a pretty darn good experience with them.
I've also about decided I want an Orange bc the only other brand I've seen as an amp I was even sort of interested in was Mesa and they are pretty steep as I'd be looking at building a head/cabinet w them -it would just cost a lot more so it would probably take me a while to save up for that.
Thanks in advance for any advice...
Welcome to TalkBass!!!!
The answer to your question is in your goals and your income.
If your goal is to be in a band in the next few months, get an amp. Your current amp won't hang with a band.
If your goal is to practice for quite a few more months before you join a band, get the bass. A bass you really love will get played more. The more you play, the better you'll get.
If your income is such that you can save up enough for both in the next 6 months, it doesn't really matter. Get whichever one will make you grin the most.
The answer to your question is in your goals and your income.
If your goal is to be in a band in the next few months, get an amp. Your current amp won't hang with a band.
If your goal is to practice for quite a few more months before you join a band, get the bass. A bass you really love will get played more. The more you play, the better you'll get.
If your income is such that you can save up enough for both in the next 6 months, it doesn't really matter. Get whichever one will make you grin the most.
Nothing wrong with buying something because you like the way it looks. I have five basses and I bought each one based on looks.
These days, there are so many good basses available that looks should definitely be considered.
As for amps, nothing wrong with a new one, but I'lll tell you what...I bought two amps in the past two months and never find myself looking at them, and I'm always looking at my basses!
These days, there are so many good basses available that looks should definitely be considered.
As for amps, nothing wrong with a new one, but I'lll tell you what...I bought two amps in the past two months and never find myself looking at them, and I'm always looking at my basses!
