Bass amplification

clarke_111

Hi all, looking for some advice. I’ve recently picked up a bass guitar - Squier CV Mustang, and am loving it. I’m a long term guitar player, but enjoying the different challenge the bass poses.

I currently have a Boss GX100 moddeller that I use for most of my guitar tones (amps and FX) and I run that into the ‘power amp in’ on the Boss Katana 50. I’ve found I get good/usable bedroom level guitar tones out of that set up no problem. 

I’ve built a couple of bass patches on the GX100 and am using the same set up currently for bass. It sounds ok, but slightly lacking when playing the low ‘E’ and I don’t want to risk damaging the katana speaker so I’m considering other options.

One option is to go for the Boss Katana bass amp - though I wonder how much better this will sound at low levels than having a bass patch on the GX100 running into the power amp in on the katana 50 - am I likely to notice much difference?

My other option is to get some IK multimedia I loud micro monitors and use these for the guitar and bass using the patches from the GX100. Anyone got any experience of these monitors and how they sounds and feel. 

Any advice would be appreciated! Obviously this solution is looking at good sounds at bedroom/l to loud bedroom volume levels 

Fingers657

All I can do is highly recommend the 

Boss Katana Bass 110 60W Combo

It’s the smaller one of the two options and it’s brilliant .
It’s awesome for home and studio use and live in small venues.
It gives you lots of great options for a great price.
I bought mine from GAK in Brighton when it was first released and I think they still offer great prices online.

clarke_111

Thanks, yep, that is the Katana I was looking at, sounds like it is a good bet. I like the guitar one so not surprised to hear the bass version is good also 

ICBM

If you're just playing at bedroom/home levels then the speaker in the Katana is not at risk. Don't gig/jam/rehearse with it at band volume though.

Still, the dedicated bass version will likely sound much better - guitar and bass amps are really quite different in sound nowadays, unlike in the (distant) past when they were very similar.

Fingers657

clarke_111 said:

Thanks, yep, that is the Katana I was looking at, sounds like it is a good bet. I like the guitar one so not surprised to hear the bass version is good also 

I have tried it with guitars after watching a Dave Simpson video on his misses larger one and it works really well with both guitars and Bass.
One of the best sounding Bass amps of all time became one of the best sounding guitar amps of all time .
The classic Fender Bassman 

clarke_111

Fingers657 said:

clarke_111 said:

Thanks, yep, that is the Katana I was looking at, sounds like it is a good bet. I like the guitar one so not surprised to hear the bass version is good also 

I have tried it with guitars after watching a Dave Simpson video on his misses larger one and it works really well with both guitars and Bass.
One of the best sounding Bass amps of all time became one of the best sounding guitar amps of all time .
The classic Fender Bassman 

You’ve sold me! Just watched the Dave Simpson video, sounds great on guitar as well so would work really well for me. Thanks for the heads up!

UnclePsychosis

For bass playing at home I run a Tech 21 VT preamp into a Yamaha HS7 powered speaker and it works fantastically well. 

I suspect the GX-100 into a powered speaker would be similarly ace. 

fretmeister

UnclePsychosis said:

For bass playing at home I run a Tech 21 VT preamp into a Yamaha HS7 powered speaker and it works fantastically well. 

I suspect the GX-100 into a powered speaker would be similarly ace. 

The HS7's are fantastic. I've got 3. I had been using all to do WDW set up with my Helix, but now I have 2 for my PC and the third is in my rack with my Helix for when I don't want to turn on my PC.

BoyceBrown

Thanks for the advice.

crunchman

For home use, the 25W Fender Rumble is really good.  Sounds like a proper bass amp, not a little practice amp.

ICBM

crunchman said:

For home use, the 25W Fender Rumble is really good.  Sounds like a proper bass amp, not a little practice amp.

It's difficult to overstate how much better than the Rumble 15 it is - quite astoundingly so, despite having only another 10W and the same size 8" speaker. (Although a different model.) The 15 is actually a nice little bedroom bass amp, but the 25 is in a totally different league, even for home playing.

Funkfingers

I was about to suggest the Fender Rumble Studio 40 until I read how expensive it has become.

Digital modelling is all well and good but not when it costs almost three times as much.

If cost is the main consideration, there is an argument for elderly solid state gear. Trace-Elliot, Laney, Peavey and even dear, old Marshall are all worth a look. These behemoths can be picked up ridiculously cheaply.

I almost nabbed a T-E 7210 GP7 combo for a song. I decided against because that would send me searching for either the matching 1x15 extension cabinet or a 7115 GP7. Running two combos might work for some Billy Sheehan stuff.

crunchman

Funkfingers said:

If cost is the main consideration, there is an argument for elderly solid state gear. Trace-Elliot, Laney, Peavey and even dear, old Marshall are all worth a look. These behemoths can be picked up ridiculously cheaply.

I got a 250W Warwick bass amp for £100 that was about £700 when it was new.  It had a couple of issues, but I think it ended up costing me about £150.   Those big old amps go for very little these days.

Funkfingers

Funkfingers said:

I almost nabbed a T-E 7210 GP7 combo for a song.

The price dropped, so did my ability to resist. 

I am now mulling over finding a T-E 1x15 item or transferring the amp chassis into a head sleeve and driving a modern lightweight loudspeaker array.