Help needed with bass amp choice

John_A

jpfamps said:

I would avoid Behringer and Ashdown gear.

Agree on Behringer (although they do make the odd great bass head) and Ashdown's confusing range goes from awful rubbish to excellent pro gear

John_A

ICBM said:

John_A said:

Would say the OP's requirement of 'More Watts the better as I'll be pub gigging' is a bit of a tricky one, it's not just watts that matter, a 250W bass amp through a good couple of cabs, is much better than a 500W through a 1x10 

I would say the cab size and efficiency is *more* important than the amp power for filling a room from the stage. With modern high-excursion drivers some of the little ones will really shift a lot of air though - it's the 'swept volume' which matters. As usual this starts to cost money...

Yes, my little Barefaced 110 (see pic above) is amazing, I reckon 2 of them would be more than enough for a rock gig without PA support with my Ampeg head, expensive though, £369 a pop for a 110 cab, but IMO worth it

ICBM

John_A said:

jpfamps said:

I would avoid Behringer and Ashdown gear.

Agree on Behringer (although they do make the odd great bass head) and Ashdown's confusing range goes from awful rubbish to excellent pro gear

I'm definitely seeing less new Ashdown gear than the old ones that were easily the most common bass amps in for repair. But at least most of them can be repaired fairly easily, it's all old-school design and construction, even if a bit flimsy.

Behringer stuff is 'differently' problematic - I would say they're more reliable in use, but if they go down much harder to work on and very quickly become uneconomical... like the ones with everything attached to a huge heatsink that covers almost all the main board.

Musicwolf

KKJale said:

Take a look at the Fender Rumble 500. 

Bass player in my band recently bought a Rumble (he went head and two cabs).  I was very impressed.  He still makes the same mistakes as before only now they sound a lot better.

FriskyDingo

I do understand a decent amount of speakers or large speakers are needed to shift the air but just don't want to be wanting more Watts. I'd rather have more than needed

ICBM

FriskyDingo said:

I do understand a decent amount of speakers or large speakers are needed to shift the air but just don't want to be wanting more Watts. I'd rather have more than needed

Aha... you're a real bass player .

Not like most guitarists who seem to want less power than they really need so they can thrash some feeble underpowered amp half to death, and then wonder why it sounds too compressed and they can't get a boost for a solo .

FriskyDingo

ICBM said:

FriskyDingo said:

I do understand a decent amount of speakers or large speakers are needed to shift the air but just don't want to be wanting more Watts. I'd rather have more than needed

Aha... you're a real bass player .

Not like most guitarists who seem to want less power than they really need so they can thrash some feeble underpowered amp half to death, and then wonder why it sounds too compressed and they can't get a boost for a solo .

A real bass player? You both flatter me, and over estimate my abilities