JPF Home Page Forums Musician Gear and Techniques Bass and Drum Forum What bass amp do you use?

I use a Carvin 150 head, that I love, with either a Hartke 4x10 cabinet, an old Crate "15 cabinet with a JBL, or a small 12" cabinet that a friend made for me. I use the Hartke if I'm playing loud in a medium sized room, the 15" for country in a medium to small room, and the 12" for large rooms and outdoor concerts where I send a signal to a DI for the soundman.

How about you?

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Mike Dunbar Music

My last amp when I played live was a Peavey Combo 300 - which I really like becaused it had a lot of EQ variations. I also used a dbx compressor and a jazz bass with Bartolini pickups that were similar to stock.
One of the other things I liked about the Combo 300 was that it was small (but heavy).
In the late 60's early 70's the only way to get really good big sound was to buy an SVT or Acoustic 360 or such for live work. Then you had to keep on the good side of the guy who owned the van because that thing was not going to fit in your car. :-)

Now that I just write and record I use a Bass Pod through either a Focusrtite Voicemaster or Joe Meek VC1Q pre. Same jazz bass.

Mike

I had an old Peavey cabinet with one 18 and two 10's. If I had a regular gig in a moderate to large room, I'd love to leave one there, but I hated moving it.

I love the old SVT's.

Mike

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Mike Dunbar Music

I am using the Ampeg Portabass equipment that just came out this year. The head is 14 pounds and 250 Watts, the cabinet has two 10" drivers and a tweeter, and weighs in at 32 pounds. (It also has a detachable dolley for transportation.) It really puts out. Great for a small room by itself and for larger rooms I put the DI signal to the board and that handles it.

Sounds great and easy to move!

none.
I hesitated to answer, but that's the truth. Don't own a bass amp. When recording I go either direct or through a DP/4+ that I got when I was working at Ensoniq. Created some nice tonal things to use with that.
The only live playing out I do with the bass is at church, and they have something there (not even sure the brand) but it's angled like a monitor and plugs into the board.

I bought a used Crate 15 watt bass amp a few years ago to practice with and I liked it so much, that I started playing small gigs with it. Then I started using a mic on it for larger gigs...it just sounded that good.
I still have it and use it often.

Last year I bought a Peavey 115 bass amp and it really pumps out the bottom. Peavey equipment has always been reliable.

I have always been in favor of getting by with the minimum. A good bass, good amp and no effects. The rest is in my fingers.

I had a Crate, some kind of combo 15, I used it a lot and the amp finally died and the speaker fried, but I still use the cabinet with a JBL for 15-type gigs.

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Mike Dunbar Music

I use a Trace Elliot AH130SM head through a Bag End 1x15 and a Tubeworks 1x12.

When I first started playing, my aunt bought me a Traynor Combo and I played that all through school. It was light as a feather. Since then, I've used only one more combo (Peavey). I started mixing cabinets up and using a Fender Bass300R BXR before getting to the Trace about six or seven years ago.

Last night I had the pleasure of helping a friend decide which bass and bass amp to buy - so we went to the local large store, spent about 3 hours there, and tried everything. Well, we tried every 4-string (which is what he wanted). He ended up getting a Fender Bassman100 combo amp (and a Hartke bass guitar). The combination of the two was exactly what he wanted.

i've had a stingray 4-string and a hartke combo for yrs. use a sansamp for the direct .. works great!!!

Two bass rigs for my P-bass:

(1) Carvin PB-500 (2 X 250 watts) brain into a 1 X 15 box and a 12" + horn box, biamped. Sounds great but a hassle to haul around. Haven't used it but a few times in the last 5 years. No longer gig on bass, but my former bassist used it a few times. Likely going to sell it soon. (Anyone interested, e-mail me!)

(2)Trace-Elliot "Commando"...100 watts through a single 12"...this is a winner!...great tone and easy to travel with...about 2' tall X 18" wide X 12" deep. My bassist has used it for every gig she's done w/ me for the last 4 years...Actually, I've no idea if she even has an amp of her own, as when she auditioned I let her plug into the "Commando" and she's insisted on using it ever since! (I think she's hoping I'll just give it to her!)

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"Legalize Freedom!"

Thought for the day: To be loved deeply gives one strength; to love another deeply gives one courage - Lao Tzu

I've had several bass rigs. Peavy had a Super-Fesival series w/ a 400 watt head and 2 1-18 folded horn enclosures. I had the volume I needed and a ballsy bottom end. My complaint was the eq wouldn't pass notes in the upper register ( above the 12th fret). My favorite bass rig was an Acoustic 370 solid state head (300 watts) into a Kustom 2-15 cabinet. It was heavy but sooo nice... Lately I've been satisfied w/ Crate's BX-100 w/ 1-15 JBL. Good sound, but not enuff power unless you use the direct out to the PA (it's lite tho). www.curciomusic.com

[This message has been edited by Curcio (edited 01-17-2004).]

I play a 1979 Rickenbacker 4001 bass which has been highly modified. I have three bass amps:

1) A Hartke 1155 combo amp, which consists of a 3500 head (350 W) and a 15 inch and a 5 inch speaker in the same cabinet. I frequently use it with an EV-115M (one 15 inch and a 6 inch) extension cabinet added.

2) I have a 6 W battery powered bass amp I designed and built (I'm an electronics engineer), which I use for folk song circles, acoustic jams, and such. It is about 16 x 16 x 10 inches, weighs about 23 pounds, and has a 12 inch speaker. It has a rechargeable lead-acid battery, a built-in charger, and will play about 40 hours on one charge.

3) I just finished an 80 W vacuum tube amp which again I designed and built. I'm playing it through two EV TL-806 cabinets I got for $5 each (no speakers) and added a JBL K-120 to each, the JBLs being some spare speakers I had laying around the house. It has a very tight sound, similar to the Ampeg SVT but with a bit more bottom.

But this all seems kind of a waste, since when I record, I almost always just go straight into the board.

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Stone Marmot
www.stonemarmot.com
Stone Marmot on Soundclick
Alternative pop-rock music:
Definitely rock, somewhat pop, but a bit more experimental.

Those amps you designed sound really cool. I used a Hartke kickback last week and I really liked it. Mostly it was the physical design that got me. I like the sound of a bass amp on the floor but like the presence you get when it's aimed at your head, with the tilt design it was like the best of both worlds.

All the Best,
Mike

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Mike Dunbar Music

I use an Eden wt500 highwayman with 1 x 15 cab. Sometimes at a smaller club i'll take my peavy Minx and Mic it through the PA. Because of back injuries and lazyness I'll sometimes play through whatever the house has, either amp or just go direct through the PA.

I forgot to mention that I also have a Hohner acoustic bass guitar. Since I usually use this guitar for folk stuff and song circles, I usually play it through my 6 W battery powered amp.

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Stone Marmot
www.stonemarmot.com
Stone Marmot on Soundclick
Alternative pop-rock music:
Definitely rock, somewhat pop, but a bit more experimental.

i bought the beringer bass combo kickback. 250.00. 120watts 12"alum. speaker. with so many features you gotta check this amp out!!!sounds better than the hartke for half the money!!!

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www.barkinbarney.com

Currently I use a Peavy Minxx 50 watt for small gigs.

Outdoor concerts I plug direct into a Carvin PA head.

I use a Fender P bass with stock pickups.

hey mike...
i had been a carvin guy for 15 years... had at least 7 or 8 of their bass guitars and 6 strings, a slew of amps/p.a.'s, whatever... couple months ago i ordered their tiltback rc-210 combo bass amp, with the r600 head... it was a dog. initially, great tone and features but in the middle of the first gig i used it on, it started sounding like a farters convention and fizzled out! i sent the head back after making sure the speakers were o.k... after 5 weeks, they send me the head back... i plug it in and in the middle of the second gig on that one... it went dark and died. i told carvin i wanted to return it and get a refund... in the meantime, i had to buy something else so i got a workingman's 15 combo swr... and that little amp kicks some serious butt! to shorten the carvin saga, they refused to refund me anything and sent me a new head which also petered out... got so hot i burned myself on the front plate... so now i'm stuck with a piece of junk that is useless... so, i'm flaming carvin every chance i get... i got rid of all the carvin stuff i had and i'm telling everyone to be aware, very aware of their slipping, shoddy quality and their customer service is the pits. here's an observation by an engineer who looked at that tilt back amp... the puny little fan in the amp is not sufficient enough to cool the unit and it's parked deep inside the cabinet with no way to get any ventilation... especially if it's tilted back... all the heat simply rises back to the head. very stupid design. just my 2 cents...
rock on,
chevy

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http://www.chevyford.com

I just played tonight through my Carvin 150w head. I've had it for seven years. I bought it used. When I travel I don't put it in a case, I put it loose in the bus bay. I keep it at my weekend gig and don't cover it. I let my subs use it. I run both my electric and my upright through it. It gets played a lot It sounds great, better than my old Gallien Krueger, which was a piece of, well, metal that blew up on me causing to have me send it back twice, the third time, they decided to send me a new one, which blew up and is now taking up space in my studio. And by the way, my old amp tech, who has passed away, God bless him, worked on everything. He liked my Carvin better than my GK which never worked longer than a few months, or another bassist's SWR whose design he hated. Of course this old amp tech thought only Fender could make an amp.

By the way what do you drive, I hope it's not Ford?

All the Best,
Mike


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You have to practice improvisation. -Art Tatum

Mike Dunbar Music

[This message has been edited by Mike Dunbar (edited 09-25-2005).]

mike...
that's great to hear about your carvin and it's performance record. if it's 7+ years old, it's probably worthy o.k... and since you bought it used, you didn't have to go through the direct sells b.s. and any warranty problems like us fish who get hooked into buying the new stuff!
i'm just ticked over the entire way the situation was handled by ineptitude... especially after i gave them pretty much exclusive business for 15 years.
anyway, it's a done deal and for now, i couldn't be happier with the sound and performance i'm getting with my new american deluxe fender jazz bass and the swr combo.
oh, and no, i don't drive a ford or a chevy...!!! i have a nissan titan...
rock on.
chevy

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http://www.chevyford.com

I have a vintage Ampeg V4 Bass head and an SVT 3 head. I use an SWR 4 10" cab and an Ampeg 1 18" cab. Playing a vintage Fender Precision the thing just growls!

Can be heard at link below..
Peace
Sub

http://tinyurl.com/adkl6

i just bought a beringher 450watt head and a 4-10 cab. for my upright. i'll let ya'll know how it works out.

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www.barkinbarney.com

I have been using an SWR 900 with a Goliath 4X10 and a Goliath Jr. 2X10. I built a small stand to go between the 2 cabs that tilts the 2X10's up towards me and found that works real well. I would have got another 4X10 cab but I am not into lugging that much gear any more. The tones from the 900 are awesome and I get a nice punchy sound from the 10's. The draw back to the SWR amps are that they get real hot. The chassis are aluminum and I have had the amp shut down from over heating. Not good in the middle of a gig. I drilled holes in my SKB rack and I clip a small Wal Mart fan on the back to keep it cool which works. Kind of silly though. You would think the engineers at SWR who are aware of the heat issues with their amps would have beefed up the cooling system. Instead they reference the issue in the manual stating that it is normal for the amp to get hotter than most others because of the aluminum chassis. I'm sure it is not normal to get thermal melt downs in the middle of gigs. I have used just the amp running line out which allows the use of the pre-amp for recording. It is a great feature. Other than the heat issue I am satisfied with the SWR.

[This message has been edited by bassist_204 (edited 04-16-2006).]

New to the foums so I'll add my 2 cents.

My main rig is an Ampeg SVT II with a Trace Elliott 4x10 (no horn) cabinet.

My secondary (small room) rig is an Ashdown Mag 300 with a Aguilar GS112 cabinet.

My basses are:
1-1999 Hot-Rodded Fender P-Bass (3 color sunburst)
2-1967 Fender P-Bass (sunburst)
3-2004 MIJ '51 P-Bass Reissue (butterscotch)

I run a vintage solid state Trace Elliot head through an ampeg SVT Classic (8x10). I love the sounds I can get out of it with both my old Carvin Custom bass and my Washburn 5 string Corvette Fretless. An Old rig I used to use was the SWR Workingmans 15. Im actually going to purchase Fenders Bassman 300, the copy of the old Sun amp. It's a beast and then some. I also am interested in purchasing an Ibenez SR506 or one of the higher models. They sound amazing when put through the right amps.

Just bought the new Behringer Combo (450w) - used it at our party on the weekend. Scary....I can't believe the bang for the buck!!! AWESOME!

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"I'll see you on the other side - 'cause no-one gets out alive..."
SideShowAnnie.com

(Eliot)

After 15 years of playing a peavy mark VIII with a 4x10 woth NO problems. I have passed it on to my 16 y.o. son who is a chip off the ol' block.

A month ago I broke down and bought me a Mesa Boogie MPulse 600 with a road ready 6x10, I was nervous as a whore in church spending that kind of jack on a rig.
I deserve it. You are only as good as your equipment.
I will never be as good as this rig.
nor will I EVER want another amp.


I tried them all when I decided to buy. I tried Fender, Genz benz, Hughes and kettner, ampeg, blah blah blah...
I kept going back to the mesa asking why is its so expensive?
He said why do you think you keep coming back to it.
I have naver been taken aback, or really noticed the difference in tones between amps.
Its the sound I have been wanting all these years.
The tone on that mesa is like no other.
Thats the way bass is supposed to sound.

My basses...
4 str yamaha active
4 str fretless steinberger
5 str Anniv Sting Ray
5 str Fender jazz active made in AMERICA by Americans, by God
5 str fretless modulus
6 str conklin
6 str jb player
6 str ibanez sr506 w/bartolinis
6 str modulus quantum w/bartolinis

Believe it or not my fav out of the whole bunch is the yamaha, the ibanez, and of course the fender. The way I look at it, why take the high dollar ones out of the house, and worry about somebody ripping me off.
I do to show off from time to time, but I never let anyone play the quantum with out a $4000 deposit...LOL
I have maybe 3 bassist friends that I'll let play it.
I think I'd kill somebody over the quantum.

Spert,

You have too many basses. You need to send me a few.

You know how people have gun safes...I have a bass safe...LOL

Where I work red neck hunters are abundant, talk that crap all day long, deer guts all over the floor.
There are a few musicans there, we talk music, equipment, this and that. They say they don't see where thats interesting.
(I never say anything about the deer guts on the floor,) and tell him, you have hunting thats enjoyable for you, I have music,besides my kids, and family, its the world to me.
Everything wrapped up in one, soul, emotion, feeling, and rhthym, mixed together and spit out in melodical formation that we all enjoy and call music.

Just getting back to a bass guitar after 30+ years. I swapped my Guild D4 to a friend for the bass guitar. That was several months ago and I've been bumping along without a bass amp.
A few weeks ago I fell into deal on a Fender Bassman 60.
Absolutely like new condition, clean pots and sounds great, solid and punchy.
Will work perfectly for my use.

I use an old Traynor Bassmaster tube job that is very compact and heavy, with a great sound. My main bass is a souped up Aria Pro II bass (whose neck fits my hands better than any previous basses I've had - Fender P, Fender J, Kramer, Carvin, Gibson and Hagstrom . . . well, maybe except the Hagstrom). Two JBL 15's in separate homemade cabs made to JBL specs. I can also add Peavey coaxial 15's (with concentric Hi Freq horns) that can be biamped. Backup amp in case of trouble is Roland Bass Preamp through BGW power amp that I got from Stone Marmot (thanks, Andy!).

Carvin B1500 amp head
fender rackmount tuner
Ashdown 4x10
random pedals

Im looking to get a new cabinet someday hopefully.

Dont mind the spderman glove lol, my drummers little brothers.