decent bass head advice

  • Thread starter Thread starter treymonfauntre
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treymonfauntre

treymonfauntre

Magic Bag Of Sounds
hey there. right now a friend and i are starting a 2 man drum / bass guitar band. up until now i've used a borrowed hartke 4x10+300W combo amp and a cheap lotus bass that weighs 2,000 pounds. it doesn't sound bad, its surely usable. the sound i'm going for is a real gritty in your face sound and i really dig into the strings and wail on that thing. this is fast almost grindish music with a lot of goofy groove parts.
so far i'm upgrading the bass to an olp musicman, i played it at the store and it plays just how i like a bass to play.
i'm also probably going to be getting a fender bassman 15" cab off craigslist for a great price and perhaps one of those steelsound 2x10s that are like $90 new off steelsound.com or whatever their new company's site is.
yes, i'm keeping it budget friendly. i have plans to upgrade in the future but i feel like this will be 100% fine for now.

my question is.. what should i look for in a head? this band isn't going to be playing at clubs or anything that has a good PA, we're just playing house shows and diy punk shows. all i'm competing with is a drumset but hes got a great kit that really pushes some volume.
i was previously looking at a gallien krueger 400rb just for cost, but i'm not really sure what the differences are between the new ones and the old ones and such. both of the cabs i listed are 8ohms (the bassman is 150w and the 2x10 is supposedly 400w).
any advice?
 
I know it isn't a head, but it's going to be a lot cheaper than a head would be. (And probally easier to move around). I played punk rock for years, and this would be the ultimate punk rock set up.


(2) x 10" cab with horn - $89
http://www.zzounds.com/a--2676837/item--HTKATK



200 watt power amp - $89
http://stores.channeladvisor.com/musicsupplycenter/Items/700-05-0002



Hartke bass pre-amp (I love mine) - $100
http://www.zzounds.com/a--2676837/item--HTKATK




******So for $278 (plus shipping) you could easily be a gigging volume. I'm considering ordering one of thoose cabs and power amps for myself. I'm not much of a bassist, but I'm like to have something beside my preamp. I'd like to just be able to pickup the bass and play and not worry about the mixer and blah blah blah.

Anyways you could throw the little poweramp into a rack box, and a 2 space box probally wouldn't cost much..... or you could get real punk and make one out of some old wood or something....... (ah the good old days)

Anyways, throw the power amp in a box, and throw the preamp in your gig bag and you'd be ready to rock and roll brother. It's be super easy to move around and it'd be loud enough to practice or gig with (for under 300 bucks.....).

:D :D :D :D :D I think it's golden! :D :D :D :D :D
 
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so you're just randomly guessing? how did you manage to get 4 rep points?
 
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I'll give my standard advice, which is, "when under budgetary restrictions, shop harder, as it will effectively double your money." I've seen a ton of great deals on bass heads on deep sale (selling at around 1/3 of MSRP) in all quality ranges and have bought more than a few.

Some notable deals I've seen on bass heads include a 350W Hartke for $99.99, shipped, with coupons for free bass strings -- or for better gear, the new boxed SWR Professional Series 550X I got a couple of months ago at GC for $499.99 (the next day, I got a very lightly used 750X in a Road-Ready case for $400). Keep you nose in the wind and you'll find deals like this, too.

If I was short on cash and I had to have an amp meeting your criteria tomorrow, I'd probably go for that 450W Behringer "UltraBass" head that has an everyday street price of around $250. Despite the usual gratuitous yammering about Behringer, this particular head has received unexpectedly good reviews among bassists who were not initially predisposed to like it. Link.
 
treymonfauntre said:
so you're just randomly guessing? how did you manage to get 4 rep points?
Click to expand...

I really don't know. I was just trying to help.

And for the record, after shipping cost and everything else you would probally be better off getting a harkte cab. It'd won't be much more, and it'd sound a lot better. I was just assuming you wanted some cheap and punk.
 
well i ended up getting an open box gallien krueger backlin 600 from guitar center. i went in there planning on sucking it up and buying a behringer ultrabass 450w head for $260 and walked out with a much better head for $60 less!

DSC03214.jpg
 
so whats your set up now?
how much did it cost?
and how do you like it?
 
gallien krueger backline 600 head ($300), fender bassman 15" cab ($100), steel sound 2x10" cab ($80), olp musicman 4 string ($200)

its all total budget stuff but i stuck with pretty reliable brands (except for steelsound but for $80 i don't really care) and for now it sounds great to me and its getting me on my feet. grand total was probably about $700 when you add tax to the stuff i didn't get used. we've already played a few shows and i keep getting impressed with how good of a bass tone i get!
 
awesome awesome.

i was thinking of getting that head with like an avatar cab.

i heard it has like a bass distortion, is it any good?
 
If your looking for power you can't go wrong with a Messa head, and any number of cabs, but it's going to cost you!
 
For a tube bass amp I would get a Mesa 400+. It sounded far better than the Ampeg SVT IIPro my friend had.

For solid state heads, I would go with GK. Both my father and best friend had 2000RBs at one point. Awesome amps.
 
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