Same here. Eventually I "graduated" to a Peavey stack consisting of one 18" BW, 2 10s in a separate powered cabinet, and a Peavey head of some sort.
None of this gear sounded worth anything and none of it was fun to haul around.
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Your First "Real" Bass AMP (Caution, Old Guy Content)
- Thread starter knockerjoe
- Start date
Same here. Eventually I "graduated" to a Peavey stack consisting of one 18" BW, 2 10s in a separate powered cabinet, and a Peavey head of some sort.
None of this gear sounded worth anything and none of it was fun to haul around.
My Bruce amp in my bedroom 1969 . I'd used my older brothers 65 Fender Bandmaster with the small 212 cab for about a year before this , not a proper bass amp but at low volumes it worked . The Bruce was a 215 cab with a 100 watt poweramp built into the bottom of the cab . The head was a preamp , no power in it . A couple of the most popular bands in the area used these with JBLs in them and those were the guys I wanted to sound like . Pretty decent amp for the time .
My first "good" amp was a Standel, 100 watts solid state, 2x15's lovely clear tone. For the first time I could hear my bass without the fuzzy geese fart sound of my first amp which was a Supro Thunderbass (the one guitar players lust for nowadays) it was the worst bass amp ever made! I also had a Guild Thunderbass with 2x12's which was the last time I ever used a tube bass amp. It should have been called Guild FuzzBass! Have been happily solid state since 1972!
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Old tube Bassman combo with 4 10s was my first giggable amp. Speakers farted badly if pushed. Think I paid $200 for it, this would be early 1990s.
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This was my first pro amp set-up, during my college days. A Hartke 410XL and a Fender BXR200 bass amp. Combined, it was 115 lbs. This, along with the Jazz Bass, saw plenty of work. All purchased for $600. That investment returned at least triple what I paid over the three years I had them. I miss that Jazz like crazy. The amp, not so much...
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Back in 1968, I needed more than the Fender Bassman amp with 2-10's. Sold it and and ordered a Dynaco amp and custom cabinet with 2-15" JBL D140F speakers. The guitar shop said the amp was 100w. I couldn't afford a good name brand.
The amp looked a little weird...it was 12" square, 9" high and enclosed in a brown, metal-screened cage. I played a new, '68 Fender Telecaster bass through it and it had a great sound and plenty of volume in clubs and mid-size auditoriums, especially if played on a stage. It was funny to watch the light from the tubes dim when driven.
I just found out today that the amp was the basis of the first Sunn amps...no wonder it sounded so good. It makes me wonder if the shop that sold it to me just copied them?
The amp looked a little weird...it was 12" square, 9" high and enclosed in a brown, metal-screened cage. I played a new, '68 Fender Telecaster bass through it and it had a great sound and plenty of volume in clubs and mid-size auditoriums, especially if played on a stage. It was funny to watch the light from the tubes dim when driven.
I just found out today that the amp was the basis of the first Sunn amps...no wonder it sounded so good. It makes me wonder if the shop that sold it to me just copied them?
I started to play bass in the mid 90's and it was before the "class D explosion" but the trend of that period was solid state amps or hybrid amps (tube preamp, solid state power section)..which are lighter than all tube gear, but nowadays they seems so damn heavy to me.
Back in that day, in my country , most of amateur/local players had Peavey TNT's combos. Seriuos and pro bands had Trace Elliot gear (they were the two main bass options avalaible in stores). And for everybody I knew Hartke was the "Rolls Royce" of bass amplification : The best gear and out of everybody's legue.
Because I was unable to buy a Trace Elliot or Peavey rig , my first bass amp was a cheap Laney BC120 combo. I did a lot of gigs with it until a guy let me try his Hartke 200W combo in 1999
I sold some used stuff, asked my bank for a loan and in I bought a brand new Hartke HA3500 head and two brand new Hartke Transporter cabs. (1x15 and 4x10) and it's my actual rig since then.
Nowadays I use a Sansamp and I go ampless everytime it's possible. If I must load the bass amp I grab the Head and just the 4X10 cabinet. I'm looking for the new Hartke HD500 combo (class D , 2x10 neodymium speakers , 36 lbs..)
Back in that day, in my country , most of amateur/local players had Peavey TNT's combos. Seriuos and pro bands had Trace Elliot gear (they were the two main bass options avalaible in stores). And for everybody I knew Hartke was the "Rolls Royce" of bass amplification : The best gear and out of everybody's legue.
Because I was unable to buy a Trace Elliot or Peavey rig , my first bass amp was a cheap Laney BC120 combo. I did a lot of gigs with it until a guy let me try his Hartke 200W combo in 1999
I sold some used stuff, asked my bank for a loan and in I bought a brand new Hartke HA3500 head and two brand new Hartke Transporter cabs. (1x15 and 4x10) and it's my actual rig since then.
Nowadays I use a Sansamp and I go ampless everytime it's possible. If I must load the bass amp I grab the Head and just the 4X10 cabinet. I'm looking for the new Hartke HD500 combo (class D , 2x10 neodymium speakers , 36 lbs..)
At least it had tiny little casters... I got my first amp used. Man, was it underpowered.
Fender Bassman 10.
OMG! My very first real outfit as well - and the bright switch right next to the EQ. I remember it well . . . . It lasted about three years of use and abuse and steady gigging before a strange episode of buzzing and smoke brought its useful life to an end.This looks exactly like my first real bass amp - or it's very close - came with a 215 speaker cabinet. It was my high school graduation present in 1982.
This would have been about a year before you got yours.
LOL Got my Ampeg flip top when I was 16. Made me remember that I hid porn in mine. Had only volume, bass, treble, and ultra treble. No mid or gain. So the Blue Tube pedal gave it some mids and dirt. Used it at a jam session once, it was the house amp for the night. So it was my first real amp. My first amp was some cheap Sears amp that blew up in a matter of months.
My first real amp was a Peavey Mark IV I bought used. Knowing next to nothing about cabs, I bought a used 115+110 to go with it. There was no crossover or anything else inside, so the 10 did not last too long. We had a gig where no communitation between the bands happened and 4 bassists brought their rigs. Long story short, we naturally hooked all of them together. When the 10" speaker coughed out his life in a small explosion, pieces of the metal cone nearly blinded someone in the audience.
The rest of that cab has crossed the styx a few years later. I still have that head, though. It still works albeit sitting in an attic for nearly a decade. I'll use it when I survive the atomic war and all the class D heads stopped working.
Failing that, it could double as a tank trap or wrecking ball.
The rest of that cab has crossed the styx a few years later. I still have that head, though. It still works albeit sitting in an attic for nearly a decade. I'll use it when I survive the atomic war and all the class D heads stopped working.
Failing that, it could double as a tank trap or wrecking ball.
