Bass Amps - Any Recommendations?

[John Maddison]

Hi All

There was a post on here just prior to the Global Forum Crash related to guitar amps, and I'd chimed in for advice on bass amps for my son. Cannot see that the post has been resurrected (or has it?) so am starting again ... Sam has just yesterday taken delivery of his birthday/christmas present, an Ibanez SR705 (we got it off eBay from a guy in Queensland at around half the RRP and it's in good nick). It's got a low B string which, apparently, is a pretty cool thing to have when you're 17 years old.

We're now in the market for a half decent practice bass amp to go with the Ibanez, price range around $400-500. So far he's had Hartke and Ampeg brands mentioned by mates in bands but am hoping there may be bass gurus in the ANZLF who might chime in with advice.

Cheers & thanks

[Bob Connor]

Hartke and Ampeg are the creme de la creme of bass rigs but you won't get one for $4-500 John.

Maybe look at an older second hand Peavey combo.

Peavey do have new combos with 15" speaker but they're only 50-60 watts which isn't a lot in Bass speak.

Regards

[Bob Connor]

How about this!!!

http://www.andysmusiconline.com/products/swx100.html

[kiwigeo]

I would start with this as a beginners kit and expand the rig once the kid gets his chops

PS: Bob, we need to get a bigger forum!

[John Maddison]

Yeah Bob, had a feeling about Hartke & Ampeg models being up-market; there's somethin' about these young guns - they go for the top end (now don't get me started, but in MY day ...... ).

Thanks for the heads-up re the Ibanez SWX100; looks like it could be a goer. We're trawling eBay again this weekend, and Sam's still got one more Tertiary Entrance (Year 12) economics exam next Tuesday ... wish me luck for keeping him focussed on THAT !

[Nick]

I used (& still have) a Marshall bass state combo (b150) when I was in the band several years ago, it was reasonably priced at the time if I remember rightly & can reproduce bass tones at low 'practice' levels or can literally blow the calves off the back of your legs if required. Godaweful heavey! (think the magnet on the 12" speaker came from the large Hadron collider!) I ended up making a trolley that it sat on semi-permanently to get it in & out of the venues. I too used a low B 5 string (which I made myself ofcourse! )

Think they are still available secondhand, but Marshall in general get my vote & they do smaller wattage amps (30's & 65's I think) as well as a Hartke. Peavey's can be a little 'brittle' with their sound but good solid dependable amps.

[bassbuilderman]

Hi John,
I went thru this exercise about 5 years ago for my son as well.
I ended up buying a Behringer 60 watt model (not sure if it still a current model) with active and
passive inputs. MODEL BX600
More than enough grunt for gigging whereever he plays, and plenty of knobs etc to get all sorts of
tones

Cost me $360 at Music Junction in Camberwell VIC

Hope this helps

Michael

[P Bill]

John

Go to: http://www.ozbassforum.com .
You'll Find all the information you can handle from very knowledgeable people and a for sale section. Also cab. build threads .

[Dominic]

John, the problem with value amps is that you have to crank them to get the tone and this annoys the whole street. And if you turn it down there is nothing worse than playing your favourite piece through an under powered amp. You just get mud. I had the same issue with a guitar amp. So in the end after much reading and looking around I got a GNX4 from digitech and a couple of studio monitors, it is a modelling amp.

With it I can get any amp sound I want from beautiful cleans to heavy overdriven amp distortion sounds for playing metal without melting the windows. It is a modelling amp that has bass models also. It is very versatile and you can subscribe to a service that gives you access to many many very well put together patches of just about any amp you can think of. New patches are released all the time and the patches react to different playing styles or attack the same as a value amp. That is, a heavy attack will make the sound break up, just like a value amp.

The studio monitors don't colour the sound at all and you get pure tone. I absolutely love it. There are dedicated bass models around or smaller pedals without every bell and whistle great for practice. But the trick is to run them through powered studio monitors (which are very flat), not an amp to get great tone. The speakers in the amp always colour the sound, usually the wrong way. And you can gig with them by running the output through the PA but I have played mine with a drummer and another 60 watt amp and it easily competes.
Hope this helps.
Dom