Basic Bass Questions

cincy_kid

cincy_kid

Active member
Hello all ~

So I have decided the next thing I am going to get for my playing / recording pleasure is a bass setup. I am not a bass player and don't want to invest much money into it at this stage so I am probably going to get one of the recommended "cheaper" basses like the Yamaha RBX170 or the Squier Vintage Modern Jazz Bass (depending on which one feels better to me when I go try them out).

My first questions is about the Acoustic brand bass amps I have seen advertised in my guitar center flyers. Are they pretty good? I am looking at these 2 and trying to figure out why I would want one over the other and what the main differences are:


Acoustic 260mkII 1x10 100W Bass Mini-Stack Black

Acoustic B100mkII 100W Bass Combo Amp Black

I mean, they are both 100W amps but one is a mini stack and the other a combo - pros and cons?

I will mainly be recording but also want to have an amp so when friends come over we can do a little jam session.

One more question:

I was leaning towards the mini stack because of its direct out it has for my recording purposes. Do you think the direct out of that amp would give me a better sound / capabilities than this DI box?

Eden WTDI World Tour Bass DI Preamp Pedal

I had planned on getting the DI box originally but if the amp's direct output gives me as good of a souind or better then I wont bother picking it up.

Thanks in advance for any advice you have! :)
 
I'd go with the combo because it has a 15" speaker. A single 10" won't cut the mustard when trying to jam with others. The combo also has an XLR direct out so you wouldn't need a separate direct box.
 
thanks for the reply!

I should have clarified, when i say Jam it would be me on an acoustic guitar, my buddy on a cajon and a bass player, so really don't need much power/volume.

Besides volume is there any other difference or advantage?
 
You will get much better tone from a 15" speaker. The 10" just won't sound full and deep like a 15". Also 100 watts is really on the low side for a bass amp and it won't get nearly as loud as you might imagine before it starts to become distorted.
 
As a guy who played on an Acoustic back in the '70s, I'd be leery of the current crop. They just seem exceedingly cheaply made. But, they might be OK for your limited purposes. If recording is what you want to do, find a Behringer BDI21. It's dirt cheap, and will get you 95% of where you want to go. You won't regret it. If you do, you can resell it for what you paid for it. I'm telling ya, these things are a bass player's best friend.
 
You might also want to check out Classic Vibe or Mexican J-basses. Work within your budget and go with what feels right, but these lines might be a step up from Vintage Modern.

For amps I'm a fan of Gallien Krueger heads and speakers that aren't "Neo". Might be worth checking out.
 
Thanks for the replies!

ocnor: good point on the possible distortion, something i did not think about. I must admit the mini-stack looks cool and is tempting just for the looks hehe.

NotCardio: I will check out the Behringer too, thank you...the acoustics seem like they are quite popular but will for sure check the BDI21

Snow Lizard: thanks for the suggestion, I will take a peek at what GC has when I visit and play around with a few in my price range.


But still looking on some advice about the DI. I had always planned on getting that EDEN Di Box when I got a bass because I heard good things about it a while back that it was a great sound for the price. Would I get a better sound with a direct out from the acoustic / behringer amp or would the DI box perform better for recording purposes?

thanks again!
 
notCardio said:
As a guy who played on an Acoustic back in the '70s, I'd be leery of the current crop. They just seem exceedingly cheaply made. But, they might be OK for your limited purposes. If recording is what you want to do, find a Behringer BDI21. It's dirt cheap, and will get you 95% of where you want to go. You won't regret it. If you do, you can resell it for what you paid for it. I'm telling ya, these things are a bass player's best friend.
Click to expand...

Def the BDI - a rare case of getting much more than you pay for.
bass amp - big speaker, fuller sound generally. I play through a massive single speaker in a 200w cab: the sound is full & even.
Run bass into BDI - split the signal to your recorder and mic'd amp = best of both worlds.
 
Hey Ray, thanks for the reply! Ahh, i thought the Behringer was an amp, not a DI box :) I will for sure pick one of those up. When micing the bass amp, do I use the same type of mic I do to mic my guitar cab? (57 or my Sennheiser e609) or do you use a condenser or something different? Also, when you say split the signal is that piece of quiescent I need (a splitter)?

So I ended up trying out the Squier Vintage Modern, The Jaguar, a Yamaha RBX170 and then at the end an Ibanez Soundgear. I think I liked the Yamaha the best (and it was the cheapest) but the Ibanez was close.

I played through an Acoustic amp, Fender Rumble, Ampeg and eventually tried this used Genz Benz 250c. The Genz Benz seemed to be the best for sure but of the new ones I liked the fender Rumble better than the other 2.

Any other amp I should consider in the $300 or less price range (new or used)?

thanks all ~
 
cincy_kid said:
i thought the Behringer was an amp, not a DI box :)
Click to expand...
While we're at it, why do people think you need a DI box for guitar/bass when virtually every recording interface made already has dedicated Hi-Z instrument ins? :confused:

The BDI21 is OK if you are doing crude recording without treating a raw bass track with various VSTs, but otherwise I don't really see the point. It's an OK unit for what it is, but it doesn't seem to do anything essential in the digital studio.

Give me the best, cleanest, unprocessed output from a passive bass you can, and I'll do the rest to suit the mix with plugins. Bass > cable > input works fine.

When micing the bass amp, do I use the same type of mic I do to mic my guitar cab?
Click to expand...
Don't bother trying to record the bass amp with a microphone. Go direct. Bass frequencies are a pain to control in the studio. Direct's been the way to go with bass forever. ;)
 
thanks bongo, I probably will not get a DI box but i will try a couple different ways of going direct:

1) bass > cable > preamp > soundcard
2) bass > cable > amp > out from direct out > soundcard

Just to see which gives me better results.

I just got my gear yesterday so I am looking forward to messing with it.

Thanks again all! :)
 
bongolation said:
While we're at it, why do people think you need a DI box for guitar/bass when virtually every recording interface made already has dedicated Hi-Z instrument ins? :confused:

The BDI21 is OK if you are doing crude recording without treating a raw bass track with various VSTs, but otherwise I don't really see the point. It's an OK unit for what it is, but it doesn't seem to do anything essential in the digital studio.

Give me the best, cleanest, unprocessed output from a passive bass you can, and I'll do the rest to suit the mix with plugins. Bass > cable > input works fine.


Don't bother trying to record the bass amp with a microphone. Go direct. Bass frequencies are a pain to control in the studio. Direct's been the way to go with bass forever. ;)
Click to expand...

Cincy kid, just so you're aware, there are differing opinions that exist regarding this method.
 
notCardio said:
Cincy kid, just so you're aware, there are differing opinions that exist regarding this method.
Click to expand...

Right!! And tons o' threads to peruse and read about all those opinions. Good luck with your choices. :)

I'm looking at an Ampeg 100w combo in the next few months.
 
Mix please.....
bongolation said:
While we're at it, why do people think you need a DI box for guitar/bass when virtually every recording interface made already has dedicated Hi-Z instrument ins? :confused:

The BDI21 is OK if you are doing crude recording without treating a raw bass track with various VSTs, but otherwise I don't really see the point. It's an OK unit for what it is, but it doesn't seem to do anything essential in the digital studio.

Give me the best, cleanest, unprocessed output from a passive bass you can, and I'll do the rest to suit the mix with plugins. Bass > cable > input works fine.


Don't bother trying to record the bass amp with a microphone. Go direct. Bass frequencies are a pain to control in the studio. Direct's been the way to go with bass forever. ;)
Click to expand...
 
Btw, the method of going direct that has been used forever (and forever is a term relative to the user's age) has forever commonly been with a Tech21 SansAmp Bass DI, which the Behri BDI21 is a direct (no pun intended) ripoff of. To be fair, when the SansAmp was popularized, digital recording didn't really exist, and there were no software plugins to be used. A lot of it depends on how you're recording (live vs. track by track), how many hoops you're willing to jump through in mixdown, the sound you're going for and whether or not you can find that in a plugin, and whther or not you're going to need to reproduce this sound playing live.

Good luck and have fun.
 
notCardio said:
Btw, the method of going direct that has been used forever (and forever is a term relative to the user's age) has forever commonly been with a Tech21 SansAmp Bass DI, which the Behri BDI21 is a direct (no pun intended) ripoff of. To be fair, when the SansAmp was popularized, digital recording didn't really exist, and there were no software plugins to be used. A lot of it depends on how you're recording (live vs. track by track), how many hoops you're willing to jump through in mixdown, the sound you're going for and whether or not you can find that in a plugin, and whther or not you're going to need to reproduce this sound playing live.

Good luck and have fun.
Click to expand...

And before the BDDI there was this - still the original and best :-)

Sansamp.JPG
 
bongolation said:
While we're at it, why do people think you need a DI box for guitar/bass when virtually every recording interface made already has dedicated Hi-Z instrument ins? :confused:

The BDI21 is OK if you are doing crude recording without treating a raw bass track with various VSTs, but otherwise I don't really see the point. It's an OK unit for what it is, but it doesn't seem to do anything essential in the digital studio.

Give me the best, cleanest, unprocessed output from a passive bass you can, and I'll do the rest to suit the mix with plugins. Bass > cable > input works fine.


Don't bother trying to record the bass amp with a microphone. Go direct. Bass frequencies are a pain to control in the studio. Direct's been the way to go with bass forever. ;)
Click to expand...

Because dedicated bass DI boxes with tone shaping beat the shit out of going direct without it.
 
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