Best bass head under $500

[battleminnow]

Modern rock sound in the vein of Matchbox 20, Live, Our Lady Peace. My bassist currently has an old solid state marshall head, probably late seventies or early eighties, 100 watts RMS @4 ohms into an old dual 15" marshall cab of the same vintage. Weak.He likes the Ampeg Pro series stuff, but is open. We need to get something, so what do you guys think? Is there anything out there that is a good enough bang for the buck to get a stack, or should we stick with just the head? And if it's something at GC we can probably do up to $700-$800 because our guitarist works there. Any advice would be really helpful.

Thanks,
Pete

 

[Hard2Hear]

I love the sound of Gallien Kruger bass stuff. But I think bass tones are alot personal preference. I do love the sound of those HUGE 10x10" Ampeg cabinets Are you guys getting it mainly for recording or performing? Cause honestly, to me, I don't care what the bass player uses for an amp cause my bass player gets put in direct to the PA anyways. The guy who plays alot with me uses a Hartke kickback for himself and likes it alot cause he can crank it, lean it back, and shoot it at his chest. The PA does the hard work.

H2H

 

[Garry Sharp]

Yes, agree with H2H, it's all in the PA these days, you just need a pre that gives the tone you like for the DI and enough to give you a good stage feel. Loud enough to fit with the drums on stage but not spilling too much into the audience. The Ashdown stuff is going down well in rock circles these days - their MAG 210 combo with a 1*15 extension speaker would probably fit your budget; we shared the stage with a rock band using exactly that a while back and it worked very well. I'd also try the Mesa Walkabout and then the Hartke combo's with the metal speakers give a very forward tone (it's very bright) that might suit.

If you could tell us more about how exactly you need to use it you'd get more helpful answers.

 

[battleminnow]

Thanks for the replies. This is mainly for playing out. The thing is, out here we're either playing with our PA (Jbl dual 15" mains, Crown amps, good stuff,) or crap. The problem is that it takes an army to set up and tear down our gear, and we have been looking into playing some venues where we can't justify the big mains and we need the bass amp to carry. We do have some smaller mains (single 15" Jbl's or Carvin dual 10" w/redeye horn) but they just don't give that low end like we want. Really, we need some subs, but that's not an option for another couple of months. But soon

Just amplification, no cab, what do you recommend? Ashdown stuff looks really good for minimum $$, the Gaellin Kruger stuff looks awesome too. Any other ideas?

Thanks guys,
Pete

 

[-=¤willhaven¤=-]

my old bassist and my father both have one of these

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&category=10171&item=3777392549&rd=1&ssPageName=WDVW

gallien krueger 2000RB. its a 1000 watt head and it sounds awesome. you should be able to find one for around 600 if you look in the right places. its light, and has more power than you should ever need.

 

[Halion]

I hate to say it but...I own a Behringer Ultrabass BX3000T (what do you mean by redundantly long name?) and it doesn't perform bad at all. 350 watts rms, for a little over 200 bucks. Can't beat that with anything in my view.

I would try to get a decent 2x10" for the money that's left. Coupled with the 2x15" he'd get 350 watts of full-out bass sound. Not cristal clear, not fat like a pig but very usable. I use my behringer with an Eden 2x10", and it works great. Full response, right down to the 42-something hertz of my low E. Some might even call it "warm".