Mainly for my practise room/studio but also to cover me in terms of power requirements such that I would never ever find myself in my life wanting to buy a more powerful bass amp (I just think that lots of speakers and plenty of wattage is the best way to get decent clear bass at any volume), what should I get?
Ampeg SVT410 HLF and some kind of SVT-Pro?
GK Neo 410 and whatever head, I don't really know the range?
Orange OBC410? I have an Orange 2x12 and it's a great cab.
I'd been considering Ashdown or Trace Elliot to keep the price down but
@ICBM has turned me off these what with the "almost definitely will set on fire" thing.
As I'm a guitarist first, a drummer second, a vocalist third, a saxophonist fourth and a bassist soundly last I don't want to go past lets say £700-1000, so probably ruling out Mesa gear unless I find an absolute bargain.
Comments
Barefaced Two10 will do that with ease. Lightweight, very loud indeed. They come up used on Basschat sometimes too.
https://speakerimpedance.co.uk/?act=two_parallel&page=calculator
*Old* Trace Elliot gear is not actually that unreliable, but it weighs an absolute ton and there's really no need for that these days. Ashdown appear to be less bad now than they used to be, but I still don't trust them...
Modern Ampeg gear isn't that good and mostly weighs too much as well.
For what it's worth I'm using an Ibanez Promethean 500W 1x10" combo, and it's (just) loud enough to keep up with a drummer and a guitarist with a cranked Orange Rocker 30 head and a 2x12", even without using an extension cab, so I don't think the old idea of 'if you can't lift it, it can't sound any good' applies to bass gear any longer. It's true that the Promethean doesn't have the sheer thump of my old Peavey T-Max 500W 1x15", but on the other hand it weighs 26lb... not 114lb.
"Take these three items, some WD-40, a vise grip, and a roll of duct tape. Any man worth his salt can fix almost any problem with this stuff alone." - Walt Kowalski
"Only two things are infinite - the universe, and human stupidity. And I'm not sure about the universe." - Albert Einstein
I hadn't heard of Barefaced and this looks like quality stuff.
"Take these three items, some WD-40, a vise grip, and a roll of duct tape. Any man worth his salt can fix almost any problem with this stuff alone." - Walt Kowalski
"Only two things are infinite - the universe, and human stupidity. And I'm not sure about the universe." - Albert Einstein
I suspect that your bass player has fallen into the trap of dialling in a sound that seems full for home/solitary practice and simply turning up louder for stage sound pressure levels rather than tweaking to sit in a full band mix.
It was a shit idea when it first came out, and now it's even worse.
Find the speaker you like and if you want more - add more of the same. Don't expect more of what you like by adding something different. That's just crazy talk.
https://speakerimpedance.co.uk/?act=two_parallel&page=calculator
I had a Mesa 'Powerhouse' cab once that had a 15", a 10", two 6"s and a horn - and no crossover, except for the horn. They just allowed the natural frequency responses to work together, and it sounded absolutely massive - full-range without being too hi-fi. Unfortunately it was also about the size and weight of an office block, and with the world's most uncomfortable side handles.
I also had a Trace Elliot stack with a 1x15" cab and a 2x10"+2x5" cab that was nice. The small cab had an internal crossover for the 5s, but both cabs were run in parallel from the amp.
I'm currently thinking of getting a lightweight 1x15" to go with my 1x10" combo.
"Take these three items, some WD-40, a vise grip, and a roll of duct tape. Any man worth his salt can fix almost any problem with this stuff alone." - Walt Kowalski
"Only two things are infinite - the universe, and human stupidity. And I'm not sure about the universe." - Albert Einstein
If I was doing it again I would probably have two 1*12 so you can scale up if you need two cabs. There are so many brands out there today and usually quite good.
As for amps its all down to personal taste and I am not going into valve vs solid state arguments or class D because personally I dont care. I use the gear to play music and no one in the audience cares really how I sound like as long as they are moved by the groove. But I would go with a decent light amp as well.