Bass amplification ideas...

[avj]

So, I've taken on the role of bassist for a side project, and I've got a new bass that I'm happy with. I'm now researching ideas for a bass rig.

Any gigging bassists like Gavin or Doog or roachello (to quickly name a few off the top of my head), or potential countless others that I don't know about want to share their gig setups?

The style of sound I go for could best be described as "vintage" or, I suppose, "fairly pussy, by real bassist standards". It's a mostly acoustic guitar and percussion-based group, so I don't really need to be Chris Squire or Tony Levin here -- as much as I'd love to. For a few years I've been using an EHX Black Finger compressor and SansAmp into my '73 Vibrosonic Reverb (essentially a 100-watt Twin with a single 15 instead of 2x12). It's incredible at reasonable volumes for home and practice, but I don't want to risk throwing the coil because it's my absolute favorite guitar amp in the world.

I'm thinking about perhaps picking up a 15" bass cab to use in lieu of the Vibrosonic's speaker. If that turns out to be a shit setup, I then at least have a cab to whip a head onto. I'm a huge fan of being creative with available gear, but I don't think I'll be able to get around at least using a proper bass cab on this one.

Any suggestions or recommendations?

[Berto]

i use a hartke ha2500 through a homemade 2x12 cabs that consists of two eminence basslite speakers, a crossover, and a midrange horn. The head has a tube voicing preamp and you can blend it with a solid state tone or keep it 100% fake tube. Sounds good though.

[kim]

ashdown for budget tops (loved their mag 300 it was my gigging amp and always got good comments)

ampeg svt410 classic cab with another 210 eden nemesis. i don't know if the nemesis series are still around but they make good cabs and very affordable.

also used a sansamp bass driver to give it the 'balls' of a tube amp, worked great. three settings, clean, overdrive and very overdriven.

i like lots of mids on bas but also the ballsyness of the bass sound in tool (yes, i like tool for the bas sound). of course it's hard to get the sound of a wal bass, and i always wanted a wal mk1 but being lefty and broke, no way. but i was pretty happy with that ashdown/ampeg/eden setup.

the top was like 300eur, cab 700 and the nemesis cab i don't remember but i think maybe 200/300 ? i guess maybe an eden nemesis 410 would be around 400/500 so for less than 1000 you have a good ashdown top and 410cab, you have the (bass driver ?)sansamp already and that does make your rig sound pretty fucking massive in just a pedal.

though i must say, i used to have an ampeg blue rocket 15" combo, and i loved the 15 and how middy it sounded, just not enough power (and just one15") but always wished i could have that blue rocket as a top ...

and som 12"s in my setup, but stayed with 10"s for weight and size, and budget lol
i think now if i had unlimited money i'd keep that same setup with the ashdown and sansamp but for cabs add a GK 212 to the ampeg 410 cab, that would've been nice.


but i got kicked out of the last band i played bass in, was so pissed off, sold most of my gear cept for the p bass and ampeg cab..but i miss it..bass.


oh fuck wait...acoustic setup... you just need a cab ? you'll be fine with a single 15" or maybe a 212 or something keep it a bit warm and wooly not too direct like 10"s, maybe ashdown cabs are worth checking out ? they have a budget line, or those eden nemesis.

[hotrodperlmutter]

[stewart]

we've just purchased an ashdown MAG300 15" combo, got it for £200 and gavin broke its cherry at a gig on saturday. i thought it sounded pretty good, only thing is we're thinking of getting a 2x10" extension cab to give it a bit more onstage volume / projection. it's not the loudest, most trouser-flapping bass amp i've ever heard, but at that price i ain't complaining. he could probably tell you more about the finer points of it than i, though.

[kim]

yeah, i don't remember my exact settings, you had three buttons with clarity or bass boost and stuff and then the sub oct knob, i kept the sub oct on but with the knob barely open just a hint of sub and then at the same time boosting the clarity, sounded great, but greater with the sansamp into it.

a 15" cab only for a gigging rockband can be lacking and 10" have much more punch and sound more direct so that alone make a huge difference in volume on stage, just for yourself most of the time at gigs though

[stewart]

sounded great, but greater with the sansamp into it.

yeah, gavage uses his OCD, it'd sound a wee bit tame without that extra crunch, i reckon.

[Doog]

I adore Ashdown amps but own an ancient HH head and made a cab from an old dead Carlsbro combo... althoug it doesn't ever get used live since I don't drive.

On the whole, it's generally fine to use a guitar setup with a bass (otherwise octave pedals around the world would be blowing up guitar rigs), but you could fairly easily kill a guitar speaker/cab using with a bass amp and bass.

[Sloan]

if your band has a decent pa with 15" mains, fuck a bass amp, and run your sansamp into the pa. less gear, less hassle, good sound.

[SKC Willie]

if your band has a decent pa with 15" mains, fuck a bass amp, and run your sansamp into the pa. less gear, less hassle, good sound.

If you buy the cheapest amp you can that will get you loud enough and run a sansamp through it, you will sound wonderful. The sansamp, seriously, is one of the best things you can invest in, regarding bass gear.

[damienblair17]

I can't comment on SansAmp 'cause I've never used one live (I do have the Behringer copy that's decent), but if you're looking for cheap, reliable bass amplification, look at the Ampeg BA115 combo. 100 watts for all the power you'll ever need for your setup, easy to use tone controls, and a style switch for basic tone variations. I've got one and although I've moved up to a half stack, I still love the tone and use it whenever I need a smaller setup.

[stewart]

100 watts for all the power you'll ever need for your setup

...unless you're playing in a room with crap acoustics or on a big stage, then you won't be able to hear yourself for love nor money.

[Doog]

Yeah, that's nonsense, unless you're talking valve amps.

Bass frequencies take more power to produce than higher guitar-range frequencies, so 300-500w is a safer ceiling level if you don't want the power amp distorting- I've used 100w bass combos over the years and they pretty much never cut it with a loud rock band.

[Mike]

If I was playing bass onstage I would want a 300W rating for comfortable headroom aswell as being plumbed into the PA.

Jon in Sell Crazy has one of these (the older model though), which is a 300W Combo, with a 1x15" speaker and a horn for highs.
Built in DI box, compressor, graphic EQ - sounds great and loud as hell. It's also a heavy fucker.

[Josh]

check out acoustic amps dude, decent prices, good quality, and theyr'e really sweet amps regarding tone.

[kim]

as i said, for a gigging rockband, if you go solid state or hybrid, look at atleast 300w, we're talking bass, not guitar.
my ampeg blue rocket was 100w solid state, i HAD to get something more powerful, because i loved that amp but 100w just didn't cut it in a loud rockband.

sansamp is a wonderful investment indeed, if you can find the programmable one secondhand..just that not many bassists sell theirs haha. but the programmable one is a wonderful tool, three presets, so easy to give your sound an extra oomph for a heavy parts to cut through instead of always having the same sound throughout a set.

as for just using your band's pa if you have it, together with the sansamp... yeah it's an option, but on a stage, having an amp behind you, your personal monitor that is yours and yours only and you don't have to worry what venue you'll end up playing if pa and monitoring is shit you still have your amp you know.

[avj]

Wow, big thanks to everyone. There's a lot of great information here, and I genuinely appreciate the input. I will check into everything mentioned here this weekend when I can sit down for a good chunk of time and dig in.

One thing I failed to mention was that I have the space constraints of a VW Jetta to deal with (which can easily handle the Vibrosonic or a Twin), so anything too giant isn't going to work. I really need to take some measurements, as I didn't really consider this to be an issue until realizing the sheer size of some of this bass gear.

Narrowing the field a bit here based on suggestions, I think the perfect setup would be a combo or head/cab with at least 300W and DI to send to house PA that doesn't defeat the amp's output, so it can be used as a stage monitor. (There won't be many cases where a decent house PA isn't available to us.) Using the SansAmp in serveral test cases over the years -- direct, into a giant SVT-4 PRO head and 8x10 cab, into a small 25W bass combo, into my Vibrosonic -- has allowed for a fairly consistent tone, so I guess it's about volume and portability.

To sum up my journey so far: "Cheap, light, loud -- pick any two."

[Mike]

If you're thinking about scoring Light Bass amplification I would say you can Forget It

[avj]

If you're thinking about scoring Light Bass amplification I would say you can Forget It

Hah, no way. Weight is actually the least important factor here, as I've been lugging around 80-some Christing pounds of Vibrosonic weekly for about three years now for guitar playing.

I've got at least another ten good years before I trade it in for a brownface Princeton and go back to the FDP.

[Gavin]

Yeah, I haven't fiddled with it at volume yet, but I really do like that Ashdown. It weighs a fucking ton though. I'm pretty much a baby as far as being a bassist goes though. I feel a lot more confident in my ability to play the bass these days, but I know very little about amps or effects or anything. So far I've preferred keeping it as simple as possible.