Ampeg BA115 vs Fender Rumble 100

I

iceyflame

New member
Well folks, my bassist is in the market for a nice new bass amp but not quite in the market for stacks/anything more higher end, but he's in this $350ish price range, and after a few shootouts we've come to decide between

Ampeg BA115
http://www.music123.com/Ampeg-BA115-Bass-Combo-481777-i1145715.Music123

OR

Fender Rumble 100
http://www.music123.com/Fender-Rumb...2x10--Bass-Combo-Amp-481138-i1145522.Music123

If anyone could do some sort of Pro/Cons list between both, or state if they were to choose one of the two, which one, and why - We'd be eternally grateful!

Also in your reply could you please state if your basing your opinion on your personal experience with using the amp, OR if you're baseing your opinion on what others have said.

Thanks ALOT guys!
 
Ampeg's small combo's never impressed me. Always seemed underpowered for Rock & Roll. Not a fan of their rear port. The fenders had shitty build quality. If he's really serious he could save a little bit more and get a seperate head and cab. I'd try to get at least 200 watts either way.

And I've used both in live situations. I used to have a Crate BX100 that sounded better than both of them... until it fried itself (so I guess the build quality was iffy... but It sounded good until then!!!)
 
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If you guys play with a drummer, I'd definetly pony up to 200-even 300watts.
Bass needs to triple the watts of guits, since the power needed for low frequencies....
...After that, getting a sound you want needs the headroom to tweak things. If you'll have to turn everything to max, you'll probably not end up the sound you want.
And shitty bass-sound can kill the sound of the whole band...
 
I was a dealer for both Fender and Ampeg until last year. The Ampeg BA115 blows that Fender away in every way. I bought one myself actually. And it does fine with a band situation nearly every week, the xlr direct out sounds very good and theres more than enough available stage volume at way below 1/2 volume setting. If you can find the HP version used, pick it up. It will hold its own in any possible situation.

Important to know. Not every manufacturers 100 Watt amps are equal. In our store we had other bass amps claiming to be 175 watts that the Ampeg 100 or even 75 watter were very much louder than.
 
mrT said:
Ampeg's small combo's never impressed me. Always seemed underpowered for Rock & Roll. Not a fan of their rear port. The fenders had shitty build quality. If he's really serious he could save a little bit more and get a seperate head and cab. I'd try to get at least 200 watts either way.

And I've used both in live situations. I used to have a Crate BX100 that sounded better than both of them... until it fried itself (so I guess the build quality was iffy... but It sounded good until then!!!)
Click to expand...

Hah funny enough i have a crate BX100 right now, and i thought about replacing it with the ampeg he was talking about...guess if it doesnt sound as good as my BX100 i shouldnt replace it.
 
Thanks guys I'll keep all this in mind. But he needs to keep in that price range so a nice stack is out of the question.

When I was looking at both specs it seems one of the final big things it boils down to is either:

One 15" Speaker

OR

Two 10" Speakers

From my knowledge, the larger the cone, the lower the frequencies it can handle, right? So does that mean having one 15" is better than two 10"s?
 
JPXTom said:
Hah funny enough i have a crate BX100 right now, and i thought about replacing it with the ampeg he was talking about...guess if it doesnt sound as good as my BX100 i shouldnt replace it.
Click to expand...

That is just my opinion of course. The ampeg have better build quality though. I liked that the crate has the front port. If you aren't playing with a PA it has the extra low end that the ampeg doesn't

iceyflame said:
Thanks guys I'll keep all this in mind. But he needs to keep in that price range so a nice stack is out of the question.

When I was looking at both specs it seems one of the final big things it boils down to is either:

One 15" Speaker

OR

Two 10" Speakers

From my knowledge, the larger the cone, the lower the frequencies it can handle, right? So does that mean having one 15" is better than two 10"s?
Click to expand...

I used to actually use both! a BX100 or Ampeg BA115 with a Hartke 1410. cut the high on the 15 and cut the low on the 10's. Great fun!!!
 
iceyflame said:
One 15" Speaker

OR

Two 10" Speakers

From my knowledge, the larger the cone, the lower the frequencies it can handle, right? So does that mean having one 15" is better than two 10"s?
Click to expand...
This is really gonna come down to personal preferences.
Personally I prefer the 2-10's ...... they're a lot punchier and have a lot better definition of notes. And I play a 5 string and modern 10's manage to handle that ok so they'll definitely go low enough.
But a 15 absolutely will have a lot more of the rumbly deep bottom end so if that's important, then you might be happier with the 15.
I find 15's to be too mushy and slow responding but that's me.
Also, in general I don't think 100 watts is enough either.
I think if he could go a little bit more money it'd be worth the wait. He could get something like a Gallien Kruger backline cab .... either 15 or 2-10's ..... (I got a 2-10 version just to have a cheap small toss around cab). The 2-10 cab is around $200 and you can get a Gallien Kruger backline head with 250 watts for around $300. So I'd try to look at spending around $500 and he could get something that would always cut it for every single gig rather than something that might sometimes fall short.

As for the specific question ..... Ampeg for bass baby!
 
Lots of good /bad comments and suggestions on bass amps. There has always been one standard in the bass world and that is Ampeg. I played bass professionally in the 70's but never used an Ampeg, honestly they didn't have the power back then like now. I used a new amp market called Peavey, and I beat it to death on the road, blew 4 transformers in it using a 2-18 cab setup, lotsa lows. The newer 2-10's are great for bass guitar, they'll hang with it, case in point my son, is a bass player and has an Ampeg Pro6 head through a 4-10 cab he paid a couple grand for the set-up and it rocks.

Sorry for the story...hehe back to the question. Get the Ampeg. Fender bass amps have always been low on the list. jmo or check out a PV 2-10 or 15combo, it will work too. Your bass player will need at least 300-400 watts to play the clubs, unless you run direct then all an amp is , is a stage monitor.
 
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