Bass Amp Advice Please

pintspiller

A rehearsal room ive been to uses a Laney and its sweet

MrBump

ICBM said:

Whichever Fender Rumble Bass combo you can afford. They really punch far above their weight - even the little 25W one.

I would avoid the TC, I have seen several faulty ones, as seems sadly common with all their modern products.

The 50W Eden might be enough at the sort of volume you're talking about. If not, you can pick up a large number of older bass combos in the 100-300W range, usually with either a 12" or 15" speaker, for very cheap nowadays. Laney, Peavey, Trace Elliot and others all made many models in this sort of size and most are easily available in good working order for £100 to £150. The reason they're cheap is that they tend to be heavy.

Also avoid all Ashdowns - they aren't nicknamed 'Breakdown' for nothing.

I've got a Rumble 500.  I'm a guitarist first, and a bass player second.  The Rumble is really, really good, to my ears.  Gets very loud if you want, can be matched with an additional cab for more loud.

Rocker

Depends on your budget and expectations but you won't go far wrong by choosing a Markbass combo.

Duppy03

Great feedback, thanks all.

Because my budget is so low (£100) and I wouldn't have space for a combo (without selling a guitar amp first) I'm probably best off waiting to see if gigs on bass become more of a regular thing, but I know what to look for now when I'm ready to do so.

Duppy03

I have Stumbled upon a Frankenstein solution to see me through for now after rifling the junk drawers at home and finding bits of equipment that I can piece together like the A-Team:

Korg Ampworks AX10B into a Behringer G100 DI box, then send the XLR feed to the PA Desk and the line out to a Laney A1+ 75w vocal/acoustic amp/monitor thingy so I can hear myself on stage.

Not ideal but it should work

Duppy03

i will be keeping my eyes peeled for Rumbles, Markbass, Laney RB's and Eden combos though, cause if one pops up at a bargain price i'll just have to snag it 

ICBM

Duppy03 said:

I have Stumbled upon a Frankenstein solution to see me through for now after rifling the junk drawers at home and finding bits of equipment that I can piece together like the A-Team:

Korg Ampworks AX10B into a Behringer G100 DI box, then send the XLR feed to the PA Desk and the line out to a Laney A1+ 75w vocal/acoustic amp/monitor thingy so I can hear myself on stage.

Not ideal but it should work

Yes it will work - just be careful not to overdo the level with the Laney, it probably won't like trying to put out a lot of power in the bass range. As long as you're using it purely to hear yourself and the PA is doing all the work out front it should be OK. If there are normal PA monitors, it might be safer to use those, either as well or entirely - bearing in mind the other band members will need to hear you.

Bridgehouse

Duppy03 said:

i will be keeping my eyes peeled for Rumbles, Markbass and Eden combos though, cause if one pops up at a bargain price i'll just have to snag it 

If you don't mind the weight (and many do, but..) you could pick up a bargain Trace Elliot combo - you'll get loud, good tone, bombproof gigging build, and Er, weight, for your budget - they really are good bang for buck...

ICBM

Bridgehouse said:

If you don't mind the weight (and many do, but..) you could pick up a bargain Trace Elliot combo - you'll get loud, good tone, bombproof gigging build, and Er, weight, for your budget - they really are good bang for buck…

Be careful… some models are more bombproof than others - in particular avoid the Commando. Most of the others are fairly decent, although anything earlier than a Series 6 is getting old and unreliable now.

A particularly good one if you can lift it is the BLX - which came in 80W and 130W (and possibly 150W, I can't remember) models - they're cheap because they weigh an astonishing amount for their size. The achieve very good volume and non-directional sound projection by using a clever acoustic cabinet design, but which involves rather a lot of internal baffling, all made from heavy MDF.

Bridgehouse

What are these like @ICBM?

https://rover.ebay.com/rover/0/0/0?mpre=https://www.ebay.co.uk/ulk/itm/192343238493

ICBM

Bridgehouse said:

What are these like @ICBM?

https://rover.ebay.com/rover/0/0/0?mpre=https://www.ebay.co.uk/ulk/itm/192343238493

Excellent. The only slightly weak point is the speaker, although many have already been replaced. (That one hasn't.)

That one even has the very rare tuning port covers as well, almost all of which ended up as ashtrays in rehearsal rooms I think!

Bridgehouse

ICBM said:

Bridgehouse said:

What are these like @ICBM?

https://rover.ebay.com/rover/0/0/0?mpre=https://www.ebay.co.uk/ulk/itm/192343238493

Excellent. The only slightly weak point is the speaker, although many have already been replaced. (That one hasn't.)

That one even has the very rare tuning port covers as well, almost all of which ended up as ashtrays in rehearsal rooms I think!

It's certainly a bargain for the money (tho collect only, lol!)

Would be a good rehearsal room amp I reckon, or might suit the OP perfectly..

BigLicks67

Looks like my old amp☺

Bridgehouse

BigLicks67 said:

Looks like my old amp☺

Was it any good?

BigLicks67

Bridgehouse said:

BigLicks67 said:

Looks like my old amp☺

Was it any good?

Yes, I loved it. Not that heavy either, but I was young and strong then.

Bridgehouse

BigLicks67 said:

Bridgehouse said:

BigLicks67 said:

Looks like my old amp☺

Was it any good?

Yes, I loved it. Not that heavy either, but I was young and strong then.

Interesting. I need to get a TE someday.

misowaki

As unsexy as they are, Laney and Peavey make great stuff.  Trace ain't bad either.  There's a reason they're pretty standard fare in most rehearsal rooms.  Turned up to rehearsal last night to a beast of an old Peavey and chuckled to myself, thinking "top quality gear, here" and ate my words almost instantly, as I do every time I use one of them. 

At rehearsals, I used an old Laney Linebacker combo up until recently.  Can't have been more than 100w.  I've had that amp over a decade and the worst that's happened is crackly pots.  Used to belong to a dude that did not care for his gear one bit.  It was pushing the limits but it held it's own against 3 guitars and a keyboard, twice a week for about a year until I got something bigger so something like that sounds ideal.  They're cheap as chips if you can find one.

Otherwise, Rumbles are great.  I had a 500w head and I almost regret selling it to buy a Portaflex.  Played a 500w combo at a gig and it was brown town.  A beast of a combo.

Duppy03

I wouldn’t turn my nose up at a Peavey, Kim Deal used a 15” combo and I always thought her bass sounded great

Duppy03

A Hartke A100 has popped up local as an affordable option.100 watts with 15” speaker. Any opinions on wether it’s worth a punt?

ICBM

Duppy03 said:

A Hartke A100 has popped up local as an affordable option.100 watts with 15” speaker. Any opinions on wether it’s worth a punt?

Yes, that's a good amp - obviously check it's fully working and there are no other issues. It's only worth about £100-£125 according to recent Ebay sales, but for that it would be a decent amp for the money.