i want something that will shake my bowles loose, but not put a hole in my wallet, or credit card
i was looking at the GK backline amps, they sound killer. but would the watt raiting be enough?
i think thats where im having problems. i dont know how big to get, to me, 1000w's dosent seem big lol, but the backlines do seem like they give quite a punch.
If your gonna be playing louder than a 400 or 800 GK can provide, you need to be patched into a reinforcement system. Those amps have the beef, especially the 800. I have used 3 of the GK amps, but not the Backline series, although the 175 watt model is very similar to the 400rb. Ive always been comfortably satisfied with having at least 2.5 to 3 times the output wattage of whatever the guitars amps were rated, due to it taking much more power to reproduce the bass frequencies and hang at a pressure level the guitar amps would generate. I play usually through either 4, 6, or 8 x10's.
The backline series are not the highest regrded of GK's amps. Even the biggest one won't really rattle more than a teacup, and it has a single 15" speaker which will give you lows but not much punch. Rule of thumb for wattage by the way is 3 to 4 times whatever the guitarist(s) have
I recently disposed of my Backline and bought a second hand Warwick ProFet IV head and an Ashdown 210 cab. I can add another cab later which will let me use all the Warwick's 400W, but I've gigged and practiced with what I have now and it works well. Like Toki said, I'm DI-ed (through the head's DI out) for gigs so it's just a question of how much volume you want on stage. A separate head and smaller cabs makes transporting easier.
You might want to take a look at the amps forum on www.talkbass.com; there are some real gear heads over there and you'll get dozens of ideas.
