Bass amp (head) for small to medium gigs?

MattBanshee

I play in two bands; a loud fuzzy noise-rock band, and a punk band with a very snappy drummer. My PF350 keeps up easily with both of those, in the studio and live (using Fender P or Jazz). I've also loaned my rig to my friend who is the bassist in Slabdragger and Bastard Hammer (I'm sure you can imagine what they sound like) and he was able to use it live with no issues too.

Edit for clarification: I also have an Ampeg SVT head, so I have experience with what is loud, and what is very very loud. 

MattBanshee

KKJale said:

Creed_Clicks said:

I had been thinking of the Trace Elliot Elf, but 200 watts might not be enough?

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Ampeg Portaflex 350? Hybrid etc?

One hybrid head I'd recommend is the mk1 Orange Bass Terror, which generally run around £300 used. Not at all terror-ish in the metal sense, it's a super fat sounding, almost zero EQ 9lb lunchbox amp with - for a Class D power section head - real character. You can tweak the gaininess with a bit of preamp valve swapping, which is fun. It's also fecking loud and puts a true near-500w into 4 or 8 ohms.

The Mk.1 Bass Terror represents excellent bang for your buck.

As in, you pay your buck, then it goes bang.

KKJale

MattBanshee said:

I play in two bands; a loud fuzzy noise-rock band, and a punk band with a very snappy drummer. My PF350 keeps up easily with both of those, in the studio and live (using Fender P or Jazz). I've also loaned my rig to my friend who is the bassist in Slabdragger and Bastard Hammer (I'm sure you can imagine what they sound like) and he was able to use it live with no issues too.

Edit for clarification: I also have an Ampeg SVT head, so I have experience with what is loud, and what is very very loud. 

There ya go, horses for courses. All i know is, for me the 350 is not loud enough. With the same speaker cab, the Orange is loud enough, and so is a Quilter 800. 

KKJale

MattBanshee said:

As in, you pay your buck, then it goes bang.

Haha. JPFamps of this parish would agree with you, he's mended mine several times. 

Creed_Clicks

@MattBanshee haha good to know and I must check out those bands !
I’m trying to remember the Peavey 1x15 combo I used to borrow years ago. I don’t think it was that high in terms of watts but it had no problem keeping up with full band.

mike257

Another recommendation for Barefaced cabs - built in the UK to a very high standard, and Alex who designs them is a proper wizard. Lightweight, efficient, fantastic kit. 

There's a lot of good Class D kit around. The Darkglass heads sound tremendous, and Genzler stuff is brilliant too. I've got a couple of Genz Benz amps (Jeff Genzler's previous company that was bought out and shut down by Fender so they could pinch his designs for the lightweight Rumble series) and they're great, the Genzler stuff seems even better. 

bassbora

There is a lot of good equipment out there for not so much cash. I would check out the classifieds on basschat. That’s where I got most of my gigging gear. 

As for watts, like what everyone has said it’s not like you have to have it on 10 all the time. I gigged a borrowed Hartke 3500 for a year and that was decent and never ran out of steam. I then bought GenzBenz Streamliner 600 which was great but changed over to Mesa Subway which I prefer. 

I love how light and simple these heads are and I have even used the Mesa on its own just using the DI when needed. 

Great cab suggestions here again I went with Bergantino and I have 1 2x12 and 1 1x12 neo cabs so I only need to bring what I need to a gig instead of a massive rig. 

Funkfingers

Bridgehouse said:

old Trace Elliot 1x15 combo ... it weighs as much as a Nissan Micra.

I occasionally miss the outright power of my former Marshall DBS 7400/7210/7115 stack but I never miss carrying it or loading it in and out of an estate car. 

I still have the 7210 cabinet somewhere.

ICBM

Funkfingers said:

Bridgehouse said:

old Trace Elliot 1x15 combo ... it weighs as much as a Nissan Micra.

I occasionally miss the outright power of my former Marshall DBS 7400/7210/7115 stack but I never miss carrying it or loading it in and out of an estate car. 

I still have the 7210 cabinet somewhere.

Likewise I sometimes miss my Trace Elliot MkV AH250 - but not lifting it onto the top of the Marshall reflex-ported Sidewinder-loaded 1x15". I replaced that with a Series 6 AH200, 2x10" and 1x15" which was more portable but never quite had the sheer thump and projection.

But taking the biscuit is the Mesa Big Block 750 and Powerhouse 1x15", 1x10", 2x6" and horn cab with full flightcase trim which weighed exactly as much as I do, and had the world's most uncomfortable side handles. The cab left the house twice - once when I took it to a band practice, and once when I got rid of it... but it did sound epic at that one practice.

Grunfeld

Got an Ampeg B500DR I've been meaning to sell for ages.  This is it in a rack.  If you're interested I can price it and take more pics. 

Long story short it has been a great solid state gigging amp that's been reliable all the time it was in service.

Mr_Orange

The Gallien-Krueger MB range would be my go to. I've got the MB fusion and I've used it from small background music party gigs to outdoor festivals.

Creed_Clicks

The way things have gone, a gigging amp is bumped way down the list of gear / GAS