Hi, I've been wondering. I play guitar, and for guitarists, 100 watts is kind of an "ideal" output for a head. What about bass? What would be that "ideal" output in watts?
Ampeg SVT; the mosst popular bass amp ever was 300 watts and thats high for most bass amps. I would feel 100 watts would be quite enough in most cases. my 2 cents worth.
It all depends on how loud the guitarist is playing. I had a 130 bass amp with one 15" and I had to stand next to it cranked to hear anything at all with a Fender Twin blasting away.
From my experience running a single cab to hear yourself over a cranked guitar amp takes about 4X the watts but the number of speakers and efficiency of the speakers/cabinet can make a big difference too.
I jam with a couple of guys every now and again, and the drummer has a pretty big noisy kit. The bassist has a 600 watt Ampeg tube head with an 8x10 cab. Loudness. Fortunately, he keeps it reasonable, so I only have to turn up my little 100 watt Kustom guitar combo to about 2 and 1/2 or so.