small good bass combo?

D

Don Shumai

New member
Hi,
My band's bass player is looking for a new amp. Right now she's using mine (Acoustic head, EV speaker cab) but obviously wants to get one of her own (esp. since my speaker cab is on the tempermental side). Something smallish would be ideal, since we have to cram everything into the back of my Escort wagon (stop laughing!), and we only play small clubs. I was wondering if anyone had a suggestion for a small combo amp that was under $500. I know SWR has those Workingman combos, and I've seen some small Fenders and Ampegs that fit the size/price we're looking for, but I don't know anything about them. We play jangly indie-pop for the most part, but occasionally she fires up the Big Muff and feeds back, so it should be able to handle that. Is there a "over 50W it's the sound man's problem" rule of thumb for bass amps?

Anyway, any suggestions would be appreciated.

Thanks,
Don Shumai
 
A Hartke B-90 with a SansAmp Bass DI should work fine and is in your price range. Also look for a used Hartke Kickback combo. I got myself a B-90 (90 watt, 15 inch speaker) from zzounds.com at a great price a few years ago.
 
3 good out of 7 tried

I'm a beginner Bass player but I had the same need and did some research and ended up buying a Working Man's 10.

I needed something small enough to fit into a small car but I also wanted it to have a real amp so that it could also power a second cab.

1) If she has the money the Gallien-Krueger Micro-Bass is nice. It has a compact metal enclosure and a 12" driver. Even with the 12" driver, it's lighter and smaller than some 10" setups. I heard someone use this in an indoor concert with about 50 people and it sounded bigger than it was. The Bass player said that he wasn't even driving it. You can also add a matching 2nd 12" cab and the amp is 150 W @ 4ohm.

http://www.gallien.com/PRODUCTS/COM.../mb150e112.html

2) The one I was trying to find is discontinued. It was made by Carvin and was something like PB150-10. It had a 10" driver and with an external 8 ohm cab (for a total of 4 ohm in parallel with the internal 8 ohm) that amp was also 150 amps. I saw one of these used in a Guitar Center, I played it and it sounded great (it was actually one with a 12" driver I think, same amp). I wanted it. By the time I went to the salesman and told him I wanted it, someone else had picked it up and carried it to the counter. He must have heard me playing it.

3) I almost got the Working Man's 12, but it was just a little bigger than I wanted because I really only do little indoor stuff and practice. Come to find out, I rarely use the 10" to it's full power. However, he 12" will go deeper.

I found the WM 10 used and took it into GC and hooked it up to a crate cab with four 10s. So that was 5 10" drivers being powered by this little amp, and I amazed the employees. That wasn't easy because they had been trying to talk me out of it and into the WM 12 that they had to sell. The WM 10 with the 4-10 cab was shaking the walls and I couldn't turn it all the way up because it was too embarrassing due to the fact that I could be heard over the entire store. (I'm not good enough to show off)

I didn't like the Fender, Crate, Behringer, or Hartke because they could not drive the internal and an external cab at the same time and go to 4 ohm and do higher power and I wanted to be able to do that if I needed extra punch for something in the future.

Anyhow, this is all subjective, but that's my findings. The SWR was good for me but I still wish I could have gotten that Crate. The ones they make now are not the same. The smaller ones (10") don't go down to 4 ohms and can't drive internal and external speakers. Also, I think that you have to buy the bigger ones to get up to 150 amps.

The other thing, you can easily enough run the bass direct. Maybe someone will gripe about that, but many people use a direct box or an effect box and plug it right into the PA. I do this often for small things when simpler is better. That way the sound can be balanced at the board and there is one less bid box to hull around and give you problems. Some mixer boards can take a high-Z input directly, that way you would only need a cable from the bass to the board. But you probably know all this.

Hope I've helped.
 
I forgot to mention that you could also try a J-Station through a PA. The latest J-Station version has a model of the new Fender Bassman bass amp. It sounds great, I'm using it on my homerecording projects.

http://dabluesman.com
 
dabluesman said:
I forgot to mention that you could also try a J-Station through a PA. The latest J-Station version has a model of the new Fender Bassman bass amp. It sounds great, I'm using it on my homerecording projects.

http://dabluesman.com
Click to expand...

dabluesman is right! I have a very old Bassman and Johnson nailed it.
 
Pewsonally I like Hartke kickback (never tried the 10, dig the 12 and 15),
SWR Workingman 10,12 & 15 though expensive. (the 12 + 4x10cab is a bomb!)
G&K is expensive and mostly for double bass imo.
SWR LA series not good to my taste.
Peavey is not my taste at all, I don't like cardboard.

I had a Workingman 15 for some years, bought it and sold it for about 400€/$ !


Herwig
 
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