Nooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo!
Did I make my point?
Stay with used Peavey or other brand of better quality!
Enjoy the benefits of a premium membership!
Upgrade Account
-
TalkBass has been independent since 1998. Add your voice.
Create a free account to reply to discussions, view embedded media, and browse with fewer display ads.
Join free Log in
Want zero display ads or expanded classifieds tools? Compare plans.
Why no low-mid price range amps/combos?
- Thread starter mrbell321
- Start date
Nooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo!
Did I make my point?
Stay with used Peavey or other brand of better quality!
When considering heavier gear think three demensional. I used to get used amps cheap enough to use them as a "drop". I would leave them where I would be using tham so their weight wasn't that big a deal.
This requires two things. The cash and the place to drop the amp where I'll be using it.
The other option is to layout the bucks for a better lighter amp. Eden WTX 264s like the one I use trade farily cheap. Much cheaper that your back.
Another option is to get an "off brand" quality amp like Yorkville. Like the one I have offered for sale in another post.
I have no doubt that if you hawk Craigs for a week you see at least one suitable amp for a suitable price. Give them a play test and organolypically examine them for any burning smell. At that price I would 100% be looking solid state. Peavey TNT, Yorkvilles, Cheaper Hartkes, Ampegs, or even a cheaper Crate should come in about a bean or close to it. And wait for the amp you want close to you.
Don't go through a tank of gas to save 10 bucks on an amp.
And really how many guys here get a little interested every time you see an old Acoustic Control Corp amp? I know it's the little head thinking like that but there's a reason. They sound cool. And Both Steve Rabe and David Nordshaw worked for ACC.
This requires two things. The cash and the place to drop the amp where I'll be using it.
The other option is to layout the bucks for a better lighter amp. Eden WTX 264s like the one I use trade farily cheap. Much cheaper that your back.
Another option is to get an "off brand" quality amp like Yorkville. Like the one I have offered for sale in another post.
I have no doubt that if you hawk Craigs for a week you see at least one suitable amp for a suitable price. Give them a play test and organolypically examine them for any burning smell. At that price I would 100% be looking solid state. Peavey TNT, Yorkvilles, Cheaper Hartkes, Ampegs, or even a cheaper Crate should come in about a bean or close to it. And wait for the amp you want close to you.
Don't go through a tank of gas to save 10 bucks on an amp.
And really how many guys here get a little interested every time you see an old Acoustic Control Corp amp? I know it's the little head thinking like that but there's a reason. They sound cool. And Both Steve Rabe and David Nordshaw worked for ACC.
[Invalid or Expired Link Removed]
This took me less than 2 minutes and it's $130 bucks and will cover you to a T.
This took me less than 2 minutes and it's $130 bucks and will cover you to a T.
Yeah man, I'm not one of the "you need 500w+ minimum" crowd, but 75w is not going to cut it. I'd look for used Peavey or Acoustic, both of those are fairly cheap and generous with their wattage ratings. Acoustic generally sounds better, given the notch filter set correctly, but Peavey cabs are gonna be way more durable.
See - the word; 'GIG' is so open-ended.
I get to play a lot of 40 acre gigs where anything less than 400 Watts won't make it off the stage.
We don't use a PA or FOH - we play raw, loud and from one point - the stage. We also fill the whole 40 acres.
I tried the toys and tiny lunch box amps and the 12's and they just generally sucked big ones.
If it's fear of a hernia carrying heavy cabs and lots of gear, then I've already had two and if the third happens - well: it happens. Get a cart.
I will not swap out having the Wattage and driver area I need to run some light weight puny single 15" or 2/10 cab at 100 Watts max while I hope it won't die on me.
I keep a 450 Watt unit in my house for quiet practice.
More power!
Gotta say, this one surprises me. Music is anything but a cheap hobby. And as a serious profession, its certainly not cheap. If you were a drag racer, you'd be spending in the order of thousands regularly to keep your hobby going. Try pricing out double basses sometime to get a bird's eye view of how things can get spendy quickly. I'm not usually one to say something like this, but if a few hundred bucks is out of your budget in order to have a regular musical blast with your buddies, then maybe it's time to look into other hobbies?
Have you ever used or heard a Peavey Classic 400?
I guess the 300 watts in a SVT just can't cut it in a gig?
It isn't about watts it's about volume.
honestly it is kind of silly to argue about how many watts you "need". For starters speaker cabinets vary enough in sensitivity to make a 100 watt though a sensitive speaker as loud or louder than a 500w amp through a low efficiency speaker cab.
2nd time I went on tour I carried a 90w Traynor Bassmaster and and EV loaded 15" Acoustic cabinet. Due to the efficiency of that cabinet combined with the crazy loud YBA1a I was having soundguys beg me to turn down all over the country!
That said as far as "cheap" amps go, the more watts the better. I wouldn't want to push a cheap amp right up to its full rated power.
I think the ideal find would be a GK400RB and a 4 ohm Peavey 4x10.
I see peavey 2x15 cabinets go for $50-100 all the time. 400RB's, especially the older ones, tend to stay between $100-200.
I've seen bassists from some pretty significant metal bands play with a 400RB and an 8x10 with no problems.
2nd time I went on tour I carried a 90w Traynor Bassmaster and and EV loaded 15" Acoustic cabinet. Due to the efficiency of that cabinet combined with the crazy loud YBA1a I was having soundguys beg me to turn down all over the country!
That said as far as "cheap" amps go, the more watts the better. I wouldn't want to push a cheap amp right up to its full rated power.
I think the ideal find would be a GK400RB and a 4 ohm Peavey 4x10.
I see peavey 2x15 cabinets go for $50-100 all the time. 400RB's, especially the older ones, tend to stay between $100-200.
I've seen bassists from some pretty significant metal bands play with a 400RB and an 8x10 with no problems.
I'm old - KUSTOM-old and in those days I developed a kinda: 'I gotta get back to that sound' attitude.
I do a lot of Motown and lots of Blues and I was playing a lot of Cheese & Wine rooms in Temecula, Socal.
Playing there we weren't allowed to actually make the dishes or the forks rattle, so I learned all about the VOL knob.
The SVTs to me are just too sterile and crystal sharp --- artificial sounding really. Maybe 'modern' is more apt.
I know - EQ is your friend - but I never liked them before and although I tried to create a need for them later on, it just didn't work for me.
As much as I like Peavey - and I have a couple of Peavey rigs but they are only for PA and keyboard and harmonica work - I cannot get into them just like I don't care for what I call TeleTubby basses - the MMs.
Once upon a time I had a Hartke 15 and hated it instantly. So much for Hartke.
I tried to buy the Ampeg 115 combo as a bedroom rig and I didn't think it was 'me' either. I'm not a big tube fan either way.
Now I know this is going to get your feathers up --- but I really like my Acoustic stuff.
So far in a few (3½ years) -- none have failed nor even given me a moment's grief except for what I THOUGHT was a loose driver and it was just a sloppy wire spade connex in the cab.
When I play those 40 acre gigs, I run a B-600H and a B-810 with a pair of B-410s behind the stack, facing rearward. That way I get 360º coverage and I don't get any complaints of dead zones or quiet spots.
With that setup, I'm at a 2Ω load and that just sounds sweet.
Oh yeah - I hadda cut up and jam my wife's Jack LaLane exercise pad into the area under my B-450 combo-amp so it wouldn't rattle. Other than that - no real problems. Don't tell my wife.
It's just preferences, but why cripple oneself if one can afford some Wattage, to not buy it?
You KNOW the Acoustic amps are good - great even, although the cabs can leave a little to be desired in the 'tough' and 'robust' area.
Joe, you are only 10 years my senior.
I play the same style of music too.
You owe it to yourself to try a Fender Bassman 100T.
Flip it to the vintage channel add some modern efficient 15's and you will have what you want at a weight you can move around without busting a nut.
100T- 48 pounds
3015 cab- 42 pounds
and all the tone and volume you want
I play the same style of music too.
You owe it to yourself to try a Fender Bassman 100T.
Flip it to the vintage channel add some modern efficient 15's and you will have what you want at a weight you can move around without busting a nut.
100T- 48 pounds
3015 cab- 42 pounds
and all the tone and volume you want
I've been meaning to try that Fender - although I've heard some bad vibes on it from some people.
I had Fender amps for my guitars before and always liked them for their power and what I felt was 'economy' of knobs and silly gadgets. I dislike gadgets and don't want compressors, distortion, overdrive and all sorts of silly stuff in an amp.
Let an amp do it's thing and add stomps I always say.
Unfortunately the nearest Fender dealer is on the other side of the moon to me here - and I ain't NEVER gonna see one in the local Montana Missoula CL.
Here - take a look-see at Montana's CL fer yerself!!!
[Invalid or Expired Link Removed]
I had Fender amps for my guitars before and always liked them for their power and what I felt was 'economy' of knobs and silly gadgets. I dislike gadgets and don't want compressors, distortion, overdrive and all sorts of silly stuff in an amp.
Let an amp do it's thing and add stomps I always say.
Unfortunately the nearest Fender dealer is on the other side of the moon to me here - and I ain't NEVER gonna see one in the local Montana Missoula CL.
Here - take a look-see at Montana's CL fer yerself!!!
[Invalid or Expired Link Removed]
I know this will get a response from the speaker size doesn't affect bass crowd but....
I remember reading aboyt Phil Leshes setup and I think it was a pair 36" speaker, verticle, being feed with ConEd wattage.
You're doing the 40 acre gigs. What would your thoughts be about this kind of rig? I've been looking for an Eden D118XLT local but I can't even find that. Where would one purchase a pair of 36" speakers, stay focused?
And the verticle part was important.
Let loose the hounds of square inches!
I remember reading aboyt Phil Leshes setup and I think it was a pair 36" speaker, verticle, being feed with ConEd wattage.
You're doing the 40 acre gigs. What would your thoughts be about this kind of rig? I've been looking for an Eden D118XLT local but I can't even find that. Where would one purchase a pair of 36" speakers, stay focused?
And the verticle part was important.
Let loose the hounds of square inches!
See - the word; 'GIG' is so open-ended.
I get to play a lot of 40 acre gigs where anything less than 400 Watts won't make it off the stage.
We don't use a PA or FOH - we play raw, loud and from one point - the stage. We also fill the whole 40 acres.
I tried the toys and tiny lunch box amps and the 12's and they just generally sucked big ones.
If it's fear of a hernia carrying heavy cabs and lots of gear, then I've already had two and if the third happens - well: it happens. Get a cart.
I will not swap out having the Wattage and driver area I need to run some light weight puny single 15" or 2/10 cab at 100 Watts max while I hope it won't die on me.
I keep a 450 Watt unit in my house for quiet practice.
More power!
Depends on the group or crowd. Since the weather is getting wet or snowy now, we cut down the outdoor shows and have moved into a few of the local Grainges and auditoriums in the area.
We're not trying to light up 40 acres, but most places we play are severely booniefied (in the boonies) and we try to stay pretty much that distance away from any other private residences, buildings or towns. In SoCal where I just moved from, we could usually be heard in town about 6 miles away.
In a building, we don't need as much power (remember the VOLUME knob?) but we did a recent private show in a fairground arena that required everything we had here in Montana.
One place - a fire station - has a corrugated steel building for their trucks where we were going to play inside it. It rattled so bad that I had to play really low. Even when we moved in the general outdoor area at that same station, the building would rattle just about as bad when we were 200 feet away, on the other side of the lot.
Drums are on their own - mostly. We tried electric drums once. Just once. Total failure. Drums seem to carry pretty good on a raised platform, which we haul in my P-30.
The vocals are on a PA - two of them really. One Yamaha monster with add-on sub woofies and tilt-backs and a pair of 18s on the wings, that pretty much cooks and I have no idea of the Wattage - but it belongs to the vocalists - (three singers: a brother and two sisters) - and sometimes they alternate shows.
We've had all three singers at the same time though - really nice to hear. They mic and mix themselves on their own board. Sibling voices are really tight!
The other vocal amp is just a mashup of some Peaveys and KUSTOM stuff and a few 15s and 6 satellite 12s w/piezzos on 6' masts. We can and sometimes run the keyboard through it or he uses another Roland (KC? I think) and a Leslie 21-something.
The lead guitar uses twin Bogner Überschell full 4x12x2 straight only stacks and the other guitarist uses a Crate GFX1200 with a full 4x12x2 stack that used to be mine.
Like I said - I bring my 600 Watt and the twin 410s and a 810 and I also pack my old Peavey PA100 for my harmonica and I can use it for a PA/vocal too - but I usually don't. I like to have a mic on a long arm stand in front of me so I can raise it up or down (mostly down) - as I tend to sit down when I play.
Occasionally I make announcements and pass along some patter when there's a new setup happening.
Right now our working book contains about 70 songs - but we like to play 'Jukebox" and let the audience call a song and we try to play it if they come up to sing or play in it too. That keeps you on top of your game and I really like it.
You'd be surprised at the number of retired musicians in that group. I am not allowed to announce any names of them, but there are a couple from the Motown label - one from group of large fame, and another from a well known dance band and a few horn players from New Orleans and such.
But Hey! A bass player can pretty much box-out any song if he can find the key.
Since we tend to only play for friends and parties and get togethers with the same people much the time - it's a big family event. We're fortunate to have a retired 1950s big band drummer and another guy who plays a great trumpet and sax.
We don't seem to hurt for power.
Next week we have an Elk BBQ - not the drinking club-type ELKS, but dead Elk(s?) that were shot and dressed for steaks and stuff - whatever else they make outta Elk meat. We expect 200 people there - and again, it's all mostly that same familial group and their relatives (maybe).
Oh yeah - we play for the fun of it and for Beer & Steaks.
Those 18's are going to waste with just vocals through them. To each his own, but I would be micing the drums (especially the kick) and running the bass, guitar, pretty much EVERYTHING through the PA - not for volume as much as to kind of "unify" the mix.
Whatever works for you though...
It's funny you mention that. I used to be into racing. It can be done cheap(well, relatively), IF you know and accept it's just a hobby. Same here. I don't have any illusions that this is anything but a hobby. A way to make some friends, some music and push myself a little. I don't have much interest in playing to a crowd. I don't have much interest in recording a CD.
This is why a 15 watt has worked for me. 90% of the time, I wear headphones anyway. I only wanted an upgrade to hear myself over some drums and a guitar. The guitarist and drummer are really only necessitated by my desire to learn to play more than the standard radio/album format of popular songs.
